Hard Disk performance slow down - reasons?

[MichaelZ]

Yesterday I noticed as I was copying large files, the rate of copy seemed rather slow. OS loading times seemed to have increased by a noticable margin as well. I knew something wasn't quite right so I ran SISsandra's file system benchmark and my primary WD 80 gig with 8MB cache is running at 2/3 the normal speed for a 8MB cache hard disk.

I then ran PCmark just to confirm the exact same thing. As suspected, a 2/3 performance loss. Hard disk score (see sig) when measured only few weeks back was just over 1000. Today it's down to the 690 - 700s. I've done a few things to see what the problem might have been.

Tried a new IDE cable and same results for primary hard disk. My secondary hard disk is running perfpectly normal according to SISsandra when compared to other 8MB cache hard disks. Then tried checking the file system (chkdsk /F), no success. Finally I tried converting to FAT32 and back to NTFS just in case the file system needed more than being repaired. Same results.

If anyone understands what's going on here or knows the reason for a sudden hard drive slow down, do let me know. The hard drive is a standard western digital caviar 8MB 80GB. In fact it's rather new, reciept date is 31/08/03. Is it even possible for it to be a failing hard disk? And if it is... is it possible to RMA it without the hard disk physically failing? I don't think the store I got it from would let me RMA it unless it's a dead HD. Would they accept slow performance at only 2/3 capacity reasonable for RMA? I would like to troubleshoot the problem but am out ideas now. Help anyone?

 

[thorin]

Did you install new HD or controller drivers? Did you enable some kind of proprietary "low accoustics" mode? Have you defrag'd it lately? Were you copying between devices on the same cable? Did you change the configuration of your page file (swap, vm, whatever you wanna call it)? Has the drive/controller been switched to PIO mode? (Instead of DMA).

Thorin

 

[MichaelZ]

Did you install new HD or controller drivers?

nope

Did you enable some kind of proprietary "low accoustics" mode?

nope

Have you defrag'd it lately?

rather fresh install of windows. last format was Feb - 23rd

Were you copying between devices on the same cable?

yes i was, also from networked resources. could you elaborate more on this part please?

Did you change the configuration of your page file (swap, vm, whatever you wanna call it)? Has the drive/controller been switched to PIO mode? (Instead of DMA).

not to my knowledge. i'm the only user so i doubt anyone else did as well.

 

[LTC8K6]

Windows XP will progressively slow down the transfer speeds of a hard disk if it detects errors. Eventually it will drop down to PIO mode. I don't think you're in PIO mode, or your score would be a lot lower.

Do you have IAA installed?
If so, what does it say about your drives?

You can try deleting the drive and letting XP re-detect it. This will reset the XP's error counter.

 

[MichaelZ]

thanks, i'll try deleting it and let XP redetect on startup

btw what is IAA?

 

[LTC8K6]

Intel Application Accelerator, but after a bit of research it doesn't look like you will need that.
Here is some info on it anyway in case you run across a need for it.


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[MichaelZ]

Well, I did as suggested. no luck. the hard disk transfer rates are 21,000KB/s, basically 2/3 of what it should be. My slave drive's transfer rates are 30,000KB/s. They're on the same IDE cable.

What's going on here? If I can't fix the problem, is it even possible to RMA this hard disk? I would efinatly like to avoid using that option, not to mention the validity of my claim is questionable. Any further suggestions / help would be much appreaciated.

 

[orion7144]

As suggested earlier in the for me to do you should try and run the HDTach program to test your drive. Also you can use the testing software from WD's site.

 

[LTC8K6]

What mode does XP report for the drive?

 

[Gagabiji]

Originally posted by: i82lazyboy
the rate of copy seemed rather slow. OS loading times seemed to have increased by a noticable margin as well

Do you mean OS loading times have "decreased"?

 

[MichaelZ]

Originally posted by: LTC8K6
What mode does XP report for the drive?

DMA mode 5 for primary. DMA mode 3 and 2 for secondary. Not sure what all these are suppose to mean, but the hard drive is running DMA not PIO.

Do you mean OS loading times have "decreased"?

No I mean loading times increased, as in takes longer for XP to load...

 

[thorin]

No you can't RMA it. It isn't broken. And unless you test it in a number of different systems then you can't proove that the drive is at fault. And even if you did they have no reason to believe you since the drive is in fact functional.

Thorin

 

[LTC8K6]

I would download WD's tools and test the drive. They're not going to do an RMA unless you have run the tests anyway, so you might as well go ahead and see if it passes.

You could also check to see if Indexing has been turned on for the drive, I think that can slow it down.

Do you have S.M.A.R.T. active for the drive?

 

[MichaelZ]

Originally posted by: LTC8K6
You could also check to see if Indexing has been turned on for the drive, I think that can slow it down.

Do you have S.M.A.R.T. active for the drive?

Nah I don't use that smart function. As far as the hard drive is concerned, it must have been something wrong with the file system as I gave it a clean format, put a fresh NTFS file system on and now it's running just great. How it happened, well I got a rough idea how it could have happened. XP had a few failed startups (OC'ed ram and XP failed to load) After a few times, fragile NTFS must have went wrong somewhere.

I pulled out the drive, ran it as a slave in the spare rig and same low transfer rates. Then gave it a clean format and ran Sandra again, whaddya know, it's back to normal.

Thanks for all your help though guys, I really ran out of options so I went for the last thing I could do. Just glad it's back to normal, cheers :beer: