1 Good Drive 1 Bad Drive

[The_PCNewb]

First of all I would appreciate it if you guys could read this thread of mine and get a background to my problem, give your opinion on that as well as answer my current questions. (I realized I posted that in the wrong category)
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2466692/lag-bad-hard-drive-diagnose.html

Now I'm getting a new SSD or HD, I haven't decided on that yet will depend on the price and whats available. But what I want to know is that, I've been reading about how people have 2 or more HDs or SSDs, one to run the OS and the others for storage(which btw was completely new to me, didn't know you could do that) So I wanna know considering the current state of my HD, if i cant get it replaced, can i use it for storage as well. And if i do will it affect the performance of my new drive and the OS I will install on it. For example if I stored a movie on the bad drive and then played it will it stutter/lag/freeze like it does now. And all the other problems that I face currently would they still occur or would they only happen if I accessed something on the bad drive.
Also I have been toying with hard drive checkers. HD Tune and Seagate Seatools.
In HD Tune I wasn't able to complete the Full Scan but up till 1142GB it was all OK. Also in Quick Scan it came out out all 2000GBs were OK.
In Seagate Seatools Short Generic Test Passed, but the Long Generic one said that I should get the drive replaced, The Short Drive Self Test couldn't run either and said the same. I don't know if it was because my drive is actually bad or it couldn't run properly due to the freezing caused by the... drive. Also I ran the Disk Checker on C drive from Windows 8. I gave it around 1&1/2 hours but it didn't get past 13%. After which I restarted my computer and it went into Startup Recovery and gave me the option to Reset or Repair and the other stuff. It took me a couple of tries because it kept going into Disk Checker and get stuck at 13%. But I got working normally and so far its starting up and shutting down fine. The lag mentioned in my other thread is still there. And I also encountered the Blue Screen on Windows 8 for the first time.

I'm still not completely certain if my drive is actually the problem, but I'm still going to get a new one in a couple of days.

 

[Mattios]

I don't really understand your question(s) - if you use a bad drive that causes stuttering then yes it will still cause issues if the OS is on a different drive.

However, this drive would have to be awful to not be able to play a movie. How old is it? Model? Can you look in task manager and see if disk use is 100%

 

[The_PCNewb]

I don't really understand your question(s) - if you use a bad drive that causes stuttering then yes it will still cause issues if the OS is on a different drive.

However, this drive would have to be awful to not be able to play a movie. How old is it? Model? Can you look in task manager and see if disk use is 100%

As of right now its going between 1% and 0%.

 

[Mattios]

I meant when the movie stutters.

 

[The_PCNewb]

I meant when the movie stutters.

HD Tune Pro: ST2000DM001-1CH164
Drive info
Name : ST2000DM001-1CH164
Firmware version : CC29
Serial number : W1E5ZPR3
Capacity : 2000 gB
: 2,000,395,837,440 bytes
: 3,907,023,120 sectors
Available space : 1092 gB (55%)
S.M.A.R.T. : yes
Temperature : yes
Self-test : yes
Drive statistics : no
Physical sector size : 4096 bytes
Logical sector size : 512 bytes

Ummm I actually don't have any movie on my drive right now. But what I can tell you is that it freezes not just on movies stored on the drive but videos on YouTube as well. Sometimes it will be smooth and there will be no freezing whatsoever and then sometimes its going to freeze on almost everything I do. Windows explorer .exe has stopped working and stuff like that.

 

[Mattios]

Have you run a malware scan? https://www.malwarebytes.org/

 

[The_PCNewb]

Have you run a malware scan? https://www.malwarebytes.org/

I hadn't and I did. It found 1 PUP, Softonic Registry Key. I quarantined. All else is clear...
Do you think as I mentioned in my other thread, that improper shutdowns due to power cuts(more than 80% of the time) could ruin a hard-drive? And it would not show the problem in the software or you could say digitally but physically it could be ruined?

 

[Mattios]

I'm no electrician but HDDs obviously aren't built to withstand many power outages - if you get them most of the time then yes this could be a significant factor. However, I would say this either makes or breaks the drive - doesn't just slow it down.

