WDC WD15EARS-00Z5B1 awful performance

Software WD Utilities
1

I have the HDD since last friday. From time to time it’s performing pretty bad.

http://community.wdc.com/t5/forums/forumtopicpage/board-id/caviar/thread-id/37/page/2 - I think   jayoungf9 has very similar issue.

What I’ve noticed: (the tests have been performed on win XP SP3, both on onboard and PCI SATA controller). Also tried via USB docking station and another PC with XP SP 2. FAT32 and NTFS tested. I also tried with jumpers on pins 7&8 (for use as a single drive) and the WD utility. It said that drive is performing optimal…

  • with one single partition, as soon as I fill 70% or more, it starts to write with speeds betweeen 900kb/s and 2 MB/s, most of the time with around 1MB/s.

  • Then I read some forums and got the idea to try with more that one partition (one small -20GB and two big, almost 680 GB each).  The behaviour occured only with the partition that was in the first half of the drive. I thought that it could be due to bad sectors or just faulty plate, but it happens only with the last 10% of the HDD capacity… Which is really strange.

  • Then I tested with adjusting the sectors to 512 and 1024, nothing changed.

  • Also, if I start encrypting the drive, it does it with about 5-6 MB/s. For example, the older WD 1.5T green drive does it on my system with about 30-40 MB/s.

I found no firmware for this model… Can someone help? It might be either a bad revision, or a FW bug…

2

I am having the exact same problem with the WD15EADS.  Last night I started to transfer 136GB(38,250 files) from one internal WD Raptor drive to this new WD15EADS.  The WD15EADS is getting response times of 5,900 ms to 21,000 ms.  While I was sitting here I did see a moment in time where all the response times went up to less than a millisecond for all files in the IO queue.  I am monitoring the IO queue with Windows 7 Resource Monitor.  I wonder if this has something to do with the 32MB buffer the hard drive manages.  I might try to investigate into the WDIdle3.exe tool I’ve been hearing about.  If you find a resolution please let me know.

 

mi6t0 wrote:

I have the HDD since last friday. From time to time it’s performing pretty bad.

 

http://community.wdc.com/t5/forums/forumtopicpage/board-id/caviar/thread-id/37/page/2 - I think   jayoungf9 has very similar issue.

 

What I’ve noticed: (the tests have been performed on win XP SP3, both on onboard and PCI SATA controller). Also tried via USB docking station and another PC with XP SP 2. FAT32 and NTFS tested. I also tried with jumpers on pins 7&8 (for use as a single drive) and the WD utility. It said that drive is performing optimal…

 

  • with one single partition, as soon as I fill 70% or more, it starts to write with speeds betweeen 900kb/s and 2 MB/s, most of the time with around 1MB/s.
  • Then I read some forums and got the idea to try with more that one partition (one small -20GB and two big, almost 680 GB each).  The behaviour occured only with the partition that was in the first half of the drive. I thought that it could be due to bad sectors or just faulty plate, but it happens only with the last 10% of the HDD capacity… Which is really strange.
  • Then I tested with adjusting the sectors to 512 and 1024, nothing changed.
  • Also, if I start encrypting the drive, it does it with about 5-6 MB/s. For example, the older WD 1.5T green drive does it on my system with about 30-40 MB/s.

 

 

I found no firmware for this model… Can someone help? It might be either a bad revision, or a FW bug…

 

3

I wanted to further comment that I had a brand new drive and only created a 596MB partition on it in which I am using.  I haven’t experimented changing partitions/sizes.

4

I’m happy to share with you that the aligh utility managed to do a conversion. This happened after I deleted the partitions and created new. So far the performance is significantly better! The encryption works fine, copying speed is 50% faster. Actually I am not able to define the maximum throughput due to limitations on my system.

I will inform you in about 15-10 hours if the “slow-copying” issue has occured at the end of the drive.

So - for now the align utility seems to be helpful. Strange why it didnt find a need to convert at the beginning.

