So my computers been acting up a lot lately. I'm thinking it's the harddrive, but I'm not 100% sure.
A couple days ago, I went to record with Dxtory. I noticed low recording frames (playing fine, recording slow). So I fiddled with some stuff, and then ran the benchmark test for write speed; it was very slow (~19 MB/s) The write speed, since then, has varied between about 15 MB/s and 32 MB/s. My harddrive is pretty low end, it's regular write speed was only around 50 MB/s, but this is just ridiculous. I also noticed, in the benchmark test, that it was running very choppily. It shows how much has been transferred, and usually it's running at a steady pace. But when I do it now, it writes for a second, stops for a second, writes for a second, stops for a second, etc.
Since then, I've gotten 5 bluescreens (over the course of about 4 or 5 days)
I can still play video games relatively fine. My frame rate is a bit lower, but for example, I can still play BF3 between 30 and 45 FPS. However, it does take even longer than usual to load the maps. Speaking of load times, firefox tends to freeze up a lot now, and take up to a minute or so to even start up. In general, it takes a lot longer for programs to start up.
All of this has led me to believe that something is wrong with my harddrive. Like how games can still run, but load times are very slow (load times being attributed to hard drive speed). But I just need confirmation before I go out and get a new harddrive and end up finding out that wasn't the case.
OH and, if I were to get a 1TB HDD and 2TB HDD to replace it, do I have to worry about
1.) Conflicting components? This may seem like a stupid question, but I'm not very knowledgeable with harddrives.
2.) Power issues? I believe I have a 650 W PSU. I have a GTX 460 and AMD Phenom II X4 840. I don't want to end up getting 2 more hard drives only to find out that I also need a new PSU.
To sum it up:
Bluescreens
Low Write Speeds
Games run relatively fine, but load times are much longer
Browsers tend to freeze up/take long to load up as well.
Sounds like bad sectors are taking over. If the drive appears normal, yet it isn't, then more less it is dying. When the write speeds are slowing down, but no reason why, then the drive platters are failing in magnetec. Since the 3D balance system would surely flag if the arm was moving slower then the platters cycle. Since all of it is timed using 3D algorithms. Doubt its fragmented massively also, since thats not going to cause problems like this.
If it is a seagate HDD, get their tools for testing the drive. If it is a WD then get their tools. Then do a extended test.
Or get HDtune and do a cluster check, a slow one and not the quick one. If you get more then 3% of the drive in bad clusters, then its getting pretty bad and indeed needs replaced.
However I should note, there is Hard and Soft bad sectors.
Do you live in America? If so, black Fridays coming up, and you should really buy a new drive.
That's my plan. I believe they have 1 TB 7200 RPM HDDs on sale for 60 bucks at Microcenter on black friday. If I can get in there before they sell out, I'll for sure get one.
Sounds like bad sectors are taking over. If the drive appears normal, yet it isn't, then more less it is dying. When the write speeds are slowing down, but no reason why, then the drive platters are failing in magnetec. Since the 3D balance system would surely flag if the arm was moving slower then the platters cycle. Since all of it is timed using 3D algorithms. Doubt its fragmented massively also, since thats not going to cause problems like this.
If it is a seagate HDD, get their tools for testing the drive. If it is a WD then get their tools. Then do a extended test.
Or get HDtune and do a cluster check, a slow one and not the quick one. If you get more then 3% of the drive in bad clusters, then its getting pretty bad and indeed needs replaced.
However I should note, there is Hard and Soft bad sectors.
Most HDDs made in the past 9+ish years have had SMART support.
What does HDTune say? How old is it?
I don't think it's THAT old. I just built this computer 1 or 2 years ago, and bought parts from Microcenter. I didn't know much about HDDs at the time, so I just picked the cheapest 500GB one available, and this was it. As far as I'm aware, Microcenter doesn't sell parts that are nearly 10 years old...
But I'll get HDTune and give you guys an update.
EDIT: What exactly do you guys want me to run on HDTune? Benchmarks, etc?
EDIT 2: According to HDTune, S.M.A.R.T. is a supported feature. I have no idea what's going on.
