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Hardware Forum / Storage / General Topics / August 2005Do I have a drive problem with one of a matched pair?
I have two WD 2500JD 250GB SATA disks no raid and no extra partitions. C: has xp Prof and is 46% full D: has redundant xp prof (for emergency) some programs in C: registry and some large DV avi files and is 45% full Both have been XP defragged until no more improvement seen On running HD Tach or Sandra I get: C: CPU utilization 5% Average read time 48.6MB/s D: CPU utilization 93% Average read time 10.5MB/s I'm concerned that the D: drive has a problem or could it be something else? Beemer > I have two WD 2500JD 250GB SATA disks no raid and no extra partitions. > C: has xp Prof and is 46% full > D: has redundant xp prof (for emergency) some programs in C: registry and > some large DV avi files and is 45% full > Both have been XP defragged until no more improvement seen > On running HD Tach or Sandra I get: > C: CPU utilization 5% Average read time 48.6MB/s > D: CPU utilization 93% Average read time 10.5MB/s > I'm concerned that the D: drive has a problem or could it be something else? > Beemer | > I have two WD 2500JD 250GB SATA disks no raid and no extra partitions. | > C: has xp Prof and is 46% full [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] | | > Beemer Arno, I see no content in your reply? Please resend Beemer |I have two WD 2500JD 250GB SATA disks no raid and no extra partitions. | C: has xp Prof and is 46% full [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] | | Beemer I should have added that both drives use NTFS and no compression Beemer > I have two WD 2500JD 250GB SATA disks no raid and no extra partitions. > C: has xp Prof and is 46% full > D: has redundant xp prof (for emergency) some programs > in C: registry and some large DV avi files and is 45% full > Both have been XP defragged until no more improvement seen > On running HD Tach or Sandra I get: > C: CPU utilization 5% Average read time 48.6MB/s > D: CPU utilization 93% Average read time 10.5MB/s > I'm concerned that the D: drive has a problem Looks like it. Run WD's diagnostic on both drives. > or could it be something else? If it isnt the drive itself, most likely some problem with the SATA controller for the D drive, like you've managed to stuff up the driver config or something. | > I have two WD 2500JD 250GB SATA disks no raid and no extra partitions. | > C: has xp Prof and is 46% full [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] | If it isnt the drive itself, most likely some problem with the SATA controller | for the D drive, like you've managed to stuff up the driver config or something. Rod, WD Lifeguard tool reports that all is well with both drives. I have been transferring all my videos from D to C drive and the results are still the same with Sandra reporting D: as 10MB/sec. I do have a 42GB avi file on D: and am wondering if this could pull down the performance? Beemer > | > I have two WD 2500JD 250GB SATA disks no raid and no extra > partitions. [quoted text clipped - 27 lines] > > Beemer What does Device Manager say about the transfer mode?  SignatureDerek | > | > I have two WD 2500JD 250GB SATA disks no raid and no extra | > partitions. [quoted text clipped - 29 lines] | | What does Device Manager say about the transfer mode? Dereck, Device manager reports C: properties - Device type - Disk drives Manufacturer - (standard disk drives) Location - Location 0 (Primary ATA Channel) This device is working properly optimize for performance - ticked Volumes - Disk 0 /basic/online/mbr/238473Mb/unallocated space 0 /reserved space 0 Driver - microsoft 5.1.2535.0 NTFS -93.2GB free Allow indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching - ticked Sharing - ticked Allow caching - ticked Disk quotas - disabled D: properties - Device type - Disk drives Manufacturer - (standard disk drives) Location - Location 0 (Secondary ATA Channel) This device is working properly optimize for performance - ticked Volumes - Disk 0 /basic/online/mbr (for "spare" windows xp)redundant /238473Mb/unallocated space 0 /reserved space 0 Driver - microsoft 5.1.2535.0 NTFS - 119GB free Allow indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching - ticked Sharing - ticked Allow caching - ticked Disk quotas - disabled Does the above reveal anything to help you help me? I'm presently running Sandra extended disk test and after 2 hours there has been no problem reported. I'm wondering if enabling S.M.A.R.T in the bios would be worthwhile? Beemer and D: properties - no problems > | > | > I have two WD 2500JD 250GB SATA disks no raid and no extra > | > partitions. [quoted text clipped - 79 lines] > > and D: properties - no problems See my reply to your next message. SignatureDerek > Rod Speed <rod_speed@yahoo.com> wrote >>> I have two WD 2500JD 250GB SATA disks no raid >>> and no extra partitions. C: has xp Prof and is 46% full >>> D: has redundant xp prof (for emergency) some programs >>> in C: registry and some large DV avi files and is 45% full >>> Both have been XP defragged until no more improvement seen >>> On running HD Tach or Sandra I get: >>> C: CPU utilization 5% Average