Hard Drive has random slow spots

[lardbeetle]

This is what I'm talking about:

http://img472.imageshack.us/img472/8233/hdtachfb5.jpg

Most of the time, the drive, a Western Digital Caviar SATA 3.0 250 gig, reads at around 50 MBps. However, there are spots on the drive where it drops to around 0.8 MBps. The data is read fine, it just..... goes slow. Incredibly slow.

Anyone have any idea about what could cause this?

 

[vanvock]

Have you done a defrag?

 

[lardbeetle]

No, but I did reformat.

I'll do a quick defrag now.

 

[seemingly random]

What's the SMART report?

 

[lardbeetle]

Attribute Current Raw Overall
10 Raw Read Error Rate 200 0 Very good
10 Spin Up Time 253 1008 Very good
1 Start/Stop Count 99 1736 Normal
10 Reallocated Sector Count 200 0 Very good
10 Seek Error Rate 200 0 Very good
0 Power On Hours Count 81 14554 Watch
Warning: Power On Hours Count is below the average limits (89-100).
10 Spin Retry Count 100 0 Very good
10 Calibration Retry Count 100 0 Very good
10 Power Cycle Count 100 628 Very good
6 Unknown attribute 190 54 46 Good
10 Reallocated Event Count 200 0 Very good
10 Current Pending Sector 200 0 Very good
10 Offline Uncorrectable Sector Count 200 0 Very good
10 Ultra DMA CRC Error Rate 200 38465 Very good
10 Write Error Rate 200 0 Very good



SpeedFan says I'm good on everything but power-on time.

 

[lardbeetle]

I analyzed the drive, and there are *no* fragmented files. Makes sense, because I use the drive as a media disc, and have never deleted files off of it since the reformat.

 

[seemingly random]

Random access of 39.2 seems pretty slow. I ran HDTune v2.53 on a samsung 501lj and got an access time of 14.6. It's going to be faster than the wd250 but not that much faster. Try downloading this and running the error scan - overnight. I also ran HDTune on a raptor150 on a different pc and got an access time of 3.7 and a burst rate of 250 mb/sec - so obviously these test programs can report bad results.

I don't (fortunately) have a lot of experience with bad drives - they either work or die quickly for me. If I had a suspect one, I would try:

- running the Windows error checking utility
- getting the latest version of a couple of hd test programs and checking if they both show these dips.
- getting the diagnostic program from wd.
- different mb sata connectors
- a different sata cable - even reversing the current one if no other is available
- checking the jumpers on the drive
- the hd in another pc
- another hd in this pc
- reviewing bios settings - incorrect acpi settings can be a problem - seems unlikely since I assume that this drive has been running for a while.
- disconnecting all other drives - ide and sata including cdrom's, usb keys and readers, etc. and testing

Has the drive ever had problems? Has there been a h/w change in the pc? If the means are available, having another drive is never a bad thing.

 

[Nadeem]

I got a new application it's simple but it could help. all it does is that it goes through your hardrive, lookks for bad spots and recovers your lost info. its called HDDREGENERATOR. It"s supposed to be pretty good

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: Nadeem
I got a new application it's simple but it could help. all it does is that it goes through your hardrive, lookks for bad spots and recovers your lost info. its called HDDREGENERATOR. It"s supposed to be pretty good

http://www.computerbroker.com/hddregenerator.htm

Who says it's good? The site has a few translation errors, which makes me leery, and it doesn't look professional. Is there a review in PCWorld, CNet, or a similar major site?

The entire premise "magnetic reversal" - looks pretty funny. I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole.

 

[lardbeetle]

Yeah. The problem isn't even bad spots - the data in these areas of the hdd is fine, but it just reads slow as hell in those specific parts.

I'll try running hdtune overnight.

 

[lardbeetle]

HDTune came up with no errors whatsoever. I didn't do a quick scan, it was the full one.

 

[seemingly random]

And did it show the same dips as hdtach?

Has the drive progressively gotten slower or all at once?

What are the results of the other tests?

Are you shopping for a new hd just in case this one is a goner?

 

[lardbeetle]

It was all at once. It shows the same dips in speed as HDtach. This happened all at once - used to be it was doing this for the whole drive till I reinstalled the drivers for the SATA controller. And no, I'm not shopping for a new drive, I'm broke.

My board has a SATA 3 controller and a SATA 150 controller - might it help if I switched the drive to the 150?

 

[seemingly random]

Originally posted by: lardbeetle
might it help if I switched the drive to the 150?

Can't hurt but this hd worked fine for a while, right? And nothing's changed?

Is this SATA controller on a separate board from the mb? If so, remove it and just use the mb one.

What are the results of the other tests? wd's diagnostic?

 

[lardbeetle]

I'll run wd's diagnostic. Hope it doesn't need a fdd. The SATA controllers are both integrated into the motherboard, the 3.0 one on its own PCIe channel, and the 150 one on PCI, I think.

 

[seemingly random]

Originally posted by: lardbeetle
I'll run wd's diagnostic. Hope it doesn't need a fdd.

You'll have to burn a cd and then boot from it.

 

[lardbeetle]

Wow. That fixed it.

Yeah, so, apparently, my SATA 3.0 controller was defective. The instant I switched to the 150, it worked PERFECTLY.

Weird, though. That's an odd thing to fail.

 

[seemingly random]

Yes, it's odd but just say a little chant and hope the problem doesn't return... Good job.

 

[Nadeem]

Thats the link for the review.Tell me what you think


http://www.softwarejudge.com/review/298

 

[dclive]

A few hours to recover a 3GB HDD? (Yep, three gigabyte hard drive.) And he was running Win98? In 2006? C'mon.

Any professional reviews from real sites, like CNet, PC World, etc. ?

 

[Nadeem]

In 4 hours i did a 250 gig hardrive