Hard Drive Gurus - Please Help

[GONNAFISTYA]

Howdy.

My main C:\ drive (SATA) is acting weird.

Long story short: My computer was locking up the last 3 months (total freeze up with the screen showing eveything that was running...including mouse pointer location). Most times the hard drive didn't set up a disk check - I could just reboot and go (perhaps once or twice in the last month I've done a disk check with no problems found) Anyways...I troubleshooted the freeze up cause to an OS problem and decided to wipe the disk clean and reinstall XP fresh.

About 3 days ago my machine locked up (again) and after the reboot the hard drive was acting really slow in terms of file transfers between drives (I was backing stuff up for the reinstall).

So yesterday I reinstalled XP fresh (after a deep format) and the drive is still acting weird. The system freeze ups have gone away, but the disk isn't 100%. I've checked the drive's S.M.A.R.T. info and it says the drive is healthy. But running HD Tach has shown some weirdness going on.

One test of my second SATA drive shows normal performance (60 MB/sec with almost no CPU usage):



One test of an IDE drive connected through USB 2 also shows normal performance (30 MB/sec with almost no CPU usage):



And the final test of my main drive (the problem drive) shows poor performance in sustained transfer capabilities, burst and CPU usage. Also, when I'm copying files back to my C:\ drive the whole system runs like poo with other programs taking forever to load and/or update because the CPU is being used quite a bit for the file transfer. So here's the test results:

(3 MB/sec with 50% CPU usage)



I don't know if this info helps, but I haven't run a disk check since I've reinstalled.

To recap: The main drive has no S.M.A.R.T. issues, has utter shit sustained transfer speeds and uses 50% of the CPU while doing it. Any ideas?

[Foo]

Define 'deep format'. Is this something you've done, in precisely this manner, on this exact disk, before with no issues?

[GONNAFISTYA]

Yes. "Deep format" is the non-quick type...it takes about 90 minutes with a 320 GB drive (instead of 5 minutes with a quick format).

Everytime I buy a new hard drive I format it this way first and I've never once had a problem with it.

However...the problems with the disk were occurring before the reformat...so I don't think the formatting itself is an issue.

EDIT: A description of Deep format/low-level format from Wikipedia:

While it is impossible to perform an LLF on most modern hard drives (since the mid-1990s) outside the factory, the term "low-level format" is still being used (erroneously) for what should be called the reinitialization of a hard drive to its factory configuration (and even these terms may be misunderstood). Reinitialization should include identifying (and sparing out if possible) any sectors which cannot be written to and read back from the drive, correctly. The term has, however, been used by some to refer to only a portion of that process, in which every sector of the drive is written to; usually by writing a zero byte to every addressable location on the disk, sometimes called zero-filling.

High-level formatting is the process of setting up an empty file system on the disk and installing a boot sector. This alone takes little time, and is sometimes referred to as a "quick format".

In addition, the entire disk may optionally be scanned for defects, which takes considerably longer, up to several hours on larger hard disks.

[axbaby]

which drive has windows swap file?
updated mobo drivers lately?
if you suspect the drive is dying it's probably dying .. spend a few bucks .. get a new primary drive and use the suspect drive for non esential storage

[GONNAFISTYA]

The main drive (C:\) has the swap file....and that is the problem drive. The range is 2046 - 4092 MB.

I haven't updated my mobo drivers lately but they're not that far out of date. I'm not sure what updating them to the latest, greatest version will do since this problem wasn't there 3 days ago....everything worked fine not too long ago.

That's the thing...I'm not sure if the drive is dying. My gut tells me it might be, but it works fine as long as I'm not moving a large file to/from the drive.

If I have to go buy a new drive in the next few days it's not a big deal, but I'm trying to determine if I actually have to.

[GONNAFISTYA]

One thing I forgot to mention: The drive slowed down after I did a "Repair Windows" from my install disk (not from the repair console but entering "Install R for "repair"). This reset Windows XP to SP2 as per the install disk's version of system files (the OS was already updated to SP3 before the repair). I didn't bother installing the SP3 after the repair as I wanted to check basic performance first (something I've done many times in the past with no problems at all except being unable to defrag or set restore points).

I did the repair from my XP installation disk because I was hoping it would dump in any corrupted or broken system files and solve my system freeze ups (it didn't).

The reason I did the "deep defrag" in the first place is because that type of defrag checks and repairs disk errors (while the fast defrag simply deletes the file associations without actually removing the existing data) so I must say I'm a little surprised the drive is still acting slow.

[axbaby]

check the disk in safe mode

[+JuggerNaut+]

spinrite

[^misantropia^]

The poor performance sounds a little like the HD controller remapping bad sectors but that doesn't explain the high CPU usage.

