Hitachi 7K500 (HTS725050A9A) problem/question

Hello guys,

I've been using the famous 2.5" 7K500 Hitachi drive for about 4 Months now after throwing away a 7200 rpm Seagate that vibrated like a washing machine...

I am generally happy with the Hitachi, quite fast indeed, BUT there is one problem that bothers me more and more:

The drive is realllllyyyyy BAD in "multitasking"!! Give it a task like copying a large file or even unzipping a large file and the PC becomes unusable - I can't even open the mozilla browser... no matter how long you wait - nothing else that needs a little HDD activitie would work until the main job is finished!!

It starts to bother me more and more as I've never experinced anything like this before (with any other drive... even 5400)!! Today I copied 15GB from C: to D: - the computer was absolutely unusable - the mozilla windows opened on the taskbar could not be opened completely (were blank), tried starting IE, it started a few seconds after the copy-process ended.... really terrible!!

I couldn't find any firmware for the drive... is there another solution?

I use it on my signature laptop (Win 7 Pro).

 

Could be something specific to your drive. Check the drive health via SMART monitoring tools.

I have been using the same drive for almost a year and have never seen such an issue.


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Done that. S.M.A.R.T. 100% OK

 

This is definitely something I haven't experienced. I agree it's either a drive or software issue. Run a HDTune read bench on it and post the results.

 

done that numerous times too

Average read speed: ~ 80 MB/s

Max read speed: ~ 104 MB/s

 

Here some screenshots:

 

Strange -- those are normal results for a 7K500. I can do the type of things you mention with my 7K500 with no issues.

What is your CPU usage when you are transferring files?

Try this -- press the [Windows key] and [R], type devmgmt.msc and then [Enter], which will take you to the Device Manager.
In there, expand Disk drives, right-click your Hitachi 7K500, and click Uninstall. Then restart your computer and see if that fixes the problem.

 

CPU Usage is normal - 4-10% when copying a large files between partitions.

Will try uninstalling in a minute.

 

No difference after reinstalling ... after all it's the same driver.

Are there no firmwares for this HDD? I remember the Seagate had numerous firmware updates!

 

AFAIK, no new firmwares yet...


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Driver information:

 

Gracy123,

That driver you show will not change (for the HD)...

Can you install the Intel RST drivers on your machine?

See:
 Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology


The above link is for a 32bit version of Windows and will install IRST driver v9.6 if your machine supports it.

To see what is installed already, look at your Device Manager and find the ATA/ATAPI controllers and see what driver is installed now.


Also, this sounds to me like you're running Norton or McAfee on your computer - uninstall any A/V 'suite' you may have and use MSE (Microsoft Security Essentials) instead. A much faster responding system and also just as safe (unless you're purposely going to malicious websites to infect your pc).


Lastly, download the trial of PerfectDisk and run it online and offline a couple of times - could it be that your HD is thrashed and needs a good defrag/optimizing?

Good luck.

 

Hi

I'm not using any AV "suites" - I hate the way they slow down any system and interfere

All partitions are being optimized/defragmented once a week

Here is some information about my SATA controller:



I already have Intel Rapid Storage Technology 9.5 installed and running... I just updated to 9.6

 

What are you using to defragment?

Did you notice a difference updating to IRST v9.6?

 

I usually let the "Vaio Care" package do it's job (incl. Disk defragmentation) but I also run manual Windows defragmentation every now and then,

I just did it (Windows) on C: (it showed 16% fragmentation I think) and installed 9.6 - It is definitely a bit better now - I am writing you this while copying 15 GB file, but I still feel it is a bit slow. I managed to even start IE - took some time but still a progress....

What could it be? Which is the best tool for defragmentation and could this be the reason?

 

Oh, VAIO CARE is still installed?

I would definitely recommend a clean install of your system and install only the drivers that directly control physical components on your machine - anything else that Sony offers is equivalent to running Norton on as system meant to fly (it won't...).

BTW, what VAIO CARE does is simply initiate the built in windows defragging program - which is basically a crippled version of the Diskkeeper technologies.

Not only does it leave your files still in a highly fragmented state - more importantly it leaves your free space highly fragmented too.

I would recommend you download PerfectDisk Professional from Raxco software and run an online and an offline defrag twice - you will notice a difference in how responsive the computer is afterwards.

I would also consider doing the following too:

1) short stroke the C: partition (around 100GB should be optimal).

2) create a D: partition and store your 'data' files there.

3) download ccleaner and run it once a week or so.


1) by doing this, the O/S will be confined to using the fastest part of the HD - always. The 'dip' in your HD Tune benchmark will be avoided by doing this.

2) by having all your 'static' files seperate from the O/S, it will allow a program like PerfectDisk Professional to place the O/S files in a more optimized fashion - that will also prevent further fragmenting too.

Good luck.

 

I have uninstalled all unusable software and crap that came with the notebook but left Vaio Care to test it. Might remove it too then.

To your suggestions:

1. My C: is 120GB and I use it for system-files purposes only
2. Done... even have an E: partition Been using 3 Partitions on all my HDDs for about 8 years now
3. Will try that, thanks

I am already running Perfect Disk - it showed fragmentation of 0,2 to 0,4%. But decided to run it anyway.

