Question drive got dirt slow

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luv2liv

luv2liv

Diamond Member
Dec 27, 2001
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i copied a corrupted file into my HDD1 from a SD card. it locked up my PC so i forced reboot win10 by holding the power button. afterward, copying or saving new files to HDD1 was super slow. luckily, upon deleting this file, the drive works as fast as before.

i also copied this same file to HDD2, but didnt think of the delete method. i did chkdsk /f and that did nothing. next, did chkdsk /r during the process, it freezed my PC so i had no choice but to force restart.
next up, i deleted the corrupted file but HDD2 is still dirt slow...copying 1MB/s or lesser. i have used the SeaTool, from seagate, to do the FixAllLong method. even though it supposed fix, the drive is still slow.
what can i try next?
 
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solidsnake1298

solidsnake1298

Senior member
Aug 7, 2009
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First, empty your recycle bin if you have not done so already. If the mere presence of the file is the cause, it still being in the recycle bin may continue to affect the drive. Second, I would backup your files, if you don't have backups, just incase the drives acting up are nearing failure.

Do your hard drives respond slowly regardless of what directory you are currently in? Maybe the Windows indexing service is trying to index it and failing. What does windows task manager say is the HDD usage? Is it constantly pegged? Try turning off the indexing service.

If the above doesn't work maybe download some USB bootable Linux distro and see if the behavior also occurs while booted into Linux.
 
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deustroop

deustroop

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Dec 12, 2010
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Save data from HDD2 somewhere but not the sd and format the drive. If that no work, pull the errant drive and try it in another machine. Let us know.
BTW its been a real while since one file has incapacitated a drive. Tell us, what is the problem file all about ?
 
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luv2liv

luv2liv

Diamond Member
Dec 27, 2001
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deustroop said:
Save data from HDD2 somewhere but not the sd and format the drive. If that no work, pull the errant drive and try it in another machine. Let us know.
BTW its been a real while since one file has incapacitated a drive. Tell us, what is the problem file all about ?
Click to expand...
file i was trying to copy was an MP4 file from my Canon camera. Usually I use my normal SD card reader from Transcend. this time, i used a free no brand card reader that i got. that's how i believe things went south.
what kind of format are you suggesting? is it the write Zeros? or quick format found in win 10 explorer?
 
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Shmee

Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
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Sep 13, 2008
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Are you sure the drive is good? How old is it? What is the model?
 
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VirtualLarry

VirtualLarry

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Aug 25, 2001
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luv2liv said:
i copied a corrupted file into my HDD1 from a SD card. it locked up my PC so i forced reboot win10 by holding the power button. afterward, copying or saving new files to HDD1 was super slow. luckily, upon deleting this file, the drive works as fast as before.
Click to expand...
That sounds like your SD card was corrupted, but at least, at the filesystem level, copying corrupted data does not normally "corrupt" the drive below it physically, so it sounds like the region of the HDD that it was copied to, was ALSO BAD. (Forced power-off could have caused a bad spot on the HDD too.) Deleting the file off of the drive, removed the reason for the system to reference / access that physical sector anymore, so it didn't show the side effects of the bad physical / logical sector on the HDD (slowdowns).

I would:
1) Immediately back-up the contents of both HDDs, to some (fresh, new, working) HDD, starting with the most important items first.

2) Only once the HDD(s) are backed-up, then run the mfg's diagnostics on the drive. It may find, and may try to fix, bad sectors. You might also try downloading CrystalDiskInfo (or another SMART checker), and check the SMART data for bad/reallocated/pending sectors. If there are some, you may wish to wipe/full NTFS format the drive, and then use it in the future for a "scatch" drive, and buy some new primary drives.

It really sounds like you use your storage drives until the point that they fail. I personally prefer (if the drives aren't in any sort of redundant configuration), to pro-actively replace them every 3-5 years or so, depending on drive warranty.
 
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luv2liv

luv2liv

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Dec 27, 2001
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copy speed usually starts at 100MB/s and then dips to 1 as seen here:

copy speed.jpg

the drive is about 10 months old as seen in CDI. i shucked from its ext shell.

I did run the Error Checking in Tools tab of Win10 but it found nothing. the SeaTool for Seagate drive found nothing as well.
preparing backups from BackBlaze now and I should have the replacement drive soon. will update once i format the drive.
 

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deustroop

deustroop

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Dec 12, 2010
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Ah So. We now have your definition of dirt!

Directly connected 5400 RPM drives can offer up to an average of 100 MB/s read and write speeds . Is HDD2 connected by USB ? Can we see the same transfer performance test for the HDD1, the one you say is OK ? What app are you using to test the transfer speed ? Is windows disk caching enabled ? It does look like the disk buffer gets filled and then disk writes offer the slow 1MB/s thereafter. But lets see comparable test for HDD1.
 
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luv2liv

luv2liv

Diamond Member
Dec 27, 2001
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deustroop said:
Ah So. We now have your definition of dirt!

Directly connected 5400 RPM drives can offer up to an average of 100 MB/s read and write speeds . Is HDD2 connected by USB ? Can we see the same transfer performance test for the HDD1, the one you say is OK ? What app are you using to test the transfer speed ? Is windows disk caching enabled ? It does look like the disk buffer gets filled and then disk writes offer the slow 1MB/s thereafter. But lets see comparable test for HDD1.
Click to expand...
both drives are connected via SATA internally. I am not using any app to test transfer speed, only the windows pop up window that displays the speed during copy. hdd2 has cache enabled. hdd1 has no cache enabled.
speed of hdd1 just measured as seen here below. it's fast as before.
 

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VirtualLarry

VirtualLarry

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Aug 25, 2001
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Are either of those drives, being "Shucked", actually SMR (shingled) drives? With cache disabled, I would expect to see performance drops like that, although not QUITE that severe.
 
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luv2liv

luv2liv

Diamond Member
Dec 27, 2001
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i quick formatted HDD2 as suggested. copying files from a BackBlaze restore drive now and the speed Win10 shows is 100KB/s. looks like the HDD2 is hosed. :(
 
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mikeymikec

mikeymikec

Lifer
May 19, 2011
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luv2liv said:
so the lesson is to avoid SMR? or dont try to cheap out by getting USB drives and convert them to internal?
Click to expand...

Here's my experience with an SMR drive:

Does anyone have a new Seagate portable USB 3.0 drive to test with?

I'm puzzling over the very hit-and-miss performance of a drive I've just bought for a customer. Here's a benchmark I did just now: The drive on the left is my own Seagate portable drive that I bought a few years ago that I have no problems with. The drive on the right is the one I've just...
forums.anandtech.com forums.anandtech.com

As a result I personally avoid SMR like the plague.

About converting USB to internal drives, I can't believe that would result in any great saving, certainly not one that justifies voiding the warranty in the process.
 
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