Question Problems with my HDD

[ChachoGoMode]

Hello,

To Preface- PC Specs:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
GPU: Nvidia RTX 3060
SSD: Corsair MP400 1TB
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2 TB (2018)
RAM: Corsair CMW16GX4M2D3600C18 2x8GB
PSU: Corsair RM750x

I've been having an immense amount of trouble with my drives (and quite frankly, my whole PC is performing below expectations via User Benchmark). My HDD has been running at a best read time of 10 MBs at 100%. As a result, my boot up time, loading into browsers, etc. has been extremely slow. I ran CrystalDiskInfo and it says my drives are doing okay. I've been scanning forums but have not found anything that has solved my issue.

Any insight into what might be going on would be greatly appreciated.


User Benchmark:
UserBenchmarks: Game 89%, Desk 94%, Work 87%
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X - 90.2%
GPU: Nvidia RTX 3060 - 97.4%
SSD: Corsair MP400 1TB - 118.9%
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB (2018) - 71.3%
RAM: Corsair CMW16GX4M2D3600C18 2x8GB - 68.4%
MBD: MSI MEG X570 UNIFY (MS-7C35)

 

[Satan-IR]

Welcome to the forums! Isn't the SSD your boot/system drive for the OS?

 

[ChachoGoMode]

Welcome to the forums! Isn't the SSD your boot/system drive for the OS?

My boot partition is on my HDD. I do believe that if I move it to my SSD, then that could solve my slow boot up problem. However, I would still have the remaining HDD problem, and that is why I haven't moved it over to the SSD yet.

 

[Satan-IR]

My boot partition is on my HDD. I do believe that if I move it to my SSD, then that could solve my slow boot up problem. However, I would still have the remaining HDD problem, and that is why I haven't moved it over to the SSD yet.

Yes that would improve boot up time. Have you checked the SMART of the HDD whether it's healthy or not?

You can try the trial version of HD Sentinel from here to see how the health status of the drive. Post a shot of that or any other software that shows SMART data to imgur and link here?

 

[ChachoGoMode]

Yes that would improve boot up time. Have you checked the SMART of the HDD whether it's healthy or not?

You can try the trial version of HD Sentinel from here to see how the health status of the drive. Post a shot of that or any other software that shows SMART data to imgur and link here?

I believe this is what you're looking for. Let me know if this is incorrect.

 

[Satan-IR]

I believe this is what you're looking for. Let me know if this is incorrect.

Yes. I'm affraid I forgot to mention you can right-click anywhere in the data field of the SMART and tick the "Decimal data fields" that changes the values into human readable numbers. That'd be easier for everyone to check at a glance.

 

[USAFRet]

1. Please show us a screencap of your Disk Management window
2. The HDD may well be failing. Are you prepared to replace it?

 

[ChachoGoMode]

Yes. I'm affraid I forgot to mention you can right-click anywhere in the data field of the SMART and tick the "Decimal data fields" that changes the values into human readable numbers. That'd be easier for everyone to check at a glance.

Here is the human-readable version!

 

[ChachoGoMode]

1. Please show us a screencap of your Disk Management window
2. The HDD may well be failing. Are you prepared to replace it?

Here is my Disk Management Window.

If replacing it is the only solution, I'll do what I must. I'd like to be certain that is the issue before going through with it.

 

[USAFRet]

Disk 0, the 2TB, is the HDD?
If so...your Windows install is NOT on the SSD, but rather the 2TB HDD.

Cloning from te HDD to the SSD is a possibility, maybe, but that WILL wipe out everything on the SSD.

 

[Zerk2012]

You should be using the SSD for boot drive anyhow another problem is your memory speed you need to enable XMP profile.

 

[Satan-IR]

Here is the human-readable version!

That 'command timeout' is a critical parameter and it happened twice and if I'm not mistaken it has to do with the power supply to the drive. Maybe contacts or cable in the SATA power cable or the drive itself.

I'm affraid USAFRet is right and the drive might be failing. I'd suggest copying any necessary personal/irreplacable files to other media.

Please also provide the shot from Disk Management as said above. That's help too.

Slower performance of the system might have other causes such as an non-optimzed configuration of CPU and RAM that others would have inputs on.

 

[ChachoGoMode]

Disk 0, the 2TB, is the HDD?
If so...your Windows install is NOT on the SSD, but rather the 2TB HDD.

Cloning from te HDD to the SSD is a possibility, maybe, but that WILL wipe out everything on the SSD.

Yes, Disk 0 is my hdd.
Any way I can move the boot up essentials over to the SSD without wiping it?

 

[ChachoGoMode]

If my HDD is failing, I happen to have a 1 TB 2.5' Seagate Barracuda. I could try strapping this one in and seeing if it reads any faster, thus highlighting a problem with my 2 TB one.

 

[Bob.B]

Yes, Disk 0 is my hdd.
Any way I can move the boot up essentials over to the SSD without wiping it?

Before you start moving data around enable xmp in the bios and also verify you have the ram in the proper slots.

Then run UBM again and post another link.

 

[USAFRet]

Yes, Disk 0 is my hdd.
Any way I can move the boot up essentials over to the SSD without wiping it?

No.

Cloning from the HDD to the SSD moves everything existing on the HDD.
Not just 'essentials'.

