What is going on with my HDD? *56k warning, lots of screenshots*

OK, so I am a very intellectual person that can usually slug my way through every and all computer problems, but this one has got me

So I got this 250GB 1.8" 5400rpm Toshiba HDD [MK2533GSG] for ~$90 from ebay; it had something like 9hrs of spin time on it (that was after spending 1-1.5hrs installing stuff), so it is very new still

So here is what is going on, through the few weeks I've had it, I have been using Crystal Disc Mark periodically and here are the results:
First test [2-04-2011] (4GB ram)

Second test [2-04-2011] (4GB ram)

Third test [2-07-2011] (4GB ram)

Forth test [2-15-2011] (4GB ram)

Fifth test [2-25-2011] uninstalled Intel Matrix Storage (4GB ram)

Sixth test [2-25-2011] Immediately after reinstalling IMS (4GB ram)

Seventh test [2-25-2011] right after a reboot (IMS installed) (4GB ram)

Eighth test [2-26-2011] A few reboots later (now with 8GB in my machine)

Ninth test [2-26-2011] After a reboot (8GB ram)

Tenth test [2-26-2011] After a reboot (8GB ram)

Eleventh test [2-26-2011] After a reboot (4GB ram)

Twelfth test [2-26-2011] After a reboot (8GB ram)



I am not at all sure why it is doing this but it seem it is doing it anyways (that is, it is steadily changing after reboots). Those numbers are accurate, I know because I tested by copying files onto and off of the internal from a USB hdd. I do not have a 1.8" drive housing to test it outside of my laptop.
I do not know what I did between test 3 and 4, but it dropped out significantly; then it really dropped once I uninstalled IMS, and is slowly getting faster after reinstalling it.

I have thought about all the parts that could possibly be broken/ going wrong, but nothing seems to fit what I am seeing.



So, does anybody know what is going on that it is behaving this way? Perchance has this happened to others? Are there some other tests I should be doing as well (I don't usually delve into the realm of benchmarking, Crystal Disc is usually as far as I go )
Maybe there is a gremlin living in my hdd

Thanks in advance for any help

 

get rid of intel matrix storage manager and install intel rapid storage technology, its IMS replacement http://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&ProductFamily=Chipsets&ProductLine=Chipset+Software&ProductProduct=Intel%c2%ae+Rapid+Storage+Technology+(Intel%c2%ae+RST)&ProdId=2101&LineId=1090&FamilyId=40

 

Unless you run your CDM tests with a processidletasks command before each run, they will be all over the place, just like you see.


Or, try running CDM in Safe Mode for more consistency.

All you're seeing is Windows randomly using the drive while you're benchmarking it.

Better yet, just uninstall CDM and just don't worry about any of the random 'scores' it generates on a live system.

Hope this help (a bit).

 

how did you uninstall the Intel Matrix Storage driver ? ... and why ?

I've installed the newer Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver on top of the IMS and that's it. I would think that one can not just uninstall IMS while running in AHCI mode - first that should be put into Compatible mode in the BIOS.

.. well I guess Windows 7 has its own SATA drivers built in then. Either way, seems like you've got SATA driver problems.

 

You're running pretty small sample sizes for your benchmarks, which could make CDM a little more inaccurate than usual, since as far as I know, CDM picks a random spot on your HDD to test from. When that happens, because you have a platter drive, depending on where it picks to start the test from, there can be a large discrepancy in values (since speeds are always fastest near the edge of a platter drive).

 

I would always recommend uninstalling the previous driver fully before installing a new (in this case, much newer) driver.

Assuming Vista/Win7, then there is no fear that you should change into Compatibile mode in the BIOS first - Vista/Win7 will simply use the built-in AHCI v1.0 MS driver it ships with.

Advice: Uninstall the device in device manager, check the box to 'remove driver software' also, reboot and repeat until it loads the MS AHCI default driver v1.0. Now, you can install the correct Intel RST driver properly.

Good luck.

 

OK, so I uninstalled IMS, rebooted, and installed IRS, and rebooted twice more; speeds are in CDM are a bit better, but real world copying is much better off now (I am actually seeing burst speeds the first ~1sec of copying a file, and it maintains mid 30MB/s speeds)
Here is how it is performing in CDM now

I know that CDM isn't a great benchmark in terms of showing real disc performance, but simply uninstalling and reinstalling IMS dropped the sequential speeds to 20MB/s (well below what it was before), and then the speeds slowly got faster and faster (test 5-12; and I tried to keep as many parameters the same: each test was done after rebooting, waiting for all activity to die down, and then running only CDM)
If this were a 2.5" hdd that is hovering around 80MB/s for sequential read/write, then I would have to agree that it doesn't matter; but being a 1.8" drive it is pretty slow to begin with, and then it wasn't working right either


At this point is looks like the difference between speeds I am currently seeing and test 1-3 is probably because of location on platter. It is much more constant in speeds now, and it seems to be stable.

Once 1.8" SSD prices come down to a very affordable .25-1 $/GB range (a couple of years probably), then I think I will buy into SSD's again, but the prices are still too high for large sized SSD's; so until then I will be sticking with good 'ol HDD's


Unless there is something else besides IRST I can use/ do, then I think this is as much as I can do with it
Thanks for your help everyone

 

why dont you run HDTune ?

 

It took a while to find a version of HD Tune that would work, and then get it to last through a test (it seems to crash a lot)

Well here is what I ran (if I should run a different test from HD Tune, tell me which one; I just can't explore the program because it keeps crashing on me)

 

Your problem is that when the drive hits over 70-80% full you will see a performance hit, delete some things and you will see improvements.

 

It might be that clearing out some of the drive might improve speeds a bit, but not that much; and I need to have my storage space (if I didn't need the storage space, I would have just bought a 160GB Intel X18)


The speeds I am seeing now are pretty great; above 60MB/s for a bit, then low-mid 40's for a few seconds, and then mid 30's through all but the end of a 7GB disc image transfer. This is WAY better than I was seeing previously, so I would say it is working pretty well.
I did re-run CDM with a larger test size, here is the result