Zero filling speed?

[wjgollatz]

What should the zero fill speed be for SATA drive?

I am zero filling a drive with verification, and its only going at 2.1 - 2.2 mb/s in HD Tune Pro. I started a zero fill with verification earlier on the drive, but when HD Tune Pro was sent to the tray, it disappeared, so I started the fill again. But the first time around, it was at 122 mb/s until I minimized to tray 10 minutes later) This is not the same drive I posted earlier about. This one 1T drive will take 5 days to fill if it doesn't speed up. I know there are a few hundred bad sectors on it, but they are not located where this drive is currently filling.

 

[razel]

Zero filling speed for HDD should be the same as sequential write speed. Perhaps the drive has encountered an area it is having trouble writing to or maybe it is doing a write then verify immediately instead of write to everything 1st then verify everything later which is MUCH faster. That's essentially the same as sequential write then sequential read.

If I were you, I'd secure erase. I'm usually staunchly against secure erasing SSDs, but not HDDs. You will not be using up much writes on an HDD. If you can't Sec-Erase then try to see if the HDD manufacturer has any diagnostic utilities. They often come with zero drive tools.

Have fun.

 

[wjgollatz]

Thanks for reply. What I learned is, when HD Pro was minimized to the tray - its process still existed, and I somehow managed to started a second HS Tune process, and then a third process before I finally got to a GUI.

I have restarted the fill (after killing the other HD Tune processes and restating comp, and its moving steadily at 7 Mb/s now. That brings a 1 TB drive to 1.6 days. Is that more a reasonable?

I am doing the zero fill, because I have read from different sources that a zero fill can possibly fix bad logical sectors. So, before I toss it, I want to see what I can do with the drive. I was having some bad transfer speeds, but even if this fixes it, I know I cant trust it, but I have a place for the drive to be used for scratch purposes.

 

[razel]

7MB is still slow. For a 1TB hard drive you should be seeing at least 100MB writes in the beginning slowing down about half by the end. Between the time I posted to when I replied you could have been done writing zeros.

Seriously check the drive manufacturer if they have a diagnostic utility. Use that to do the SMART test, then a zero fill.

 

[wjgollatz]

I am working on that now. WD diadnostic program doesn't seem to reveal much, and crashed on a extended test. Halfway through a Zero write, and the total time might be 12 hours.

 

[Kippa]

7MB write speed? Some data erasing programs use multiple passes for example it might write over the once, seven times or thirtyfive times depends on the number of passes selected. If you are doing a 1 pass then you should be getting circa 100MB writes, however if you are doing say 35 pass then it might crawl to 2.8MB. I'd double check the zeroing settings and make sure that you are only doing it with a 1 pass with zeros.

 

[razel]

If it crashes the extended test then that is where I'd stop and check your warranty online from WD. I wouldn't waste anymore time.

Actually, I would test it on another computer or another port with a different cable and re-run. If it crashes or fails, it's time to warranty away if possible. Have fun.

 

[wjgollatz]

Thanks for replies. It was having problems, and I was hoping it was logical, and not physical. But it is physical. Doing the zero fill and more checks, jumped the bad sectors to 581. And a speed map provided by HD Tune after the zero fill definitely showed there was a physical problem. So - its toast.