Hard Drive Transfer Speed

[Keiyen]

Hello,

I recently put together a new computer, everything works fine so far except when I try
to copy files from one hard drive to another. The hard drives in question are a Western
Digital 6 GB and a Maxtor 40 GB. I'm trying to transfer files from the WD to the Maxtor,
but the rate it's going at is extremely slow. It takes me a minute or 2 just to transfer a
10 mb file between the 2. I have another Quantum hard drive and that will transfer files
to the Maxtor at normal speeds, 10 mb takes a few secons only.

Another thing I noticed was that sometimes the transfering from the WD to the Maxtor
goes normal speed for a few seconds, but then suddenly slows down again.

What's wrong?!

The computer specs are an Athlon XP 1600+, 256mb ddr, Shuttle ak3.1, and a 400w
AMD approved power supply, if that even matters.

Thanks for your time and help!

-Keiyen

 

[BlueTDimly]

Are they on the same IDE cable? If so, try moving them to separate IDE cables. That should help. Are you running either of the drives with Ultra DMA? (Should be able to see on the boot screen of your machine just before your OS boots but after your POST screen disappears).

BlueT.

 

[jmitchell]

are the WD and the Maxtor on the same ide channel? It shouldnt make it THAT slow but it could affect the transfer speed for sure.. Also, make sure that you've installed the latest drivers for your motherboard/chipset/ide etc. and defrag that little 6 gig... I found my old 6 gig to be very useful when I disassembled it and threw it away... The other question would be, have you ever transferred files from the WD to the maxtor without speed problems? (i.e. on a different os, mobo or other) And since you have only posted 6 times are you even going to come back here and look at this? No. Probably not. But at least I killed 2 minutes of bored time at work writing this.

 

[Keiyen]

Yeah, I've tried putting the HDs on the same IDE channel, and also different IDE channels, both result
in slow transfer speed. Both HDs are also running on Ultra DMA as well.

I've noticed it's not just transfering between the hard drives, it's just accessing the WD in general.
When I open mp3 files from it, the songs pause for a second or two, then resume for another
few seconds, and then another pause, etc.

I also tried transfering from the WD to a networked computer, which results in the same slow
transfer rate.

So is my WD drive dead/dying? I'm pretty sure that the hard drive was working fine before I built my
computer (the WD was in my old computer). So I was thinkin it's maybe something with the processor
or the motherboard.

Any help appreciated.

Much thanks,
Keiyen

 

[MustangSVT]

which version of windows?

 

[Keiyen]

Oops, running Windows XP currently.
I was also running WinXP in my previous computer, where the WD worked fine.

 

[Scudtech]

Just to check one more thing: Is the drive running in ?compatibility mode? (I?m not sure if that?s in XP still, but worth a shot? in 98, it?s in the System>Performance tab). I?m not sure how you would fix this if it is the problem, but it can really cause slowdowns.