Slow HDD read/write speed and showing 99% active time on task manager

[Apekss]

I recently changed my motherboard to an Asrock H61M-VG4. My HDD is 6 Gb/s but the motherboard has only 3 Gb/s SATA. After I installed the mobo my HDD is always at 99% usage and the speeds are really slow. What's the problem causing this?
My HDD is a Seagate Barracuda 3TB.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there Apekss,

What do you mean by slow? What is your OS? Which port is the HDD attached to?

I believe that just backing up the data stored on the drive would be a good start.

After that, you can:
- Attach the drive with different SATA and power cables to another port.
- Update your MOBO's drivers.
- Check the drive's health status out: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/282651-32-best-diagnostic-testing-utility
- It could be your OS that is causing this. Depending on the OS, there are multiple causes and many different solutions.

Apart from all this, the fact that the port is SATA 2, shouldn't really limit the HDD's speed.

Let me know how this goes,
D_Know_WD

 

[Apekss]

Hi there Apekss,

What do you mean by slow? What is your OS? Which port is the HDD attached to?

I believe that just backing up the data stored on the drive would be a good start.

After that, you can:
- Attach the drive with different SATA and power cables to another port.
- Update your MOBO's drivers.
- Check the drive's health status out: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/282651-32-best-diagnostic-testing-utility
- It could be your OS that is causing this. Depending on the OS, there are multiple causes and many different solutions.

Apart from all this, the fact that the port is SATA 2, shouldn't really limit the HDD's speed.

Let me know how this goes,
D_Know_WD

I also format my pc 3 days ago but still the same thing.
I have seen speeds of 50kb/s sometimes 5mb/s 10mb/s
I also downloaded the tool from seagates site and run a test and it pass the test.
I tried changing my SATA cable but still the same thing.
My HDD is a SATA 6Gb/s and it's connected to a 3Gb/s SATA port on the motherboard.
My OS is Windows 10.

Btw it's not showing all the time 99-100% usage but a lot of times in the day I see that on the task manager.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Can you post a screenshot of the SMART report?
I see you've changed the SATA cable. You will need to use a different power cable as well. I've come across cases where the power cable was the cause for high disk usage.
How many SATA ports does your MOBO have? I see that your HDD is SATA 3 while the port is SATA 2. Yet, you can attach it to a different SATA port, no matter if it is SATA 2. In most cases, you need to attach your OS drive to SATA port 0. (you can check that in the MOBO's manual)

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

 

[Apekss]

Can you post a screenshot of the SMART report?
I see you've changed the SATA cable. You will need to use a different power cable as well. I've come across cases where the power cable was the cause for high disk usage.
How many SATA ports does your MOBO have? I see that your HDD is SATA 3 while the port is SATA 2. Yet, you can attach it to a different SATA port, no matter if it is SATA 2. In most cases, you need to attach your OS drive to SATA port 0. (you can check that in the MOBO's manual)

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

I tried changing power cable but still the same thing I guess. Speeds are really slow... 50-150 KB/s
Don't know what's happening.
Also when I put the HDD to SATA port 0 my pc open and then after 10 sec it close on its own. Don't know if it was from that or because I messed up how I connected the front panel power connector because it came out when I tried switching the SATA ports.

 

[The_Ntin]

NOT AN ANSWER , COMMENT

I have a Seagate baracuda aswell with the exact same problem

 

[Apekss]

NOT AN ANSWER , COMMENT

I have a Seagate baracuda aswell with the exact same problem

Well I guess it's time for a change? The weird thing is that it was working ok on my previous motherboard. Don't know what's happening now...

 

[Apekss]

Can you post a screenshot of the SMART report?
I see you've changed the SATA cable. You will need to use a different power cable as well. I've come across cases where the power cable was the cause for high disk usage.
How many SATA ports does your MOBO have? I see that your HDD is SATA 3 while the port is SATA 2. Yet, you can attach it to a different SATA port, no matter if it is SATA 2. In most cases, you need to attach your OS drive to SATA port 0. (you can check that in the MOBO's manual)

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

Do I need to change something from the BIOS maybe?

