Problem with a HD - Hitachi 1TB

[anonuser]

I have a drive in my windows home server that has been giving me trouble lately. It's very strange, I can stream large divx and mkv files from it and I can write data to it quickly, but the read data (when copying files from it) is HORRIBLE.

Anyone have any ideas? I ran chkdsk w/surface scan and found no errors. I also downloaded and ran Hitachi's disk checking software.


Some files on the drive will copy at normal speeds (~60mb/sec), but some will copy at that speed for a short time and then drop to practically nothing. Here is an example:

This started at 60mb/sec and then about 1/8th of the way into the copy it drops so low that it stops. It takes a while for vista to calculate the correct speed, but this will go down well below 1mb/sec as the time to finish increases.

 

[zforgetaboutit]

Did you check for Hitachi HD-related messages in Windows event viewer?

 

[anonuser]

Did you check for Hitachi HD-related messages in Windows event viewer?

Yes, everything points to the drive being good. The problem is that even though it all signs point to a good drive, the speed when copying files from the drive is abysmal (tested on more than one machine).

 

[zforgetaboutit]

What is the defrag status of the drive?

I'd also be suspicious of a poor drive data cable connection. Similar symptoms of lots of error correction being attempted.

Have you recently had any handling "incidents" with the connectors/cables?

Try another motherboard connector?

Try another data cable?

Make sure cables are securely attached at both ends?

These are the mostly likely causes I'd follow up with.

Why not mention, in detail, every single pre-forum-posting troubleshooting step you've already tried?

 

[anonuser]

What is the defrag status of the drive?

I'd also be suspicious of a poor drive data cable connection. Similar symptoms of lots of error correction being attempted.

Have you recently had any handling "incidents" with the connectors/cables?

Try another motherboard connector?

Try another data cable?

Make sure cables are securely attached at both ends?

These are the mostly likely causes I'd follow up with.

Why not mention, in detail, every single pre-forum-posting troubleshooting step you've already tried?

Techically you are not supposed to defrag a windows home server hard drive, but after all the issues I did it anyway and it didn't make a difference.

I took the drive out of my WHS and attached it (via sata) to my regular work PC. The WHS used a sata backplane and the work PC is just a regular SATA cable.

I have all of the same issues. It's definitely not a cable, motherboard connector, etc

Thanks

 

[zforgetaboutit]

How about if you are sometimes connected to a Windows Domain Controller, but not during the "lousy read times", and for every small file which gets opened, some lookup to a (effectively) non-existent host gets performed, and the slowdown is due to network timeouts looking for that host for every small file?

 

[anonuser]

How about if you are sometimes connected to a Windows Domain Controller, but not during the "lousy read times", and for every small file which gets opened, some lookup to a (effectively) non-existent host gets performed, and the slowdown is due to network timeouts looking for that host for every small file?

What?

These slow speeds aren't just over the network. I plugged the drive into another pc over sata and while the writes are full speed, the reads bog down to nothing most of the time.

 

[xenotype]

What?

These slow speeds aren't just over the network. I plugged the drive into another pc over sata and while the writes are full speed, the reads bog down to nothing most of the time.

After watching this thread, seems like you've gotten it narrowed down to the drive itself, after isolating every other possible cause. Will the manufacturers (seagate = seatools, WD = lifeguard, not sure what Hitatchi calls their own) harddrive utility check it and turn out ok results? If not, you can most assuredly RMA at no cost to you (other than shipping ). A drive that new is definitely still covered under the manufacturer's warranty, so try that route.

I know I will speak for only myself here, but I never wanted to use Hitachi/IBM (IBM sold their harddrive mfg unit to hitachi, after that whole deskstar/dethstar ordeal) drive. I'm sure others here will defend them.

 

[anonuser]

After watching this thread, seems like you've gotten it narrowed down to the drive itself, after isolating every other possible cause. Will the manufacturers (seagate = seatools, WD = lifeguard, not sure what Hitatchi calls their own) harddrive utility check it and turn out ok results? If not, you can most assuredly RMA at no cost to you (other than shipping ). A drive that new is definitely still covered under the manufacturer's warranty, so try that route.

I know I will speak for only myself here, but I never wanted to use Hitachi/IBM (IBM sold their harddrive mfg unit to hitachi, after that whole deskstar/dethstar ordeal) drive. I'm sure others here will defend them.

I had a spare 500gb sitting around so I deleted half of the unimportant data on the 1TB and moved the other half out to that drive. I'm now in the process of formatting the Hitachi it to see if it was just a partition issue and not a drive issue (doubtful). If the slow reads are still an issue after this reformat I'll have to RMA the drive.

I have to agree about the Hitachi/IBM issues... I either have bad luck or they are crappy drives. This is my ONLY hitachi.

Thanks for all the advice everyone.