Why would the Win Exp Index not move after new HDD?

lyphe

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Oct 4, 2010
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Curious if anyone can shed some light on this.

I recently upgraded my HDD to a Western Digital Velociraptor 600gb Sata. It has a transfer speed of 6gb/s @ 10,000 rpm and 32mb. So it is a very capable drive in all respects that I can see ( http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=15_210_212&item_id=030978 .

After installing it, I decided to run my Windows Experience Index again for fun. My old score used to come in at a 5.9 and was previously only dragged down by my old hard drive ( my old scores were 7.6 , 7.5 , 7.9, 7.9, and 5.9 for the hard drive ). After running the score again ... my NEW hard drive is now only scoring a 5.9 still - which I can 't quite understand.

After seeing this 5.9 associated with the new drive, I wondered if my drive was actually as fast as advertised - but I'm not sure if there is a way to test it. Or was it even possible that I got some form of pirated version ( I bought from a reputable retailer - but you never really know I guess ).

Does anyone have any idea why the index would still only show a 5.9? What could the index be looking for that a HDD like this new WD would fall short on ( in Window's eyes )?

Any thoughts appreciated.
 
Solution
There has been considerable discussions on this topic.
Mechanical HDs are pretty much capped at 5.9. 7.9 is max and only SSDs score a 6.o or above. High end SSDs are 20 -> 50 times faster than HDDs and cap out at 7.9. Mid level SSDs score around 6.8->7.3. WEI is not the best tool at judging Hard drive performance. If you want to see a valid comparission, use a HD benchmark toolk such as AS or crystal disk mark.
There has been considerable discussions on this topic.
Mechanical HDs are pretty much capped at 5.9. 7.9 is max and only SSDs score a 6.o or above. High end SSDs are 20 -> 50 times faster than HDDs and cap out at 7.9. Mid level SSDs score around 6.8->7.3. WEI is not the best tool at judging Hard drive performance. If you want to see a valid comparission, use a HD benchmark toolk such as AS or crystal disk mark.
 
Solution

forensic computer guy

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Jan 31, 2011
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I know this is a year old but i just stumbled onto this thread and for those that read this in the future I have the real answer.

You're issue could also be caused by not properly installing your motherboard's AHCI driver when installing your OS. For windows when you set your PC's BIOS to AHCI you often have to use a USB drive loaded with your chipset's AHCI drivers to install your AHCI driver BEFORE installing windows 7 (or the F6 option on older Windows OSs). If you use a legacy/IDE driver for your SATA controller when installing windows you'll inherently limit your disk's performance because of the limitation in the driver operating your disk.

To check your driver goto the device manager in windows and look under the "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" section, when you click the (+) the hardware component that shows should have "AHCI" in it, if it does then you can update that AHCI driver to see if the index score goes up, if it doesn't say "AHCI" there are some workarounds if your google, but the short answer is to reinstall your OS with AHCI enabled in the BIOS and install the driver for AHCI before installing windows from within the windows setup.

I've had a Velociraptor for a while and it scored above 5.9 with AHCI drivers, I have an SSD now @ 7.5, but i forgot my own advice on first install of my new build and the SSD had 5.9 because of the non-ahci driver.