Solved (issue) - slow read speeds on internal hdd

[SaNdMaN82]

Hello.

I've been facing this issue recently, and I'm not sure what's wrong...
I've an internal 500gb blue wd drive, SMART info seems ok, and even the speed tests I've made for this drive seems to be ok for the drive... I know these drives are not the fastest ones...

For some reason, for the last past few days, whenever i transfer big files from this HD to an external USB3 drive, speeds are 15 mb/s, 30mb at the most... A few days ago, speed was a lot more, not under 70-80 mb/s...

It's also worth mentioning that whenever I start copying the file, the led for the internal HD goes crazy... Usually when copying files, it used to be 'half-lit'...
So it seems the head is just moving a lot now...
Disk is also defragmented weekly...

I cannot debug this one, but it does not seems to be a problem with the HD somehow...

Ideas?

Thank you.

Thanks.

 

[CKWD]

Hello SaNdMaN82!

Sorry your transfer speed has dropped so rapidly, but this has been reported before, as well. Do you have only data on it, is the OS on another drive?

In such cases it's good to clean check your HDD, for viruses and malware, with an updated antivirus software; make full scans.

Also, check the drive's health using WD Data Lifeguard software, do both Quick and Extended tests to see if the error is in the drive itself.

WD DLG:
Support Answers

Back up all of your files. After that is completed, go to Device Manager and uninstall the hard drive. Replug the drive into a different SATA port, reboot the system, load Last good known configuration and the drive should be detected again, let it re-load the drivers, check for Driver updates if you have to. But don't do this without backing up. It may take some time, but still!

Hope any of this helps you!

Good luck!

CK_WD

 

[SaNdMaN82]

Thanks for your feedback.

Sadly, I don't seem to have system restore active... I do not have an older config point available to test... That was one of the first things I tried, because to me it's something related to software... I've not been able to pinpoint if it's Windows or WD related... But I do not feel it's hardware related...

Before posting, I also ran the WD DLD utility... Both quick and extended tests are marked as "passed"...
I wonder if there's some issue with an update...

Thank you.

 

[CKWD]

From what you've answered I can only make the assumption that the drive contains also the OS.

If it is a software issue it may be hard to fix it, so may be the best solution would be to start fresh with a brand new install.

If the tests on the drive were correct and the fresh install is complete, then hopefully the issue should be fixed.

CK_WD

 

[SaNdMaN82]

I actually found what's wrong... Thankfully, it is not related to hardware...
This is what's happening: the big files that I usually copy from the internal HDD to the USB 3 device, are things I've downloaded via torrent... I checked one of them, that was about 1.5 GB...
It was fragmented into over 5000 pieces, all over the drive....
Even though the drive is less than half occupied, this particular file was badly fragmented... That's why it is slower than before...

Now, question remains: why did this start just a few days ago?
I don't remember updating my torrent client... I do recall many updates being applied to windows though... So , why are new big files being fragmented and spattered all over the drive if there's more than enough contiguous space to accommodate them?

Troubleshooting continues...

Thank you.

 

[CKWD]

Well, that would depend on the certain file. Probably they've gathered too many of them badly fragmented files.

Perhaps if you haven't defragmented the drive since this started, you could do it now and see if it helps.

I will research a bit and reply back again some time later.

CK_WD

 

[SaNdMaN82]

Thank you.

I do not believe this is related to defragmentation process...
What's wrong, IMO, is that the file being created is spattered all over the place from the start... Device has plenty of room to accommodate it in a contiguous way... I didn't take a screenshot...
But trust me, pieces were all over the drive...

Will keep looking into it...
I also remember an update was installed for WD SES recently...

 

[SaNdMaN82]

I've consulted this issue in the torrent client's forum...
It seems that they have recently changed a parameter that may be causing this fragmentation for the downloaded files...
The default for this value was changed, so I would assume that since I never set it in the past, it got activated....
I'll turn that setting off and see what happens...
Will update...

 

[CKWD]

This is good, you found the source, so at least you know there's nothing wrong with the drive.
Do update on your chosen action towards the problem and the result, hope changing the setting works.

CK_WD

 

[SaNdMaN82]

Hello again.


I've changed the value of that parameter, and now I've no issues at all...
I've just copied about 21GB of recently downloaded files from the internal HDD to the external USB3 one in about 3-4 minutes...
So everything went back to normal.


The client I use is utorrent, and the parameter is found under the advanced preferences: diskio.sparse_files...
That value's default was changed to true, I set it to false and everything is ok now.


Thanksfully, my drive has no issues!


This thread can be closed.


Thanks for the support!

 

[CKWD]

You are welcome!

I'm glad to hear the issue is resolved and the drive is not damaged.

Cheers!

CK_WD