VideoHelp Forum
+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 21 of 21
Thread
  1. So I just upgraded my system to from just one platter hard drive to a 120gb SSD and moved the 750gb 7200rpm to another slot. I keep my media on the 750gb drive and windows and programs on the SSD. The reason for the upgrade was that I noticed a ridiculous slowing of the drive recently, and since the upgrade my results are posted, along with SMART data. Maybe someone could help me interpret the SMART data, I don't know what it means. But I've got to believe that something isn't working 100% on this drive, it shouldn't be this slow.

    When copying files from the SSD to the HDD, it will copy at about 20MB/s for a few seconds, then drop to >2MB/s for a few seconds, and will constantly oscillate between the inadequately fast 20MB/s and the ridiculously slow >2MB/s. It makes any kind of file transfer a real bear, and both hard drives are connected via SATA.

    This is the hard drive that is slow: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148599Click image for larger version

Name:	Untitled.jpg
Views:	981
Size:	68.9 KB
ID:	24305Click image for larger version

Name:	Untitled2.jpg
Views:	848
Size:	105.2 KB
ID:	24306Click image for larger version

Name:	Untitled3.jpg
Views:	846
Size:	103.4 KB
ID:	24307
    Quote Quote  
  2. Banned
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    Freedonia
    Search Comp PM
    You've chosen to prove no details at all about your SSD, which is really not a wise thing to do. I can tell you that some SSDs are notorious for being slow after they've been written to for a while and with SSDs, the more space you use, the worse performance can be. Personally I wouldn't advise anybody to use anything below 256 GB for best results. It also occurs to me that you may not be using SATA 3 connections and that can also make things slower. You should probably tell us what kind of SSD you have, how full it is and what type of SATA connection you are using. If you don't know what type of SATA connection it is, perhaps posting info about your motherboard or the model would be helpful. And if this a laptop and you are actually using the 750 GB drive via an external connection, yeah, we need to know that too.
    Quote Quote  
  3. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with your HDD according to the smart data. Is your system a laptop? The drive you linked to is a laptop drive, those drives are always slower than desktop drives. The one oddity is the benchmark showing the read speed is less than half that of the write speed; usually it's the other way around. This probably indicates that the drive is badly fragmented. If this PC is a desktop it wouldn't hurt to replace the SATA cable for a nice 90° latching type one. BTW, your link is bad.
    Quote Quote  
  4. Ok here is more info:

    I'm using a laptop, in bay 1, I have a 120GB SSD Samsung drive connected with SATA III. Currently has 23GB of space free of the 111GB of formatted space. This is the specific drive: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00E3W15P0/ref=oh_details_o05_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1. The crystaldiskmark picture is attached below. Click image for larger version

Name:	SSD.jpg
Views:	678
Size:	68.3 KB
ID:	24308
    Granted, the speeds don't quite match up with other people's speeds on Amazon: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ehBEpbMVL.jpg

    In bay 2 (normally the optical drive bay, but I removed the optical drive and put in the platter type hard drive), the 750GB drive operating at SATA II (the maximum speed it supports).
    Quote Quote  
  5. The link works fine for me. I am using a laptop, so therefore cannot change out the SATA cables. Fragmentation reveals something odd. There are 28 fragmented files for a total of 48GB of fragmentation. But those files that are fragmented aren't the ones that made me notice that it was copying slow.

    EDIT: Just did crystal disk mark on the platter type hard drive again, and got pretty much the same results except the read speed was half of what it was before, it just read 9MB/s, all the other values were pretty much the same. Guess I'll try defragmenting and see what happens.
    Last edited by RoldGold; 29th Mar 2014 at 10:50.
    Quote Quote  
  6. Try running HDTune. It will give you a graph of read speed over all cylinders:

    Click image for larger version

Name:	hdtune.png
Views:	587
Size:	25.7 KB
ID:	24309
    Quote Quote  
  7. My results look a little bit weirder, and for the record, I stopped the defragmentation while I ran this test.

    Click image for larger version

Name:	HDD HDTune.jpg
Views:	642
Size:	286.4 KB
ID:	24310

    I think the best thing I can do is take the hard drive and test it in another computer, see if I get the same results. In order to do that I'll need to buy a SATA power splitter cable from amazon so it'll be a few days before I can comment on its performance in another computer.
    Quote Quote  
  8. There is something seriously wrong with the drive, cable, or interface. Return under warranty if possible, test in another PC, change the cable.

    The SSD is not at all part of this problem and bringing it into the discussion did nothing other than cloud the issue. Also, please note, that once you begin discussing two, different, drives, from that point forward anytime you mention one of them, the description, "THE DRIVE" becomes completely meaningless.

    High odds the drive is bad.
    Quote Quote  
  9. You should have mentioned the optical bay drive caddy in the first place, where did you get that from? Chances are it's the cause of the problem and if you keep using it you'll damage the drive too. Can't you put the 750GB drive back in the HDD bay and run HDtune again? You should be getting a "smooth" curve not the jagged job you're seeing with dips down to 0 MB/s.
    Quote Quote  
  10. I'll see if I can run the tests on the drive outside of the optical bay carriage tomorrow. The 750GB drive is ~4 years old, so I'm almost certain its out of warranty.

