Slightly unusual HD Tune for Travelstar 7K500

I recieved my 500GB 7K500 a few days ago, and only recently installed it. I just wanted to HD Tune on it for comparison with the others who got this disk, but my results seem a little different. I've attached it below, so take a look.

Granted, this is running in SATA I mode, but still, I think 68 MB/s is a little low perhaps. I'd like to see what everyone else has to say.

 

Are you sure that's SATA I? Those speeds remind me of UDMA. Maybe you need to RMA your drive.

 

Yes, it is. I remember hearing that these drives ship with some form of power saving mode enabled, so I downloaded the "Hitachi Feature Tool" and basically pushed the bar to the "performance" end. But alas, it made no difference.

I suppose it could be a bad drive, but I'm thinking it may still be something to do with some sort of settings.

 

Could be some other programs running in the background intervening the benchmark process.

 

I should have mentioned this before. This hard drive isn't my boot drive, so in theory, it shouldnt have many requests to it. It may be worth to mention however, it is partitioned and has maybe around 20GB of data on it, but thats about it.

 

So the hd is a secondary drive? That might be why.

 

Yep, but I have also run the test from the actual disk itself (since it also has a copy of Windows on it), and the results for that are more or less the same. Perhaps I should get rid of the partition, fully format and try again.

 

I don't think that it has low speeds because it is a secondary drive because I also have a 7k500 and although I'm using it as my secondary drive, I am receiving speeds around 110MB/s in HDTune

 

I had something similar happen with my 7K320 drive, except that the transfer rate seemed to be "capping" at a slightly lower speed than yours. Anyway, I solved it by installing Intel Matrix Storage Manager, and then the graph looked more typical and with a higher avg. transfer rate. It may be worth a try.

EDIT: Even with Intel MSM I think it may be capping around 74 MB/s, similar to yours. It's just that with my drive that doesn't make all that much difference, and it's a noticeable improvement over what I had before. Anyway, it's still something to consider tying.

Anyway, here's the thread on the problem I was having, with HD Tune graphs, if you're interested: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=295888&highlight=matrix+storage

 

Update the driver from Intel site http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=17883&lang=eng

Unzip it, and update the hard drive controller from device manager using the file from the zip file. Look for IDE/ATAPI Controller => SATA AHCI Controller or something like that.

 

Something is limiting the Sata! notice the drive is 75MBs or 1/2 Sata I. Also the low brst rate is an indicator.

 

Your max is 76 MB/sec while you should go well over 100 MB/sec. Like you already thought something is capping the performance.

My results on my 7K500 improved after replacing the Intel ICH 9 driver by the generic MS driver. I now get 109 MB/sec max.

 

I tried this, but the results for HD tune were no different.

Yes, this is a big problem. Phil's result is much more near 200 MB/s, but his is ofcourse SATA II. But, even with SATA I, it should definitely be more than the 66MB/s I am getting.

 

Have you tried to remove all partitions, install just the plain OS and run the benchmark again with the drive in question as the only drive? FYI: I have about 80MB/S with Seagate 500GB 7K RPM.

 

Yep, I have removed the partitions and also formatted the whole thing, and tested it as a simple large 465GB NTFS parition. Same rubbish result

I'm going out in the next few mintes, but when I gt back (few hours), I'll get this hard disk installed in another laptop, and run the tests on there and post results. Hopefully then we'll be able to isolate the issue.

 

Check your BIOS for a SATA AHCI setting, try enabling/disabling it.

 

I already checked, couldn't find anything, but the SATA contoller is listed as AHCI, so I assume it is working under AHCI.

 

Do you know which udma mode your hdd active at ?
can use hdparm to find out, or check Info tab on HDTune..
try to change the udma mode like mentioned here

 

I thought since this was a SATA drive, UDMA modes did not apply?

I did manage to install the hard disk in a different laptop, also with a SATA I controller. The result was better in terms of burst rate and the maximal transfer rate, but still poor overall. Bear in mind, the other laptop can only accept one hard disk, and so I had to install Windows 7 on it, and didn't have much time for installing anything else. Anyways, the HD tune for it is below. The only thing I can really say is that something is definitely limiting the transfers on my laptop. I have a feeling it has to do with AHCI/IDE mode, but I'm not sure. Since I have no options for that in the BIOS, I think I might be missing an AHCI option, but under "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers", the controller comes up as "Intel(R) ICH7M/MDH SATA AHCI Controller". Anyone have any ideas?

