[SOLVED] New velociraptor hard drive seems very, very slow

[bovinda]

I just put a brand new 300 GB raptor in my computer today, but it's been acting weird. Right now, I'm trying to install Oblivion on it, and it is taking forever. For comparison, I tried installing it on my primary drive, and what it took my primary drive to do, it has taken the raptor more than 5 minutes, and it seems to be hanging.

When I first installed it today, it also had trouble formatting (I wasn't getting a percentage indicator of how much it was formatted, so I went ahead and did a quick format instead, which still took a couple minutes).

I then installed HD Tune, and at first my Samsung drives were getting read speeds of 60-80 mb/sec, while this was getting 3.1-3.6 mb/sec read, and write speeds of 0-1.5 mb/sec. I restarted, and read speeds went up to 115 mb/sec, but right now it still seems super slow, for some reason.

Is there something I'm supposed to activate or not for it to work properly? It's not making any clicking noises or anything, it seems very quiet. Is it a dud? What do I do?

EDIT: My hardware is an Abit P35 Pro mobo, with three other Samsung drives and a DVD burner all attached by SATA cables. It's got 4 GB RAM, a Q6600 CPU.

UPDATE 12/18: I'm pretty sure it was a dud drive. Replacement HD that came today after RMAing works great. Thanks everyone for the help!

 

[bovinda]

After trying HD Tune some more, I ran the "File Benchmark" tab. It takes it forever to get going (like 1.5-2 min?) , but once it does, the read speeds look like they get up to around 110-120. The write speeds never look they get above 5. Does that make any sense?

 

[nineball9]

Any errors in your event log?

 

[KGB]

Download and run the WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic proggy.

Also, do you have the correct drivers installed for your SATA controller?

 

[bovinda]

nineball, I don't actually know how to check the event log...I haven't seen any popups anywhere saying error though...where would I look?

KGB, I downloaded and ran WD's Data Lifeguard Diagnostics. It passed a quick test last night in 2 minutes and an extended test overnight in 7 hours, 12 minutes. I'm checking now to see about the drivers...according to my mobo site, it sounds like I should have JMicron SATA controllers installed, but when I look at device manager, I don't see anything that says JMicron, they're all Intel controllers, does that make sense? I'll try to install the JMicron controllers and see what happens...

 

[bovinda]

I tried installing JMicron's SATA drivers, it said that they couldn't find the "INF" file and cancelled the installation. What does that mean?

Just spoke with WD's tech support. I gave them the details about the WD diagnostic tests. They said on their end that they can only replace it, they don't know what else to try, so I guess I could try RMA'ing it with NewEgg. Is there anything I'm missing though, before I RMA it? I don't want to get another drive and go through the exact same situation if it's something on my end...

 

[TemjinGold]

Now that you mention it, I have the exact same problem. My new velo seems SLOWER than the 74gb raptor it replaced. I'll be interested in any solution you happen to find as well. I'm on Vista 64.

 

[bovinda]

I ended up RMAing the drive. Hopefully the new one won't have the same problem; if it does, I'll suspect my hardware, somewhere. I had also gotten a new Samsung 1 TB drive in the same order, I put it into the same computer (same cables, everything) and it had read speeds of 100-110 MB/sec and write speeds around 80 MB/sec, I think. I'll post back when the new drive comes; any feedback is still welcome.

 

[TemjinGold]

Hey OP, just wondering if you had any luck with the new drive. I'd hate to have to go through the hassle of RMAing my velo to fix this...

 

[bovinda]

I did end up RMAing it, and I think the new one should be here in a business day or two. I will definitely post back and let you know the outcome.

 

[nineball9]

bovinda - sorry for the late reply. It's a good idea to learn what's in your event logs so when you do encounter problems with your system you have a baseline knowledge of what to expect. You may find Disc or I/O errors in your system logs regarding your Raptor. (The log entries wrap but stay around for awhile.)
Some links about event viewer logs:

Windows Vista: Vista

Windows XP: XP

With Windows XP, you'll find the event viewer under Administrative Tools (which can be moved from its default location.) I use XP, so when I'm tinkering with someone else's PC with Windows Vista, I have to poke around for a minute trying to remember where the viewer is. Try Google too - I just picked the above links from quick searches.

Good luck!

