Recent slowdown

HyperBlau · 01-25-2009, 12:20 PM

I reformatted with XP Pro x64 recently (same OS as before), and now copying or moving or modifying files seems to take forever on my storage device.
Some background:
OS is on an 80 gig seagate SATA drive. No problems with operations on this drive.
Storage is on a 500 gig seagate SATA drive. This is the drive that seems to be having problems.

The odd part is that the 80 gig drive is 3 years old and the 500 just a year old.

Any ideas?

DavidHB · 01-25-2009, 01:16 PM

First, of course, back up, which you should be doing anyway.

Then try checkdisk, then defrag. It's possible that you have a file allocation table or directory issue. If you are lucky, the utilities will fix the problem.

Once you have a full backup, it's a relatively easy and not impossibly expensive thing to replace the drive and copy the data to the replacement, if that's what you need to do. You can then put the drive in, say, a USB2 housing, and reformat (and maybe even repartition) it for use as a reserve drive. If it still performs badly, it will be worth checking whether it's still under warranty.

Hope this helps.

David

**raptor_pa** · 01-25-2009, 01:52 PM

If this is a 7200.11 Series drive, check the seagate site and see if it is one of the drives affected by the recent firmware patch they issued.

HyperBlau · 01-25-2009, 03:41 PM

Thanks for the responses.
The information is indeed backed up to an external drive. I will run chkdisk and defragment as suggested, but the drive typically has little fragmentation because no programs are installed to it, it merely stores data (music, video, etc).
As I said, the drive is about a year old, so it may be part of the .11 group, but even though they have issues, this drive never did. It seems odd to me that it would suddenly need a patch after a year of flawless function. I will pull it out of my case and check the model number. I shall report back when I have this thing solved.

Thanks again

**raptor_pa** · 01-25-2009, 04:18 PM

Not sure what the issue is but it is firmware related, but they have been known to drop dead anytime from day one to whenever. Drives after Dec 08 supposedly are fixed....

01-25-2009, 12:20 PM	#1 (permalink)
HyperBlau Registered User Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 20 OS: Xp Pro My System	Recent slowdown I reformatted with XP Pro x64 recently (same OS as before), and now copying or moving or modifying files seems to take forever on my storage device. Some background: OS is on an 80 gig seagate SATA drive. No problems with operations on this drive. Storage is on a 500 gig seagate SATA drive. This is the drive that seems to be having problems. The odd part is that the 80 gig drive is 3 years old and the 500 just a year old. Any ideas?

01-25-2009, 01:16 PM	#2 (permalink)
DavidHB Registered User Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: UK Posts: 151 OS: Vista x64 SP1; XP Pro; Ubuntu 8.10	Re: Recent slowdown First, of course, back up, which you should be doing anyway. Then try checkdisk, then defrag. It's possible that you have a file allocation table or directory issue. If you are lucky, the utilities will fix the problem. Once you have a full backup, it's a relatively easy and not impossibly expensive thing to replace the drive and copy the data to the replacement, if that's what you need to do. You can then put the drive in, say, a USB2 housing, and reformat (and maybe even repartition) it for use as a reserve drive. If it still performs badly, it will be worth checking whether it's still under warranty. Hope this helps. David

01-25-2009, 01:52 PM	#3 (permalink)
raptor_pa Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Central PA Posts: 4,788 OS: XP	Re: Recent slowdown If this is a 7200.11 Series drive, check the seagate site and see if it is one of the drives affected by the recent firmware patch they issued. __________________

01-25-2009, 03:41 PM	#4 (permalink)
HyperBlau Registered User Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 20 OS: Xp Pro My System	Re: Recent slowdown Thanks for the responses. The information is indeed backed up to an external drive. I will run chkdisk and defragment as suggested, but the drive typically has little fragmentation because no programs are installed to it, it merely stores data (music, video, etc). As I said, the drive is about a year old, so it may be part of the .11 group, but even though they have issues, this drive never did. It seems odd to me that it would suddenly need a patch after a year of flawless function. I will pull it out of my case and check the model number. I shall report back when I have this thing solved. Thanks again

01-25-2009, 04:18 PM	#5 (permalink)
raptor_pa Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Central PA Posts: 4,788 OS: XP	Re: Recent slowdown Not sure what the issue is but it is firmware related, but they have been known to drop dead anytime from day one to whenever. Drives after Dec 08 supposedly are fixed.... __________________