5

Unfortunatelly the slow-copy issue occurs again… and again at ~85-90% full capacity

6

Same problem here - with 2 WD15EARS-00Z5B1 - under linux (2.6.31) and ext4 fs - system is irresponsible and I can’t do two task or more at once (for example copy something and using finch / rtorrent). There are huge latencies while using terminal :frowning: I hope WD will fix this by firmware or I’ll have buy two Samsung F2EG and sell this creepy WD :confused:

sigma cpu # hdparm -i /dev/sda

/dev/sda:

 Model=WDC, FwRev=80.00A80, SerialNo=WD-WMAVU1249613

 Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec SpinMotCtl Fixed DTR>5Mbs FmtGapReq }

 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=50

 BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=unknown, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16

 CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=2930277168

 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}

 PIO modes:  pio0 pio3 pio4

 DMA modes:  mdma0 mdma1 mdma2

 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6

 AdvancedPM=no WriteCache=enabled

 Drive conforms to: Unspecified:  ATA/ATAPI-1,2,3,4,5,6,7

 * signifies the current active mode

sigma cpu # hdparm -i /dev/sda
/dev/sda:
 Model=WDC, FwRev=80.00A80, SerialNo=WD-WMAVU1249613 Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec SpinMotCtl Fixed DTR>5Mbs FmtGapReq } RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=50 BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=unknown, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16 CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=2930277168 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120} PIO modes:  pio0 pio3 pio4 DMA modes:  mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6 AdvancedPM=no WriteCache=enabled Drive conforms to: Unspecified:  ATA/ATAPI-1,2,3,4,5,6,7
 * signifies the current active mode

sigma cpu # smartctl -i /dev/sda

smartctl version 5.38 [i686-pc-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen

Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===

Device Model:     WDC WD15EARS-00Z5B1

Serial Number:    WD-WMAVU1249613

Firmware Version: 80.00A80

User Capacity:    1,500,301,910,016 bytes

Device is:        Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]

ATA Version is:   8

ATA Standard is:  Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated

Local Time is:    Fri Jan 22 22:48:30 2010 CET

SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.

SMART support is: Enabled

7

for problems with linux and WDxxEARS drives, there is a seperate thread about it:

  http://community.wdc.com/t5/Desktop/Problem-with-WD-Advanced-Format-drive-in-LINUX-WD15EARS/td-p/6395

8

Maybe linux is not the issue…

I got a replacement drive by my vendor. Situation seems to be the same so far: 200 GB free left and again writing goes down @ 1 mb

I still have NO reply by WDC support on my case. I opened the case on 11th Jan and  according to WD, the response time has to be around 1-2 days…

The next time I buy HDDs maybe the lack of support will take part in my decision.

The drive isn’t even listed under the Caviar Green download section!

9

I have 4 of these drives and I have had nothing but problems with them in a NAS, raid5 volume read/write performance was appauling, volume crashed. 

The above is software (Linux) raid so it is theoretically fine to use non raid/enterprise drives as they don’t get booted out of the volume as quick as hardware raid does if the drive fails to respond.

Split up the drives, reformatted, and now in Windows7 trying to get data on to one of them is up-down-up-down-freeze-up-down… averaging 16MB/s, random freezing, occasional speed increase to 25MB/s… transfer started out fine at 60MB/s.

Source files are on a 200GB SATA HDD via onboard SATA1
Destination drive is on same controller @ SATA3

I get a steady 45MB/S copy speed with other drives on SATA0 and SATA4 of same controller with SATA1 source and between any other combination apart from the WD drive, so its not my 200GB drive or the controller.

I asked WD for a test tool and they told me they dont have one for Windows 7.  Well thank **bleep** that 7 ships with VM-XP then eh WD?

I also tried copying files off of external 500GB WD drive via usb and found it also takes forever, slowing down to under 1MB/s…when traget is the 1.5TB WD drive.

Once I have a full copy of this data on the WD drive I will test the other 3 WD drives on my PC to see if it is common across all or not.

10

I have a hdd wdc wd15ears-00z5b1

I installed Windows XP on it and got very slow system working speed.

The 300 Gb of data is being copyed about 24 hours!

I tried to install Ubuntu, got the same.

It was ready at morning, so the installation process of ubuntu longs about 8 hours!

After that I found some topics in the internet about it and try to do this:

  1. I downloaded program wdidle3.exe and try to increase idle time. I run program like this: wdidle3 /d

Nothing happens better.

  1. I downloaded program wdalign from wester digital web site and run it.

I did it yesterday, the program till does not end!

Recomendations:

If you have a new hdd wdc wd15ears and ability to copy data from old hdd to new one, it’s better to set jumpers to enable advanced format and set up new system.

