HDD Read/Write speeds reducing

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aman6585

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May 27, 2014
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I have a Seagate Barracuda 3TB Internal hard disk that I purchased 1 month ago. Two weeks ago when I took a benchmark the HDD had the following results:

Sequential Read: 151
Sequential Write: 151
4K Read: 0.92
4K Write: 1.52

But when I took the test again today the results are:

Sequential Read: 138
Sequential Write: 127
4K Read: 0.55
4K Write: 0.89

How have the speeds changed by so much in 2 weeks? Is there some way to restore it back?
 
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

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Jun 24, 2014
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A lot of things could affect that. The amount of storage area being used since the initial test and what other processes and possible system drive accesses that may have been going on, or not going on, at the time of any given test would be the biggest factors. If there are automatic optimizations set or system restore is in doing it's thing at the time it will greatly affect speeds.
 
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

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Jun 24, 2014
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Since HDDs write to the outer zones first, which are faster than inner zones, the more data that is written to the drive, the lower your performance scores are going to be. Your test utility will only use sectors that are not in use to read/write from which means as time goes on each test is going to be performed on an area closer to the center of the disk which will increasingly diminish the test results as more and more data is saved to the disk. Clearly with an SSD this effect does not occur since there is no mechanical rotation and thusly no inner or outer tracks so to speak.


The outside edge of the platter is faster than the inside, and since the density is the same across the disk, this means the outside edge passes more data across the heads in less time, which means the outside edge can stream data faster. So if you have multiple partitions, the one on the outside will be the fastest, and they get slower as you move inward. More data on disk, regardless of how much, will equate to slower speeds.

 
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Darkbreeze

Darkbreeze

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I'd do all of the following and then retest.

1. Run disk cleanup on the drive. And then run it again but this time when the disk cleanup window opens, choose the "cleanup system files" option. The two different methods take care of different things.

2. Delete all but the most recent, or oldest, whichever you prefer to keep, system restore point. Then turn off system restore and if you actually use system restore rather than another, better, disk imaging or backup utility, just periodically create a restore point manually and delete the older one. Or keep two at any given time if you prefer but not more than two. Once should be fine, if any.

3. Open Windows explorer and navigate to the C:/Temp folder if one exists. Empty it. Then the C:/Windows/Temp folder. Empty it.

4. Manually set the windows page file to 256mb minimum and 4gb maximum.

To check your virtual memory settings, do the following:


Open System by clicking the Start button Picture of the Start button, right-clicking Computer, and then clicking Properties.

2.In the left pane, click Advanced system settings. Administrator permission required If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

3.On the Advanced tab, under Performance, click Settings.

4.Click the Advanced tab, and then, under Virtual memory, click Change.

5.Clear the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives check box.

6.Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file you want to change, likely only C:.

7.Click Custom size, type a new size in megabytes in the Initial size (MB) or Maximum size (MB) box, click Set, and then click OK.

I recommend setting the minimum to 256MB and the max to 2GB. Don't forget to click the button that says "Set" after you make the changes, then OK, or it won't record the changes.

8. Run disk defragmenter on the drive.

9. Retest.

 
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