Unstable hard drive

williamcummins · May 9, 2014

Hi guys,
I recently turned my external storage drive into a internal hard drive. The problem is that when I download or transfer large files into this new partition, the transfer time is unstable. For example, the time estimator for transferring a 2G document shows around 2 minutes, then suddenly goes up to 27 minutes for a certain time, then goes back to normal. I assumed that the transfer flow is bottlnecked somewhere for some reason. How can I fix this?

The device is a LaCie Rikiki USB 3.0 1T (http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10517).

I plugged the device into my mobo using Sata III 6Gb/s cable in the proper slot.

Hawkeye22 · May 9, 2014

Have you checked the smart status of the drive or run a chkdsk on it? If all checks out ok, then I'd try repartioning and formatting the drive. Its possible that the enclosures logic board used some kind of odd partioning/access controls.

reedo_43 · May 9, 2014

The transfer time could also fluctuate depending on what it is copying at that moment. IE...lots of relatively small mp3s or a large 4 gig contiguous movie file.

williamcummins · May 20, 2014

Ok so i've run S.M.A.R.T. tests (write and manage) on the drive and it appears to be unstable. The 'performance' graph had a low peak somewhere at beginning of the test then had a constant curve. Do you guys know what could possibly cause that type of results?

Hawkeye22 · May 20, 2014

A SMART test should list any problems. it's not a speed test. Try using Crystal disk Info to check the SMART status. It should look like the screen shot on the left.

williamcummins · May 20, 2014

Ok, i'll try this after work and post the results tonight. Thank you Hawkeye!

williamcummins · May 20, 2014

Ok so I've downloaded Crystal disk Info, but have no idea how to run tests. Any tips?

Hawkeye22 · May 21, 2014

Doesn't it start with a window that shows your drive status? It should list all your drives across the top. Just select the drive and it will show the drive condition. There are no tests to run. It's reading the SMART status directly from the drive. If you can't figure it out, just download the portable addition as it starts at the status screen.

http://sourceforge.jp/projects/crystaldiskinfo/downloads/58588/CrystalDiskInfo5_6_2.zip/

williamcummins · May 21, 2014

Well the program says that the drive status is : good. Do I need to let it run for a day, or try adding and retreiving stuff from it? Because like I said in my first post, it doesn't seem to be constant failure.

Hawkeye22 · May 21, 2014

No need to let it run. No SMART errors is a good thing. You can try running a chkdsk on it. Also, what OS are you running?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/check-your-hard-disk-for-errors

williamcummins · May 21, 2014

My OS is Windows 7 home premium. It's installed on another device (ssd working perfectly). I'll try to check disk as it's suggested in the link you sent.

Hawkeye22 · May 21, 2014

If the chkdsk doesn't fix it, the only other thing I can thing of is this may be an advanced format drive and the sector alignment is off. Here is some information on that.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1226963/how-to-properly-re-align-your-ssd-hdd-partitions

williamcummins · May 22, 2014

I've run a check disk and nothing appears to be broke or bad... I will try re-align my 2 drives tonight. Thanks again for the tips.

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