I don't think it's THAT old. I just built this computer 1 or 2 years ago, and bought parts from Microcenter. I didn't know much about HDDs at the time, so I just picked the cheapest 500GB one available, and this was it. As far as I'm aware, Microcenter doesn't sell parts that are nearly 10 years old...
But I'll get HDTune and give you guys an update.
EDIT: What exactly do you guys want me to run on HDTune? Benchmarks, etc?
EDIT 2: According to HDTune, S.M.A.R.T. is a supported feature. I have no idea what's going on.
What is the SMART status? It should have either OK, a red X, or a yellow !.
Also click on each individual thing, is anything coming up with an error? Anything highlighted in yellow/red?
I'd say the board on the drive is dying. It doesn't seem like a mechanical issue.
Just to say, it is a Deskstar series model.
Those did not obtain the name DeathStar for no reason.
Most likely it is one of the latter Deskstars and showing their true name they are known for now a days.
OP, grab a new HDD as quickly as you can. (And you might want to back up the MC saves to a memory stick, that might screw with your Youtube channel slightly)
I wanted to pick one up today, but I think I'm too late for the good deals :'(
And I really don't have anything to back up onto.. I'm just hoping it doesn't completely die before I get a new one, haha.
@fm87: What does "the board on the drive is failing" mean?
Okay, I know I'm bumping a (somewhat old) topic, but I have a question pertaining to this that I thought isn't really worth starting a new thread for.
If I get a new hard drive, should I do a clean install of everything? Because I'm not quite sure where the Windows 7 disc is, so if it won't cause issues, I'd prefer to be able to literally just copy and paste windows over to the new harddrive. (that is possible, right?) That way I don't have to do a brand new install and I can keep all my games and such.
Okay, I know I'm bumping a (somewhat old) topic, but I have a question pertaining to this that I thought isn't really worth starting a new thread for.
If I get a new hard drive, should I do a clean install of everything? Because I'm not quite sure where the Windows 7 disc is, so if it won't cause issues, I'd prefer to be able to literally just copy and paste windows over to the new harddrive. (that is possible, right?) That way I don't have to do a brand new install and I can keep all my games and such.
Only real way to do that is to clone the hard drive, backups only save data. You can't really "save" programs like games without copying the registry, drivers, dependancies, so on.
Unless you're gonna clone the whole thing you might as well just back your data up and start fresh.
Only real way to do that is to clone the hard drive, backups only save data. You can't really "save" programs like games without copying the registry, drivers, dependancies, so on.
Unless you're gonna clone the whole thing you might as well just back your data up and start fresh.
Well, I'm honestly fine with cloning the whole thing. I'd rather clone the whole thing than start fresh and have to re-download about a million things.
But a somewhat related question, do you think the HDD failure was caused by a virus? Or could it even have been? Or do you think it was just parts going faulty? Because I may have to do a clean install in the possibility that this was caused by a virus. Otherwise, if it's simply parts going bad, I think I'll pretty much clone everything. A clean install would be better, but I really don't want to go through that crap for a 2nd time. (Earlier this year I had to upgrade from XP to Windows 7 and that was a pain in the ass to get everything back, because I don't have any possible way to backup.)
A couple days ago, I went to record with Dxtory. I noticed low recording frames (playing fine, recording slow). So I fiddled with some stuff, and then ran the benchmark test for write speed; it was very slow (~19 MB/s) The write speed, since then, has varied between about 15 MB/s and 32 MB/s. My harddrive is pretty low end, it's regular write speed was only around 50 MB/s, but this is just ridiculous. I also noticed, in the benchmark test, that it was running very choppily. It shows how much has been transferred, and usually it's running at a steady pace. But when I do it now, it writes for a second, stops for a second, writes for a second, stops for a second, etc.
Since then, I've gotten 5 bluescreens (over the course of about 4 or 5 days)
I can still play video games relatively fine. My frame rate is a bit lower, but for example, I can still play BF3 between 30 and 45 FPS. However, it does take even longer than usual to load the maps. Speaking of load times, firefox tends to freeze up a lot now, and take up to a minute or so to even start up. In general, it takes a lot longer for programs to start up.
