I have a pretty good computer, but my Disk transfer rate is Shameful

keemoman · Jul 1, 2013

I have an MSI Laptop, and everything runs fine except for my disk transfer rate. When I'm transferring files just in my C Drive, and also between my C Drive and D Drive

I have Windows 8 64 bit
3rd gen Intel i7 processer @ 2.4ghz
4 GB DDRIII Ram
750gb 7200rpm Hard drive.
500gb on the C Drive (OS Drive) and 200 gb on the D Drive.
Also if it helps I have a Nvidia Geforce GT 645m 2gb DDR3, as well as an Intel HD 4000

My problem is transferring files in my computer. It will start out at 70mbps and then over the course of 5-6 seconds drop down to 15mps and stay like that for the whole transfer. Its driving me insane, because my sister who has a crap 7 year old computer can stay at a constant 50mbps

When I am transferring something, if i look into the Task Manager, It shows 100% Disk usage, only 2-4% Processeor Usage, and about 50% Ram usage, SO I don't think that its my Ram or My processor.

I have tried disabling my antivirus, and lots of other things but nothing seems to be working.
One thing I feel is important to mention though, is that I have a notification in my notifications bar, that says Intel RST Service is not running, however when I open it, it says it My system is functioning normally etc.

If someone could please help me I would be so grateful. Thanks so much.

EDIT:

Ok so I found a website reviewing the same laptop as mine, but with an i5 processor, a weaker graphics card and only 500gb HDD with only 5200rpm. And the benchmark results for the transfer rate are as follows:

Transfer Rate Minimum: 40.3 MB/s

Transfer Rate Maximum: 114.2 MB/s

Transfer Rate Average: 87.5 MB/s

Access Time: 20.2 ms

Burst Rate: 115.8 MB/s

CPU Usage: 0.9 %

How can that laptop, which has a weaker HDD and processor, be so much faster than mine? If you guys could please help me out I am going crazy.

Someone Somewhere · Jul 1, 2013

First off, are the drives 7200RPM or 5400? Is it small files, or one large file?

You're moving data between two different parts of one drive, so it has to move the head lots. It also halves the transfer speed because it has to read then write; it can't do them at the same time.

keemoman · Jul 1, 2013

Someone Somewhere :

Hi, Thanks for your reply.
They are 7200 RPM like I mentioned above. I understand that it will be a little slower, but that still doesn't explain why I am only getting 15 mbps where on the Review website they tested the same laptop as mine, with only a 5200rpm HDD and they got 88 mbps on average. Some of my files are large (800mbs-2gb) and some of them are only a couple mbs as they are pictures. Both have extremely slow transfer rates, but the pictures are unbelievably slow. I feel like it has to do with some software problem.

Someone Somewhere · Jul 1, 2013

Nope, that's because of how hard drives work. It has to read a few MB, then move the head, then write it again, then go back and repeat.

It will be definitely less than half the speed, and probably less because it has to wait for the drive to move, and you're doing random I/O with the pictures, so it has to move more.

keemoman · Jul 1, 2013

Someone Somewhere :

Ok well I guess that explains part of it but that doesn't explain why my sisters computer, which has an Intel Penium processor, 3gb Ram and a 250 gb 5200rpm hard drive can transfer the same files I do at double the speed?
I also decided to do a benchmark with HdTune, the same program used in the review site (http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-MSI-CX61-Notebook.87038.0.html)
And My results were still worse than theirs. Even though I have a better computer!
Here is a picture of my results: http://gyazo.com/38735650c44f013d8bce73ccf76af1a7

popatim · Jul 1, 2013

I want to make sure you realize that you still only have 1 hard drive that you've made act as two by partitioning it. So, as Someone Somewhere said, You are reading and writing to the same hard drive which naturally cuts your throughput in half or less. Partitioning it in two does nothing to protect your data on it. its still just 1 harddrive and when it dies, so does your data.

As for your hdtune, it looks a bit odd but ok overall to me as its a 2 platter 4 head design. Is your sata ports set to AHCi in the bios?

keemoman · Jul 2, 2013

popatim :

Thanks for the reply.
Wow I didn't know that about partitioning thanks. So what is the benefit of having a partitioned hard drive? Can I un-partition it? But un-partitioning it will not improve performance right?
And I'm not sure about the Sata Ports, how can I set that to AHCi?

popatim · Jul 2, 2013

Some people partition the drive into multiples to make it easier to manage what goes where or what has faster access. The partitions closer to the outside of the platter are faster than the one closer to the middle of the platter. So you might make a C; partition for OS and programs you want to load fastest. D: for programs & data with the next fastest access... Other people partition to make it easier to find their data like a c: partition for OS and programs, d: for pictures and videos, E; for documents, F: for music. The choice is yours and the performance impact is minimal.

Yes you can delete the expand the C: drive into the unused space with tools like easus partition manager which is free.

You can check what mode the sata parts are in in your bios if it lets you. Being MSI I would think it would already be in ahci mode. Run an AS SSD benchmark and post a screen shot of it. It will list the driver being used which will tell us if you need to bother changing it. http://alex-is.de/PHP/fusion/downloads.php?download_id=9
In the top two pics the driver is "iaStorA" and has an "-ok" next to it. The line under that is the offset which is also important and should also have an OK next to it.
- Scroll down to download the benchmark utility... all the way to the bottom. Its under the "Donate" link and its also free.

keemoman · Jul 3, 2013

popatim :

Thanks for your reply.
I did the benchmark. It took a full 2 hours. Is it supposed to take that long?
Anyways here are my results, and i'm no expert but I think they're pretty bad.
http://gyazo.com/a7bf52af81637740c40bc8abd5c619d4

I also screenshotted my Task Manager while the Benchmark was running and noticed that my Disk Usage was 100% but it was only 1.5 mb total. Is that normal?
http://gyazo.com/df14b3afb802a22ea3b2916616fa16d9

Someone Somewhere · Jul 3, 2013

That's about right for a mechanical HDD. About 250 IO/s write, 150 read.

That's 1.5MB per second, not total. You most likely looked at it while it was doing random I/O.

popatim · Jul 3, 2013

yeah, i too think something else is using the hdd while you are testing. Try booting into safe mode and rerunning your original benchmark.

and your driver and offset look good. you are in ahci mode.

Timofte Cristian · Oct 19, 2013

keemoman :

I have an MSI Laptop, and everything runs fine except for my disk transfer rate. When I'm transferring files just in my C Drive, and also between my C Drive and D Drive

I have Windows 8 64 bit
3rd gen Intel i7 processer @ 2.4ghz
4 GB DDRIII Ram
750gb 7200rpm Hard drive.
500gb on the C Drive (OS Drive) and 200 gb on the D Drive.
Also if it helps I have a Nvidia Geforce GT 645m 2gb DDR3, as well as an Intel HD 4000

My problem is transferring files in my computer. It will start out at 70mbps and then over the course of 5-6 seconds drop down to 15mps and stay like that for the whole transfer. Its driving me insane, because my sister who has a crap 7 year old computer can stay at a constant 50mbps

When I am transferring something, if i look into the Task Manager, It shows 100% Disk usage, only 2-4% Processeor Usage, and about 50% Ram usage, SO I don't think that its my Ram or My processor.

I have tried disabling my antivirus, and lots of other things but nothing seems to be working.
One thing I feel is important to mention though, is that I have a notification in my notifications bar, that says Intel RST Service is not running, however when I open it, it says it My system is functioning normally etc.

If someone could please help me I would be so grateful. Thanks so much.

EDIT:

Ok so I found a website reviewing the same laptop as mine, but with an i5 processor, a weaker graphics card and only 500gb HDD with only 5200rpm. And the benchmark results for the transfer rate are as follows:

Transfer Rate Minimum: 40.3 MB/s

Transfer Rate Maximum: 114.2 MB/s

Transfer Rate Average: 87.5 MB/s

Access Time: 20.2 ms

Burst Rate: 115.8 MB/s

CPU Usage: 0.9 %

How can that laptop, which has a weaker HDD and processor, be so much faster than mine? If you guys could please help me out I am going crazy.

you can try a windows explorer replacement, like teracopy, you have much more options, and it is faster

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I have a pretty good computer, but my Disk transfer rate is Shameful

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