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Very poor SATA performance

3chordcharlie

3chordcharlie

Diamond Member
I've got a system that is often (but not quite always) very, very slow. Slow to load programs, slow to switch tasks, slow to register clicks and keyboard input. It seems to come down to HDD performance absolutely tanking.

If I run a benchmark while the system is 'fine' then hdd performance is normal. If I run it when the system is slow, everything else is normal, but hdd read/writes are maybe 10% of normal speed.

Is there an easy way to tell if this is a disk problem or a SATA controller / motherboard issue?

Notes if needed:

It's a quad-core with lots of RAM, and (when it is slow) always shows plenty of free cpu and memory.

I've (repeatedly) used adaware, spybot and malwarebytes scans and can find nothing.
 
adware, spybot malware doesn't always catch all the stuff. Your easiest thing to try is grab a spare hdd if you have and install windows from scratch and see if that drive is doing the same thing
 
Old Hippie said:
I'd check the drive(s) and make sure they're not in PIO mode.
Click to expand...

I did, and they are all in various UDMA modes.

Thanks (everyone) for the tips, it came to what I figured: go buy a new hdd and hope it's that and not the MB

Cloned the old drive and all seems well.

It's a live (though well backed-up) system for a small business, so the cost of a total system loss would have been 'medium' and the inconvenience 'very high'
 
Also I would have long ago installed clean but there is a lot of software, and potentially some undocumented setup so it's not really an option. I would sooner buy a complete new system and migrate than try to rebuild the setup on this one😉
 
AFAIK all HD mfgs. have a test program to check for failing drives.

Maybe you should have tried that to help pinpoint the problem.

Just keep it in mind when you run into the next suspected HD problem. 😉

Good Luck!
 
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