 

[Satan-IR]

That it's failure is imminent or not can't really be known. It might work for years even with these current values provided they don't increase as that can indicate a problem with the drive or power supply to it etc.

I also noticed that the "Power Off Retract cycle count" shows 8. That's lower than the start/stop count which is good but that value is related to non-standard power OFF cycles, for example caused by sudden power failure, power loss or hard reset etc.

However, also keep in mind that apart from start/stop values that are usually 0 some others are not 0 when HDD comes out of factory. As you didn't check that before we can't be sure whether all 8 instances happened while in use in your system.

Combining this with that 'command timeout' value the HDD might have problems. Not a bad idea to move anything important now.

 

[SkyNetRising]

The problem is - Seagate Barracuda is SMR drive.
It is unsuitable for being used as windows OS drive.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Any way I can move the boot up essentials over to the SSD without wiping it?

It's possible, but quite complicated.

1. Shrink partition E: as small as possible. Should have at least 250GB unallocated after shrinking.
2. Clone 100MB EFI system partition to SSD. Resulting partition should also be of type EFI system.
3. Clone C: partition to SSD.

At this point show result (screenshot from Disk Management).

If everything is done properly, then

disable hibernation from elevated command prompt, execute(powercfg -h off)​

shutdown,​

disconnect hdd,​

change boot settings to boot from Windows boot manager on SSD,​

try to boot into windows.​

If boot into windows is successful, then after this you can reconnect HDD and clean it using diskpart clean,
repartition and reformat it.

 

[ChachoGoMode]

Turning on XMP seemed to do good things. However, now I have a red led near my RAM. LED indicates something bad but it seems... good?

New UB:
UserBenchmarks: Game 100%, Desk 101%, Work 94%
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X - 97.9%
GPU: Nvidia RTX 3060 - 98.8%
SSD: Corsair MP400 1TB - 121.2%
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB (2018) - 49.2%
RAM: Corsair CMW16GX4M2D3600C18 2x8GB - 99.5%
MBD: MSI MEG X570 UNIFY (MS-7C35)

Also, my RAM seems to be in the best spots (DIMMA2 and DIMMB2) as per my motherboard manual.

 

[ChachoGoMode]

It's possible, but quite complicated.

1. Shrink partition E: as small as possible. Should have at least 250GB unallocated after shrinking.
2. Clone 100MB EFI system partition to SSD. Resulting partition should also be of type EFI system.
3. Clone C: partition to SSD.

At this point show result (screenshot from Disk Management).

If everything is done properly, then
disable hibernation from elevated command prompt execute(powercfg -h off)
shutdown,
disconnect hdd,
change boot settings to boot from Wibdows boot manager on SSD,
try to boot into windows.

If boot into windows is sucessfull, then after this you can reconnect HDD and clean it using diskpart clean,
repartition and reformat it.

I noticed that I only have games stored on my SSD. I seriously appreciate you taking the time to lay this out, but I think I will just clone my HDD to the SSD.

 

[ChachoGoMode]

I sincerely appreciate everyone's help with these issues. I have a lot on my plate, for sure.

My next course of action I think will be to clone my HDD to my SSD, and I will post any findings afterwards.

 

[SkyNetRising]

My next course of action I think will be to clone my HDD to my SSD, and I will post any findings afterwards.

Note - first boot from cloned drive has to be with old drive physically disconnected.
If you fail to do this, you'll have to redo cloning.

 

[Bob.B]

Turning on XMP seemed to do good things. However, now I have a red led near my RAM. LED indicates something bad but it seems... good?

New UB:
UserBenchmarks: Game 100%, Desk 101%, Work 94%
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X - 97.9%
GPU: Nvidia RTX 3060 - 98.8%
SSD: Corsair MP400 1TB - 121.2%
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2TB (2018) - 49.2%
RAM: Corsair CMW16GX4M2D3600C18 2x8GB - 99.5%
MBD: MSI MEG X570 UNIFY (MS-7C35)

Also, my RAM seems to be in the best spots (DIMMA2 and DIMMB2) as per my motherboard manual.

OK that's better.
Next step is to visit the mobo site and get the proper bios and chipset driver.

Then reboot and wait a few mins.
Run UBM with the browser closed and post a link.

 

[USAFRet]

My next course of action I think will be to clone my HDD to my SSD, and I will post any findings afterwards.

-----------------------------
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Both drives must be the same partitioning scheme, either MBR or GPT
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
If you are cloning from a SATA drive to PCIe/NVMe, install the relevant driver for this new NVMe/PCIe drive.
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive

[Ignore this section if using the SDM. It does this automatically]
If you are going from a smaller drive to a larger, by default, the target partition size will be the same as the Source. You probably don't want that
You can manipulate the size of the partitions on the target (larger)drive
Click on "Cloned Partition Properties", and you can specifiy the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing
[/end ignore]

Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD. This is not optional.
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD
Swap the SATA cables around so that the new drive is connected to the same SATA port as the old drive
Power up, and verify the BIOS boot order
If good, continue the power up

It should boot from the new drive, just like the old drive.
Maybe reboot a time or two, just to make sure.

If it works, and it should, all is good.

Later, reconnect the old drive and wipe all partitions on it.
This will probably require the commandline diskpart function, and the clean command.

Ask questions if anything is unclear.
-----------------------------