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    Question about my Hitachi 7K200 HDD

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by xwskx, Aug 22, 2008.

  1. xwskx

    xwskx Notebook Enthusiast

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    I'm starting to notice huge flucuation on my hard drive when reading big files. Below is the HD Tune benchmark.

    [​IMG]

    As you can see the bit rate spikes up and down. This seems outrageous and i was planning on sending it in for RMA. But i wanted to know if anyone has knowledge of this problem. Is this the expected behavior for the Hitachi 7k200 200gb HDD. I don't want to send it in for RMA and wait a week only to discover that the replacement will be the same.
     
    xwskx, Aug 22, 2008
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  2. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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    Check task manager for cpu utilization. Cut down non-system backround processes.
    Can you upload a screenshot of task manager showing all the processes ?

    Also, if possible, restart in diagnostic mode and then re-run the benchmark. You can also run Hitachi's diagnostic tools to check the drive....
     
    Andy, Aug 22, 2008
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  3. powerpack

    powerpack Notebook Prophet

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    This is usually caused by something in the background tying up system time. With out saying it is not a hardware problem (could be) I don't think it is. Are you running anything else? That is the worst I have seen.

    Check your applications and processes.
     
    powerpack, Aug 22, 2008
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  4. K-TRON

    K-TRON Hi, I'm Jimmy Diesel ^_^

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    It looks like you have a antivirus program running in the background, which is causing your harddrive to be continually accessed, thus decreasing its performance.
    Go into the start menu and go to the run command. Than type in MSCONFIG, and then go into the services and startup tabs and shut off all background processes, applications and services you are not using. This will help decrease the strain on your cpu, harddrive and memory, making your system much faster.
    You should also run disc cleanup and disk defragmenter every once in a while

    K-TRON
     
    K-TRON, Aug 22, 2008
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  5. Bog

    Bog Losing it...

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    Such erratic performance may also be caused by accessing large files only; does the drive yield the same performance when accessing small files?
     
    Bog, Aug 22, 2008
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  6. Andy

    Andy Notebook Prophet

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    In HD Tune, go into Options > Benchmark, and check the Block Size.
    Though even assigning the 8MB block size wouldn't hurt performance, since mechanical drives are actually better at transferring large files rather that loads of small files.
    It is definitely because of the background processes and services. (Probably some sort of virus scan running in the background) Also check the Health Page in HD Tune.
     
    Andy, Aug 22, 2008
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