Jale
Active member
Ooookay, where to start?
Recently, I bought a 250 GB Western Digital disk, installed Windows on it and everything is OK there. The problem is, whenever I want to transfer files from one disk to another, my PC starts to act very slow and the transfer time increases insanely. Whenever I want to transfer about 50 GB of data, it would normally take up to 20 minutes, but it takes more than 200 minutes instead!!!
I check the IDE channels in device manager and I find that it switched back to PIO mode. Doing a little research, my drive is UDMA mode 6 cappable (though Windows supports it up to UDMA mode 5 because of my Intel chipset, but that's not the case). With UDMA mode 5, transfer rate should be about 100 MB/s. In PIO mode, it goes at 4 MB/s!!! (that explains the 200 minutes remaining thing)
Also, I checked the event viewer and I get about six or seven continuous errors like this:
Followed by:
SYMPTONS:
WHAT I HAVE ALREADY TRIED (IN PARTICULAR ORDER):
I say so because my other drive is a Samsung 250 GB and I have never had problems with it. And before the store changed my disk, they tested it for a whole day and they haven't found anything strange and the transfer rate was OK. My conclusion is that my motherboard/IDE controller doesn't like WD disks.
COMPUTER SPECS:
Any suggestions?
Recently, I bought a 250 GB Western Digital disk, installed Windows on it and everything is OK there. The problem is, whenever I want to transfer files from one disk to another, my PC starts to act very slow and the transfer time increases insanely. Whenever I want to transfer about 50 GB of data, it would normally take up to 20 minutes, but it takes more than 200 minutes instead!!!
I check the IDE channels in device manager and I find that it switched back to PIO mode. Doing a little research, my drive is UDMA mode 6 cappable (though Windows supports it up to UDMA mode 5 because of my Intel chipset, but that's not the case). With UDMA mode 5, transfer rate should be about 100 MB/s. In PIO mode, it goes at 4 MB/s!!! (that explains the 200 minutes remaining thing)
Also, I checked the event viewer and I get about six or seven continuous errors like this:
Code:
The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk0\D
Error type: Disk
ID: 11
Followed by:
Code:
A parity error was detected on \Device\Ide\IdePort2
Error type: Atapi
ID: 5
SYMPTONS:
- Very slow transfer rates.
- Momentaneous hang ups when pasting copied files (mouse displays this icon
- Hang ups while gaming (takes forever to load a map or level and, in some cases, computer crashes in "Loading..." screen).
- Same symptons mentioned above in Windows Vista SP1, but followed by a Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) regarding hard disk problem.
WHAT I HAVE ALREADY TRIED (IN PARTICULAR ORDER):
- Checking disk for bad sectors using HDD Regenerator: Found none. Disk is fine. Both disks.
- Checking disk for bad sectors using CHKDSK /F/R/X command: Same result as above.
- Swapping SATA cables (both power and data): The problem persists.
- Using direct from PSU SATA power connector instead of Molex to SATA adapter: No luck.
- New SATA power and data cables: Nuh huh.
- Running memtest86+ to check memory errors: After 6 hours of multipass scan, it didn't show any errors, so memory is totally fine.
- Ran antivirus and antispyware software: It detected some false positives due to cracks and keygens, but other than that, no viruses found. And not to mention it took hours to scan due to the slow 4 MB/s.
- Format and reinstall Windows (quick): The problem persists!
- Low level format and reinstall Windows: Aaaagh!!! Still persists!
- Running Western Digital diagnosis tools: It found... nothing. The disk is OK.
- Replace hard disk: As I said, the disk is new so I had to get it replaced due to warranty. And for testing purposes, I got another one of the same brand and cappacity (WD 250 GB). And to my surprise... THE PROBLEM STILL PERSISTS!!!
I say so because my other drive is a Samsung 250 GB and I have never had problems with it. And before the store changed my disk, they tested it for a whole day and they haven't found anything strange and the transfer rate was OK. My conclusion is that my motherboard/IDE controller doesn't like WD disks.
COMPUTER SPECS:
- Windows XP SP3/Windows Vista SP1.
- Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.40 GHz CPU.
- 3 GB of RAM DDR2 (1x 2 GB + 1x 1 GB).
- WD 250 GB HDD for Windows.
- Samsung 250 GB HDD for personal data.
- Biostar G31-M7 TE (Intel G31 chipset).
- XFX GeForce 8600 GT 512 MB video card.
Any suggestions?