Check out this HD tach result, magor problems!

The_Neon_Cowboy · Nov 27, 2005, 01:15 AM

Check out this HD tach result, magor problems!
Least thats what I'd say...

This is from a 30GB segate in someones computer that I'm working on
they have some exterely poor performance for what they have a celleron
800mhz and 192MB of ram... (just an internet portal)

Anyways they had thier computer in to fix some loading time problems.
They had some spyware and other junk and the antivirus "active protection" seem to scan way to much or is caseing the system to "crank" as n the herd
drive wich is constanly being acessed....I was able to stop that by lowing the protection level setting...They inqured on me buildng them a new system and
are waiting untill after the hollidays...

Any ways doing some more digging I ran HDtach got the strangest results ever

What do you think bad / dieing HDD? or could it be the IDE controller?
the lack of memory...? something is serously wrong!

I'd think the HDD is gong kaput but they lack of memorys makeing it worse
what do you guys think?

Judas · Nov 27, 2005, 02:32 AM

actually.... that looks about right... burst is low.. but the rest maybe..

it's kinda iffy... you got an exact spec list for us.. as that looks like results i'd see from a ATA66 5200rpm (or lower)... low cache hardrive running on a poor IDE controller..

The_Neon_Cowboy · Nov 27, 2005, 02:43 AM

Drives specs:

ST330621a
Capacity: 30.02 GB
Speed:5400 rpm
Average Read Time:9.9 ms
Cylinders:1023
Heads: 256
Sectors: 63
Interface: ATA100

whats strage is the dip to 2MB threwput and that the 1st 1/2 of the drive is
slower then the 2nd 1/2 ???? @ the 18GB mark performance spikes then move
down as it would in what I'd consider normal manner...Before that I've never
seen a drive read like that...

Here is what I would of Expected as being normal (roughly) in green

Here is what was displayed (roughly) in pink

Judas · Nov 27, 2005, 05:03 AM

theres something wrong with the way it's reading the platters, it's quite possible.. but i've seen a few hardrives read like that. Quite confusing. The performance average is normal... but the burst is total crap....(but doesn't really matter)

IMO, it so so in my opinion.

PangingJr · Nov 27, 2005, 05:31 AM

like JD said Neon. those readouts are look okay and about right. this due to the combinations of the slow drive itself, IDE cable (good or bad?), disk drive and motherborad controllers and include how well of its assigned resources, could also include the small amount of system RAM.

any 7200 RPM ATA/100 drive with good cable and on perfect condition controller will improve the system's overall performance. and as you know.
if you have any hard drive like that try it on the system. and then show the new readouts score to the owner of the system.

Matth · Nov 27, 2005, 06:16 PM

I think you need to check it with something like MHDD
http://zoxt.com/mhdd.php

It can show you the smart status, or test speed and readability of the sectors.

I updated my copy of UBCD33 with the last version of this - the UBCD should also have other diagnostics, but I'd suggest updating it with the latest, or just using the normal Seatools
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/ - to update the UBCD, you would create a floppy disk or directly create a virtual image, then GZIP it and follow the the UBCD update/additions procedure.

http://ubcd.sourceforge.net/

I suspect the disk may have a lot of bad block replacements, which would slow it down, having just seen a friend's laptop HD die with rapdly increasing replace counts. The software (IBM/HGST for this one) managed to clear the defect once, though MHDD showed worrying bursts of slows - I should have taken the hint from that, as it quit completely, not long after being reloaded.

Nov 27, 2005, 01:15 AM	#1
The_Neon_Cowboy HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 16,009 Rep Power: 92 System Specs	Check out this HD tach result, magor problems! Check out this HD tach result, magor problems! Least thats what I'd say... This is from a 30GB segate in someones computer that I'm working on they have some exterely poor performance for what they have a celleron 800mhz and 192MB of ram... (just an internet portal) Anyways they had thier computer in to fix some loading time problems. They had some spyware and other junk and the antivirus "active protection" seem to scan way to much or is caseing the system to "crank" as n the herd drive wich is constanly being acessed....I was able to stop that by lowing the protection level setting...They inqured on me buildng them a new system and are waiting untill after the hollidays... Any ways doing some more digging I ran HDtach got the strangest results ever What do you think bad / dieing HDD? or could it be the IDE controller? the lack of memory...? something is serously wrong! I'd think the HDD is gong kaput but they lack of memorys makeing it worse what do you guys think? __________________

Nov 27, 2005, 02:43 AM	Thread Starter #3
The_Neon_Cowboy HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: U.S.A. Posts: 16,009 Rep Power: 92 System Specs	Drives specs: ST330621a Capacity: 30.02 GB Speed:5400 rpm Average Read Time:9.9 ms Cylinders:1023 Heads: 256 Sectors: 63 Interface: ATA100 whats strage is the dip to 2MB threwput and that the 1st 1/2 of the drive is slower then the 2nd 1/2 ???? @ the 18GB mark performance spikes then move down as it would in what I'd consider normal manner...Before that I've never seen a drive read like that... Here is what I would of Expected as being normal (roughly) in green Here is what was displayed (roughly) in pink __________________ Last edited by The_Neon_Cowboy; Nov 27, 2005 at 02:55 AM.

Nov 27, 2005, 05:31 AM	#5
PangingJr Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 5,989 Rep Power: 71	like JD said Neon. those readouts are look okay and about right. this due to the combinations of the slow drive itself, IDE cable (good or bad?), disk drive and motherborad controllers and include how well of its assigned resources, could also include the small amount of system RAM. any 7200 RPM ATA/100 drive with good cable and on perfect condition controller will improve the system's overall performance. and as you know. if you have any hard drive like that try it on the system. and then show the new readouts score to the owner of the system.

Nov 27, 2005, 06:16 PM	#6
Matth Flash Banner Hater Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: UK Posts: 3,426 Rep Power: 93 System Specs	I think you need to check it with something like MHDD http://zoxt.com/mhdd.php It can show you the smart status, or test speed and readability of the sectors. I updated my copy of UBCD33 with the last version of this - the UBCD should also have other diagnostics, but I'd suggest updating it with the latest, or just using the normal Seatools http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/ - to update the UBCD, you would create a floppy disk or directly create a virtual image, then GZIP it and follow the the UBCD update/additions procedure. http://ubcd.sourceforge.net/ I suspect the disk may have a lot of bad block replacements, which would slow it down, having just seen a friend's laptop HD die with rapdly increasing replace counts. The software (IBM/HGST for this one) managed to clear the defect once, though MHDD showed worrying bursts of slows - I should have taken the hint from that, as it quit completely, not long after being reloaded.