 

[bovinda]

Originally posted by: nineball9
bovinda - sorry for the late reply. It's a good idea to learn what's in your event logs so when you do encounter problems with your system you have a baseline knowledge of what to expect. You may find Disc or I/O errors in your system logs regarding your Raptor. (The log entries wrap but stay around for awhile.)
...

Thanks nine, I never new about this! That's a handy tool. Man, it looks like I've got errors all over the place! Is that normal?

Anyway, I looked for errors on the Dec 9, the day I tried installing the raptor. On that day there are a bunch of atapi errors that don't show up anywhere else. They seem to fall into two categories - either "the driver detected a controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePort3" which occurred mostly over a 3 hour period, or "The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePort5" which occurred later on, over a roughly 20 minute period (which was when I was trying to install the game on the raptor, I believe).

There is also PlugPlayManager error that says "The device 'WDC WD3000GLFS-01F8U0 ATA Device' (IDE\DiskWDC_WD3000GLFS-01F8U0___________________03.03V01\5&1bb8d3a2&0&1.0.0) disappeared from the system without first being prepared for removal" at around 6:40 PM. I don't know what happened then, but I know I didn't take the drive out until much later, so I'm not sure what that was about.

Overall, not sure what to make of the errors. Does it suggest a problem with the controller, controller driver, or the HD itself?

(I also see a large number of disk errors saying "The device, \Device\Harddisk\Dr0, has a bad block." That doesn't sound good either! I'm going to run disk check on it right now...)

 

[nineball9]

Glad you found the Event Viewer; it's a very useful tool.

Errors in the log are not "normal" in the sense that the OS is detecting problems. Some maybe "normal" depending on your system configuration, which is why it helps to learn your system when you first build/buy it. Personally, I maintain clean logs as I research each error/warning.

The port3/port5 errors are probably the raptor not responding correctly and hanging the bus. It could be the controller or the cable too but from your previous posts, I'd suspect the raptor itself.

From my experience, Windows enumerates SATA devices as \Device\IDE\... which can be confusing sometimes. Your system did see the raptor - it listed the enumerated Device Hardware ID in the Plug and Play error. Part of this is read from the firmware of the drive.

I don't know what Dr0 refers to (besides a hard drive), but I think running CHKDSK is a good start. You might want to try some of the mfgr's diagnostics tools (free downloads) too. Might be too late, but you might want to backup your system first!

To research errors you find in your logs, try googling using Event ID and Source (as found in the info in each log entry). You can refine your search with more info as needed. Chances are you have a Userenv warning which appears every time you shutdown!

Other readers may have more in depth info. Good luck!

 

[TemjinGold]

Thanks for the info! Unfortunately, my raptor didn't trip any errors in there... I guess I'm out of luck then...

 

[bovinda]

Originally posted by: nineball9
Glad you found the Event Viewer; it's a very useful tool.

...

To research errors you find in your logs, try googling using Event ID and Source (as found in the info in each log entry). You can refine your search with more info as needed. Chances are you have a Userenv warning which appears every time you shutdown!

Other readers may have more in depth info. Good luck!

Nine, that's awesome. I never new about any of this. I will definitely spend some time doing looking up my errors. Do you use only the Event Log, or do you use all the different logs? It seems like there's about 30 or 40 different logs, at least...

Temjin, I'll still post back once I get the new Raptor in. I'm hoping it was just a bad drive. NewEgg already approved the RMA and shipped the new one, it should be here Thursday. I'll post back with how it goes (and certainly if I have more problems).

 

[TemjinGold]

Great, thanks!

 

[nineball9]

Originally posted by: bovinda Do you use only the Event Log, or do you use all the different logs? It seems like there's about 30 or 40 different logs, at least...

I was using lazy terminology as what you are really using is the Event Viewer which allows you to view the various logs your OS maintains. Since you have a lot of logs I suspect you are running Windows Vista which has more log files than does Windows XP. As you have noticed, Vista groups the various logs and you can expand the subcategories.

You will find that some of the logs are empty or nearly empty. You can peruse the informational messages to get an idea of what your system does when operating "normally". You may discover some unwanted or unneeded stuff is starting up which can be eliminated by tweaking your processes and services but that's beyond the scope of a simple post.
Learning what is running then tweaking the sysem is the second thing I do when I get a new computer. The first thing I do is backup the original install. For example, a lot of 3rd party products are determined to load automatic updaters which I generally remove.

Warning and error messages I do research and when feasible, eliminate the cause(s).
Good luck!

