Unstable hard drive

[williamcummins]

Hi guys,
I recently turned my external storage drive into a internal hard drive. The problem is that when I download or transfer large files into this new partition, the transfer time is unstable. For example, the time estimator for transferring a 2G document shows around 2 minutes, then suddenly goes up to 27 minutes for a certain time, then goes back to normal. I assumed that the transfer flow is bottlnecked somewhere for some reason. How can I fix this?

The device is a LaCie Rikiki USB 3.0 1T (http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?id=10517).

I plugged the device into my mobo using Sata III 6Gb/s cable in the proper slot.

 

[Hawkeye22]

Have you checked the smart status of the drive or run a chkdsk on it? If all checks out ok, then I'd try repartioning and formatting the drive. Its possible that the enclosures logic board used some kind of odd partioning/access controls.

 

[reedo_43]

The transfer time could also fluctuate depending on what it is copying at that moment. IE...lots of relatively small mp3s or a large 4 gig contiguous movie file.

 

[williamcummins]

Ok so i've run S.M.A.R.T. tests (write and manage) on the drive and it appears to be unstable. The 'performance' graph had a low peak somewhere at beginning of the test then had a constant curve. Do you guys know what could possibly cause that type of results?

 

[Hawkeye22]

A SMART test should list any problems. it's not a speed test. Try using Crystal disk Info to check the SMART status. It should look like the screen shot on the left.

 

[williamcummins]

Ok, i'll try this after work and post the results tonight. Thank you Hawkeye!

 

[williamcummins]

Ok so I've downloaded Crystal disk Info, but have no idea how to run tests. Any tips?

 

[Hawkeye22]

Doesn't it start with a window that shows your drive status? It should list all your drives across the top. Just select the drive and it will show the drive condition. There are no tests to run. It's reading the SMART status directly from the drive. If you can't figure it out, just download the portable addition as it starts at the status screen.

http://sourceforge.jp/projects/crystaldiskinfo/downloads/58588/CrystalDiskInfo5_6_2.zip/

 

[williamcummins]

Well the program says that the drive status is : good. Do I need to let it run for a day, or try adding and retreiving stuff from it? Because like I said in my first post, it doesn't seem to be constant failure.

 

[Hawkeye22]

No need to let it run. No SMART errors is a good thing. You can try running a chkdsk on it. Also, what OS are you running?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/check-your-hard-disk-for-errors

 

[williamcummins]

My OS is Windows 7 home premium. It's installed on another device (ssd working perfectly). I'll try to check disk as it's suggested in the link you sent.

 

[Hawkeye22]

If the chkdsk doesn't fix it, the only other thing I can thing of is this may be an advanced format drive and the sector alignment is off. Here is some information on that.

http://www.overclock.net/t/1226963/how-to-properly-re-align-your-ssd-hdd-partitions

 

[williamcummins]

I've run a check disk and nothing appears to be broke or bad... I will try re-align my 2 drives tonight. Thanks again for the tips.