What is the slowest hard drive you still have in Service?

cbn

Lifer
Mar 27, 2009
12,968
221
106
Mine is a Segate Barracuda 7200.10 80GB (3.5" HDD with only 11,000 hours on it) that according to hard drive platter database has a 160GB platter (so it is short stroked to get the 80GB capacity).

This is being used with a Core 2 SFF Pre-built (E8400, 6GB DDR3 RAM, Winodws 10) that rarely gets used. When it does get used, the main task is web browsing and for this purpose it is actually acceptable. However, when doing anything else I do notice the slowness.

Crystaldiskmark below:

 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,572
10,208
126
Wow, slowness. Get that baby an SSD! (Hectron, Drevo, Gloway, maybe. Something Chinese and cheap.)
 

Valantar

Golden Member
Aug 26, 2014
1,792
508
136
@VirtualLarry, you must have something to contribute to this thread. Come on. You know you want to.

Also, where do you get those cheap chinese SSDs? You've got me intrigued (as long as they're not either faking high capacity or abominably bad quality).

I'll see if I can benchmark my oddly defective WD Green 2TB when I get home. It's not in service any more, I pulled it out of my HTPC a few months ago, but I've come to believe it's been defective for years. Used it as a boot drive at one point, which was so horribly slow I thought I was going insane. This convinced me to get my first SSD for my desktop, as I thought it was just the 5400rpm spindle speed that was messing with me (before this I had 3 7200rpm drives in RAID 5). The Storage Space on my HTPC it was mounted in often performed in the single kb/s range for sequential workloads ...
 

thecoolnessrune

Diamond Member
Jun 8, 2005
9,673
583
126
Probably not much I'd consider super slow. I have a couple of really old drives I keep in drawer, as project drives, but they aren't in "active" service. I think the slowest every-day drive is a 24/7 drive I keep in my SAN to run the boot volume. It's a 120GB 2.5" 5400RPM drive. It sits in a Mirror with a 320GB drive. Since it's just for the boot volume, performance matters pretty much nil, so I just stuck in 2 of whatever I had available from the drawer.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,572
10,208
126
Last edited:

EXCellR8

Diamond Member
Sep 1, 2010
4,042
888
136
I have some IDE drives from 2003 or so that still work... not sure how they actually perform though.
 

coffeemonster

Senior member
Apr 18, 2015
241
87
101
I still use an old 5400rpm IDE drive from a 2005 laptop in a portable USB enclosure for taking TV series/Movies with me on long trips.
 

PliotronX

Diamond Member
Oct 17, 1999
8,883
107
106
My Dell 14z is screaming for some NAND but alas, its 5400 RPM drive makes its second gen mobile i5 feel like a P4.
 

Rifter

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,522
751
126
I still have a few 1TB 5400rpm seagate LP's i use for offsite storage, i have a external USB 3 3.5" HDD dock i use to backup media from my PC to store offsite.
 

cbn

Lifer
Mar 27, 2009
12,968
221
106
My HDtune results:

Notice as it approaches the end of the 80GB capacity the sequential read drops down to 40 MB/s second. (Keep in mind this drive is based on a 160GB platter. If the platter were 80GB the starting and ending sequential read would be even slower).

Screenshot%206_zpsz294ygfn.png

Screenshot%206_zpsz294ygfn.png

 
  • Like
Reactions: guachi
Feb 25, 2011
16,991
1,620
126
Couple of 160GB, 4200rpm 2.5" drives as a boot and backup boot drive in my server. Pulled them out of some old macbooks.
 

cbn

Lifer
Mar 27, 2009
12,968
221
106
My Dell 14z is screaming for some NAND but alas, its 5400 RPM drive makes its second gen mobile i5 feel like a P4.

I found a review on that notebook here.

