WD20EARX Caviar Green - GONE IN TO A VERY VERY "TOO SLOW" MODE ! ? :-(

Hi .

 I have this hardisk from last maybe 9 months or so . I have noticed it has a very slow speed rates but it was ok in playing videos and gaming although of the less data rates.

The problem has arised today now it is working at data rates well below or eqaul to only 1 MB ???

 I have a seagate 500 GB it is working good. But WD20EARX has suddenly gone into very slow data rate speed ! Please help solve this problem I am facing ?? Is the hardisk broken or isit some settings i need to do ??

Below is the data rate i am getting !

Thankyou

Have you by chance just recently repartitioned and reformatted the drive?   If so, it’s an advanced format drive.  If you’re using it on XP, you may have to download the AF alignment tool.

I have not repartitioned or formatted the drive since the day I bought it . It has 2 partitions and I am running windows 7.

And I made the partitions through Win 7 builtin drive management options when I bought it.

It was running fine until now the speed is dead.

What is AF Allignment do I need to do that for Win 7 ?? I dont want to loose data I have no backup also. :frowning:

Today morning this is the speed I am getting !

You don’t need to use the partition alignment tool if you are using Windows 7.   7 automatically does it when you partition and format the drive the first time.  Are you running the drive as an internal drive?  If so, when was the last time you defragged it?  I can see that you are using it for media.  It’s possible that after this much time, it’s become fragmented, and may need to be defragmented.

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using it for media and games.{internal}

 I changed the sata data cable and speed has improved . Copying files is @ 10mb while cut paste data rate is 100mb … are these ok ??

Secondly I have not defragmented the disk after buying uptill now also. 

If cut and paste is running at 100 megabytes, that’s really good.  But I would still check to see if it needs defragging.  If it says so, then do it.

Now this is something I dont understand … 100mb cut paste from one hard to another … Good

BUT why cut paste from one partition to another partition same WD drive is 8-10 mb ???

Partition 1 - 0% fragmented

Partition 2 - 1% fragmented

When analyzed.

Because it’s doing the work of both reading and writing.  Read / Write speeds are always different.

Thanks alot.

I think switching to new sata cables and defragmented helped alot in improving the speed.

Glad I was able to help.

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Comparing the benchmark … Between the two drives … WD is not performing well still … And now i really am confused …

Wow, that’s bad.  The only other thing I can think of is maybe some corruption may be slowing it down this bad.  Can you back up the files on the drive and do a repartition and format.  Then see if that picks up the performance.  However, if you do have some corrupted files, you may go back to the bad performance.  You could try running Windows error checking and see if it finds something.  You can also run WD’s DLG Diagnostics and see if there may be some bad sectors.  Other than that, I’m out of recommendations. 

I will perform windows error check and also have already used DLG WD Tool … Results are SMART is PASS and QUICKTEST is PASS now I am running EXTENDED Test result pending …

Plus I dont have an extra or spare hardisk to backup my data :frowning:

The extended test is what tells you whether you have any bad sectors.  The error checking will tell you if there is any issue with the file system, including corruption.  Many times it can recover the bad files.  It will take some time to run those tests. 

I am maxed out here … Dont know what to do … So I called the shop from were I purchased it and as it is underwarranty they are saying to backup my data and bring the WD20EARX they will send it to the company to check it … So i am backing up as much as possible into a 500gb and 160 gb hard :frowning:

Did you by chance run your virus scan on the drive?  But, in any case, sorry I couldn’t be of more help.   RMA does sound like the next step though. 

Did a virus scan also nothing came up . . . I have been backing up data from last 24 hrs now @ 2-5mb/sec !!! . . .