Speed of a HDD

[dwynnehugh]

Again (sorry for this) under ‘W10 sequel’, I used the WD utilities to repair a HDD but now it seems to be running slowly. I think it’s a 7200rpm job, but does anyone know of any way to ascertain the actual speed of rotation please?

The more you meet people the more you understand why Noah took animals instead of humans

[Jason]

There is no way. The advertised speed can be determined from the model number, and the actual speed will be the advertised speed. If it drops below this (virtually unheard of), you’ll see a SMART alert. Remember that the heads ride a cushion of air above the platters, so the drive will be engineered to operate within tiny, tiny tolerances. If the rotation speed drops, the calibration would go to pot, and you’d soon know about it.

[dwynnehugh]

Thanks Jason, I suspected as much.

The more you meet people the more you understand why Noah took animals instead of humans

[Ed P]

Read errors can have a major impact on apparent disk speed. To find out what is causing a problem it may be possible to read the SMART data from a log. link

However, I’m not really sure what you can do with that info when you have it!

Once upon a time I would have recommended Spinrite, but that has priced itself outside the UK market. You could try MHDD but to be honest I think that could be a risky option that I would reserve for the day that I decided to put in a new drive!

[dwynnehugh]

Thanks Ed P.  When I examined his HDD with the WD tools, the short test almost immediately showed ‘too many defective sectors’ or similar, running their extended test – which appears designed to fix this problem – appears to have done so. Running the short test afterwards gave a clean bill of health.

My uncle now thinks that his system is running much slower than it was pre HDD problem which was why I wanted to see if there was a significant slow-down in the HDD rpm as it’s still under the WD 5 yr warranty for another 12 months or so.

Also from memory the SMART response was OK or not available – can’t remember now.

The more you meet people the more you understand why Noah took animals instead of humans

[Ed P]

Based on your comments this would have been something that Spinrite would also have fixed. Essentially Spinrite reads much more slowly than the firmware, and re-reads if it gets errors. It then either does a write/re-write in the same place or uses the disks utilities to mark the sector as really bad and write the data elsewhere. However, it sounds like the WD tool has done the job.

Although the disk has been fixed the file structure could still be cocked-up. I’d recommend running the usual chkdsk and file utilities as things like cross-linked or duplicated links can cause the system to get confused and slower.

I’d also point out that a full off-line a/v Trojan check could be a good idea as disk slowdown is a symptom of this too.

[Richard]

I do not think anyone has suggested taking a full system image of the drive, I suggest that would be a wise move as it appears its end may be near.

However, Ed has made a very good point about unwanted programs, these can cause all manner of issues and your original issues might even have stemmed from that cause. So after taking an image do what he suggests to both copies.

[Dave Rice]

I’ve been using the free version of Macrium Reflect link to do a daily image of my laptop (daily incremental to a weekly full). You create a bootable rescue USB.

I suspect your issues are a mixture of a UEFI / GPT HDD and an old MBR DVD i.e. a foot in both camps, the problem is they are mutually incompatible. If the HDD is UEFI / GPT your rescue media should match. You can create UEFI bootable DVDs but I’d suggest a USB stick is the best option these days. It looks like Aeomi can do either for you link to instructions

[Jason]

Agree about an immediate full backup. Any drive that needs to be “fixed” is a drive that will surely fail soon and should really be in landfill.

[dwynnehugh]

A full backup was made, that’s when I saw two entries in the BIOS a PO: HDD and an UEFI: HDD I couldn’t do anything with the UEFI so eventually got it via the PO one. After that had trouble booting as there was no sign of the UEFI: WD entry in the BIOS. Got it eventually with a bit of a poke and fiddle, but do I really understand what I did – NO!

The more you meet people the more you understand why Noah took animals instead of humans

[Bob Williams]

+1 to Dave & Macrium Reflect: all my NAS and external backups are carried out using that, and I made a bootable CDwith it.

Jason: I take all my electronic, electrical, plastic and metal waste to the local Council dump, which has a WEE area. Lots of dangerous metals and bits in a Hdd and similar components, environmentally toxic.

 

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Ed P]

I used to dismantle HDDs for the interesting bits inside. High power mini magnets and a snazzy bird scarer (the platters) plus stepper motor(s) and springs. The old DVDs/CDs were also gutted – one day I’ll turn their laser disk burners into a cardboard cutter*. (I do not think there is enough power to do plywood). I’ve not yet had an SSD to gut, but I suspect that there will now be very few bits that I can reuse.

• Don’t sneer at laser cut cardboard! Imagine a 3D model cut into layers then glued back together just using white glue. The result is actually very sturdy and easy to smooth off using something like papercrete. Above all it is probably the cheapest way of printing a useful large scale 3D object.

[Jason]

Bob Williams wrote:

I take all my electronic, electrical, plastic and metal waste to the local Council dump, which has a WEE area. Lots of dangerous metals and bits in a Hdd and similar components, environmentally toxic.

Me, too. I was being succinct for effect. In fact, I used to have arguments with my old business partner — we parted ways last year once it became clear he was using me and ripping me off — about this sort of thing. He would chuck batteries and PCBs in the normal waste bin, and I insisted we needed another receptacle for all that stuff, so that it could be separated out at the tip. Also another bin for cardboard, as they have a special skip for that. It all fell on deaf ears and I had to sort it all myself and make the necessary trips to the tip. That probably says it all about our business relationship.

[Dave Rice]

Out council, South Glos, will take small electrical items no larger than the recycling box and you could easily get a microwave in there. You can put them next to the box in a bag. They will also take batteries, even car ones, and small metal items (but not pots and pans size). So our tip trips very few.

[Jason]

Sadly, we had no such bin at our business premises. I had to it to the tip (no doubt this in itself was against the law).

[Tippon]

dwynnehugh wrote:

… I wanted to see if there was a significant slow-down in the HDD rpm as it’s still under the WD 5 yr warranty for another 12 months or so…

Back everything up and put the drive into a spare machine. Run a diagnostic that writes to the drive, but on a loop. See if you can kill it off while it’s still under the warranty  :good:

(Others may have much better opinions on this  :wacko: )

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