All of this has led me to believe that something is wrong with my harddrive. Like how games can still run, but load times are very slow (load times being attributed to hard drive speed). But I just need confirmation before I go out and get a new harddrive and end up finding out that wasn't the case.
OH and, if I were to get a 1TB HDD and 2TB HDD to replace it, do I have to worry about
1.) Conflicting components? This may seem like a stupid question, but I'm not very knowledgeable with harddrives.
2.) Power issues? I believe I have a 650 W PSU. I have a GTX 460 and AMD Phenom II X4 840. I don't want to end up getting 2 more hard drives only to find out that I also need a new PSU.
To sum it up:
I tried doing the self test but it says that it is not a SMART disk, so I can't.
Pretty much all I can do with that program is look at device info, haha.
I don't really have anything to back it up onto.
But either way, when I get a new HDD I'm doing a clean install.
Do you live in America? If so, black Fridays coming up, and you should really buy a new drive.
If it is a seagate HDD, get their tools for testing the drive. If it is a WD then get their tools. Then do a extended test.
Or get HDtune and do a cluster check, a slow one and not the quick one. If you get more then 3% of the drive in bad clusters, then its getting pretty bad and indeed needs replaced.
However I should note, there is Hard and Soft bad sectors.
Most HDDs made in the past 9+ish years have had SMART support.
What does HDTune say? How old is it?
That's my plan. I believe they have 1 TB 7200 RPM HDDs on sale for 60 bucks at Microcenter on black friday. If I can get in there before they sell out, I'll for sure get one.
Thanks, I'll give HDtune a go.
I don't think it's THAT old. I just built this computer 1 or 2 years ago, and bought parts from Microcenter. I didn't know much about HDDs at the time, so I just picked the cheapest 500GB one available, and this was it. As far as I'm aware, Microcenter doesn't sell parts that are nearly 10 years old...
But I'll get HDTune and give you guys an update.
EDIT: What exactly do you guys want me to run on HDTune? Benchmarks, etc?
EDIT 2: According to HDTune, S.M.A.R.T. is a supported feature. I have no idea what's going on.
Also click on each individual thing, is anything coming up with an error? Anything highlighted in yellow/red?
Here's what I'm looking at right now
I'll run all the tests and get back to you.
eg:
Health tab:
It appears we have a problem
I'd say the board on the drive is dying. It doesn't seem like a mechanical issue.
Just to say, it is a Deskstar series model.
Those did not obtain the name DeathStar for no reason.
Most likely it is one of the latter Deskstars and showing their true name they are known for now a days.
I wanted to pick one up today, but I think I'm too late for the good deals :'(
And I really don't have anything to back up onto.. I'm just hoping it doesn't completely die before I get a new one, haha.
@fm87: What does "the board on the drive is failing" mean?
The circuit board that controls the hard drive, visible on some models, hidden on others.
If I get a new hard drive, should I do a clean install of everything? Because I'm not quite sure where the Windows 7 disc is, so if it won't cause issues, I'd prefer to be able to literally just copy and paste windows over to the new harddrive. (that is possible, right?) That way I don't have to do a brand new install and I can keep all my games and such.
Only real way to do that is to clone the hard drive, backups only save data. You can't really "save" programs like games without copying the registry, drivers, dependancies, so on.
Unless you're gonna clone the whole thing you might as well just back your data up and start fresh.
Well, I'm honestly fine with cloning the whole thing. I'd rather clone the whole thing than start fresh and have to re-download about a million things.
But a somewhat related question, do you think the HDD failure was caused by a virus? Or could it even have been? Or do you think it was just parts going faulty? Because I may have to do a clean install in the possibility that this was caused by a virus. Otherwise, if it's simply parts going bad, I think I'll pretty much clone everything. A clean install would be better, but I really don't want to go through that crap for a 2nd time. (Earlier this year I had to upgrade from XP to Windows 7 and that was a pain in the ass to get everything back, because I don't have any possible way to backup.)