Question HDD surface scan and USB ?

[ufodrive]

Hi guys, do you know if and to what extent Victoria HDD/HDDScan surface scans are affected by USB connection? I noticed that when I disable USB 3.0 drivers and use only 2.0 (~40 mb/s) my external hard drives present no slow sectors, whereas when USB 3.0 is enabled and the drives are scanned at full speed (~180 mb/s), all of them present a large amount of orange or red sectors (which cause blocks and warnings in Victoria). Is this normal at all?
Thank you!

 

[ufodrive]

Nobody?

 

[ufodrive]

I am supposed to refrain from bumping the thread, I know... But still, my thread is virtually the only one among the recent ones that has gone deserted, and I wonder why. I won't insist further anyway. This is my last attempt. Thank you for your attention.

 

[4745454b]

By bumping your thread you remove it from the threads with no replies list. This removes a source of potential viewers. Unless you actually fell down to page 3 or 4 this was a bad idea.

This is a very odd thing and I'm not sure why this would be. The only thing that really comes to mind is a driver issue if it's fixed by removing 3.0 drivers and using 2.0. Updating Chipset, USB, and victoria might help this.

I've also never heard of Victoria before. Does the error happen with other programs? Does the error happen on 2.0 or 3.0 connections or both?

 

[Bob.B]

I am supposed to refrain from bumping the thread, I know... But still, my thread is virtually the only one among the recent ones that has gone deserted, and I wonder why. I won't insist further anyway. This is my last attempt. Thank you for your attention.

Here's another tool you can play with see if it makes a diff.
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/hd_tune.html

 

[ufodrive]

By bumping your thread you remove it from the threads with no replies list. This removes a source of potential viewers. Unless you actually fell down to page 3 or 4 this was a bad idea.

This is a very odd thing and I'm not sure why this would be. The only thing that really comes to mind is a driver issue if it's fixed by removing 3.0 drivers and using 2.0. Updating Chipset, USB, and victoria might help this.

I've also never heard of Victoria before. Does the error happen with other programs? Does the error happen on 2.0 or 3.0 connections or both?

Thanks for your reply.
It's odd indeed. To answer your questions, 1) yes, it happens with HDDScan as well (scans report plenty of red blocks, that is >500ms); 2) the error happens on 3.0 only: when on 2.0 the are no orange or red sectors, just dark grey sectors, which make up the majority of sectors though - usually light grey sectors (should) outnumber the dark grey ones.

Here's another tool you can play with see if it makes a diff.
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/hd_tune.html

Thanks for sharing. I run HD Tune, too. Both the quick and extended tests reported no errors.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

I run HD Tune, too. Both the quick and extended tests reported no errors.

You made a smart move in trying a more well-known diagnostic utiltity, especially as Victoria is only "experimental" software and looks very crude judging by the screenshots on their website. Main reason you initially received no replies is the fact that very few THF members have used it because it's so primitive and clunky.

 

[ufodrive]

You made a smart move in trying a more well-known diagnostic utiltity, especially as Victoria is only "experimental" software and looks very crude judging by the screenshots on their website. Main reason you initially received no replies is the fact that very few THF members have used it because it's so primitive and clunky.

I see, thank you for your comment, Phillip.

In any case, I think that what's causing all the blocks is the fact that "something" keeps accessing the drives even when they're supposed to be idle. But that happens only when USB 3.0 drivers are enabled.
By the way, the drives look fine when I scan them on another computer.
I wonder if leaving the drives constantly connected to my "problematic" laptop will somehow damage them or prematurely wear them out (?). I think that if I could do a clean installation of Windows now, I would fix these problems. But I hope there's a less invasive and time consuming way... I tried reinstalling USB drivers, for instance, but it didn't work.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

HD Tune hasn't reported any problems with your drives so as I see it, it's Victoria that's the problem, not your drives, so simply stop using it.

I'm not sure why you seem to think you still have problems that need fixing ?

 

[ufodrive]

It's not just Victoria, to be fair. HDDScan, for instance, reports the same slow sectors. However, when using USB 2.0 drivers AND/OR under a different version of Windows, there are no blocks.

 

[Bob.B]

It's not just Victoria, to be fair. HDDScan, for instance, reports the same slow sectors. However, when using USB 2.0 drivers AND/OR under a different version of Windows, there are no blocks.

Does the resource monitor show something accessing the disk?

Does this problem follow to other usb ports?