Also, thankyou to all who have replied so far. I very much appreciate all the input and help

 

Since you tried it in a different laptop and you have a similar result, the problem is with the drive not your laptop. My laptop can only accept one hd too, no option to set AHCI in the BIOS, similar entry with the Device Manager (ICH9M/EM), and I have 80MB/S average with XP and Vista with nothing else installed. I have Seagate 500GB 7K HD.

If you still can, return the hard drive.

 

Yes, I can RMA it, but since there is no definite problem, the retailer might just not allow it. But, I think there is quite a difference betwen the result on my laptop and the other one; the burst rates a very much different, the inital maximals are also fairly different, as is the overall access time. Its possible it is the hard disk itself, but I don't understand why the results are not exactly the same.

 

Actually that last HDTune shot looks fairly normal. There are just some background processes accessing the hard drive, causing the dips.

 

Have out tried the Microsoft AHCI drivers?

 

Also by default the Hitachi feature tool will not operate with ICH9M without first enabling compatability mode. It will not run under enhanced on my U81-a!!!!!!!!!

 

Yes, this is the exact impression I am under too. The other laptop definitely has AHCI enabled in the BIOS, and Windows 7 was installed under that configuration. My laptop, the one in the signature, has no option anywhere in the BIOS. I'm just not sure if it does have AHCI, but in device manager, the controller is listed as a SATA AHCI controller. I'm just a little confused whther it does or does not have AHCI enabled.

So, I downloaded the Intel chipset identification utility, which tells me the SATA controller is in AHCI mode. However, to check this, I also installed VIA's utility, but it says the hard disk transfer mode is DMA. That has just made this situation even more annoying.

By this, do you just mean I should uninstall the current Intel drivers from device manager, and restart?

 

Some how your bios has you in compatability mode. You would not have been able to run the feature tool without that mode enabled. Hitachi's site even says it will not load with ICH9M and before tried it and it wouldn't work. I tried it again with no success until I went to bios and enabled compatability mode from enhanced in the sata section...........

 

Thats the thing, the tool did not load at all. I had to remove the disk, install it in another computer that would be able to set it in IDE mode. It worked then, but as it stands currently, it does not work on my laptop. So by that deduction, does it mean it is operating in AHCI mode in my laptop?

 

If you're willing to do that again, I would use the Hitachi Feature Tool to limit the drive to SATA 1.5 (Speed Spectrum Clocking Disabled). The internal transfer speed of the 7K500 is high enough that it might not be negotiating an optimal transfer rate with the ICH7-M controller.

 

Yep, I already did this too, to no avail unfortunately.

I really am not sure what else this could be. One thing of note is that in the Intel Matrix Storage Console, the SATA controller is listed as "SATA AHCI controller", but if you expand that column, there are no actual disks available to view. It just says there are unused ports. But how can this be? I have the 7K500 installed in the primary and the 7K200 installed in the secondary port.

 

I'd say contact your laptop manufacturer and ask them about this capping of speed problem.
It is odd, but the speed on the drive when you tested it on another machine seems OK.

 

Yes, I will do that tomorrow morning. This laptop is identical to the Alienware M5750/M5790, and I'm fairly sure they wouldn't cap this. I just don't see the need to do it. I guess its just some setting that is hiding somewhere, but its just frustrating because of the loss of performance.

 

Are other hard drives capped at the same speed in this laptop?

 

Is this helpful? The second HD Tune is using the RAID driver provided by Windows 7, not the one available on the VIA website. Could that be the reason for the cap?

 

I'm not sure Phil. I am currently away from home, and besides, I don't think I have any disks there that will be able to saturate the current limited bandwidth.

I thought so too, so I installed the newest VIA drivers I could find, still no luck. The thing is, the RAID controller is listed under "Storage Controller" in device manager, but the hard drives are in a seperate field under "Disk Drives", and the Intel controller is under "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers". I don't know if that is correct?

 

It looks to be correct, based on this Everest report. I believe the optical drive runs on the IDE controller, based on this InsanelyMac report.