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Possible signs of HDD dying :(

Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2014 4:21 pm
by DJ Tucker
so my primary 500gb HDD is possibly on its way out but I'm not sure. I have 65% of the space on it used. while the sequential read (65mb) and write (56mb) are not bad for a 6 year old spin drive its the other test speeds I'm worried about.
512KB Read (26mb) Write (35mb)
Random 4KB Read (350KB) Write (1.1mb)
Random Read QD=32 Read (870KB) Write (1.1KB)
Are these speeds considered low as my boot times have increased by 15-20 seconds as of recently and only 0.56% of my HDD is fragmented and does not need defragging? I have not installed or uninstalled anything recently either.

Re: Possible signs of HDD dying :(

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 5:04 am
by KnightRid
I never go by read/write times as they can vary drastically depending on whats running, etc.

Read the SMART data from the HD - tons of programs to do it. I think Speedfan has that built in.

Check the drive for errors - may take a LONG time.

run ccleaner to remove all unneeded files (temp, internet temp, etc etc).

run ccleaner and check the registry - make sure you save a backup before fixing all though.

of course run a virus scanner and malwarebytes to make sure nothing is using the drive/computer for other tasks.

All I can think of at this time. For less than $100 I think I would just replace it or at least get a drive to keep a complete image on incase that drive does die.

Re: Possible signs of HDD dying :(

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 11:38 am
by sbohdan
Download the App Hard Disc Sentinel and it will show you EXACTLY everything about your HDD. It will tell you if the drive is dying or not and also how much it has left in it.
Link: http://download.cnet.com/Hard-Disk-Sent ... 66403.html

Re: Possible signs of HDD dying :(

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 3:23 pm
by DJ Tucker
now that's a great piece of software you found sbohdan. seems my drive is all well in fact 100%. it seems the speed errors I was getting was due to my boot defrag having been disabled. can't believe 6 years later this HDD is still in fairly good working order :)

Re: Possible signs of HDD dying :(

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 7:32 pm
by Apoptosis
never run a speed test if you thing your drive is failing... You made me shudder on that one! Never stress something that you think it going out!

Like everyone here said check the SMART data and download something like CrystalDiskInfo that can read that info for you and it will tell you if it is okay (green), caution (yellow) or bad (red) in the application.

Not sure if it is the Samsung drive in your signiture, but most hard drive makers have their own apps. For example WD has the Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows utility. Besides reading the SMART status you can do any of the following options:

QUICK TEST - performs SMART drive quick self-test to gather and verify the Data Lifeguard information contained on the drive.
EXTENDED TEST - performs a Full Media Scan to detect bad sectors. Test may take several hours to complete depending on the size of the drive.
WRITE ZEROS - writes zeros to the drive with options of Full Erase and Quick Erase. File system and data will be lost.
VIEW TEST RESULT - displays the latest test results.

It's a pretty nifty utility and if you have a bad sector on the drive you can write zeros to the drive and it might be able to correct the error.

Re: Possible signs of HDD dying :(

Posted: Thu Oct 09, 2014 2:49 am
by sbohdan
DJ Tucker wrote:now that's a great piece of software you found sbohdan. seems my drive is all well in fact 100%. it seems the speed errors I was getting was due to my boot defrag having been disabled. can't believe 6 years later this HDD is still in fairly good working order :)
You welcome :)
This is a Hungarian software and I assumed you guys don't know about it. I found it best out of all other ones though, that's why I recommended it.