Thanks for the support, hope to solve this issue as it is really driving me nuts sometimes...

 

Okay, are you running PD Pro v11?

You may want to try it with these settings shown in the pic below.

BTW, if you run VAIO CARE's defrag (windows default) and PD you know they are thrashing your drive, right? One will undo what the other has done.

Since you're using PD, make sure you disable Windows (and VAIO CARE's) scheduled defragment runs (type disk defragmenter into the start search and uncheck the 'run on schedule' box).

Also, how many processes are showing in Task Manager?

Just as a fyi... I just did a defrag on a client's computer and it only showed 1.4% fragmented (but a disk performance level of 79% in the PD stat's).

Once the defrag was completed, the disk's performance level was at 100% and the client was able to 'multi-task' once again at an acceptable level... on a 1GHz celeron (circa 2002), 1GB of RAM and Windows XP SP3.

Glad she was happy - but God did that seem slow to me! (Currently typing on an i3 with 8GB RAM and Win7x64).

 

Although I am unable give you more help than you are already getting, I do have the same HD as you in an older system (in my sig). I also have Intel RST 9.6 installed with Windows 7 Pro.

I do not experience the same issues as you so I doubt it is your Hitachi HD. At present I am copying a 35GB file from my external USB HD to my C: drive while on the Internet reading NBR and typing this post. My laptop is just as responsive as if I were not performing any background copy.

I only have a single partition on my laptop C: drive. I do use PerfectDisk to defrag about once per month with my HD currently at .8% fragmented. I also have Kaspersky Internet Security Suite installed and active during this activity.

I would be more inclined to think there is some other software running crippling your system.

 

Gracy123,

You may also want to try using DPC Latency Checker to see if some driver is 'hanging' and causing your grief.

Even though it is meant for audio/video checking, it might point you towards a solution in your case too?

 

That's a totally different situation - copying from external drive only uses a small part of your internal HDD's capabilities, as USB transfer speed is much lower than your HDD max speed! I don't have any problems when copying to or from external drive. The issues appear only when I provoke 100% HDD activity, such as when I copy large files from one partition to the other (or in the same) or install a big program or unrar big files

 

Thanks for all your help!

Yes, I already uninstalled Vaio Care and disabled the default defragmenter and ran PerfectDisk afterwords.

One question though - is "Boot Time" the option for Offline defragmenting?

P.s. Yes - using PD Pro 11

 

Yes, they updated their terminology: Boot Time = Off Line defragging.

Did you try with my modified PD SmartPlacement settings?

 

No, not yet. Ran it with the default settings. But will try it out for sure! Thanks a lot!!

I do feel a difference now. Widnows also started a bit faster.

Thanks a lot for your time! Really appreciate it!

I think I'll try ccleaner now

P.s. Noticable difference!!! Of course everything starts and opens much slower when the HDD is in use, but at least it does! I still think the performance under this scenario is below average and expected, but still much better than before!

 

Unfortunately I still keep having difficulties and issues with my hard drive or at least I believe it is the reason....

1. Copying/Reading/Writing large files (Installing/Uninstalling large applications, etc.) makes the system almost freeze - doing anything else on it at the meantime is really hard! Even website scripts stop responding!

2. This one is hard to explain - programs that are started but haven't been used for a while (Minimized Mozilla or IE windows, Skype, etc.) take time to open while the HDD activity at this time appears hard! For example I maximize a Mozilla windows that hasn't been in use for some time - the window maximizes right away but it remains blank for up to maybe 1 second while the HDD is reading something (based on the LED). Maximizing skype (especially one with more contacts) also takes up to one seconds to fully display the content. Once the program or windows has once recently been used it works as it should - minimizing and maximizing it works right away with no delay... I assume cache memory is used??


If not the HDD, what else could be the problem!?

S.M.A.R.T. is perfect with no warnings or errors, HDTune Read-speed is as reported - normal for the drive (average ~80 MB/sec).

I can't remember to have noticed such behavior with the previous 2 drives I used on this PC but I'm not 100% sure.

P.s. I use "Perfect disk" to defragment C: usually every week using performance settings!

 

Have you checked out your RAM with Memtest86+, Prime95 or the built in Win 7 check tool? If you've got a bad stick and only running on 2GB, that could slow things down like you describe.

 

Could be a defective SATA controller on the motherboard. Try installing Windows on a known good drive and see if you can replicate the same issue. If you can then might be time to get that motherboard replaced.

 

Have you done the Boot Time defrag in PD? It will defrag your pagefile, which is what sounds like the problem may be for programs that have been minimized for a long time (taken out of RAM and written to page file?)

 

Yes, do it on regular basis.

 

Yes, although not recently. Will do it again. No issues last time I checked. Overall the PC is as fast as it should be. Just the 2 situations described above... :-/

Update: No errors found with Windows Memory Diagnostic.

 

Can anyone name a software I can use to fully clone the HDD partitions (or actually C: + System + Restoration) to an external drive ??

