Comment 37 for bug 110636

I also have the same issue..

I observe that DMA is not enabled on my HDDs and I'm unable to enable
them using hdparm. I have no idea how to accomplish the same using sdparm
As a result, the drives are running slower.

Apparently, this due to the conversion of HDX to SDX (hda to sda) in recent Ubuntu releases. Not sure when this started, (I'm tried the Temp fix but still the drives come us as sda..sdb ...).

Some info below on messages I get:
____________________________________________________

 hdparm -i /dev/sda

/dev/sda:

 Model=QUANTUM FIREBALLlct15 20 , FwRev=A01.0F00, SerialNo=613024132415
 Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec Fixed DTR>10Mbs }
 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=32256, SectSize=21298, ECCbytes=4
 BuffType=DualPortCache, BuffSize=418kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=?16?
 CurCHS=17475/15/63, CurSects=16513875, LBA=yes, LBAsects=39876480
 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
 PIO modes: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
 DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 *udma2 udma3 udma4
 AdvancedPM=no WriteCache=enabled
 Drive conforms to: ATA/ATAPI-5 T13 1321D revision 1: ATA/ATAPI-1,2,3,4,5

 * signifies the current active mode

root@homeserver:~# hdparm -i /dev/sdb

/dev/sdb:

 Model=ST380011A , FwRev=8.01 , SerialNo=4JV1QKYD
 Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec Fixed DTR>10Mbs RotSpdTol>.5% }
 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=4
 BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=2048kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=?16?
 CurCHS=17475/15/63, CurSects=16513875, LBA=yes, LBAsects=156301488
 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:240,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
 PIO modes: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
 DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 *udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5
 AdvancedPM=no WriteCache=enabled
 Drive conforms to: ATA/ATAPI-6 T13 1410D revision 2: ATA/ATAPI-1,2,3,4,5,6

 * signifies the current active mode

root@homeserver:~#
____________________________________________________
root@homeserver:~# hdparm -d1 -X66 /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 setting using_dma to 1 (on)
 HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
 setting xfermode to 66 (UltraDMA mode2)
SG_IO: bad/missing ATA_16 sense data:: 70 00 05 00 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00 00 24 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
 HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(setxfermode) failed: Input/output error
root@homeserver:~# hdparm -d1 -X66 /dev/sdb

/dev/sdb:
 setting using_dma to 1 (on)
 HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
 setting xfermode to 66 (UltraDMA mode2)
SG_IO: bad/missing ATA_16 sense data:: 70 00 05 00 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00 00 24 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
 HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(setxfermode) failed: Input/output error