HELP! HD S-L-O-W, broken???

[Mr. Smith]

I have a Western Digital Caviar 250gb 16mb HD.

Recently I have had a whole host of issues realting to system performance see this thread for background issues.

I was going to wipe my hd and start again when I thought I'd run a few more tests. 3d05/06 yeilded the same scores 13000/8000 or there abouts respectively.

SiSoftware sandra lite 2007 all seemed ok. Then I ran just the hard drive test, the results lead me to believe my hd is broken.

Random Access Time - 14ms...

Drive Index - 4165kb/s THATS KB/S!!!

I'm not expert but shouldn't it be more like 40mb/s???

It is partitioned 127/104gig. Everything used to work. I have reset the bios to normal settings...

Any suggestions?

 

[Raven]

if the hd is very fragmented it could be as low as 4mb/s

what does it score with hdtach ?

hdtach ignores fragmentation and partitions and shows RAW speed of the harddrive and should start somewhere 55-75mbyte/s and end somewhere at 30-45mbyte/s

 

[Rastalovich]

If u got u`r HD plugged into IDE on the same channel as u`r CD/DVD channel, it would also give u extremely low results.

In this case u will be limited to ATA66.

In u`r previous thread tho, things were working b4, so I can`t imagine that u`ve got u`r drives plugged in this manor.

Need to be sure u`r mobo drivers are installed too if u`r fresh.

 

[Mr. Smith]

LOL - Raven, hdtach = random access 16.3ms, CPU utilisation 49%, AVERAGE READ 4mb/s...

Rasta - mobo drivers installed. I'll have a look in my bios to see what the hd is set to...

I just don't get how it worked, then it didn't!

 

[Raven]

one possibility is if the computer has detected errors in the transfer, if it does it often enough the speed is lowered.

encountered it once myself and the ata100 harddrive had reverted back to pio4 speeds, 16mb/s

go into device manager and check what the transfer speed is.

with w98 you check it on the harddrive, in xp you se it on the ide channel.

btw is it sata or pata harddrive ?

the above problem occured with a pata harddrive.

 

[Rastalovich]

I know it`s a silly question coz it worked b4, but if u have indeed unplugged the cd/dvd and hard drive - be sure u`ve got an 80pol cable plugged into u`r hard drive, coz that`ll low sync it too.

I dunno, prehaps u had a 40 on the cd/dvd and an 80 on the HD, and maybe u switched cables when u plugged em back in ?!?!????

and and .. if u r using a single unit on each ide channel, make sure they`re plugged into the end connector on the cable, not the one in the center. Plugging the central one and leaving the end empty will cause issues down the line.

 

[Mr. Smith]

Hey guys,

Its a sata. My hd is connected via a SATA cable, the DVD by the IDE cable.

I tired to change some settings in the bios to see if i could get better performace. The pc will only boot up as using the current settings. Damn, forgotten what they were - i'll write them down and post.

There are no conflicts in device manager and I couldn't see anywhere to check transfer speeds.

I can't defrag the drive - either partition - the pc hangs. Error checks fine though...

I'm going to order another hd to see if it is this hd, but i do need this one working!

EDIT: Ok here are some of the bios settings i thought were relevant:

bios -> main -> SATA1 : [WDC WD2500KS-00MJB] -> all settings auto

SATA Configuration - Enhanced (other options compatible/disabled)

Configure SATA As - IDE (other options RAID/AHCI)

Changing the SATA Configuration/Configure SATA As results in my pc refusing to boot. Any ideas??

 

[Mr. Smith]

C'mon - has no one got any suggestions? I know its going to be something simple that I overlooked!

I ordered a new hd and an X-Fi Xtreme.

New hd as this one is p*ssing me off but it will also allow me to test if it my system or the drive, plus its always nice to have extra storage and I can have a play with raid now...

Also, as I cant fix the snap crackle and pop syndrome i'm moving away from the mobo sound.. This better work or thats £60 wasted!

Just a thought, if my hd was operating with a read speed of 4mb/s (as it is now - i really need this sorting!) would that explain all the general sluggish behaviour? The increased cpu loads i've been experiencing? Maybe even the distorted sound as the pc cant read enough data so the gaps are translated as crackles etc?

Guess i'll find out around tues when my new parts arrive! Although if its my settings etc nothings going to change... Help lol!

 

[Raven]

is it possible to limit the harddrive to sata150 incase their is an incompability ?

have you checked on the sata channel in device manager ?

i have 4 options and all 4 is "ticked" and the transfermode shows "serial ata generation 2 - 3g" grayed out, have a sata300 seagate working good.

tried any of these programs ?

http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp

 

[Mr. Smith]

Raven - I tried the programs you suggested - they did nothing.

I don't see a sata channel in device manager - the closest thing is -

'IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers'

'Intel(R) ICH8 2 port Serial ATA Storage Controller - 2825'

'Intel(R) ICH8 4 port Serial ATA Storage Controller - 2820'

'Primary IDE Channel'

'Primary IDE Channel'

'Secondary IDE Channel'

'Secondary IDE Channel'

I arranged device manager by connection -

'Intel(R) ICH8 4 port Serial ATA Storage Controller - 2820'

'Primary IDE Channel'

'My hard drive'

'Intel(R) ICH8 Family PCI Express Root Port 5 - 2847

'JMicron JMB36X Controller'

'My dvd drive'

I'm using xp with SP2 - i don't have any of the options you mention!