Solved 5 MB/s transfer speed of newly formatted, formerly RAW hard drive

[Michkelo]

My WD Red 2TB hard drive that I use as my media server turned RAW almost a year ago when I forced shut down my computer. My computer had performed very slowly (didn’t even function properly) since then and only just a few days ago when I decided to remove the SATA and power cables from said hard drive did my computer perform normally again. Since I was able to retrieve data from the RAW hard drive through a purchased software, I decided to format the RAW hard drive so that I can use it again. Formatting took quite a while (about 10 minutes or so) since even just accessing it was problematic. Fortunately it finished formatting, but as I was transferring retrieved data back to the newly formatted hdd, I noticed that it went from the normal 60-110 +/- MB/s range to just 9 MB/s down to 7, 6, then 5 MB/s. Since I was supposed to transfer 500 GB of data, I cancelled it, then my HDD went missing from explorer and in diskmgmt. I restarted my computer. In bios it showed said HDD. As I got back to Windows, it finally showed itself again in explorer. I checked the files and folders in it and it managed to copy 1 video file, only that of course it was incomplete. So I repeated transferring, this time just one 16 GB file. The same thing happened, only this time, a window appeared saying that “The destination you have specified does not exist. It might be an offline network location or an empty CD or DVD drive. Check location and try again.” The drive went missing again. So I restarted, same thing happened, it reappeared.

What is happening? Is my hard drive dying? I’ve read that it’s possible to be able to use a hard drive again after it’s gone RAW. Is it an issue with other hardware or software?

 

[samuria]

Raw just means it lost the partitions. It can happen if the first part of the disk that hold the partitions has gone bad. The first move is to goto makers site and download their software to test the disk as it's made just for their disk do a full scan with that in cases it's faulty

 

[Megahertz07]

I think you may have a problem with your disk
Download and run Lifeguard Diagnostic

 

[TechnoMage2016]

I found the most simple way to deal with WD hard drive problems.....


I just refuse to ever buy another WD hard drive. Problems solved!

 

[Michkelo]

Here are the results from Data Lifeguard Diagnostic from WD’s website:











Does this mean my hard drive’s done? Can I still do something?

 

[samuria]

In technical terms it's knackered is this still external there is a slight chance it's the interface and if you plug it in to the pc as a second drive and test again it may be ok if the fault is the interface not the drive it's worth a shot

 

[Michkelo]

It is plugged via SATA. Do you mean that I should try to plug in via USB through an adapter?

 

[samuria]

If its plugged direcley into the mothernoard there is little hope the only slight chance it has been set different ie it could be set to leggacy before and now ahci. you could try deleting paritions recreating them and format it its a slim chance

 

[Megahertz07]

I suppose that WD Red is a 3.5" internal disk.
Too many bad sectors means your drive has failed.

 

[Michkelo]

I’m thinking of replacing this drive with a 4 TB one. Since I forced shut down my computer before, then this happened, could there still be a problem (OS or hardware) that may affect or harm the new drive if I plug it in the same sata port?

To give context, my computer performed very slowly (booting up, starting some windows & 3rd party programs) and it didn’t function properly (like creating/renaming a folder/file won’t show immediately; I have to go back a folder then reopen the containing folder again then will it show). But after disconnecting the RAW hard drive, everything SEEMS to perform normally again (speed, functioning).

 

[Megahertz07]

Your disk has a hardware failure, that cant be fixed. Bad sectors means that the disk surface is damaged. Normally it happens when the head touch the surface due to drastic disk move.

A forced shut down can make logical issue that can be fixed with a check disk or in the worst case a format.

Your disk didn't fail by any thing you did using the computer.

My suggestion is to buy a WD fist grade disks (Black =performance or Gold =reliability) and install inside the case, never on eSATA, etc.

 

[Michkelo]

So there isn’t anything that would harm a new hard drive plugged to the same sata port? Given the previous performance of my system, I don’t need to reinstall windows? Sorry I know nothing of these things.

 

[Megahertz07]

Just replace the old disk and boot from your windows disk.
The new disk may be RAW, and need to be partitioned and formatted.
As the new HDD is a 4 T you should partitioned as GPT.

I would also buy a small SSD (128G - US$20) to have Windows and programs and use the HDD for data.
You have no idea what a SSD can improve the performance of tour computer.

 

[Michkelo]

Thanks very much for your help!