Slow Hardrive

I think my drives might be a little on the slow side but not sure.

In the performance info and tools in ctrl panel, my primary hardrive has a low subscore of 5.9.

Is that normal?

Here are my speeds - I copied a 2 gig file from my C\anime folder to my C\Download folder and my transfer speed was about 44mb/s.

I then took the same file and copied and paste it in my D drive. My speed started out at like 190mb/s then quickly dropped to 130mb/s in the next second, then 100mb/s, then 90mb/s, then slowly decreased over time to 70mb/s.

Then I copied the file I just pasted in the D drive and pasted it in the C drive and again, got speeds of 300mb/s for a sec, then 213mb/s over the next 3 seconds, then it slowed down when done to about 80mb/s.

I have this feeling that perhaps copied files are saved in the cache maybe and are transfers faster or something.

But what I'm worried about is the first 44mb/s I got when I first copied from the c\anime to the c\download folder.

What do you guys have/get?

 

i have another question connected with the hard drives
i know that the chipset doesn't support raid but i think someone mentioned software raid?
is there a way to make those 2 babies run faster?
that's so stupid of asus putting 2 HDD without raid ...

 

Software RAID just doesn't perform well. Heck, Intel's Southbridge RAID is mediocre at best (what do you want for free?). If you really want performance, use SSDs or a dedicated RAID card + HDDs.

 

true, but I think that may have been one of the reasons the price was the lowest last year.

I'm learning Kinda wish I bought a SSD for my primary drive back then but those things are so expensive.

 

You can't judge drive speed by copying files. Too many factors involved...for example, there's a lot of caching going on (both on the drive and by the OS), copying to/from the same physical drive will be slower than copying from one physical drive to another physical drive, etc.

Benchmark software will take many of the variables out and give you a little better idea of what the speed capabilities are, but even that's not accurate for real life because the OS adds overhead - writing directory entries, communication protocols, and even what software is used to read/write data to/from drives.

For non-SSD drives, real-life drive speed slows as the drive fills up. Do a little maintenance occasionally (defrag, for example) to keep your drives working at their possible best.

 

I finally got an SSD. I put it in my netbook, and meh. Didn't care for it. Dropped it in the g73, and I no longer get stuttering under heavy load ... I can now watch TV while playing a game and downloading stuff ... I suppose things load faster too, but I'm not convinced it was worth the $100. I havn't had a chance to check out game load times though - I'm sure it'll shine there.

Anyways, I've now got an external 2.5 sata drive that will eventually get used for repairing another computer, and realistically I havn't lost money, just capacity. If you've got cash, great. If not, I don't really see the benefit in a computer like the g73. Maybe in an ultraportable with some power, but my little netbook has got an su2300 and the hard drive isn't the bottleneck.

 

Yea, I kinda figured all the factors involved. Is there a software that can test hardrive speeds? I want to do a comparison with someone elses if possible. I have mine def ragged already, cleaned out all the crap I don't need as well.

 

A few I know of (I'm sure there's lots more)...

CrystalDiskMark
ATTO Disk Benchmark
HD Tune

 

thx mark. this is what I got:

 

yea, I def ragged yesterday.

edit - just in case, I got the stock 500gb hardrives.

 

What model are the drives installed in yours?

Here's my two drives, running in AHCI mode on the latest Intel RST driver...

C: SSD system drive (Intel SSDSA2M160G2GC)



D: Stock data drive (Seagate ST9500420AS)

 

hmm, never really thought about updating my hardrive drivers. I still have the ones it came with back in june... says ver 6.1.7600.16385 in the properties...

whats AHCI mode? and is that the right link to the latest drivers I need?

edit - though, it looks like my speeds aren't that far off from your D drive since I have the 2 500gb 7200rpm

 

The latest Intel RST driver...just choose your operating system in the middle listbox then pick the driver from the list...version 10.​1.​0.​1008, should be the first or second item in the driver list ( don't pick the one that says "F6 install).

The SATA controller mode is set in the BIOS setup (Advanced tab/SATA Setup/SATA Mode). You can configure the controller to run in IDE or AHCI mode . IDE mode is legacy... AHCI mode is modern and generally performs better overall on Windows Vista/7, which is designed to use SATA AHCI features when available.

 

Awesome, thanks for your help man.

+ rep

 

No problem! Hope you can squeeze a little more speed out of those drives!

And just to make sure you didn't get 5400RPM drives...are your stock drives the same model as my stock D: drive (Seagate ST9500420AS)?

 

Xellon can you post your results with the new driver?
i am getting a lot more speed than your picture

that's the generic driver from windows Xellon ...

Marks can you explain how can i see what kind of version i have (Intel® Rapid Storage)
i don't remember installing that kind of driver (i've searched on the disk)
could it be with the intel chipset driver?

EDIT: is it intel matrix storage manager?

 

I've felt like my HDD has gotten a little slower too. Here's my results just for comparisons sake, I didn't do my second HDD since it's not the same drive.

 

ok here is mine

i think i am using this version
Revision: Version 8.9.2.1002
; ** Date: 08/07/2009
; ** Abstract: Windows* INF File for Intel(R) Matrix Storage Manager Driver

 

Matrix storage is the old Intel driver (still works of course) and has been replaced (permanently - there won't be any more Matrix Storage driver updates from Intel AFAIK) by the RST driver.

