HDD problems...

[camper.]

Well, I have a Seagate ST3160023AS drive, and it's been causing problems in the past few days. It's transferring data very slowly and BF2 suffers from this. It's not in PIO mode either. Right now, I can't even burn a DVD at 16x because the speed of the HDD is too slow (12x). Any ideas?

Also, it doesn't make the usual vibration noises when there is heavy disk usage. Something is wrong for sure.

[=98=]

Re: HDD problems...

Try defragging it to see whether that makes a difference.

Plus do the normal unplug it, pray for it, plug it back in again.

Make sure that the power connector is not loose, and that in the BIOS all HD settings are correct.

If it has SMART technology, have a look at the health of it, it may be that it is about to meet it's makers!

Run a virus and spyware scanning program(s). I suggest Panda online virus scan, Spybot S&D, CWShredder and Ad-Aware

EDIT: Im not sure whether this can affect HD performance, but have a look anyway. Download Speedfan and check your HD temperature. Mine idles at about 22 Celcius

[LT_SE7EN11]

Re: HDD problems...

Backup ASAP!! If you ever experience any HD troubles, backup immediately!

Hard drives are so cheap these days, thinking twice about just getting a new one seems silly to me.

[camper.]

Re: HDD problems...

Don't worry, I have backup. The HDD is in good health, it's a windoze setting doing this from what I see. Current tem is 36*C, it starts at 25*C and works its way up and stays around that, the PC has been on for about 12 hours now. I have about 6 programs scanning for viruses and spyware, and I caught practically every single trojan the second it came onto my PC and wiped it off.

As for SMART, performance and fitness are around 95%.

Anyway, I haven't defragged for ages, so I'll see if this is the problem (doesnt seem like it, the same thing happens when using partition manager to move partitions).

[[Expletive Deleted]]

Re: HDD problems...

Backup ASAP!! If you ever experience any HD troubles, backup immediately!

Hard drives are so cheap these days, thinking twice about just getting a new one seems silly to me.

Seeing as he's tried burning DVDs, I think he's already trying to back things up.

You mentioned that it's not in PIO mode. When my laptop HDD was about to give up the ghost, putting it in PIO mode made it a little more stable so I was able to backup most of my data before it pooped. Just something to try.

[camper.]

Re: HDD problems...

It's not about to die though, I've only ever seen one HDD die outright, and it was giving constant BSODs for the past 2 months before it stopped altogether. This disk is in near flawless condition

I have a second HDD just in case anyway, so if things need to be backed up...

If anyone uses a Seagate hdd, can you say if they're always silent? I don't particularly remember this HDD being noiseless unless it's running in PIO mode. Right now I can just about hear the humming (or is that grinding? ).

[=98=]

Re: HDD problems...

Do you have an option in your BIOS to change the Hard Drive from Silent to performance?

I can't imagine it's this, but it might be worth a try.


I find that hitting a hard drive with a hammer sometimes helps :laugh: