Erratic main HDD transfer rate

Bonifatsius · Jan 12, 2014

A month ago I was playing a game and my computer suddenly froze, then unfroze but windows was very slow. After some investigating I found out, that my main HD drives transfer rate is erratic and sometimes plummets to 2 Mb/s. It has happened three times so far, first two times I fixed it by moving some SATA cables around. This time nothing seems to work though. I can still use my computer but it slows down at random times.

http://postimg.org/image/prewo8ei9/
http://postimg.org/image/tz9owzfxt/

Additionally, when this problem occurs and I boot up my computer an error message of: windows can't connect to a device pops up and windows won't start.
HD Tune however didn't find anything wrong with my HDD, besides the transfer rate drops.
Other hard drives I have have a stable transfer rate, it's only the main HDD that's acting up.

Is it dying? What should I do?

Thanks.

Phillip Corcoran · Jan 12, 2014

There's only one correct way to test the main drive (the drive which contains Windows) and that's by testing it outside of Windows with the drive manufacturer's own diagnostic software for DOS which loads from bootable media (CD or floppy disk)

Windows-based software like HD Tune can show you the SMART data, temperature, and perform a surface scan, but's it doesn't test the drive's electro-mechanical operation like true diagnostic software, and for the Windows drive that can only be done when Windows isn't running on it.

Download the appropriate diagnostic software via the links on this page:
http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287

If the download is an ISO file (CD Image), use IMGBurn to create the CD from it:
http://www.filehippo.com/download_imgburn/

Then boot your PC from that CD to test the hard drive that's installed in it.
Use the "Long" or "Extended" test if there is one.

Note: If it's a WD drive, the link to the ISO CD Image is here:
http://www.smartestcomputing.us.com/topic/63494-looking-for-western-digital-data-lifeguard-iso/

fzabkar · Jan 12, 2014

The UDMA CRC Error Count suggests that there may be a communication problem over the SATA interface, but that is probably unrelated to the big dips in the benchmark graph.

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Erratic main HDD transfer rate

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