- Dec 13, 2001
- 283
- 0
- 18,780
This one is odd. I haven't posted here in YEARS, but I'm stumped.
I am working on a friend's machine (HP Media Center PC m7227c) which I picked up originally to swap the power supply that died during a power outage. As we all do, I like to poke around and make sure everything is clean and running smooth while I've got the machine. It has a TV tuner, and they use it. The 300+GB WD HDD only had 15% of free space. About 80% of the data was saved TV recordings. The drive looked like it had never been defragged. I've never seen so many red stripes before.
Here's where the problem begins. The defrag process was taking for-ev-er, so I offloaded a bunch of their recordings to an external eSATA HDD and it made a world of difference. It only took a couple minutes to offload the 200GB+ of data, and in about 30 min or less it was as defragged as it could get. Easy enough, right? Just copy all the data back and defrag a couple more times and I'm done.
I wish it were so easy. I've poured about 18 hours into this machine and it still hasn't copied all the files back yet. I haven't seen data move this slow since my K6-2 550. Any ideas? The machine works, and seems to be running normal overall. Here's the specs and list of things I tried already:
Their system:
Windows XP MCE 2002 w/ SP3
Asus P5LP-LE (custom for HP) motherboard
Pentium D 830 3GHz dual-core
1GB (2x512) Samsung PC2-3200U RAM
Western Digital WD3200JD
ATI Radeon X600 graphics
BFG Tech 550W PSU
My Drive:
Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB "green power" variable-speed
My trials:
-Reboot
-Run chkdisk
-Remove my drive from enclosure and connect directly to motherboard
-Check cables and power connectors
-Disconnect other (DVD/CD) drives
-Reinstall all drivers
-Check all Windows updates
-Replace/upgrade RAM to 2GB (2x1GB) Kingston PC2 6400 (automatically increased speed from 200MHz to 333MHz, and changed ratio to 3:5. No adjustments allowed in BIOS) -Runs fine & more responsive, but no change in data transfer.
-Beat head on keyboard repeatedly
-Sob softly through Thanksgiving turkey dinner
It's midnight, they're picking up tomorrow (Friday), and it is reading +190 minutes remaining in transfer. I'll likely have it all back together in time, but I'm insanely curious as to what happened, and if it will cause more problems later on. Possible motherboard or HDD damage from frequent power spikes/outages here in Hawaii (I am getting them an UPS for future use)?
I am working on a friend's machine (HP Media Center PC m7227c) which I picked up originally to swap the power supply that died during a power outage. As we all do, I like to poke around and make sure everything is clean and running smooth while I've got the machine. It has a TV tuner, and they use it. The 300+GB WD HDD only had 15% of free space. About 80% of the data was saved TV recordings. The drive looked like it had never been defragged. I've never seen so many red stripes before.
Here's where the problem begins. The defrag process was taking for-ev-er, so I offloaded a bunch of their recordings to an external eSATA HDD and it made a world of difference. It only took a couple minutes to offload the 200GB+ of data, and in about 30 min or less it was as defragged as it could get. Easy enough, right? Just copy all the data back and defrag a couple more times and I'm done.
I wish it were so easy. I've poured about 18 hours into this machine and it still hasn't copied all the files back yet. I haven't seen data move this slow since my K6-2 550. Any ideas? The machine works, and seems to be running normal overall. Here's the specs and list of things I tried already:
Their system:
Windows XP MCE 2002 w/ SP3
Asus P5LP-LE (custom for HP) motherboard
Pentium D 830 3GHz dual-core
1GB (2x512) Samsung PC2-3200U RAM
Western Digital WD3200JD
ATI Radeon X600 graphics
BFG Tech 550W PSU
My Drive:
Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB "green power" variable-speed
My trials:
-Reboot
-Run chkdisk
-Remove my drive from enclosure and connect directly to motherboard
-Check cables and power connectors
-Disconnect other (DVD/CD) drives
-Reinstall all drivers
-Check all Windows updates
-Replace/upgrade RAM to 2GB (2x1GB) Kingston PC2 6400 (automatically increased speed from 200MHz to 333MHz, and changed ratio to 3:5. No adjustments allowed in BIOS) -Runs fine & more responsive, but no change in data transfer.
-Beat head on keyboard repeatedly
-Sob softly through Thanksgiving turkey dinner
It's midnight, they're picking up tomorrow (Friday), and it is reading +190 minutes remaining in transfer. I'll likely have it all back together in time, but I'm insanely curious as to what happened, and if it will cause more problems later on. Possible motherboard or HDD damage from frequent power spikes/outages here in Hawaii (I am getting them an UPS for future use)?
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