[GONNAFISTYA]

lol Microsoft you stupid stupid fags.

Well..I was watching de 'ockey game (Habs vs Sens) and playback was really shit with my slower C:\ drive.
I had just completed some movement of files before I decided to watch the game so I figured I might have borked something...so I rebooted.

Upon reboot, Windows XP wouldn't run as it told me that the "System32\Drivers\NTFS.sys" file was missing or corrupted and suggested that I do a repair from the installation disk. I had just installed the OS on Saturday so I figured it wouldn't take too long. But because the drive was acting really slow, the system scan and repair took about an hour. No biggie...I went for a walk.

When I came back, my computer was telling me that it repaired my system and needed a reboot. So I did. And then I got the exact same error that I got in the first place: ""System32\Drivers\NTFS.sys" file was missing or corrupted. So I said "fuck it" and did another format/complete reinstall of Windows XP.

I let it install after setting up the languages and CD key and went for another walk. When I came back, my OS was installed and pretty much ready to go. So...I then (in this exact order) installed my video drivers reboot installed my network drivers reboot installed my sound drivers reboot and then installed HD Tach (the same program that I posted screenies from above)

I guess I don't have to tell you what happened...

My drive is back to full speed again. I guess when my drive went south it was in "borked state" and even a complete format and reinstall didn't get it out of its "borked state". It had to go and lose a system file (I guess there was some sort of "reset" during that one reboot) and now it's back to normal.



Programmers...especially the overpaid morons at Microsoft...can all go fuck themselves with a garden rake.

[^misantropia^]

I'm a programmer.

[MKJ]

quite.
fu gky :[

[GONNAFISTYA]

lol

Don't feel bad guys. Eventually - one day far in the future - programmers will actually know what they're doing.

[MKJ]

I see where your coming from, tho sometimes it sounds more like a selfcentered grudge than anything else.

It's like totalling your car, trying to drive it and then blaming it on Audi for not testing the car without a front axel.
"aye paid fur it its mye rite to drive it hurr!"


.. no offence. fatty.

[GONNAFISTYA]

I see where your coming from, tho sometimes it sounds more like a selfcentered grudge than anything else.

You are completely correct...I have a grudge against overpaid hacks.

I've worked with programmers long enough to know very, very, very well just how lazy they are. Dealing with shit code (and clueless coders) has been one of the bad aspects of my job and it's something I have no choice but to deal with on a daily basis. And after many years of frustration, my respect for the profession has waned considerably.

Of the countless number of coders I've worked with in my lifetime, I can only think of three that actually know their shit.

...no offense, skinny.

And if it makes you feel any better those three people are Euros (2 German and 1 Dutchee)

It's like totalling your car, trying to drive it and then blaming it on Audi for not testing the car without a front axel.
"aye paid fur it its mye rite to drive it hurr!"

It's not that at all...at least with me. I don't blame the engineers unless they deserve blame for lazy design, shoddy workmanship and aloof attitudes to quality...which is the bulk of most "programmers" I've dealt with..either through working with them or using their "finished products".

"No...I haven't tested it...but it should work."

[MKJ]

True dat. I hate those coders as much as I hate those users... those who think "they" are correct without analyzing all - or any - data.

I can see how that is doubly so in the gamebiz, where crunchtime asks for everyone to cut corners to the extent that every piece of code is like a house of cards; a delicate balance of unstableness holding up long enough for it to hit the shelves.

jus' dont hate us all, especially the perfectionists among us

[^misantropia^]

Doubly so because development teams in the game industry are often disbanded after the release. When you have to maintain your code for years to come, you have an incentive to produce quality code. You don't want to be shovelling your own shit day in, day out.

[GONNAFISTYA]

Doubly so that the gaming industry as a whole pays its programmers less than other industries and because of that simple fact - alot of the time - gets the "bottom of the barrel" in terms of skilled/knowledgeable/experienced programmers. They aren't all useless, but they certainly aren't all competent.

I remember in one staff meeting at Crytek when one of the smarter engineers was lamenting the game's existing code base (held together with spit, bubblegum and a little luck) and asked his colleagues to write "beautiful code". Half the programmers looked at him like he was crazy. Some of them actually giggled at him. They simply didn't appreciate (on any level) what he was getting at. I gave him my sincere condolences after that meeting because he was never going to get what he was asking for...not at Crytek (who were - at that time - hiring programmers fresh out of school).

He left Crytek after Far Cry and has since been at Valve (who get the cream of the crop) so perhaps he's found the "beautiful code" he was looking for.

[Fender]

http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=51769