Harddrive performance issues

I seem to have some harddrive performance issues, particularly when allocating space for files.

I've done several tests with HDTune for quite some time and all of them show a massive drop in transfer rate for a second or so and then goes back to normal. These spots where the transfer rate drops are not always in the same place, nor do they occur in a pattern.

Here are two tests I just made:


The second run is quite an improvement of how it usually looks, as I get lots of drops in the transfer rates.

I've run every single test on the harddrive I can think of to check for errors, and there is none. S.M.A.R.T shows no errors either, every check is "OK". At no point has the error-log in Windows showed any errors when writing to the drive. During these tests no other program is running that could have any effect on the results, no other process is using more than 1-2 % of the CPU at any time.

What would cause these huge drops in performance? A drive failure that no program can find? The only problem with the drive is these drops in performance, nothing else. The drive is properly defragmented, no issues there.

My specs are these:
A6JC:
Core Duo T2300 - 1.66 GHz
2 x 512 MB DDRII RAM, 533 MHz
80 GB Seagate 4200 rpm
Geforce Go 7300
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GMA-4082N
Windows XP SP2



Also another problem I'm having with my DVD-drive. Quite often I hear the drive trying to read from a non-existant disc in the drive. I know no process running that could explain this read attempt. Most of the times the drive opening mechanism is very sensitive, you barely have to touch the drive and it will open. Other times it will open by itself without anything touching it's side. At other times it is nearly impossible for the drive to open despite many attempts at pressing the eject-button.

What could cause that?

 

The drops you're referring to in HD Tune are due to the HDD being accessed by XP for something else during the test run, these are *normal* and are not indicative of HDD problems or potential failure. The reason they're in different spots during different runs has to do with the location of the data being accessed.

You can take a deep breath now and relax. Ohmmmmmmmmm

 

It looks like the eject button may be malfunctioning. It makes contact when it shouldn't and sometimes doesn't when it should. Otherwise, it could be something in the firmware. Or even some application interfering with the normal function of the drive.

As to ODD accesses (reads from nonexisting disk) I think that is caused by software. This supports the application theory above. It could, of course, also be firwmare...

Perhaps it's a good idea to try to replace the drive from warranty (Without sending the whole notebook in).

 

I think you have a good chance being correct on your very first thought re the "button".
The exact same thing happened to me a few years back with a CD burner (pre DVD!). I'd be setting & watching TV or reading & for no reason the CD drive would eject. Then , at other times , it was almost impossible to open. Back then CD burners cost a pretty penny & I tried a lot of different things to fix it. A guy who worked on them , yeah they really used to do that , traced it to a bad button.

I would do as you suggested & replace the drive.

 

Yeah, I see I wasn't clear enough, I also think the eject button theory is the most likely.