WD Caviar Black HDD not performing right

[fezbombmatt]

Hi i had a thread about this before but never seemed to identify the problem.

Basically i had a WDC 750GB drive that started failing and got it replaced by an identical one. the symptoms were it getting noisy and slower.

Anyway the new drive that came was tested fine by several programs but it had symptoms pretty much the same as my failing drive.

Ive had 3 replacements of the same drive and they are all the same, noisy and slow under load, specially straight after logon. (There is no bloatware or anything stupid running at startup only speedfan and Antivirus)

I found this thread here New WD Caviar Black 1TB poor performance? [Solved] - Hard Drives - Storage

I downloaded HDtune and ran the benchmark and my results are almost identical with a really low minimum transfer rate (1.6MB/s) which is attached.

They were talking about installing Intel storage drivers but im a little confused with this as my build is AMD and the downloads section of my motherboard doesnt provide any Sata drivers that i can see.

Any advice here please?
Thanks

 

[fezbombmatt]

I should also mention that i can hear the HDD over pretty much anything with my fans at 100% too.

It felt abnormal but with having 3 drives sent that do the same thing im not so sure anymore.

 

[Ztruker]

Sounds like you need to switch to a different drive than the WDC 750GB since 3 of them have all had the same problem. See if they will allow you to upgrade to a 1TB drive or two 500GB drives??????

 

[d00p98uy]

Also, WD HDD's tend to crash alot, youre better off with a company like Toshiba or Seagate, look up reviews about a harddrive you might want, make sure it doesn't have a history of crashing

 

[pbcopter]

I have 10 WD Caviar black 750GB drives running in various computers and have never had an issue with that drive or any other WD drives for that matter.

Can you test the drive on another computer?

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I've had only one WD crash and it was a 1.5TB Green a computer shop that should have known better used to install XP on (WD Greens don't do well as boot drives, partially because of the head parking issue the earlier ones had). The Black (which was what should have been installed to begin with) that replaced the Green held up fine and is now in my Win 7 machine, chugging right along without so much as a whimper.

On the flip side, I have had two Seagates die on me; until recently, they were the only Seagates I had ever owned.

@ OP. Have you tried replacing the SATA cable (they have been known to go bad)? Also, how are the voltages coming off your PSU?

 

[Boozad]

I should also mention that i can hear the HDD over pretty much anything with my fans at 100% too.

I wouldn't pay too much attention to the noise from a Caviar Black. I have one in each of my rigs, my backup rig has a 2TB as the OS drive and it never shuts up grumbling, and when it's installing something it's very loud. In my main rig I have a 2TB for my Steam and Origin installs as well as games, and while it's a lot quieter (my OS is on an SSD) it still grumbles when using programs installed on that drive.
In short Caviar Blacks are very noisy drives.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...In short Caviar Blacks are very noisy drives.

Whatever you do, don't tell my Blacks. Apparently, they didn't get the memo.

 

[Boozad]

...In short Caviar Blacks are very noisy drives.

Whatever you do, don't tell my Blacks. Apparently, they didn't get the memo.

Both if mine grumble and moan more than my wife! But while it looks like not all of them are noisy it's not uncommon and I wouldn't think it anything to worry about.

 

[fezbombmatt]

When you say test in another PC will it be fine to just plug in as another drive for access then test copying to and from or actually boot from it?

I will replace the Sata cable now see if it helps.

 

[fezbombmatt]

I guess its just me then. Ive tried a new cable and nothing.

 

[madcratebuilder]

Also, WD HDD's tend to crash alot, youre better off with a company like Toshiba or Seagate, look up reviews about a harddrive you might want, make sure it doesn't have a history of crashing

Horse Pucky! WD does not have a higher failure rate than any of the major HHD manufacturers. You may see more posts about WD...becuse there are more WD drives being used. Most HHD problems come back to the user, user runs high temps, poor computer practices, and under powered PSU's causing pending sector counts or other problems.

Out of the nine current HHD's I have running, five are WD. I have a very old 40gb WD that still runs at perfect health.

 

[Stephanie]

...In short Caviar Blacks are very noisy drives.

Whatever you do, don't tell my Blacks. Apparently, they didn't get the memo.

I have 2 x 500gb Caviar Blacks in another rig for over a year now - no crashes or problems

 

[DavidE]

When you say test in another PC will it be fine to just plug in as another drive for access then test copying to and from or actually boot from it?

Yes, you can test the HD in another PC as long as you have an available Sata data and power connection available.
It doesn't have to be the "Boot/OS" drive, just connect it as another disk drive and test it with HD Tune.

With a min transfer rate of 1.6 MB/sec, something is wrong imho.
I find it hard to believe you would get 3 hard drives with the same problem, so testing in another PC would eliminate your current OS/Software as the cause of this problem (if it is a hardware problem).

Compare your screen print in post#1 to what you see on HD Tune website for the Blue Transfer Rate data.

 

[Boozad]

...In short Caviar Blacks are very noisy drives.

Whatever you do, don't tell my Blacks. Apparently, they didn't get the memo.

I have 2 x 500gb Caviar Blacks in another rig for over a year now - no crashes or problems

I have a 2TB Black and a 2TB Green in both of my rigs and they're absolutely fine.

 

[fezbombmatt]

When you say test in another PC will it be fine to just plug in as another drive for access then test copying to and from or actually boot from it?

Yes, you can test the HD in another PC as long as you have an available Sata data and power connection available.
It doesn't have to be the "Boot/OS" drive, just connect it as another disk drive and test it with HD Tune.

With a min transfer rate of 1.6 MB/sec, something is wrong imho.
I find it hard to believe you would get 3 hard drives with the same problem, so testing in another PC would eliminate your current OS/Software as the cause of this problem (if it is a hardware problem).

Compare your screen print in post#1 to what you see on HD Tune website for the Blue Transfer Rate data.

Il do this then and get back to you. Thanks

 

[fezbombmatt]

I wont be able to test the HDD until Saturday.

Any chance my RAM could cause HDD issues? I wouldnt know ive never had a faulty RAM stick as of yet. And testing RAM properly takes a bloody while.

 

[GeneO]

Also, WD HDD's tend to crash alot, youre better off with a company like Toshiba or Seagate, look up reviews about a harddrive you might want, make sure it doesn't have a history of crashing

Well I gotta say I don't know where this comes from. I have been running many WD drivers for over a decade and they don't "crash".

The black drives are kind of loud - they are meant for performance. I have older ones that support AAM and run mine in lower acoustic mode where they are pretty quiet. This impacts the access tim though as the heads position more slowly to reduce noise.

 

[GeneO]

I wont be able to test the HDD until Saturday.

Any chance my RAM could cause HDD issues? I wouldnt know ive never had a faulty RAM stick as of yet. And testing RAM properly takes a bloody while.

Doubt it would affect hard drive performance.

 

[DavidE]

You can boot Windows in Safe Mode and run HD Tune to see if that makes a difference.
Testing in Safe Mode could eliminate a lot of your "Software/configuration" as the cause of a transfer rate issue.
It's something you can test, without waiting to attach the HD to a different PC for testing.
Use Option ONE in http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/69585-safe-mode.html