SSD Very slow as system drive but fast otherwise

[zbr]

Hello, I am having strange issues with a newly bought Verbatim 2SSD128 (47478). The disk works as expected from its class when connected as a secondary drive (consistent reads and writes in the ~200MB/s region, slightly under), but basically holds to a still when system is booted from it (down to 10MB/s or even less then that on few occasions).

I have tried on two very different machines (a HP HDX18 laptop with SATA2 and a modern i7 desktop with Gigabyte motherboard with SATA3), the results are the same. Its not the machines as they both work absolutely fine from OCZ drives. I thought it must be a faulty drive so went back to the shop and got it replaced with a new one (confirmed with S.M.A.R.T. operating hours) but the problem persists.

HD Tune shows its speed as almost a flat line with ~244 write and ~200 read when the drive is not being used as system drive, but as soon as the drive is booted from it shows a bumpy line of 0.6 MB/s (!!!!) with occasional peaks of ~10MB/s (!!!).

I am out of ideas for tests to run on it, reinstalled the system two times now, and even made a 1:1 copy of a system that works absolutely smooth of an Agility drive - same results.

I also run ATTO benchmarks on it and results were consistent with above - absolutely fine when run as a secondary drive and wierd irregular shaped graph never going above 15-20MB/s when a bare system is booted from it (with no other system activity)

I may give it a go on a mac just to rule out that its windows 7 fault, in the meantime suggestions appreciated.
thanks

 

[Boulard83]

Update drive firmware, then secure erase. Retry.

Your Windows install is a W7 install clone ? Clean fresh W7 install from DVD ? ( legit ? )

 

[zbr]

First system was clean install from legit DVD on the desktop
then a clone of a clean install made a day before on the laptop. files from the clone read fast when the drive is connected via eSATA but terribly slow when its used as disk 0
I can't find any firmware updates for that drive

 

[Boulard83]

Verify if your SSD alignment is OK.

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7407005

 

[EarthDog]

Alignment would be off in either way and results would be the same if it was an OS drive or data. Misaligned drives dont exhibit THAT much loss, at least from the couple of times I have seen this the drop wasnt close to this guy's.

His alignment may be off, but that likely isnt the issue. I dont have an answer though, sorry.

 

[Boulard83]

Ive seen missaligned drive literally hang for second and perform really badly in the past. Maybe not as bad as this one, but if he correct this, its one step foward !

 

[zbr]

ok, just for those who were interested: it seems the problem is somehow related to Windows. The very same drive, installed in a MAC with OSX performs OK, despite the system being run from it. It still slows down to ~10MB/s occasionally (once every few minutes) but otherwise performs acceptably (in the ~200MB/s range in a i5 macbook pro and in the ~80write ~120read range in an old 2.3ghz mbp), so I'm just going to leave it there.

thanks for your effort