Can a WD 2TB Drive slow a PC down?

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Shake&Bake

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Friend bought a WD 2TB 3.5" Drive a few months ago. Only being used as a storage drive.
Standard 3.5" Internal Drive.

Specs:

Western Digital caviar Green WD20EARX , 2Tb/2000gb , Sata6G , with intellipower ( 5400-7200rpm for powersaveing ) , 64mb cache

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And since day 1, it's been a bit of a thorn in his back and mine - cos I recommended the darn thing. :o

Slow write speeds, slow to browse through.
It eventually came to a point where the data could not be read.
Ran diagnostics, did tests, back to supplier for a check - it got the green light.
Updated BIOS, checked that it wasn't selected as a boot drive.
This was on a standard Intel mobo with an e8400 C2D, 4GB Ram, Win7 x32.

He upgraded his system to a Q9300, 8GB Ram, same version of Win 7 - or it may be x64 (not sure). Running what I think is a standard Intel Mobo which handles the Quad. Will check again.

Anyway - the drive in the last week or more, has again been a sluggish whore.
He eventually got miffed, took the drive out - and now he's system is running like a dream.
Boot times with the drive in - took between 5-7 mins.

Now without it jacked in - the PC gets to the login screen of windows in 45 seconds, 30 seconds later after login, Win 7 Desktop is up and running and navigating through applications is happening at lightning speeds - compared to how it performed before.

I'm :confused: to say the least....
And he wants his money back or he's just gonna toss the darn thing against the wall.
Its been a really frustrating time :o

Options? Recommendations? Help?

EDIT: Specifics on the drive are:

Western Digital caviar Green WD20EARX , 2Tb/2000gb , Sata6G , with intellipower ( 5400-7200rpm for powersaveing ) , 64mb cache
 
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I have a WD external 2TB, and I hate it. :mad:

Doesn't cause anything like that though, it just takes ages (30 seconds or so) to access the drive when it hasn't been used for a while. Drives me nuts.

I'm sure there must be a reason though, just not sure what...
 
copacetic said:
I have a WD external 2TB, and I hate it. :mad:

Doesn't cause anything like that though, it just takes ages (30 seconds or so) to access the drive when it hasn't been used for a while. Drives me nuts.

I'm sure there must be a reason though, just not sure what...
Click to expand...

Yep - that's also been an issue.
At this point - I don't ever really wanna touch WD again.
Samsung and Seagate have never given me these issues.

Don't know if I did mention this - but this is an internal storage drive.
 
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I think the problem lies with the fact that the drive spins down to 5900rpm and then takes its sweet bloody time to spin up to 7200rpm ultimately leaving you frustrated. Rather set the drive to never spin down / go into power save mode.

Did you try updating the drives firmware?
 
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CriticalConsumer said:
I think the problem lies with the fact that the drive spins down to 5900rpm and then takes its sweet bloody time to spin up to 7200rpm ultimately leaving you frustrated. Rather set the drive to never spin down / go into power save mode.

Did you try updating the drives firmware?
Click to expand...

I'm only able to find the following link: http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=608&lang=en

And no mention of firmware downloads there it seems?
Or am I getting this wrong? Which I am known for :p :D
 
I suggest that drive might be faulty. With those specs it should really fly. Maybe the cache is not working properly

Why don't you download a HDD testing program and see what it says?
 
chrisc4290 said:
I suggest that drive might be faulty. With those specs it should really fly. Maybe the cache is not working properly

Why don't you download a HDD testing program and see what it says?
Click to expand...

Ran WD's SMART Test on it before.
Changed Sata cables around with other drives - put new Sata cables on it. Still a pig of a drive.
 
If the drive is under warranty - send it back and get new one. This drive seems like it is dying before it even lived!
 
question: how does one set an external drive to NEVER spin down? where do I change that setting?
 
Im a poor student.Would you sell me a lambo to get to class?NO

so why would you complain a drive is slow if thats how it was built.
If you want speed.Get a ssd,Raptor,cheeta,7200 rpm drive.
If you are not happy with a drive you made the mistake of deciding on the wrong one.dont blame a pear for not being an apple.
 
Creepster said:
Im a poor student.Would you sell me a lambo to get to class?NO

so why would you complain a drive is slow if thats how it was built.
If you want speed.Get a ssd,Raptor,cheeta,7200 rpm drive.
If you are not happy with a drive you made the mistake of deciding on the wrong one.dont blame a pear for not being an apple.
Click to expand...

You recommend the guy get a SSD, raptor or cheeta for *STORAGE* ? :wtf:

Also, the OP isn't complaining about sub-par speeds, he's saying the drive is making bootup 10x slower, and its at a point where the data can't even be read properly.


He understands well that the "polo" he bought isn't as fast as a Lambo.... but it shouldn't be as slow as a 1963 mini, either.
 
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Keeper said:
You recommend the guy get a SSD, raptor or cheeta for *STORAGE* ? :wtf:

Also, the OP isn't complaining about sub-par speeds, he's saying the drive is making bootup 10x slower, and its at a point where the data can't even be read properly.
Click to expand...
there is nothing wrong with a 1TB ssd storage drive.

the rant was actualy at "copacetic" but it goes for everyone.
will link hdd diag program when i get home.and you can see if there is a problem.

if the drive is dieing its dieing.no point of arguing there.but dont blame a slow drive for being slow.
 
Creepster said:
there is nothing wrong with a 1TB ssd storage drive.

the rant was actualy at "copacetic" but it goes for everyone.
will link hdd diag program when i get home.and you can see if there is a problem.

if the drive is dieing its dieing.no point of arguing there.but dont blame a slow drive for being slow.
Click to expand...

I have never in my life come across a drive that takes that long to access.

As for a 1TB SSD drive, please, let me know where I can get two of those for the R850 my external cost. :rolleyes:
 
copacetic said:
I have never in my life come across a drive that takes that long to access.

As for a 1TB SSD drive, please, let me know where I can get two of those for the R850 my external cost. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

bring a shotgun...and a mask and ill give it to you for free...

If not.Try sybaritic.they got em
 
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also try southbit.he knows alot about drives here on myBB even helped DJ fix his on threads
 
Creepster said:
there is nothing wrong with a 1TB ssd storage drive.
Click to expand...

What's the estimated cost there genius?

Creepster said:
but dont blame a slow drive for being slow.
Click to expand...

7200rpm is not slow, even 5400 rpm will stream 1080p content flawlessly.
once again, the OP is not blaming his drive for not being as fast as an SSD, he is blaming it for slowing his PC down to a crawl.

seriously, what don't you understand? :confused:
 
If I may make a suggestion...
- Try copying the content of the drive somewhere else (a mission in itself, I know) so that the drive is empty.
- Format it
- make sure you OS isn't using it for page files, extra memory, cache, whatever.

See if that makes a difference. The OS might be trying to read data off it in the boot up process.
If the OS still takes long to boot up with an empty drive, it's buggered.
If not, copy files over in chunks until it does again....
 
copacetic said:
I have a WD external 2TB, and I hate it. :mad:

Doesn't cause anything like that though, it just takes ages (30 seconds or so) to access the drive when it hasn't been used for a while. Drives me nuts.

I'm sure there must be a reason though, just not sure what...
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that is caused by your power settings. By default Windows switches off hard drives that have not been used for 15mins, next time you request data from the hard drive it has to first switch on, spin up and then can only start transmitting data. This can easily be turned off so the hard drive it permanently on when the Pc is.


OP have you tried a different SATA cable to the hard drive? Have you tried it in a different Pc?

Update: Never mind see now that you tried. Strange :/
 
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