Exactly which SATA to IDE adapter are you using? Pics?

What are the rest of the system specs?

Well ... Looks like I have found the problem. I think the adapter does not support dma mode for hard drive. Pity

So here we are again. And I solved the Problem. It was the adapter that prevented the usage of dma mode. I tried a bunch of other adapters and found the model from startech "40 pin ide to sata converter" working very well with SSD drive. And dma Mode is running out of the box.

these adapters are hit and miss
still, via drivers aren't very good either, i had a lot of problems with post-2000 via chipsets and 9x/ME

weldum wrote:

these adapters are hit and miss
still, via drivers aren't very good either, i had a lot of problems with post-2000 via chipsets and 9x/ME

After all there were no driver issues. I installed the Hyperion 4in1 4.35 (it seems to be the most stable with win9x and my hardware) and everything runs fine. It was obviously the adapter, that couldn't manage the dma. So looks like I have a hit now. I used startech products before. I find them sometimes a little bit expensive - as it is now for this adapter - but I never had any problems with startech. Although I read, that this new adapter wouldn't support dma for very old drives. Whatever that means...