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Invasor
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 Posted: Fri, 4th Jul 2014 21:01 Post subject: SLOW disk writes/reads |
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So my second hard drive (first one is an SSD) is really slow lately, but not always. On some days it's normal, then suddenly transfer rates fall to 2Mb/s or so. Currently I have Steam updating a game on it, and the download stopped halfway through saying "busy writing to disk", it's been that way for half an hour now... It's really slow, can't even play a video from it.
The model is WD1502FAEX (wd caviar black 1.5TB) and everything is good according to Smart and WD's own test app (ran the quick check, as the extensive one would take days).
Is it ready to die? No strange noises or anything... Could it be a virus?
Luckily I do have a backup.
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LeoNatan
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| Posted: Fri, 4th Jul 2014 21:21 Post subject: |
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Mechanical disks degrade over time as more and more errors are generated. But it could also be that the disk is fragmented. If you have a backup, the best thing you can do is a full format (not a quick one), followed by SpinRite. Then restore the data from the backup.
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JBeckman
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| Posted: Fri, 4th Jul 2014 22:11 Post subject: Re: SLOW disk writes/reads |
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| Invasor wrote: | So my second hard drive (first one is an SSD) is really slow lately, but not always. On some days it's normal, then suddenly transfer rates fall to 2Mb/s or so. Currently I have Steam updating a game on it, and the download stopped halfway through saying "busy writing to disk", it's been that way for half an hour now... It's really slow, can't even play a video from it.
The model is WD1502FAEX (wd caviar black 1.5TB) and everything is good according to Smart and WD's own test app (ran the quick check, as the extensive one would take days).
Is it ready to die? No strange noises or anything... Could it be a virus?
Luckily I do have a backup. |
With Steam I think it does a ton of small writes as it updates existing files instead of replacing the entire thing, Total War Rome 2 (And Shogun 2 before that.) is a pretty notorious example since it can cause a number of stalls as all the packed archives get updated, I don't think a mechanical HDD is designed for that type of activity so it bogs down. 
How old is the drive?
(Which would work with Leo Natan's post about disk degradation over time if it's a few years.)
(Fragmentation could degrade performance but I believe it would have to be pretty extensive before you really start noticing things like delayed boot times and so on, Windows disk defrag should be good enough with Windows 7 and alter although other alternatives exist, MyDefrag was pretty good but has been inactive for a while and Defraggler is a bit basic but also free.)
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LeoNatan
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| Posted: Sat, 5th Jul 2014 00:11 Post subject: |
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The fuller the disk, the more fragmentation is an issue, because the head needs to travel a lot more.
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Invasor
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| Posted: Sat, 5th Jul 2014 00:12 Post subject: |
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The drive is a bit over one year old. I left steam on and now (2 hours later) it's still "busy writing to disk". Considering the update was only 400mb (stopped at 390) clearly there's something terribly wrong...
Also forgot to mention this drive is entirely encrypted with Truecrypt, I tried to defrag it with windows default app but it didn't even show up, while Defraggler said it wasn't necessary. There's only 6% of free space (77gb) though...
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| Posted: Sat, 5th Jul 2014 01:34 Post subject: |
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so you got 4 things ... file fragmentation , free space fragmentation and fucked uped placement file system not set to prefect ...and its encrypted ... oh my
no wonder it reads like shit
get yourself
Auslogics Disk Defrag and defrag that disk
http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag-pro/
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Invasor
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| Posted: Sat, 5th Jul 2014 02:29 Post subject: |
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Trying that now. It is 16% fragmented.
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JBeckman
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| Posted: Sat, 5th Jul 2014 07:00 Post subject: |
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| Invasor wrote: | The drive is a bit over one year old. I left steam on and now (2 hours later) it's still "busy writing to disk". Considering the update was only 400mb (stopped at 390) clearly there's something terribly wrong...
Also forgot to mention this drive is entirely encrypted with Truecrypt, I tried to defrag it with windows default app but it didn't even show up, while Defraggler said it wasn't necessary. There's only 6% of free space (77gb) though... |
Low disk space on a NTFS volume will degrade performance will it not? You'll want 15% or so free I think on minimum.
(Around 20% for defragmentation to be optimal but I don't know how accurate that is.)
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Invasor
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tonizito
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| Posted: Sat, 5th Jul 2014 17:52 Post subject: |
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Come on, just get an external HDD for all the HUEHUEHEUHEUHUE fart porn 
| boundle (thoughts on cracking AITD) wrote: | | i guess thouth if without a legit key the installation was rolling back we are all fucking then |
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| Posted: Sat, 5th Jul 2014 17:57 Post subject: |
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Sounds like the HDD is dying. Are you hearing loud rattling noises, slightly high pitched?
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Invasor
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LeoNatan
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| Posted: Sat, 5th Jul 2014 18:16 Post subject: |
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Invasor
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| Posted: Sat, 5th Jul 2014 18:53 Post subject: |
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Not yet, only windows chkdsk, and auslogics disk defrag's own check (I suspect it uses windows chkdsk though), with no issues found.
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| Posted: Sat, 5th Jul 2014 19:44 Post subject: |
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Have you checked whether it's in PIO mode?
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Invasor
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| Posted: Sat, 5th Jul 2014 21:37 Post subject: |
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no, ultradma 5 is selected...
and like I said, sometimes it's normal, with transfers going around 30~60Mb/s, then suddenly it drops to 1~2Mb/s or even less...
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tonizito
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| Posted: Sat, 5th Jul 2014 22:20 Post subject: |
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| Invasor wrote: | no, ultradma 5 is selected...
and like I said, sometimes it's normal, with transfers going around 30~60Mb/s, then suddenly it drops to 1~2Mb/s or even less... |
Any disk related events on the event viewer?
| boundle (thoughts on cracking AITD) wrote: | | i guess thouth if without a legit key the installation was rolling back we are all fucking then |
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Invasor
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| Posted: Sat, 5th Jul 2014 22:56 Post subject: |
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| tonizito wrote: | | Any disk related events on the event viewer? |
great call! didn't think about looking for that, and there are thousands of atapi errors:
Event ID 11; The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Ide\IdePort1.
Couldn't find any other info though... I think I'll cancel the ongoing defrag and change the cables/sata port.
Edit: there are about 3 errors per second now with the defrag running... no wonder it's slow.
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JBeckman
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Invasor
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tonizito
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| Posted: Sun, 6th Jul 2014 18:42 Post subject: |
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Woohoo 
| boundle (thoughts on cracking AITD) wrote: | | i guess thouth if without a legit key the installation was rolling back we are all fucking then |
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