transfer speeds on new hard drive

[memory]

I just bought 2 of these, one installed as a internal for storage and the second as a external backup.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136320

Right now, I have 2 internals. One is a 250gb Western Digital with the OS installed and the other is the one I just bought for storage

I am in the process of copying all my files to the 500gb drive and it seems awfully slow. I am trying to copy about 90 gigs of information and the speed started out around 60mb's then slowly kept going down. Right now it is at copying at 10mb's. Is it just me or is that slower than it should be?

 

[Cams]

That does seem slow but I dont have an answer for you. How about some specs on your system and i'll throw in a bump for good measure.

 

[memory]

specs are in my sig.

 

[Twist86]

I just bought 2 of these, one installed as a internal for storage and the second as a external backup.

I am curious which one is going slow the internal one or external one of the 2 drives your using? If its the external are you using a USB docking station or are you opening your case and hooking it up?

Also try running the WD test tool
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?modelno=WD5001AALS&x=15&y=12

Believe its the Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows.


Drive in my sig goes 50mb strong with a slower .10 drive....I can only imagine how fast it will go when my 2 500GB get here but I am guessing 70-80mb

 

[memory]

Sorry for the confusion but I do not have the external drive installed. I only have one new drive installed as a internal. I already have a WD 250gb installed as a internal with the OS on it.

I am trying to copy files from the 250gb to the new 500gb.

Now I am having more problems. In the middle of the files being copied, it got so slow(around 6mb's and still falling) that I canceled it. Might have been a mistake. Now the drive is not showing up in Windows. It shows up in the bios but not Windows.

I ran the benchmark in HDTune on the new drive when I first installed it and the average transfer rate was 75mb's. Was it possible that is was going slower because the files were being copied instead of transferred?

 

[Twist86]

Sounds to me like the new drive is busted honestly. When you reboot does it show up in windows again?

Also run the WD diagnostic tool if you can still do so on the new drive its going to tell us more about that drive to actually troubleshoot vs guessing the entire thread.

 

[memory]

The drive does not show up after I reboot. Right now I have it unhooked. I am going to shut down and hook it back up and see if that helps.

How do I run the diagnostic tool if the drive does not show up?

EDIT: I may install the drive in an external enclosure and run the test from there if I can't Windows to recognize the drive.

Man, I am starting to get irritated. I have been having so many problems here lately, I am about ready to toss this thing in the river, jk.

 

[Twist86]

Sounds like you will need to RMA it....have you tried the second 500GB drive? Does it work and transfer correctly?

Also if you can't see it and your bios can then run one of these two.
# Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for DOS (Floppy)
# Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for DOS (CD)

This *should* find the drive and scan it as your bios sees it.

 

[memory]

Well, I got Windows to recognize the drive. I am doing a format right now. I will keep you posted on how it goes. This might be a dumb question but do I need to physically remove anything from the hard drive before I start using it?

On a little different subject, there is a noise coming from my 250gb hard drive. It is making a popping sound, it is rather loud. It started right after I started the format on the new drive but it is not the first time it has done this. I have a bad feeling that the 250gb drive is about to kick the bucket as well.

What I might do is use both 500gb drives as internals and get another one for an external. I have a feeling that the 250gb drive is the problem.

My computer is constantly freezing for a split second since I started the format on the new drive.

 

[Twist86]

No nothing to remove on a clean hdd

Yeah id get anything you want to keep on both of the 500GB drives just to be safe. If both pass the WD Diagnostic then you can delete it from the one of the drives. Popping sounds don't sound like a healthy drive.

 

[memory]

I am not talking about removing software, I was talking about anything physical like any covers or anything like that.

I got the drive formatted and I am copying about 2 gigs worth of files and it is still slow, it is around 4mb's and slowly falling.

 

[Twist86]

Is this with the first problem drive or the second one you bought? Also most drives only come with jumpers which you can check that link I posted and see the "jumper settings" photo.
If so sounds like its your primary as the odds of getting 2 DOA drives is pretty small.What did the WD Diagnostic say when you ran it?


If you want to try it can install Windows on one of the 500GB drives and download some huge file like a demo and see if you still get that slow transfer speed between the two 500GB drives.

 

[memory]

This was with the first problem drive. SATA drives do not use jumpers do they?

I have not ran the diagnostics tool yet. I need to enable some kind of SMART setting before I can use that tool. I will try that tonight.

I have installed the second 500gb drive as an external drive connected by usb. I just finished copying some files from the 250gb and the speed was around 20mb's.

Something is not right. I am trying to copy some files from the internal 500gb to the external 500gb and the speed is still only at 3mb's.

At first I thought the 250gb was causing it to be slow. Now I just don't know.

EDIT: For some reason, I can not test either drive using the WD tool. They do not show up under physical drives but they show up under logical drives.

 

[Twist86]

That is strange...its beyond me then I would wait for one of the HDD gurus to stop by then. Sorry I couldn't help.

 

[memory]

Twist, thanks for your help. Who are the HDD gurus on here?

Surely I do not have 2 bad drives. I can see 1 being bad but not both. I think this has to do with my MOBO. I am also having other problems which I think are MOBO related. I am going to try to RMA the MOBO since it is still under warranty. First I may take it to someone I know and see if he can install a different MOBO to confirm if it is the MOBO causing problems.

 

[Twist86]

Well it can happen though sites like Newegg while fantastic do a CRAPPY job at shipping HDD. Tigerdirect has all theirs enclosed in hard plastic and peanuts which is usually better. If those drives are multi-platter it seems to have a higher % of damage on the way to you.

The only other thing that comes to mind is that your MAYBE your BIOS is off and not set for SATA and is on IDE setting. I recently had my bios change my mouse/keyboard to PS2 vs USB so it can happen.

 

[memory]

I find it hard to believe that I received 2 bad hard drives although I know it can happen. I am not blaming the drives just yet. I am going have somebody install a different motherboard and see what happens. I believe my MOBO is the cause of all the problems I have been having not just with hard drives but crashing while gaming, dvd drive not recognizing the dvd.

It's funny you mention that, Twist. In the bios, it lists both drives on IDE channel master 1 and 2. I have always thought that to be kind of strange. The SATA AHCI mode is also disabled. Should that setting be enabled?

 

[Twist86]

I dunno with my board I have 3 options IDE - SATA and ACHI and thus mine is on SATA.


The problem with SATA AHCI is you would have to format after setting it. So you could try formatting windows to one of the new 500GB drives then test it worse case you waste some time but you keep your primary install safe and see if transfer speeds are any better between the 2 500GB drives.

Id leave that 250GB powered off regardless since popping sounds don't sound good unless you took the data off it

 

[memory]

How would I go about getting the OS from one drive to the other? Do I simply format the OS drive with a program like gparted and do nothing else to that drive then install Windows on the other drive?

 

[Twist86]

I dunno I myself have a copy of windows so I always format. I like the whole idea of ghosting but only for "base" of windows such as after I format and have disabled all the services and done all my tweaks.

I was told that when you changed it you would need to format though. This is long as you have a valid OS to reinstall with.