 

[Chicano]

Answering to your previous post:

Possible causes:
1. Hard Drive
a) Run Hard Drive Sentinel: the graphic scan results will tell if the HD is the issue... You will get two main results, Performance and Health... The one with the low percentage will indicate the condition... if Health reads lower it's hardware if Performance reads lower it may be software or hardware but as you have reinstalled and done everything possible to find a sofware issue without success it will problably mean hardware..... by that I mean including the HD data cable so check it's fitting, change it, etc.

b) If you have not partitioned the HDD, try dividing it into 4 partitions or at least 3. Large HDDs are meant to be partitioned but most people don't like messing with partitions and computer builders try saving time and labor installing without partitioning. But it's logical to use partitions because you create free disk for storage, for backups, for temporary OS installations meant to recover data from the OS partition, etc. and data or storage partitions may suffer less sector damage than OS partitions.

A computer I have with good resources dit the pause occasionally and it stopped doing it after I formatted the HDD, then ran a Low Level Format tool, and followed with Flobo Hard Disk Repair. That HDD was reading 25% with HD Sentinel and after the said repairs it now reads 73%.
So, depending on your HDD condition, it may benefit from a thorough repair done with these tools.

2. RAM
Some motherboards don't like single channel RAM, some will not even run with it. You could reseat the RAM module, clean the RAM pins, air blow the RAM socket, run Memtest on it, try another RAM module for dual channel.

Your computer has enough resources for good performance but it has RAM installed in single channel. Single to dual channel difference in performance is minimal but some motherboards don't perform well in single channel... some will not boot or even post. So consider this but leave adding a second ram module as last resort.

3. Power Supply
A weak or dying PSU can cause this type of issues. PSU have different symptoms but I once experienced a failing PSU that caused this type of lags; For example when typing on a Word file, it would often pause momentarily before showing the typed letters or words and also after pressing Enter... when it finally died it had left a black stain on the inner PSU case.

As for this thread:
Replacing the HD or not depends on the results from the previous suggestions. And depending on the results and HD condition, you could use it for storage or for a Windows Installation. Depending if HD Sentinel says it's excellent, good, fair or bad.

Playing movies that are stored on a "bad" HDD should not be much different from playing it from a good HDD. The program does not play it directly from the HDD it loads it to caché and plays it from there so the HDD condition should not have much of an effect unless the HDD is really bad.

OS Performance may not be affected unless you access files on the HDD and that would be measured in milliseconds... the HDD can even go to sleep while you are not using it, depending on your Power Options settings, if that should be the case accessing information on it would take longer while the HD spins up. The Startup Repair issue was caused by stopping CHKDS at 13% as you may have stopped it when it was fixing/moving startup sectors or data.

 

[The_PCNewb]

OK so just wanted to post a quick response. I ran Hard Drive Sentinel and apparently it said that my hard drive is in perfect state. But I'm not sure it ran properly because it didn't show any percentages you were talking about. Also my hardrive had 3 partitions. I didn't suspect the RAM because I don't think it would suddenly decide to not like my motherboard after working fine for so many months. Also I had run memory diagnostic from windows a couple of times and it didn't show any problems.
Now when you mentioned the power supply my suspicions were raised. Because it was the oldest part in my computer and was a cheap one from Dany that I got in 2010/2011 when the PSU I had before had fried from a power surge from the ups. Also I paid a little more attention to its fan which was making more noise than the other fans in my computer.
Alright now if you're wondering why I've been talking about everything in the past its because after reading your reply I decided that I'd do a little bit of physical snoopin so I opened up the case.(which was when I realized the power supply was full of dust and also the noise) I took out the RAM blew on it and put it back. Took out the SATA cable from the drive and mobo and plugged it back in. Now after doing all this when I put everything back in its place and turned on the computer there was no display. The monitor was completely blank and there was no power to the mouse and keyboard. So I reopened the case to check if I'd put something in the wrong place because I was scared I usually don't mess around with the innards of the computer. But everything seemed in place. So I tried it a couple of times to make it work but nothing. So currently I've sent it to be checked by a proper computer guy. When I read up on this kind of problem mostly the cause was the mobo or PSU. Hopefully its not the mobo because I really don't have the money right now to get that changed. My suspicion is the PSU. Let's see what comes up, I'll keep you guys posted. Thanks for the help. If it still isn't fixed... Well there's always Toms Hardware.