 

[bovinda]

Originally posted by: nineball9
...
The first thing I do is backup the original install. For example, a lot of 3rd party products.
...

Hey nine, sorry to keep pestering you with questions, this is the last one for right now, I promise. Just curious what you use to back-up your install, if you find a particular program is effective. I've never actually done it on my of the PCs I've built, but it seems like it would be handy (as I'm about to do a reinstall on one of them today for some buggyness, and just reverting to an original install would be easier in the future).

 

[nineball9]

Originally posted by: bovinda

Hey nine, sorry to keep pestering you with questions, this is the last one for right now, I promise. Just curious what you use to back-up your install, if you find a particular program is effective. I've never actually done it on my of the PCs I've built, but it seems like it would be handy (as I'm about to do a reinstall on one of them today for some buggyness, and just reverting to an original install would be easier in the future).

I use Acronis True Image to image my system drive. I have an older version which works well with Windows XP; the current version should work well with Vista. (The TI support site is Wilders Security Forums if you are curious). You may want to investigate other imaging products as well. Imaging products work well for restoring a system drive (or any drive for that matter).

In addition to being able to recover from a system failure, one feature I like about TI is its Explore Image feature. With it, one can view an image with Windows Explorer just like it was another drive. This is great for reverting to an older backup image without losing stuff accumulated since the image. Sometimes I want to eliminate some sticky apps like antivirus products and HP's terrible printer drivers or just get a clean system, so I've done this several times:

Create a backup image of my current system.
Make a list of the stuff I will need to restore to current.
Restore my system from an older, stable backup image.
Install applications and updates as needed.
Explore the image I just created above to retrieve the stuff I want back, like my email, written documents/spreadsheets, downloaded data etc .
If I forget something I can always retrieve it from the backup image I just created.
I really screw up, I could simply restore my system using the above image. (I did this with a notebook I have. I meant to remove Mcafee Anitvirus which shipped with the system, but I missed! Ignoring the prompts, I deleted Microsoft's .NET software instead. Rather than reinstalling all the .NET stuff, I simply restored my notebook from a current backup image.

I also back up some stuff to DVD's. The only data on my system I really can't afford to lose is my old record collection (I'm not going to rip and edit my LP's again) so I have multiple copies of the them on internal and external drives (one offsite) as well as the CD's I made from the albums.

BTW - you are not pestering me at all Like most AT readers, I'm glad to share whatever knowledge I may have and I get to learn as well. Other AT readers will be happy to help too!

 

[bovinda]

Thanks nine, appreciate the explanation, again! I'll check TI out. It's true, many ATers are happy to share their knowledge, but your explanations have been exceptionally in-depth and helpful. I really appreciate it! :beer:

I'll post back my new raptor results on Thursday/Friday, hopefully without problems!

 

[bovinda]

Originally posted by: TemjinGold
Hey OP, just wondering if you had any luck with the new drive. I'd hate to have to go through the hassle of RMAing my velo to fix this...

So I got and installed my new 300 GB raptor today, and it seems to be working fine. HD Tune shows both read and write speeds to be around 120 MB/sec (whereas write speeds had topped out at 5 MB/sec before), and it formatted in like 30-40 minutes (with the percent sign quickly showing up this time).

In fairness, I did reinstall my OS over the last couple days (it had it coming anyway), so maybe something changed that I'm not aware of, but I used all the same drivers as before, same cables, etc. So I feel pretty confident it must've been a dud drive. Temjin, hopefully this info will be of some use to you.

Thanks everyone for the help! I'm relieved things are working now.

 

[TemjinGold]

Thanks! I'll see about RMAing mine as well!

 

[bovinda]

Originally posted by: TemjinGold
Thanks! I'll see about RMAing mine as well!

Good luck!

 

[TemjinGold]

Hey bovinda, forgot to ask you. I often hear my velo "stop and restart." Kind of like the head stops and then spins up again (physically *halt* then spin up.) Never had this in previous HDs. Did you hear anything like that with your old one too?

 

[bovinda]

Originally posted by: TemjinGold
Hey bovinda, forgot to ask you. I often hear my velo "stop and restart." Kind of like the head stops and then spins up again (physically *halt* then spin up.) Never had this in previous HDs. Did you hear anything like that with your old one too?

I don't think I did, but it was still pretty quiet so I might've missed it. That certainly doesn't sound normal, though (the one I have now is barely audible in a P182 case while using it to game). Do you know what your read and write speeds are like?