You can view which driver you're using by going to Device manager/IDE/ATA/ATAPI Controllers and double clicking on the device that's there. The RST driver I'm using shows as this:

Intel(R) 5 Series 4 Port SATA AHCI Controller
Intel
11/6/2010
10.1.0.1008

 

thanks Marks
i've updated to version 10
and i get a little decrease in speed around 3-5mb/s but nothing to worry about i will keep them

 

The biggest issue regarding the RST 10.1.0.1008 is that there's a matching firmware update to go with it, and getting the OEMs to install it into the BIOS is like trying to pull teeth.

 

so what exactly is the problem
they don't work well with current firmware? (needs updating?)
firmware for the HDD?
explain more Chastity
not all of us are smart like you

 

Yeah.

Regardless of benches, I've always felt the RST drivers were a little snappier in performance doing development on multithreaded multimedia stuff. User experience is more important to me than bench results so I use the driver on all my machines. Everyone's mileage varies

 

The firmware for the controller should match the drivers to maximize both stability and performance.

 

Here are the benchmarks for my drives..

I don't understand why but my HDD2(D:\) is way faster than my Primary HDD(C:\)..
they're the same in every respect,
same model - ST9500420AS
same firmware - 0005SDM1
running Intel RST 10.1.0.1008

Primary HDD (C:\)


Secondary HDD (D:\)

 

Actually, they're not the same. Usage patterns and empty space make a huge difference.

For example, if everything on HDD1 is taking up the centre of the platters, you're testing the outer rim of the platters, and that's going to ruin your speeds (it's also why people short spindle their platters occasionally ...)

 

I agree free space and cluster distribution makes a difference, but ~15MB/s worth of difference?

 

if free space makes a difference how can you explain my bench
HDD1 - DRIVE C (50GB)
HDD1 - DRIVE D (450GB)
HDD2 - DRIVE E (500GB)

i've tested drive C and E and the results were the same ...
kurtcocaine try version 9

 

speeds were 3-4 MB/s slower with version 9

 

haha for me version 9 is faster 3-4-5 mb maybe more

 

k, I tested again. I was already on AHCI in the bios and I did another defrag which was really short. I also cleared some useless junk to make more space, did a registry clean, deleted duplicate files/shortcuts, and cleared system, internet, cookies, etc.

I'm pretty sure doing all that has impacted my speeds in some way and I'm getting better results. Still not around to what mite jan gets though.

 

i get around 100mb/s at the first stage on both drives

p.s i don't know if this thing makes a difference but i am ocasionally using TuneUP Utillities

 

I'll try anything xD

 

i like your enthusiasm
if i can help somehow just tell me ... in a minute i will give you more info

 

Well so far mine is the slowest but at the same time mine looks to be the most filled up out of everyone's.

 

do you want to try this driver version 8.9.2.1002
that was the version i was using when i posted my picture
try it

EDIT actually i am not sure i think it was this Version V9.1.1.1027 (it must be this becouse i have downloaded it from asus site)

 

There's nothing wrong with the hard-drive. Getting 85MB/s - 100MB/s is a normal threshold. Like someone else said, the difference in amount of space used, where the files are stored makes a difference when benchmarking. It is also worth noting that those benchmarking with 0x00 fill, will get a 15-20MB boost compared to those running completely random bits test (puts more stress on the hdd by feeding it uncompressible data). WEI (Windows Experience Index) will report all HDDs as 5.9 due to their similar random read/write speed (usually between 0.5MB/s - 1.2MB/s). This is the only thing making SSDs a favor over HDDs, the random access speed. The sequential is hardly a concern for people getting SSDs (realistically, no one is going to transfer stuff from SSD -> SSD, so having 200MB/s sequential read will not benefit much except perhaps save 1-2 seconds of game loading).

 

It isn't so much free space but data placement on the drive.

 

I have got G51VX in RAID0 ( 2x320GB ). This is what I've got in HDTune Pro , you can compare. Download HDTune Pro ( pro is free for 30 days ) and choose your disks, click START and wait.

 

god i miss the raid 0 on G73

 

I'll give it a try. My last results were on those RST drivers, I removed them and tried again on the stock W7 drivers, here's what I got:



Pretty much exactly the same.

 

try your other HDD and see if you can get better results (defragmentation is probably needed)
hey btw what's the name of the rainmeter? i think you've mentioned sexiness in some other thread but i coudlnt find it and also i would appreciate if you can suggest me some site for rainmeter skins

 

Have the same problem! can you guys point me to the best working hard drive driver for the stock 500gb sata of this laptop?

6.1.7600.16385 <- i have the same version as Xellon.

 

G73 Series Driver and Application Reference

3rd one down

 

i just saw the firmware update v5 so i was wondering what does it fix and should i update it?
i am not having problems with my HDD's

 

the version is different from my hard drive. i have the same one as the one who posted this thread. is it okay to update even if it's not the same?

 

hey guys am experiencing low transfer rate 10-15mb/s when i only CUT and PASTE from drive C: to D:... here is a screenshot of crystaldiskmark... any suggestions will help a lot btw i cant update IDE/ATA/ATAPI Controllers because i am among the ones that got problems with the bluray drive and we cant use the latest drivers we can only use the old ones in order for the bluray drive to work properly!! its crap i know!

http://i56.tinypic.com/2mmd4ya.jpg

 

Your Crystalmark looks absolutely fine and as to be expected.
What did you copy? One single big file or several thousands?
Try it with disabled virus scanner.

 

3-4 isos files of total 15gbs...... now i have copied 5.6 gb iso and started at 14mb/s and went up to 60mb/s... its strange! my antivirus was disabled both times.