HDD very low read speed and high access time

moinhadiyan

Honorable
Feb 15, 2013
3
0
10,510
Hi to all

I have ST9750423AS seagate 750GB HDD in my ASUS N55SF notebook

about three weeks ago, read speed falls dramatically. Tested by HD tune pro, It found only 32 pending sector, after a full format with Seatools (zero fill), the current pending sector became zero but no enhancement in HDD performance and speed !!! and the current pending sector increased again and now reached 16 🙁

Here are images of HD Tune Pro. You see high flactuation in read speed and high outlying access time !!

Any suggestion or comment is highy appreciated

http://img.upload724.com/download.php?file=74069858177802807350.png
http://img.upload724.com/download.php?file=33672265103921611508.png
 
Test the drive with SeaTools for DOS which loads from a boot CD:
http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/

Create a CD from the SeaTools ISO file with IMGBurn: http://www.filehippo.com/download_imgburn/

Boot your laptop from that CD and SeaTools will load. Test the hard drive using Long/Extended test.
If it reports failures the drive needs replacing.
 
Thanks ! I have already created that CD and booted from it, but just ran the short test which showed no problem, then I used the zero fill option ( low level format ) but nothing changed!
So Do you say the extended test, consider the electromechanical issues too and it is the ultimate test?
 
Current pending sector count is bad. Reallocated sector count tells you how many sectors were bad and had to be reallocated. Pending sector count means you are now out of spare sectors for data to be moved onto in case a bad sector is found.

This drive needs replaced or you will just end up losing data. Formatting is not a fix.
 



Thank you Hawkeye! But regarding the SMART attributes, there is no reallocated sectors , can it be a firmware fault?
 
That doesn't sound right. Reallocated sectors should max out before the current pending sector count even starts to move. I guess it could be firmware, but you may also want to try a utility other than HDTune just to verify the SMART status.
 
Pending sectors are those that are waiting to be replaced. The reason that they are pending is that they cannot be replaced until such time as the HDD knows that the original data are of no value, otherwise what would it write to the spare sector?

This means that the drive either waits for one good read at some future time, and then decides whether the sector should be replaced or salvaged, or it waits for the OS to write new data to the sector, at which time the sector is retested and returned to service if good, or replaced if bad. When the pending sector is replaced, the Current Pending Count decrements by 1 and the Reallocated Sector Count increments by 1.
 
Got this info from another site and it fixed the exact same problem for me.
Quoting from the site... "Turns out ATA/IDE controllers will often revert back to PIO mode instead of Ultra-dma.
Check the problem by examining the controller’s Primary and Secondary IDE settings: Device Manager -> IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers -> Primary or Secondary IDE Channel -> Properties -> Advanced Settings. Look at the Current Transfer Mode field. If it’s “PIO” then it’s a FUBAR PITA and you’ll need to uninstall the driver, reboot and let XP do its magic reinstall."

Worth a try even if it says ultra dma.
WS