Laptop HDD Abnormally High Latency 20ms / Short Stroking

[Collider]

I have a pretty slow HDD for some reason HDTach reports 20+ ms average seek time which is ridiculous. Not sure what's causing this but thinking of short stroking this drive via the partition method. Worth the trouble or the problem lies elsewhere..?

 

[BFG10K]

What's the drive?

 

[Bubbaleone]

I have a pretty slow HDD for some reason HDTach reports 20+ ms average seek time which is ridiculous. Not sure what's causing this but thinking of short stroking this drive via the partition method. Worth the trouble or the problem lies elsewhere..?

Unfortunately, HD Tach is now history: HD Tach End of Life Announcement. You might want to take a look at HD Tune for nailing down why you have high seek time.

This is an interesing HD Tune article: WD Caviar Black 640GB Benches (at different short strokes)

 

[Collider]

What's the drive?

Seagate Momentus 160 - http://reviews.cnet.com/internal-ha...-3/4507-9998_7-33324961.html?tag=mncol;subnav

This is really a bummer bc the specs sheet lists 4.17 for avg latency

 

[DominionSeraph]

Seagate Momentus 160 - http://reviews.cnet.com/internal-ha...-3/4507-9998_7-33324961.html?tag=mncol;subnav

This is really a bummer bc the specs sheet lists 4.17 for avg latency

4.17ms is the average rotational latency of a 7200RPM drive, not the access time. Access time is seek time + rotational latency. (Seek time is the amount of time it takes the head to get into position, but then the head has to wait for the data on the track to rotate around to its position. Best case is it's already there, worst case is that it has to wait a full rotation, so the average latency is one-half of a full rotation.)

Average seek is 11-13ms for that drive. Considering manufacturer specs are usually a little optimistic, 20ms with rotational latency might actually be right for it.
You could try downloading Crystaldiskinfo and seeing if setting the Automatic Acoustic Management (AAM) to a different value helps. (Function-->Advanced Feature-->AAM/APM Control)

And yes, short stroking will help.

 

[C1]

WD Drives lke yours require AFT. Ensure that the drive partition has been set up properly. (If not then you will get the kind of crappy latencies which you are experiencing.)

http://www.wdc.com/global/products/features/?id=7&language=1

 

[DominionSeraph]

A Seagate is not a Western Digital, nor does that have anything to do with seek times.

 

[C1]

Roger.

Would have helped to have stated the drive make/model in the OP (saw the reference to WD 640 Black). Seagate uses a different technique with its drives and doesnt require an AFT utility.