read time 48.6MB/s >>> D: CPU utilization 93% Average read time 10.5MB/s >>> I'm concerned that the D: drive has a problem >> Looks like it. Run WD's diagnostic on both drives. >>> or could it be something else? >> If it isnt the drive itself, most likely some problem >> with the SATA controller for the D drive, like you've >> managed to stuff up the driver config or something. > WD Lifeguard tool reports that all is well with both drives. Fine, then check if DMA is enabled and being used for both drives. > I have been transferring all my videos from D to C drive and the > results are still the same with Sandra reporting D: as 10MB/sec. Yeah, it should happen at the lowest common denominator. > I do have a 42GB avi file on D: and am wondering > if this could pull down the performance? Nope, shouldnt have any effect on what HDTach sees speed wise. Most likely DMA isnt being used on the D drive, most likely because the OS has decided its seen errors with that drive. | > Rod Speed <rod_speed@yahoo.com> wrote | [quoted text clipped - 34 lines] | Most likely DMA isnt being used on the D drive, most likely | because the OS has decided its seen errors with that drive. Rod, I'm confused as I see no way of enabling or disabling DMA for these drives in XP SP2. Can you advise me? In device manager - view resources I see DMA 2 - standard floppy controller DMA 3 - ECP Printer port DMA 4 - Direct memory access controller I see no mention of DMA with the either hard drives or anywhere to enable disable it. Beemer > | > Rod Speed <rod_speed@yahoo.com> wrote > | [quoted text clipped - 50 lines] > > Beemer You want the 'IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers' entry in Device Manager. Select the controller the drive's connected to, then select its Properties. Transfer Mode is on the Primary/Secondary Channel page. SignatureDerek | > | > Rod Speed <rod_speed@yahoo.com> wrote | > | [quoted text clipped - 54 lines] | controller the drive's connected to, then select its Properties. Transfer | Mode is on the Primary/Secondary Channel page. Derek, I had not looked at this area before as I had thought " IDE ATA/ATAPI" well thats not SATA" !!!! Even your first post suggesting that it was in PIO mode did not direct me to this area. Yes D: it is in PIO mode "Transfer mode downgraded" Could I now change this drive to the other SATA channel 3/4 without losing data? Will the bios try to boot from it as it has a MBR for the "emergency XP". I ask this as I have read elsewhere that others have failed to get a boot from SATA 3/4 Apart from this can I assume that since C: is performing fine then its the same NVidia driver used for C: and D: on SATA 1/2 Beemer || > | > Rod Speed <rod_speed@yahoo.com> wrote || > | [quoted text clipped - 75 lines] | | Beemer Derek, I checked out the drives and found that the WD D: drive had both the SATA power connector AND the conventional Molex power connector installed. I disconnected the conventional connector and rebooted. Both drives now report 78MB/s and 2% processor utilization. I am very pleased and thank you for your assistance. Beemer >>>>>> Rod Speed <rod_speed@yahoo.com> wrote >>>>> [quoted text clipped - 73 lines] >> Apart from this can I assume that since C: is performing fine then >> its the same NVidia driver used for C: and D: on SATA 1/2 > I checked out the drives and found that the WD D: drive had both the > SATA power connector AND the conventional Molex power connector > installed. I disconnected the conventional connector and rebooted. > Both drives now report 78MB/s and 2% processor utilization. I am > very pleased and thank you for your assistance. Thanks for the feedback, thats the first report I have seen of that particular result, use of both power connectors producing that result in XP, downgrading to PIO on a drive configured like that. At least one of the hard drive manufacturers does say to not use both power connectors, but doesnt say why as I recall. | >>>>>> Rod Speed <rod_speed@yahoo.com> wrote | >>>>> [quoted text clipped - 86 lines] | At least one of the hard drive manufacturers does say to not | use both power connectors, but doesnt say why as I recall. Derek, I have a ATI Radeon 9800pro video card. It has two output channels and frequently on rebooting it has resulted in black screens. It is very susceptable to PSU voltage drop and it just might be that this duplicate supply to the WD drive was a contributory factor. I uses to sell custom power supplies direct to IBM for their Personal Computers up to the "AT". The only thing I can think of is that one of the outputs uses remote measuring of the voltage and because the other is using a different cable the impedance will be different and might cause instability of one of the PSU voltage rails under sustained load like drive testing and, as I said, 45GB avi editing. Looks like I will be keeping my eye on this newsgroup for more tips. thanks, Beemer >I have two WD 2500JD 250GB SATA disks no raid and no extra partitions. > C: has xp Prof and is 46% full [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > Beemer Are you sure the second drive's not in PIO mode? SignatureDerek |
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