Dying/Failing Old HDD?
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From: Franc Zabkar on 30 Dec 2009 05:46 On Tue, 29 Dec 2009 21:26:33 -0800, Ant <ant(a)zimage.comANT> put finger to keyboard and composed: >On 12/29/2009 9:00 PM PT, Franc Zabkar typed: >>> ... is getting slower and slower these days. >> >> Check whether it has been downgraded from DMA mode to PIO. > >Would that be in XP Pro. SP2's Device Manager? I don't use XP, but in Win98SE that's where you'd find it. These articles may help. DMA Mode for ATA/ATAPI Devices in Windows XP: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/IDE-DMA.mspx DMA reverts to PIO: http://winhlp.com/node/10 - Franc Zabkar -- Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.
From: Ant on 30 Dec 2009 10:28 Err, WHERE would that be in XP Pro. SP2's Device Manager? Sheesh, I forgot a word. ;) -- "To the gods I am an ant, but to the ants, I am a god." --unknown /\___/\ / /\ /\ \ Phil./Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site) | |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net \ _ / Nuke ANT from e-mail address: philpi(a)earthlink.netANT ( ) or ANTant(a)zimage.com Ant is currently not listening to any songs on his home computer.
From: Arno on 30 Dec 2009 10:44 Ant <ant(a)zimage.comant> wrote: > On 12/29/2009 6:59 PM PT, Arno typed: >>> I noticed my five(?) years old office PC's HDD is getting slower and >>> slower these days. I wonder if it is dying. I don't see anything in >>> SMART colors to show any issues. The technical values confuse me: >> >> Looks healthy. Likely just fragmented like crazy or low on free >> space. > I actually did defrag, but that didn't seem to help. Hmm! Nothing odd in > task manager. I did notice lots of disk activities. I see thios thing has only been restarted 72 times in 5 years. Maybe you have a memory leak in the OS or some application? Best check free memory. Other possible causes: - Spyware/malware. - Updated applications needing more resources or haveing (new) memory leaks. - A CPU with thermal throtheling and an unmaintained cooling system (dust, fan with lubrication problems) - Disk getting fuller and accesses more distributed (longer seeks) and maybe also more in the slower areas towards the end of the disk. If it is not that, maybe try to assess what is actually getting slower: Access time or throughput and to what degree. Arno -- Arno Wagner, Dr. sc. techn., Dipl. Inform., CISSP -- Email: arno(a)wagner.name GnuPG: ID: 1E25338F FP: 0C30 5782 9D93 F785 E79C 0296 797F 6B50 1E25 338F ---- Cuddly UI's are the manifestation of wishful thinking. -- Dylan Evans
From: Arno on 30 Dec 2009 10:55 Franc Zabkar <fzabkar(a)iinternode.on.net> wrote: > On Tue, 29 Dec 2009 17:42:18 -0600, ANTant(a)zimage.com put finger to > keyboard and composed: >>I noticed my five(?) years old office PC's HDD ... > Model Family: Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 family > 4 Start_Stop_Count 0x0032 253 253 000 Old_age Always > - 65 > 9 Power_On_Minutes 0x0032 141 141 000 Old_age Always > - 614h+43m > Hmmm, you have an old generation HDD that has run for only 614 hours > and has been power cycled only 65 times ??? I think smartctl has some interpretation problems with attribute 9 for some disks. I have a notebook disks (Samsung 160JI), that tells me 2562261 "hours" in attribute 9, where it should say "half minutes". Look at the selftest log, there is something more realistic (4 years run-time) for the last selftest. If you take 614 hours and assume smartctl took seconds instead of minutes as base units, you end up pretty close to the same 4 years. >>... is getting slower and slower these days. > Check whether it has been downgraded from DMA mode to PIO. Indeed. Add to my list in my other posting. >>I wonder if it is dying. I don't see anything in >>SMART colors to show any issues. The technical values confuse me: >>194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0032 253 253 000 Old_age Always - 50 > The temperature is about 10C too high for my liking. I agree. Arno -- Arno Wagner, Dr. sc. techn., Dipl. Inform., CISSP -- Email: arno(a)wagner.name GnuPG: ID: 1E25338F FP: 0C30 5782 9D93 F785 E79C 0296 797F 6B50 1E25 338F ---- Cuddly UI's are the manifestation of wishful thinking. -- Dylan Evans
From: Ant on 30 Dec 2009 12:33
> I see thios thing has only been restarted 72 times in 5 years. > Maybe you have a memory leak in the OS or some application? > Best check free memory. I checked already. > Other possible causes: > - Spyware/malware. Clean system. > - Updated applications needing more resources > or haveing (new) memory leaks. > - A CPU with thermal throtheling and an unmaintained > cooling system (dust, fan with lubrication problems) Could be. How can I check to see how fast CPU is going at max? It's old. :) > - Disk getting fuller and accesses more distributed (longer seeks) > and maybe also more in the slower areas towards the end of the > disk. Isn't defrag supposed to fix that? > If it is not that, maybe try to assess what is actually > getting slower: Access time or throughput and to what degree. Any good benchmark tools? -- "What reason, like the careful ant, draws laboriously together, the wind of accident sometimes collects in a moment." --Friedrich von Schiller /\___/\ / /\ /\ \ Phil./Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site) | |o o| | Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net \ _ / Nuke ANT from e-mail address: philpi(a)earthlink.netANT ( ) or ANTant(a)zimage.com Ant is currently not listening to any songs on his home computer. |