Using of utility wdalign takes a lot of time!

In my case with 1,5Tb hdd it takes more than 30 hours!

11

Before procedure starts SMART shows:

01    Raw Read Error Rate    51    200    200    0   

03    Spin Up Time    21    215    180    4216              

04    Start/Stop Count    0    100    100    44             

05    Reallocated Sector Count    140    200    200    0  

07    Seek Error Rate    0    200    200    0               

09    Power-On Time Count    0    100    100    110 

0A    Spin Retry Count    0    100    253    0              

0B    Calibration Retry Count    0    100    253    0      

0C    Power Cycle Count    0    100    100    32            

C0    Power-Off Retract Count    0    200    200    11    O

C1    Load/Unload Cycle Count    0    200    200    1578  

C2    Temperature    0    104    96    46                   

C4    Reallocation Event Count    0    200    200    0            

C5    Current Pending Sector Count    0    200    200    0 

C6    Off-Line Uncorrectable Sector Count    0    200    200    0

C7    Ultra ATA CRC Error Rate    0    200    200    0            

C8    Write Error Rate    0    200    200    0                     

12

And also speed test by everest shows:

Linear Read: 34 Mb/s,

Random Read: 29 Mb/s,

Buffered Read speed: 34 Mb/s,

Average Read Access: 19 ms

So, look forward for results after wdalign finished.

13

what’s the verdict?

i have the same problem - sequential writes slowly declined from 65MB/s to ~15MB/s, now 65% of the way into the drive.  I’m testing sequential writes on 3 of them (WD15EARS-00Z5B1) simultaneously.  once i got my controller issues sorted out i was actually quite happy with the sequential write speeds for the first couple hours.  i have 3 caviar blacks which, when hooked up to the same ports, start at almost 100MB/s and don’t drop as drastically (maybe 70MB/s after the first 750G, i don’t remember precisely).  the speed fluctuates from ~20MB/s down to 5MB/s. 

i think i’ve eliminated the controller, its drivers, and the sata cables as possible suspects - pulling write performance out of these drives has been about a 10 day project.  smart offline tests are not running in the background.  oh, and the partitions are aligned on 4K boundaries (each has one big partition starting at the 64th 512-byte sector) and they are unjumpered (linux freezes repeatedly and spews ata errors with jumper set, and driven never gets presented to the OS).  i’ve tried ubuntu hardy LTS and debian squeeze, and squeeze is better with my controller.

14

So, wdalign works for 2 days and when finished data transfer goes faster.

When I’m investigate the reason of this problem (big disk works slow with windows xp) I try to make partitions with logical disks about 500Gb. And after disk aligned by wd utility I decided to take back partition and make big logical disk.

I used powerquest’s partition magic 8 to clue 2 logical disk and lost partition! Be carefull with partition utilities after usign wd align utility!

So, unfortunately, I havn’t made any speed measures.

I try a lot ot data repair utilities (GetDataBack, R-Studio,…) but has no result.

So, now, I made 2 partitions (first for system - winxp, second - data partition) and start wdaling again (it shows that align is neccesary).

As result for windows xp users bought wdc wd15ears:

  1. Make partitions.

  2. Start wdaling and align disk to advanced format.

  3. Copy data.

  4. Avoid partition manipulations after alignment done.

Good luck!

15

wdalign finished work (25 hours).

Disks becomes defragmented after this utility.

Speed results by everest (EVEREST v4.20.1245 Beta) after wdalign:

Linear Read: 37 Mb/s (was 34),

Random Read: 37 Mb/s (was 29),

Buffered Read speed: 37 Mb/s (was 34),

Average Read Access: 15 ms (was 19 ms).