Crystaldiskmark 3.0 results from above link:

WDC Scorpio Blue WD6400BPVT-75HXZT3

Sequential Read: 77.67 MB/s
Sequential Write: 77.43 MB/s
512K Read: 24.18 MB/s
512K Write: 40.47 MB/s
4K Read: 0.312 MB/s
4K Write: 0.744 MB/s
4K QD32 Read: 0.831 MB/s
4K QD32 Write: 0.734 MB/s

10+ MB/s faster in sequential read and write when comparing to my 3.5" 7200rpm 80GB drive (in opening post).....but a bit slower in 4K.
 

cbn

Lifer
Mar 27, 2009
12,968
221
106
Wow, slowness. Get that baby an SSD! (Hectron, Drevo, Gloway, maybe. Something Chinese and cheap.)

I have actually thought about doing that.....specifically the Intel 320 Series 80GB. However, this computer is so rarely used and basically always very close in the state to "clean install" that it pretty fast for web browsing.

With that mentioned, I am thinking about using this spare PC as a test mule for various free (and non-free) software installations. This to either fine tune the installation or to make sure the program doesn't install anything else I don't want prior to installing on my workstation (the computer I use 99% of the time).

So maybe I will end up upgrading? Not sure yet.
 
Last edited:

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,572
10,208
126
I miss the flood of cheap Intel 320 Series / G2 SSDs on ebay. For a while there it was flooded with corporate pulls and whatnot, you could get one for $25.
 

Puffnstuff

Lifer
Mar 9, 2005
16,187
4,871
136
Here are my two old WD 1.5tb black drives which are the last two spinners I have in my machines. Notice the disparity in the results between them. The one on the left is a WD1501FASS-00U0B0 and the one on the right is a WD1502FAEX-007BA0 and I just threw in my 850 pro boot drive for comparison.
Drive_E.jpg
Drive_F.jpg
850_Pro.jpg
 

cbn

Lifer
Mar 27, 2009
12,968
221
106
Here are my two old WD 1.5tb black drives which are the last two spinners I have in my machines. Notice the disparity in the results between them. The one on the left is a WD1501FASS-00U0B0 and the one on the right is a WD1502FAEX-007BA0 and I just threw in my 850 pro boot drive for comparison.
Drive_E.jpg
Drive_F.jpg
850_Pro.jpg

According to hard drive platter database the WD1501FASS-00U0B0 and WD1502FAEX-007BA0 both have 500GB platters (and 7200 rpm spindle speed) so Sequential Read and Write should be similar. Have you tried de-fragmenting the drives?
 

Puffnstuff

Lifer
Mar 9, 2005
16,187
4,871
136
According to hard drive platter database the WD1501FASS-00U0B0 and WD1502FAEX-007BA0 both have 500GB platters (and 7200 rpm spindle speed) so I don't know why the Sequential Read and Write are so different? Have you tried de-fragmenting the drives?
Both are defragged but the models are different and excel in different ways. I was surprised the first time I benched them after the original FASS was replaced with the FAEX. Neither drive is terribly fast and are begging to be replaced by ssd's when I can afford them.
 

Rifter

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
11,522
751
126
2.5 TB WD Green EARX model, this thing has 4 platters..

I had one of these blow up on me, not sure what happened almost seems like the platters fell off the spindle or something, as when it died it shook my whole pc case made a loud screcching sound followed by a very loud thudd. And when i went to remove it found it had actually snapped the two screws holding it into the 3.5" bay on one side, seems like the HDD tried to rotate in its bay.

Strangest HDD death i have ever personally witnessed.
 
  • Like
Reactions: guachi and ch33zw1z

Puffnstuff

Lifer
Mar 9, 2005
16,187
4,871
136
Strangest HDD death i have ever personally witnessed.
For the longest time in my realm that honor belonged to an old IBM Deskstar 75XP that had the click of death until it finally gave in. Not so long ago I had a WD Veloraptor 600gb drive suddenly crash with a loud clack sound grinding to a halt which has been the most dramatic drive death I've experienced.
 

bononos

Diamond Member
Aug 21, 2011
3,928
186
106
Wow, slowness. Get that baby an SSD! (Hectron, Drevo, Gloway, maybe. Something Chinese and cheap.)

My stomach knotted up at your suggestion of getting cheap Chinese ssds. Even looking past the dubious brandnames and lack of warranty, I would be very wary of built in spyware in the firmware.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ch33zw1z