    Thanks for the replies everyone!
    Quote Quote  
  11. Ok here are the results of the test with the 750GB platter hard drive (the one I predict is failing) in the main slot of the laptop (not in the optical drive bay, but rather in its OEM location). As you can see the results are almost exactly the same as before.

    Click image for larger version

Name:	hdd in main slot.jpg
Views:	598
Size:	105.1 KB
ID:	24320

    This proves a number of things,
    1. The laptop's SATA interface is not the problem, because the SSD tests fine in both locations.
    2. The aftermarket optical drive caddy is not the problem, because the SSD tests the same there as it does directly in the computer.
    3. Ultimately, this points to a failure within the platter type drive, which I won't be able to confirm (in another computer) until I receive the necessary power wiring accessories from amazon.

    Does my reasoning sound reasonable to anyone else, or am I just saying the things I want to hear?
    Quote Quote  
  12. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2001
    Location
    Deep in the Heart of Texas
    Search PM
    Pretty good logic so far.

    If you see ANY dropping out while the HDD is tested in another PC, time to get a new HDD! Good thing is: they're fairly cheap right now.

    Scott
    Quote Quote  
  13. Haha thanks for the confirmation Cornucopia! I posted that around midnight last night, so I wasn't too sure if I was making sense any more. They are very cheap, I'm looking at a HGST 1TB 7200rpm at Newegg for $70!

    By the way, are you a member at any other forums, using the name Cornucopia? I'm almost certain I've seen your name elsewhere on the internet.
    Quote Quote  
  14. I got similar results when I tested the bad HDD in an external enclosure (USB 2.0) on my HTPC, except the peaks only reached 30MB/s, which isn't surprising because it was through USB. I'm pretty well convinced that there is something wrong with the drive, so I'm going to take advantage of the sale right now at Newegg and order a new drive, thanks for the help everyone!
    Quote Quote  
  15. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2001
    Location
    Deep in the Heart of Texas
    Search PM
    I am on other forums, sometimes as Cornucopia, sometimes (when the name was taken) as CornucopiaDM, or similar, sometimes as my real name, occasionally as something else. Other than here, a few stereo3d forums, dvinfo, doom9, a few DAW forums, I don't really post much.

    Hope your new drive doesn't give you trouble too. Make sure you start off doing a thorough disc exercise, formatting (w/ verification) and speed testing so you have a good baseline/benchmark.

    Scott
    Quote Quote  
  16. Unbelievable. I just checked the SMART data on a totally unrelated drive to the ones being discussed here, my 4TB drive in my HTPC has unrecoverable sectors, and it's 4 months old. Thankfully Seagate will honor the warranty even though I bought the external version, opened the case (thus voiding the warranty) and installed the bare drive. Nonetheless, I'm still thinking that I'm going to sell the replacement drive and purchase a WD instead. I've had both of the seagate drives I own fail, and none of the 3 WD drives I own fail, not to mention you can't beat how cool the WD green drives run.
    Quote Quote  
  17. Banned
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Location
    Freedonia
    Search Comp PM
    Originally Posted by RoldGold View Post
    Nonetheless, I'm still thinking that I'm going to sell the replacement drive and purchase a WD instead. I've had both of the seagate drives I own fail, and none of the 3 WD drives I own fail, not to mention you can't beat how cool the WD green drives run.
    We've had newbies post "What's the best brand of disk drive?" type questions here before and based on the answers we would have no problem finding people who totally agree with you and probably just as many to report that every bad drive they've ever had is WD and their Seagate drives have never failed them. I'm not really sold on the 4 GB drives yet. But do what you think best and if you've had success with WD, why not go with them again.
    Quote Quote  
  18. One of the few reports on drive reliability by manufacturer:
    http://blog.backblaze.com/2014/01/21/what-hard-drive-should-i-buy/

    Hitachi fared best overall, Seagate worst. WD was a little behind Hitatchi, but if you look at the curves in the last graph most of WD's failures were in the first month. So if your WD drive makes it through the first month it may be more reliable than the Hitachi drives.
    Quote Quote  
  19. So the new 1TB hard drive (to replace the 750GB hard drive) load cycles every 4 seconds. Constantly. Without a break. Unless I'm using it. Doesn't this seem incredibly excessive? In 55 hours of power on time, the load cycle count is 1066. I can't possibly imagine that the hard drive should be load cycling that much.
    Quote Quote  
  20. I seem to recall that was a problem with WD Green drives for a while. I think there's a firmware update for it.
    Quote Quote  
  21. There is, its not an update as much as it is a file you need to run in a DOS environment to change a setting on the hard drive. It's fantastic, I've run it on 3 of my hard drives, but unfortunately they aren't the problem.

    The problem stems with my new HGST drive, which I am close to returning because of how aggressive the head parking is. I've tried every drive power management software under the sun, all to no avail.
    Quote Quote  



Similar Threads

Visit our sponsor! Try DVDFab and backup Blu-rays!