Hard drive really slow when used in hot-swap bay

[djeyewater]

I have a SATA hot-swap bay for my PC that I use for doing backups. I had a Western Digital 1.5TB Caviar Green drive that was incredibly slow, so after asking their support about it, I RMA'd it. But when I received the replacement drive, it was really slow too.

Copying 3.27GB of data to the drive, it started out at about 60MB/s (though I think this is due to the Windows delayed write rather than the actual speed it is copying at - once the copy has finished it takes quite a long time for the disk activity light to turn off). After that it dropped to about 30MB/s, by the time it finished it was at 5.76MB/s. I would guess that rather than the write speed actually getting slower, it is just that windows displays the total amount 'copied' divided by the amount of time taken for the copy so far. The actual average copy rate when taking into account the time it takes the delayed write to finish would be about 4MB/s.

I tested the drive in the actual PC (rather than using the hotswap bay), using the same SATA cable that the hotswap bay is connected to the motherboard with, and it worked okay, copying data to it at about 60MB/s.

When connecting the drive inside the case I couldn't use the same power cable as the hotswap bay uses, as that uses a molex connector, but I have tested a different power cable on the hotswap bay, and still get the same dismal write performance.

But the hotswap bay works fine with my 1TB Samsung and 1.5TB Seagate drives. The Samsung is rated +12V 0.7A, +5V 0.5A. The Seagate is rated +12V 0.52A +5V 0.72A. The Western Digital I'm having trouble with is rated at +12V 0.55A +5V 0.7A.

Any ideas why the Western Digital would be so slow in the hot swap bay when the Samsung and Seagate drives are okay?

Thanks

Dave

 

[Blain]

Sounds like some type of connector problem between the WD & hot-swap bay to me.

Options
1. Buy a higher quality hot-swap bay
2. Replace the WD with a Samsung HD
3. Rip into the hot-swap bay, inspect & clean the connectors
4. Mount & connect the WD drive internally
5. Learn to live with the situation

 

[djeyewater]

Thanks for the advice, can you suggest any higher quality hot-swap bays?

They all look the same to me (other than whether they have a built in fan or not).

Dave

 

[Blain]

Thanks for the advice, can you suggest any higher quality hot-swap bays?

I don't know which model you have now. :\

 

[djeyewater]

This is the one I have at the moment: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.19927

 

[Blain]

LoL... The Kingwin KF-1000-BK is the one I use.

 

[RebateMonger]

Any idea what the "HDD1-1" and "HDD1-2" connectors are at the rear of the bay? Why are there two connectors?

 

[corkyg]

I have used what you call "hot swap bays" for years. Techn ically, they are called mobile racks. The best I have found to date are Vantec EZ-Swap. Look like this:

BTW - all drives in them are WDC. No problems at all.

Under the tabs (1 * 2) are key switches for on/off.) The LCDs tell me a few things, i.e., drive temps, etc.

 

[alaricljs]

Any idea what the "HDD1-1" and "HDD1-2" connectors are at the rear of the bay? Why are there two connectors?

That's for the SAS support. SAS drives can be dual channel/port and therefor for full SAS support you'd need to hook up 2 cables. I'm sure there's a single cable connector version for SAS, but haven't seen one yet.

 

[djeyewater]

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately I'm in the UK, and the Kingwin and Vantecs aren't available here. I have 3 WD backup drives, so I'm not sure I'd want to go with a tray based solution like the Vantec anyway, they do look good quality though.

I did a bit more searching and found an antec bay: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172727
I couldn't find any comments on it working (or not) with WD drives, but I think I'll give it a try. Hopefully should be reasonable quality given the brand name.

 

[RebateMonger]

Most SATA trays use a straight-through data connection. The data port on the disk connects directly to a passthrough connector on the housing mounted to the PC which comes out the back. No active circuitry is involved. I suppose if your housing has any added circuitry for the SAS connection, that might be interacting badly with the WDC disks for some reason.

 

[jjmIII]

I did a bit more searching and found an antec bay: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172727

I use that one. Works fine but drives get HOT in there!

 

[djeyewater]

Just a quick update to say the antec bay is working fine with my WD drive (and the Samsungs and Seagate). I wouldn't say the drive gets any hotter in there than it did with my previous bay, even though the antec doesn't have a fan.

 

[Auric]

The Antec one is queer in that the drive sticks out but then has less parts to fail without the lever eject mechanism. Though I've used that latter type for several years sans problemo and being enclosed is advantageous if not strictly using it temporarily. Pro tip: preferably mount 'em in the air flow from an appropriate power supply. I did that with a recent build using a 3-in-2 model, thus allowing to remove the included fan and still keep the drive temperatures well within operating range.