 

[Chicano]

I have read one or two cases where a single RAM module had worked and suddenly had issues... it may not be your case, but keep it in mind just in case it remains the last thing to suspect.

About the difference in performance from Hard disk to hard disk, that may be due to different damage to sectors caused by the power outagaes.

PSUs can be working near normally and after you disconnect it and move thing around, they can suddenly fail... and this failure seems to correspond with point #3 of my last response. See which of the following descriptions matches your issue:
1. f the BIOS beeper sounds out a known code when you turn the computer on; chances are it's hardware
2. If the BIOS beeper sounds out an unidentifiable code (though sometimes there is no code); chances are it's the motherboard
3. If the BIOS beeper doesn't sound a code; chances are it's the PSU

 

[The_PCNewb]

I have read one or two cases where a single RAM module had worked and suddenly had issues... it may not be your case, but keep it in mind just in case it remains the last thing to suspect.

About the difference in performance from Hard disk to hard disk, that may be due to different damage to sectors caused by the power outagaes.

PSUs can be working near normally and after you disconnect it and move thing around, they can suddenly fail... and this failure seems to correspond with point #3 of my last response. See which of the following descriptions matches your issue:
1. f the BIOS beeper sounds out a known code when you turn the computer on; chances are it's hardware
2. If the BIOS beeper sounds out an unidentifiable code (though sometimes there is no code); chances are it's the motherboard
3. If the BIOS beeper doesn't sound a code; chances are it's the PSU

Hello after a long time. I was in the process of moving so wasn't able to get on Toms. The reason I'm back is because my problem isn't completely fixed yet. I received my computer back from the guy, he said there were a couple of things wrong. Firstly the PSU fan needed repairing, something about cells in the mobo being finished, a solder on the mobo being broken as well as a few wires being fried. Now I have to admit that a bit of the problem I was having is fixed. It doesn't have the constant freezing like it did before. But it still does, less frequently though. So now I'm not as frustrated as before but still do want to be able to do the things I could before like gaming for example. Now I'm pretty sure that it will freeze when I run a game, actually it does. I ran L4D2 which tbh is not that demanding but it kept on freezing. So in everyday tasks the freezing is somewhere around 25-30%. Butin gaming its a lot higher. Now I'm not exactly sure what to suspect. The repair guy said that if i still have the problems then the hardrive would be the next thing to be replaced. Just wanted to get your opinion on this.

 

[Chicano]

1. HD Sentinel shows the percentage results right in front as it starts. If it's not showing results in percentages, and as you mentioned previously having tried different HDD checkers unsuccessfully, it would mean that for some reason, the HDD scans are inconclusive... but the same issues that make it freeze are probably what prevent successfull readings.

I doubt doing higher demmanding tasks would make the HDD freeze, by this I mean something else may be at play, things like bad sectors, bad logic board, bad head, or something as simple as a damaged partition table or file system... so, you may have to format it to get deffinite HDD results. HDDs with serious (and even not so serious) issues are not well recognized, don't boot, and/or don't work well... and you are using it which means the damage is not so bad yet. So, before replacing the HDD backup your data and format it with a Low Level Format Tool or Flobo HDD Repair.. if the HDD damage is bad sectors or HDD code (Partition table, or file system) and not physical or logic board damage, it may still be recoverable. How recoverable? for example: I have a old IDE HDD that registeres 25% health with HD Sentinel, and after running Flobo HDD Repair on it, it now reads 73%, so these HDD tools do work if the damage is not physical which can come along with HDD noise of some kind unless it's in the logic board.

2. A bad PSU fan could damage the PSU.. if there is impropper cooling to protect the PSU components, damage to it could be expected, so consider this possibility.

3. Mobo cells?.. the only componenet that could be called a cell is the battery... is that the cell you were told is finished?.

4. The solder on the mobo as well as a few wires being broken/burned could cause other mobo damage.

So unless the mobo was successfully repaired, it would be the first thing to suspect of.. and if the PSU works fine on another computer, it would mean the bad cooler fan did not cause PSU damage and with it, mobo damage. We can read all the time folks recommending quality PSUs because cheap, weak and inefficient PSUs can damage motheroards, and a damaged PSU would do the same.