 

[D_Know_WD]

Well, you can clear the CMOS. (set BIOS to defaults)

Up until now, you've done the following:
- Tested the drive - it's ok.
- Attached it to another port with both different SATA and power cables.

Am I right?

Also, you can update your MOBO's drivers.

If the issue persists, you can try one last thing. Grab a CD/USB drive, boot(just boot, don't install it) Ubuntu from it and see if the drive would have slow transfer speeds once again. You do this, so you can see if the issue is OS related. (trying a different OS)
Thread on Ubuntu Live CD: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/267999-32-recover-data-mode

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

 

[Apekss]

Well, you can clear the CMOS. (set BIOS to defaults)

Up until now, you've done the following:
- Tested the drive - it's ok.
- Attached it to another port with both different SATA and power cables.

Am I right?

Also, you can update your MOBO's drivers.

If the issue persists, you can try one last thing. Grab a CD/USB drive, boot(just boot, don't install it) Ubuntu from it and see if the drive would have slow transfer speeds once again. You do this, so you can see if the issue is OS related. (trying a different OS)
Thread on Ubuntu Live CD: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/267999-32-recover-data-mode

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

There must be something with the motherboard because with the old one it was working fine but I will try to run Ubuntu and check how it goes. Thanks.

 

[Apekss]

Well, you can clear the CMOS. (set BIOS to defaults)

Up until now, you've done the following:
- Tested the drive - it's ok.
- Attached it to another port with both different SATA and power cables.

Am I right?

Also, you can update your MOBO's drivers.

If the issue persists, you can try one last thing. Grab a CD/USB drive, boot(just boot, don't install it) Ubuntu from it and see if the drive would have slow transfer speeds once again. You do this, so you can see if the issue is OS related. (trying a different OS)
Thread on Ubuntu Live CD: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/267999-32-recover-data-mode

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

Btw what are the write/read speeds I should be getting at task manager with my HDD?

 

[The_Ntin]

NOT AN ANSWER , COMMENT

I have a Seagate baracuda aswell with the exact same problem

Well I guess it's time for a change? The weird thing is that it was working ok on my previous motherboard. Don't know what's happening now...

exact same problem indeed, i changed a mobo as well
it looks like something is up with the Seagate but it might needs further investigation

 

[Apekss]

Well, you can clear the CMOS. (set BIOS to defaults)

Up until now, you've done the following:
- Tested the drive - it's ok.
- Attached it to another port with both different SATA and power cables.

Am I right?

Also, you can update your MOBO's drivers.

If the issue persists, you can try one last thing. Grab a CD/USB drive, boot(just boot, don't install it) Ubuntu from it and see if the drive would have slow transfer speeds once again. You do this, so you can see if the issue is OS related. (trying a different OS)
Thread on Ubuntu Live CD: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/267999-32-recover-data-mode

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

Here's a pic from Ubuntu speeds benchmark

http://imgur.com/a/iWAt7

http://imgur.com/a/S7HuE

 

[Apekss]

Well, you can clear the CMOS. (set BIOS to defaults)

Up until now, you've done the following:
- Tested the drive - it's ok.
- Attached it to another port with both different SATA and power cables.

Am I right?

Also, you can update your MOBO's drivers.

If the issue persists, you can try one last thing. Grab a CD/USB drive, boot(just boot, don't install it) Ubuntu from it and see if the drive would have slow transfer speeds once again. You do this, so you can see if the issue is OS related. (trying a different OS)
Thread on Ubuntu Live CD: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/267999-32-recover-data-mode

Cheers,
D_Know_WD

I think it's ok now... Probably the problem was the power cable as you said but I didn't watch the usage on my HDD but now it doesn't go at 100%. And read speeds I got was 188 MB/s average on a benchmark. Thanks anyway.
Have a nice day.
I wonder how a power cable affected it so much because my PSU is pretty new.

 

[D_Know_WD]

It's great you've sorted this out.
Obviously, the was something wrong with the cable, even though your PSU is a new one.

When it comes to drives, always start with simple things, just like cables and ports.

D_Know_WD