SMART:

  [WDC WD15EARS-00Z5B1]

    01  Raw Read Error Rate                  51   200  200           0  OK: Значение нормальное
    03  Spin Up Time                         21   181  180        5908  OK: Значение нормальное
    04  Start/Stop Count                     0    100  100          59  OK: Всегда пройдено
    05  Reallocated Sector Count             140  200  200           0  OK: Значение нормальное
    07  Seek Error Rate                      0    200  200           0  OK: Всегда пройдено
    09  Power-On Time Count                  0    100  100         220  OK: Всегда пройдено
    0A  Spin Retry Count                     0    100  253           0  OK: Всегда пройдено
    0B  Calibration Retry Count              0    100  253           0  OK: Всегда пройдено
    0C  Power Cycle Count                    0    100  100          44  OK: Всегда пройдено
    C0  Power-Off Retract Count              0    200  200          15  OK: Всегда пройдено
    C1  Load/Unload Cycle Count              0    197  197        9528  OK: Всегда пройдено (was 1578 !)
    C2  Temperature                          0    101  96           49  OK: Всегда пройдено
    C4  Reallocation Event Count             0    200  200           0  OK: Всегда пройдено
    C5  Current Pending Sector Count         0    200  200           0  OK: Всегда пройдено
    C6  Off-Line Uncorrectable Sector Count  0    200  200           0  OK: Всегда пройдено
    C7  Ultra ATA CRC Error Rate             0    200  200           0  OK: Всегда пройдено
    C8  Write Error Rate                     0    200  200           0  OK: Всегда пройдено

SiSoftware Sandra:

Index : 30 MB/s

Read: 37 MB/s, 37 MB/s, Random: 28 MB/s, Buffered: 15 MB/s, Linear Write: 16 MB/s, Random Write: 16 MB/s
Access time: 9 ms (appr)

Verdict :

WDC WD15EARS-00Z5B1 is not suitable to use in Windows XP system and possible other systems.

It should be used as file storage, second non system drive, NAS, media storage etc.

Thread closed for me.

16

Weird, I’m seeing about 100 MB/s under Ubuntu Linux.

17

I have an WDC WD15EARS-00Z5B1 and also do problems…

Well, I downlaod the Advanced Format Hard Drive Utility from Western Digital:

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/advancedformat/

make by paragon software, and because I have the WDC WD15EARS-00Z5B1 with nothign data the time for the Advanced Format are aprox 20 minutes, little time, good time…

After this I continue having problems when access the archives, but for copy big archives - movies of 1 gb aprox for example - go well, do aprox from a seagate 1.5Tb to the WDC WD15EARS-00Z5B1 do aprox 100 Mb/s real…

But for my WDC WD15EARS-00Z5B1 the problem is the little archives, I not know well why, but appear to be when the disk acccess to the fat, or to the location of the archives, have a delay, is slow this, inclusive when copy a movie, when end the copy, have a delay for continue, in big archives this is not very problem, but in directories with many little archives this delay to access the fat or the archive location of each archive, are a big problem…

In all forms, Bad Hard Disk, only for have movies or big archives, with this the transfer are good, in my pc aprox 100 mb/s, some times 110 mb/s, other 90 mb/s, but middle is aprox 100 mb/s, is good tranfer, but this hd not appear to be valid for run operating systems or have little archives, only is valid, appear to be, for storage big archives…

An opinion…

I hope will help… Good day!!!

18

Hi, :robothappy:

I found this:

Advanced Formatting:
Technology being adopted by WD and
other drive manufacturers to increase
media format efficiencies, thus
enabling larger drive capacities.
(WDxxEARS and WDxxxxAARS
models only)

You have to set the jumper on 7-8, see picture?

Advanced Formatting Jumper settings
Advanced Formatting Jumper settings600×160 29.7 KB

If this help? Let me now via reply :wink:

19

Ok, I have the same problem, but found a DECENT work-around for my drive: use NTFS file compression!

On XP:

  1. On explorer right click over a drive

  2. Select Properties from the menu

  3. Click Advanced

4 )  Compress contents to save disk space 

  1. OK

6)  Apply changes to this folder only

  1. OK

My theory is that the drive gets confused with the usual writes, on the normal uncompressed mode. For small files, the system writes at least 4KB, leaves slack space. In short, it can be very inneficient. A good drive knows what to do, this Green ■■■■ doesn’t.

When using NTFS compression, the system gathers multiple files and writes larger bundles, This writes files with no slack, grouped together and then compressed for more savings.

Ex: if I’m copying 80 files of 1 KB each, the system makes 80 write requests, leaving 3KB slack space on each. With compression, it makes just ONE if those 80 x 1KB compress somewhat and fit inside a 64KB bundle, or 2 at most.

Of course there may be innacuracies above, but I suspect it gives a general idea. YMMV of course, hope it works for you too :slight_smile: