There is a solution!

I was baffled by all the wiff-waff surrounding this very, very common problem that had no easily-found internet solution. So I thought I'd bring it to your attention, because i guarantee somebody who reads this will have this problem.

Whenever a hard drive on your computer encounters a problem, one of the things it may do is revert its transfer settings from Ultra DMA mode to PIO mode. PIO mode is wayyyy slower than Ultra DMA and simply doesn't work with video editing (being that DV is 3.4Mb/sec). If you're having speed issues when editing and own a PC, this fix may work for you.

To see if one of your hard drives has in fact reverted to PIO mode, right-click on My Computer and select Properties, then "Device Manager" under the Hardware tab.



Find your first or second IDE channels in the device manager, then right-click and select "Properties". Click the "Advanced Settings" tab. The drop-down boxes should say "DMA if available" and the current mode of your hard drive(s) should read "Ultra DMA Mode x" (x being anything from 1 to 6 I believe--higher is better).



If your hard drive reads PIO Mode (gasp!) you've not been using your computer to its full potential! Close the offending IDE channel's properties window, then right-click it and select "Uninstall." Merrily agree to the dialog boxes and restart your computer. Windows will automatically recognize the "new hardware" that you previously shunted from existance, reinstall it, and ask that you reboot again. Comply like a good socialist, and when you've rebooted--voila! Hard drive transfer speeds are back up where they should be, at the manufacturer's advertised 400Mb/sec or whatever.

I really hope everyone who reads this checks this out on their computer because this was slowing down mine--and my editing--a whole lot.

Put a stop to PIO mode! hmph.

you'd never believe how common that is over at VideoHelp.com.