Hard drive slows down Win7 and r/w takes forever.

[Dreanh]

Hi, bought a new PC last summer and it worked perfect until 2 months ago. I noticed the boot was taking longer time than usual and reading and writing to the hd took forever. The hard drive is a WD Desktop Green 1TB, and I got a Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB where I have Win7 that works fine. When i first started troubleshooting I somewhere got an I/O-error, but i don't remember where that was. I've tried formating and "CHKDSK D: /X /R", but it stops at stage 4. Some other threads on this forum suggested running MiniTool Partition Wizard and running "Surface Test" but when i click "Start Now" the program crashes. In "Computer Management" the hd shows as being healthy. So anyone got any suggestions? Help is much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[OvenMaster]

1. Run Western Digital's Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows: WD Support / Downloads / SATA & SAS / WD Green / GP If the drive fails tests, then it's time for a warranty claim.
2. Save all the data you can elsewhere - flash drive, DVD±RW, NAS, another PC on your network, anything... because it appears to me that the drive is dying.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

You say you tried formatting. Did that even partially complete?

Download the Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tool for that drive from Western Digital. It can do a quick test and an extended test and will display SMART data for it.

Start with the SMART data and see if it gives you any warnings. If not, try the quick test.

 

[Dreanh]

Thanks for help, the formatting was complete and there is no data on the drive.
I started the Quick Test and i got an error almost immediately: "Quick Test on drive 2 did not complete! Status code = 07 (Failed read test element), Failure Checkpoint = 97(Unknown Test) Smart self-test did not complete on drive 2!". I'm now running extended test, which haven't been giving errors yet (Elapsed Time 5min). Got 3 years warranty on the PC, just hoped it was something I could fix on my own.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I did an extended test on my 1.5 TB Western Digital last night just for kicks. It took 5 hours, so yours may take 3 or 4.

If it finds errors, it may try to fix them.

I'm not sure how WD handles RMAs, but you may qualify just because you can't read SMART data and failed the quick test. Probably time to get in touch with them, but let the extended test try to complete in the meantime.

Make note of the test results as shown in Data Lifeguard. I'm not sure if WD will want to know exactly what the tests returned.

 

[Dreanh]

Estimated Time Remaining just went from 11:00 to 26217:27:12, and rising.

 

[Dreanh]

I can let it run for 5-6 hours, but i guess nothing much will have happened until then.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Estimated Time Remaining just went from 11:00 to 26217:27:12, and rising.

My 5 hours was for a drive that ultimately had no errors.

That figure of yours almost certainly indicates errors are being found.

I'd let it run at least 12 or 18 hours, but in the meantime assume it will result in failure or uncorrectable errors, so I'd spend time examining WD's return procedures while you wait.

 

[Dreanh]

Ok, will let it run for as long as it wants (unless it's 65000 days, ain't nobody got time for that). Thanks for the help!

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Yeah, not even WD would expect you to run it for a hundred hours, let alone thousands. Run it overnight or so and contact WD.

You won't get a lot of detail out of it even if it completes--just a pass or fail. I assume any fail is good enough for a warranty claim, but I haven't checked. It will try to replace bad sectors to an extent, but a drive only has a limited supply of them.

I've got a new Green 3 TB coming in the mail tomorrow and am concerned about it. Drives don't seem to be as reliable as they once were and switching brands is no help. They are just becoming disposable.

 

[Dreanh]

Didn't use it much either mostly storage, nothing which runs all the time, 7-8 months seems to be a really short lifetime. Do you know if SSD drives are more reliable? With no moving parts they ought to be, but i guess it all depends on how cheap they decide to make them. Would be nice with a 960GB SSD though. Let's hope your drive last longer than mine.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Do you know if SSD drives are more reliable? With no moving parts they ought to be, but i guess it all depends on how cheap they decide to make them.

I don't know that the verdict is completely in, but generally I think evidence suggests SSDs are more reliable, at least for most brands, but you still have the cost factor and size limitations. This WD Green I have coming is for backup only. My primary storage drive is a 1 TB Samsung that shouldn't be full for another 3 or 4 years.

I'm hoping it lasts that long and by the time it's full that 2 or 3 TB SSDs will be available at a relatively low price. I'm not going to pay $100 per TB for a drive of any type. So it's spinning drives for data for me for the next few years.

 

[Dreanh]

I'm hoping it lasts that long and by the time it's full that 2 or 3 TB SSDs will be available at a relatively low price. I'm not going to pay $100 per TB for a drive of any type. So it's spinning drives for data for me for the next few years.

Yeah, it's a bit to much.

You won't get a lot of detail out of it even if it completes--just a pass or fail. I assume any fail is good enough for a warranty claim, but I haven't checked. It will try to replace bad sectors to an extent, but a drive only has a limited supply of them.

After some hours i got a message saying: "Too many bad sectors." So the drive is lost i guess.