Very Weird HDD problem.

[mtx]

I bought a Seagate 250GB SATA 7200.8 off someone here a few days ago. Ran some tests using WD's diagnostic tools and the drive seems fine. Also ran a checkdisk and fixed problems since Partition Magic suggested it. So I formatted the drive earlier and began to start copying my old backup files into the new drive.

First problem: Transferring a simple 700MB file from my Raptor (boot drive) to my Seagate (storage drive) takes super long, first it says 2 minutes, then 4 minutes, then 6 minutes, etc. and keeps increasing even after 30 seconds. Conversely, transferring the same 700MB file from the Seagate to the Raptor takes 10-20 seconds. Something's wrong?

Second problem: I noticed the 7200.8 is noticeably louder than my old 7200.7 and it vibrates so much I can feel it on the keyboard, mouse, table. There is also a loud humming noise.

I'm not sure if the first and second problems are correlated, but I am certainly disappointed and upset by this new drive. If someone can help me, it would greatly be appreciated.

[Dagatech]

check the jumpers if the drive has any, try reversing the cable, try a different sata port.

however, since seagates are supposed to be pretty quiet, that sounds like a problem to me. I would download seagate's diagnostic tools and use them to run a check.

[mtx]

check the jumpers if the drive has any, try reversing the cable, try a different sata port.

however, since seagates are supposed to be pretty quiet, that sounds like a problem to me. I would download seagate's diagnostic tools and use them to run a check.

Jumpers? Dont think SATA has any.
Im using the same cable that worked with my previous drive.

[mtx]

Ok, just ran the File Test in Sandra Lite..
Raptor finished the test in 5 minutes, I put up the Seagate for 30 minutes and it was still running and stopped responding..

Downloaded some other benchies and this was the most noticeably difference:
Raptor Drive Overall Write Speed: 40,282 KB/sec
Seagate Drive Overall Write Speed: 1,536 KB/sec

WTF?!

[Dagatech]

Jumpers? Dont think SATA has any.
Im using the same cable that worked with my previous drive.
some do, some don't. depends on the drive.

it sounds like a read/write head is busted on the drive, or maybe a platter itself, meaning an RMA. sorry dude. One last thought...try booting with a bootdisk into a DOS environment (or *nix, whatever) and see if you can get it working at normal speeds, etc from there. just use console commands to copy drive to drive. it could be a windows problem, i don't think so, but you might as well test everything. Have you checked at startup to see the S.M.A.R.T. status?

[mtx]

UPDATE:

I just tried SeaTools Quick test and it all went well.. but when I was testing the controller with the File System test, my computer corrupted, the whole screen was filled with pink lines (like when a video card dies)...something's obviously wrong but I dont know what.. I'll run a full diagnostics test when I sleep tonight.

[smatts]

I'm also having problems with my 7200.8. It's slow as sh*t. I'm running it on my Asus P4P800. My WD 80GB JB (ATA) is way faster then this seagate.

No idea what the hell's going on.

[davidlem]

it sounds like a read/write head is busted on the drive, or maybe a platter itself, meaning an RMA.

If a read'write head is busted (physically), the drive will crash or has already and it wont detect in the BIOS - and this one does. If a read/write head is not responding, it will set off an alert and the firmware handles it by not detecting and/or clicking. If there's a problem with the platter, other than just bad sectors, again it will not detect and may be crashed - but this drive detects and can read/write data (though writing is slow, reading is normal).

However, I do agree RMA is the proper choice.

[DeFex]

if you get a lot of corruption and stuff on the screen maybe it is the SATA controller or something to do with the chiipset.

can you put that drive on the other known good controller (the one the raptors on) and run the test again?