HDD writes slowly

  • Thread starter Thread starter jimi
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J

jimi

Hi - I have a 120GB Samsung drive which writes very slowly (max 3MB/s).
Read speeds are normal. Could this be a hardware fault? From the
software point of view, I have checked the current transfer mode is
Ultra DMA mode 5. What other software problems could cause this?

Thanks, Jim
 
Previously jimi said:
Hi - I have a 120GB Samsung drive which writes very slowly (max 3MB/s).
Read speeds are normal. Could this be a hardware fault? From the
software point of view, I have checked the current transfer mode is
Ultra DMA mode 5. What other software problems could cause this?
Click to expand...

Migh, just might be a problem with the PSU. Head positioning on writes
is far more critical than on reads. Get the SMART data and post it here,
that usually clears things up.

Arno
 
Arno Wagner said:
Migh, just might be a problem with the PSU.
Click to expand...
Head positioning on writes is far more critical than on reads.
Click to expand...

So it misses an extra rev per every rev. Missing a rev does not make it crawl.
It just goes to 50% of it's normal rate.
And that is if the drive only reads/writes in strictly successive order.

Current drives will read/write the sectors that it encounters first -first- and read/
write the sectors that it missed -last- and join them in sequential order in the buffer.
 
Rod said:
Likely, post the SMART report using Everest
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181


Thats about it.
Click to expand...

Here is my SMART report. Thanks for offering to look at it.

[ SAMSUNG SV1204H (0522J1ETB06453) ]

01 Raw Read Error Rate 0 100 100 502
OK: Always passes
04 Start/Stop Count 0 95 95 5352
OK: Always passes
05 Reallocated Sector Count 9 253 253 0
OK: Value is normal
07 Seek Error Rate 51 253 253 0
OK: Value is normal
08 Seek Time Performance 0 253 253 0
OK: Always passes
09 Power-On Time Count 0 99 99 1019533
OK: Always passes
0C Power Cycle Count 0 97 97 3776
OK: Always passes
C2 Temperature 0 196 110 190
OK: Always passes
C5 Current Pending Sector Count 9 253 253 0
OK: Value is normal
C6 Off-Line Uncorrectable Sector Count 9 253 253 0
OK: Value is normal
C7 Ultra ATA CRC Error Rate 0 100 100 0
OK: Always passes
C8 Write Error Rate 51 100 100 0
OK: Value is normal
C9 Soft Read Error Rate 51 100 100 0
OK: Value is normal

Thanks again, Jim
 
jimi said:
Rod said:
Likely, post the SMART report using Everest
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181


Thats about it.
Click to expand...

Here is my SMART report. Thanks for offering to look at it.

[ SAMSUNG SV1204H (0522J1ETB06453) ]

01 Raw Read Error Rate 0 100 100 502
OK: Always passes
04 Start/Stop Count 0 95 95 5352
OK: Always passes
05 Reallocated Sector Count 9 253 253 0
OK: Value is normal
07 Seek Error Rate 51 253 253 0
OK: Value is normal
08 Seek Time Performance 0 253 253 0
OK: Always passes
09 Power-On Time Count 0 99 99 1019533
OK: Always passes
0C Power Cycle Count 0 97 97 3776
OK: Always passes
C2 Temperature 0 196 110 190
OK: Always passes
C5 Current Pending Sector Count 9 253 253 0
OK: Value is normal
C6 Off-Line Uncorrectable Sector Count 9 253 253 0
OK: Value is normal
C7 Ultra ATA CRC Error Rate 0 100 100 0
OK: Always passes
C8 Write Error Rate 51 100 100 0
OK: Value is normal
C9 Soft Read Error Rate 51 100 100 0
OK: Value is normal
Click to expand...

Thats perfect, nothing bad visible with that drive and the SMART data.

I'd check that the write data rate is correct by timing a large file write,
most likely its actually fine and whatever is claiming the low rate is wrong.
 
jimi said:
Hi - I have a 120GB Samsung drive which writes very slowly (max 3MB/s).
Read speeds are normal. Could this be a hardware fault? From the
software point of view, I have checked the current transfer mode is
Ultra DMA mode 5. What other software problems could cause this?

Thanks, Jim
Click to expand...

Have you tried and tested another drive in the Samsung's place?

Is the Samsung jumpered correctly?

Have you tried a new ATA100 cable?


Odie
 
What other software problems could cause this?

Sounds like cahce may be disabled. Assuming your running Xp, go to disk
management, right click the disk0 (not the drive letter) and click
properties.
Under Policies, there is a check box to enable write caching.
What this does, is allow the OS to write to the disk, once the data is in
cache then a OK is returned to the OS allowing it to move on. Otherwise it
will wait for it to be written to the media which takes longer. From what
I've seen about 1/2 performace is what you would see.

Some drive controllers and the drives themselves also have cache that you
may be able to enable and improve performance. For critical data this is not
recommended since anything in cache is lost if you loose power. If you do
these things I recommend a good UPS with software to properly shutdown your
system.

A fragmented drive will also have slow performance.
 
Rod said:
Thats perfect, nothing bad visible with that drive and the SMART data.

I'd check that the write data rate is correct by timing a large file write,
most likely its actually fine and whatever is claiming the low rate is wrong.
Click to expand...

Thanks Rod and everyone else for your help. It turned out to be the
IDE cable.

Jim
 
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