HDD problem or network problem? [WD20EARS + GBLAN]

[Ichinisan]

Win7 x64 on my Media Center PC is botched and needs to be reinstalled, so I need to copy off 12-or-so Blu-Ray ISOs that are 30GB-50GB each. My 1.5TB Seagate 7200.11 drives are supposed to be for carrying files between my systems, but they keep locking up (I'm NEVER buying Seagate again. Seagate refuses to provide the FW update and says the drive isn't affected by the known problems!).

So I need to move several hundred GB from my Media Center PC to my Performance PC over LAN. Both have Western Digital 2TB WD20EARS GreenPower drives with 64MB cache and they're both being used with Win7 x64 (which is fully aware of the advanced sector format of EARS drives).

I started copying over 100mbit LAN and it was actually getting 100% network utilization for a few hours (according to the Task Manager "Networking" tab). I was surprised, because I could never get close to 100m when I used to do huge xfers with WinXP.

I decided to disconnect from the 100m switch and wire the computers directly to each other. The systems auto-negotiated 1gbps and the xfer was going at least 6x faster (yay!). Suddenly, the transfer crapped out and I can't get speeds anywhere close to what I'd been getting.

This pic shows an obvious performance difference before and after the problem started:

Something is seriously wrong. When the transfer is in progress, the destination computer (Performance PC) is slow and unresponsive, as if there's something wrong with the HDD. I've tried restarting both systems and I've even tried stopping all kinds of services on both, but nothing has any effect.

It has already taken all day and I don't want to interrupt the transfer again to connect the computers back to the Internet and download a diagnostic utility from Western Digital. Are the WD20EARS drives known for problems like this?

(posting from my iPhone, so it's difficult to research this)

Edit:
After several hours, the performance is worse:

 

[Blain]

Are your LAN chips overheating?

 

[alaricljs]

How full is the destination drive? Fragmentation on the destination? If the drive would end up being nearly full with the new data on it and the drive had fragmentation then the beginning of the transfer would use up the non-fragmented space going at a nice clip and then start bogging down when it had to throw the data all over the remaining fragmented space.

I have 2 WD20EARS and regularly spew 50GB to and from them across my Gb network. I also move that much data between the two on occasion. Only once have I ever had an issue and re-seating the drive in it's hotswap cage rectified that.

 

[Ichinisan]

Are your LAN chips overheating?

Is that something to expect? The Media Center is an HP system and I don't really think the cooling is adequate. The destination system is custom built with an Antec 900 case, so it's excessively cooled. I do suspect that the destination system has a malfunctioning drive because it seems to be sluggish / unresponsive when the transfer is going.

How full is the destination drive?

This is going to put it pretty close to full, but probably at least 100GB free out of 1.8xTB.

Fragmentation on the destination? If the drive would end up being nearly full with the new data on it and the drive had fragmentation then the beginning of the transfer would use up the non-fragmented space going at a nice clip and then start bogging down when it had to throw the data all over the remaining fragmented space.

I don't think it's ever had any opportunity to get fragmented. I do some web browsing, but the drive has never been close to filled-up before and I don't do torrents or anything like that. On the destination system, it's actually a fairly recent installation of Win7.

I have 2 WD20EARS and regularly spew 50GB to and from them across my Gb network. I also move that much data between the two on occasion. Only once have I ever had an issue and re-seating the drive in it's hotswap cage rectified that.

I do suspect that there's something wrong with the drive in the destination system. The whole system is excessively cooled (Antec 900) and it's a "GreenPower" drive, so I don't think it should be overheating. Whenever this xfer finishes (6-9 hours) I'll connect them back to the Internet and try a WD diagnostic utility.

I have the worst luck with HDDs, so I'm expecting the worst.

 

[Blain]

You're pounding those LAN chips with heavy traffic. Most likely they don't have heatsinks, so heat can build up and cause problems.
The first gigabit chips had heat related problems with normal traffic.
Touch the chips with your finger during heavy data flow. If your finger blisters, you might have a heat problem.

I'm not saying the LAN chips are your problem, it's just that they're worth a little investigation.

 

[Ichinisan]

You're pounding those LAN chips with heavy traffic. Most likely they don't have heatsinks, so heat can build up and cause problems.
The first gigabit chips had heat related problems with normal traffic.
Touch the chips with your finger during heavy data flow. If your finger blisters, you might have a heat problem.

I'm not saying the LAN chips are your problem, it's just that they're worth a little investigation.

Thanks. I'll check when I get back home. The HP Media Center system is a big deal to disconnect everything and pull it out, but the performance system in the Antec 900 case is pretty easy.

The HP Media Center system runs an Intel Core2 Quad Q6600 on an Asus IPIBL-LB motherboard with some Intel chipset (not sure which one exactly). The "Performance system" runs an Intel Core i7 860 on an MSI board with an Intel P55 chipset.

Intel chipsets typically don't have integrated Intel GBLAN, right? I guess I'll be looking for a Realtek chip.

Have you ever heard of anyone actually putting little heatsinks on them? I might be able to find an old tube of Arctic Silver adhesive compound, if I'm lucky.

 

[Elixer]

Also check your activity errors for the NIC, it should be 0 or very, very low.

You might also check your system logs, in case there are errors / warnings there.

 

[mrblotto]

Wow, I never realized that the actual 'NIC chips' could even possibly overheat! Learn something new everyday I guess

 

[Ichinisan]

Well, the giant Cooler Master HSF in my performance PC makes it impossible to feel the Realtek chip while the system is in operation. When I go back to 100m, there's relatively no fluctuation. This is really strange.

-I saw great performance when I first started this thing.
-Something happened spontaneously.
-Now it refuses to behave.

In troubleshooting, I tried disabling IPv6 on both systems and it made no effect. I'll re-enable IPv6 try disabling IPv4.