Possible dying hard drive?

adelphia83 · 04-24-03, 05:33 PM

I'ved owned a WD800JB for a couple months now. Has been working great, but lately it seems to be having problems.

Seems whenever I write to the disk, as in installing programs, or modifiying files, the whole computer slows to a crawl. Even the mouse movement becomes jerky, almost to the point that I have to restart the computer. When the writing is finished, the computer runs just fine.

If I reformat the drive, it'll work fine again until I fill it up to a certain point (i.e ~8gb used). Then the problem starts....

I've run WinXP's chkdsk a couple times to scan for bad sectors, but it can't seem to find any. I need a reason to RMA this peice of junk, so does this problem sound like a hard drive malfunction? How can I be sure?

It does not occur whatsoever when I write to my other two drives (in raid0).

I formatted my Lifeguard disk shortly after buying the drive, is there anyplace to download this software? (never needed "lifeguard" software when I owned IBM drives :-)

TIA for the help.

NiTrO bOiE · 04-24-03, 07:15 PM

Sounds like your are running out of memory but you have 512 so that shouldn't be a problem. What is your disk transfer speed?

adelphia83 · 04-24-03, 08:22 PM

Disk transfer speed up until lately has been normal (comparable to 120gb 8mb) in Sandra.

Now I can't get Sandra to finish the benchmark. If I did, I'd be waiting all day for it. I just left it on for a good half hour, and had to shut the application down because it still wasn't done.

It seems the drive only has problems writing to it... Does this sound feasible?

ThePerfectCore · 04-24-03, 08:29 PM

Check your drive in another machine. I had the same exact problem on an old motherboard, but it turned out the IDE controllers were screwed.

stool · 04-24-03, 11:07 PM

http://support.wdc.com/download

for Data Lifeguard

adelphia83 · 04-25-03, 01:42 PM

The controller is not bad, as other drives work off the primary controller, even the master. I ran the extended data test in Windows (lifeguard), and it passed successfully... Any suggestions?

04-24-03, 05:33 PM	Thread Starter #1
adelphia83 Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: St. Charles, Missouri	Possible dying hard drive? I'ved owned a WD800JB for a couple months now. Has been working great, but lately it seems to be having problems. Seems whenever I write to the disk, as in installing programs, or modifiying files, the whole computer slows to a crawl. Even the mouse movement becomes jerky, almost to the point that I have to restart the computer. When the writing is finished, the computer runs just fine. If I reformat the drive, it'll work fine again until I fill it up to a certain point (i.e ~8gb used). Then the problem starts.... I've run WinXP's chkdsk a couple times to scan for bad sectors, but it can't seem to find any. I need a reason to RMA this peice of junk, so does this problem sound like a hard drive malfunction? How can I be sure? It does not occur whatsoever when I write to my other two drives (in raid0). I formatted my Lifeguard disk shortly after buying the drive, is there anyplace to download this software? (never needed "lifeguard" software when I owned IBM drives :-) TIA for the help. __________________ AMD Phenom II X4 830 (6mb cache) @ 291 x 13.5 = 3.91 ghz Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3p AMD 770 Motherboard 8gb (4 x 2) Mushkin DDR3 - 1333 @ DDR3 - 1552 Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 1GB Mushkin Callisto Deluxe 128GB SSD HiPro 700W PSU Ubuntu 11.10 / Win7 x64[/size]
	QUOTE Thanks

04-24-03, 07:15 PM	#2
NiTrO bOiE Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Charlotte, NC	Sounds like your are running out of memory but you have 512 so that shouldn't be a problem. What is your disk transfer speed? __________________ CPU: AMD 64 3000+ DTR @ 2750 MB: DFI Lanparty UT 250GB Memory: 2x 1GB G.Skill PC3200 Video: Radeon X800XT-PE w/ Maze 4 GPU Hard Drives: 36GB Raptor (Main) 160GB Hitachi (Storage) Optical Storage: 44x CD, 8x DVD-RW Sound: Audigy 2 ZS Case & Power: Black Chieftec FT w/ Window, Antec TP 430 Watercooled WW, Pro Core (2) 120mm Deltas, Hydor L20 Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
	QUOTE Thanks

04-24-03, 08:22 PM	Thread Starter #3
adelphia83 Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: St. Charles, Missouri	Disk transfer speed up until lately has been normal (comparable to 120gb 8mb) in Sandra. Now I can't get Sandra to finish the benchmark. If I did, I'd be waiting all day for it. I just left it on for a good half hour, and had to shut the application down because it still wasn't done. It seems the drive only has problems writing to it... Does this sound feasible? __________________ AMD Phenom II X4 830 (6mb cache) @ 291 x 13.5 = 3.91 ghz Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3p AMD 770 Motherboard 8gb (4 x 2) Mushkin DDR3 - 1333 @ DDR3 - 1552 Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 1GB Mushkin Callisto Deluxe 128GB SSD HiPro 700W PSU Ubuntu 11.10 / Win7 x64[/size]
	QUOTE Thanks

04-24-03, 08:29 PM	#4
ThePerfectCore Red Raccoon Dojo Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Texas	Check your drive in another machine. I had the same exact problem on an old motherboard, but it turned out the IDE controllers were screwed.
	QUOTE Thanks

04-24-03, 11:07 PM	#5
stool Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Albany, NY	http://support.wdc.com/download for Data Lifeguard __________________ My Heatware
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04-25-03, 01:42 PM	Thread Starter #6
adelphia83 Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: St. Charles, Missouri	The controller is not bad, as other drives work off the primary controller, even the master. I ran the extended data test in Windows (lifeguard), and it passed successfully... Any suggestions? __________________ AMD Phenom II X4 830 (6mb cache) @ 291 x 13.5 = 3.91 ghz Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3p AMD 770 Motherboard 8gb (4 x 2) Mushkin DDR3 - 1333 @ DDR3 - 1552 Gigabyte GeForce GTX 560 1GB Mushkin Callisto Deluxe 128GB SSD HiPro 700W PSU Ubuntu 11.10 / Win7 x64[/size]
	QUOTE Thanks

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