The idea is to just clone my system as it is to another drive, swap the drives afterwords and boot from the clone!? I have been looking for something like that for ages now but everything I've tried never works as easy as I wish - usually errors in booting, missing system partition, etc., etc. !?

 

Try Ultimate Boot CD. You can set it up on a bootable CD/DVD or make a bootable USB flash drive.

Upon its launch, choose HDD, data recovery, Parted Magic. In Parted Magic, there's an option for Ghost4Linux. Kinda awkward to use, but does bit by bit clones of HDD's. Takes a few hours, but is free.

 

Somehow finally managed to clone the HDD (Win 7 system imaging tool SUCKS!!!! Don't bother using it!! Loss of time!)

Turns out it is not the HDD - tested the issues with the cloned system on the original 5400 RPM Toshiba HDD - same thing! So obviously it isn't a HDD fault.

Now trying to determine whether it is a hardware or software problem or no problem at all......

 

Again could be the SATA controller on the motherboard. Did you try updating chipset drivers?

 

I found it to be much better than say the highly praised Acronis. It has its limitation but if you know what it is, it works brilliantly and the good thing is, you can do it while still using the system.

 

Acronis did the magic for me - fast, easy and reliable! Absolutely no issues!

Lost 6 hours to create an image with the windows tool... and then it turned out that my second 500GB HDD was 8bytes smaller then the other one so the Windows tool denied to restore my 120GB partition on the empty 500GB HDD !!!!!! USELESS!!!!!

Acronis rocks!

 

Don't think there are any chipset drivers I can update... None from Sony, none found by windows update. Where can I check/compare?

If it is the SATA controller or the Motherboard generally there should have been other problems or a clear way to diagnose that! I have no other issues, nor do any tools find any problems in the system.

 

CPU-Z your chipset, and go onto Intel's website, punch in the chipset and download latest driver. SATA controllers are to blame I'd say for about 20% of HDD errors/Windows not booting up

 

Checked that. I am using the latest drivers available (9.6.0.1014).

What exactly should I do with CPU-Z?

 

The newest Intel driver is 10.0.0.1046
intel drivers pour Raid/Sata/Ata/Ahci

 

Not according to Intel's website !? Where do those come from if not from intel...

Strange.

Will install it right away.

 

That is the limitation I meant. Acronis on the other hand is sometimes too 'smart' to do the upsize/downsize thing which can screw up alignment badly(found it the hard way when trying to upgrade to SSD). So I lost 2x time(backup then restore and found it to be wrong).

If I have do boot up another OS to do this kind of thing, I would use the trust and try 'dd' in linux.

Though each of their own, whatever fits is the best

 

Station-Drivers: le site de drivers, bios, firmwares avec un forum d'aide

It is signed by Intel so should not contain virus but is not officially released on their site yet

 

Installed Thanks.

Any other ideas about what I can do/check?

 

Yes, do a clean install of your system onto the other HDD. Not a clone/image, but a reinstall. Without doing anyting else, only install that with you need to duplicate the problem and go from there.

 

Just reinstalled windows + needed programs - not much difference. It was good right at the beginning with no updates or programs on it... It could be a windows update that messes everything up... or it could just need some time to start doing it...

no idea

It looks to me as if the PC uses all HDD resources for one assignment and neglects everything else.

 

If you're going to start over and try it that way, you'll need to install things one at a time and then do something to stress your HDD and see when the issue can be duplicated.

Do you have an gadgets to monitor processor usage? Here is a good one that shows all 8 threads. You'll be able to see what the processor is doing while you're having this problem.
OrbLog Blog Archive Intel Core Series – Sidebar Gadget

 

I started this way, but honestly - 54 Windows Updates + about 10 VAIO updates + at least 20 programs that I need....... I don't have the weeks needed to do them one by one, restart, check and continue.

I already use CPU and RAM monitoring gadgets.

There doesn't seem to be any problem with the CPU or RAM. The RAM is normally between 40% and 50% (used), CPU reacts normally, Turbo Boost works as well.

 

Do you guys think my problems might be coming from lack of RAM !?!?

I see no indications for it (usually not more then 50% RAM used, not many "Hard Faults per sec", but every time I start reading/writing large amount of data on the HDD, fisrst 10-15 secs are ok (until "Free RAM" in Task Manager --> Performance goes to zero, and then the lags start.

As far as I know though "Available" Memory is more important and it is usually around 2 GBs....

After data transfer is finished, it takes a few seconds until minimized windows load (when maximizing) in which time there is a higher HDD activity. I take it the ran programs are transfered from the RAM to the HDD and need to be read out of there and put back to the RAM which causes the lag...

Once opened once, they open really quickly the next time... (I assume are loaded into the RAM).

Is my theory right?? And again - why is there no indication such as say 80% used RAM and lots of "Hard Faults per sec" ??

I am running Win 7 64 bit and have 4GB DDR3 RAM....

 

A machine with 4GB RAM is not ram starving unless you are using programs like photoshop.

What you have described seems to be that the HDD is not good at multitasking(thus a very large file copy would saturated the queue and any other IO request find it hard to squeeze in). So instead of measuring throughput(HDTune), you may want to measure IOPS.