Tools to determine if HDD is bottleneck / reason running slow?

[tbird2340]

I just upgraded my HTPC with the following components:

CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor

Mobo - GIGABYTE GA-73PVM-S2H LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 7100 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Memory - CORSAIR 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X4096-6400C5

I kept the HDD's I was using which are:

C: Drive / Windows installation: Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 80GB Hard Drive Part # 6Y080M0 Serial-ATA

D: Drive / Storage: Western Digital Caviar 120GB Hard Drive SE Part # WD1200JB - IDE

Now, I'm upgrading from a P4 2.8 w/ HT and 1gb of RAM... It's fast, yes.. But not as fast as I think it should be and I'm thinking it's the SATA HDD.. Is there anyway to pinpoint if this may be the issue?

The reason I believe it is the issue is because it's loud as hell when it's reading and writing and seems to just be struggling..

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[Atheus]

Age of drive? If it's making an unusual noise it may well be failing - especially since it's a Maxtor - however what this usually does is cause errors and corruption not general slowdown.

Did you reinstall windows when you got the new board and processor? This is a whole new computer not an upgrade and you do need to reinstall.

 

[tbird2340]

I'm not sure how old it is.. I'd say at least 3-5 years.

Yes, fresh install of XP.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

These are going to be a pretty big bottleneck for a machine so new and powerful. You really need to get newer drives, the performance difference is astounding

 

[tbird2340]

What drive would you recommend?

Thanks

 

[RebateMonger]

Did you look at the Windows System Event Logs to see if there are Disk or NTFS errors? Those will slow things to a crawl and often generate a log of noise. I don't own a SINGLE Maxtor drive made since 2001 that's still functioning. They are, by far, the "most-failing" drive in the desktop PCs that I see.

 

[tbird2340]

I do see this every once in a while in the eventvwr: "An error was detected on device \Device\Harddisk2\D during a paging operation."

I ran Seatools and the Western Digital tool and both pass.. WTH?

 

[RebateMonger]

Harddisk2 is likely neither of your internal drives. They start with Harddisk0, then Harddisk1, then Harddisk2. Do you ever plug in a third (external?) hard drive?

 

[KGB]

Originally posted by: tbird2340
What drive would you recommend?

Thanks

Try one of THESE.

Five year warranty, free shipping and they FLY. :thumbsup:

 

[T9D]

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