HDD question

kmufc77 · 4 May 2011 at 18:53

My backup HDD is way below read/write speeds,it should be 100mb but is only showing as 60mb using several different benchmark programs.

The drive is also making a high pitched noise which comes on and off,i have a brand new drive arriving tomorrow as i fear its about to die.

My question is can a failing drive lower its benchmark read/write speeds to what is supposed to be?

shine · 4 May 2011 at 18:57

Yes, a failing drive can/will slow down depending on the nature of the failure. The best way to check if a drive is failing is to download the diagnostics from the manufactures website.

kmufc77 · 4 May 2011 at 19:01

shine said:
Yes, a failing drive can/will slow down depending on the nature of the failure. The best way to check if a drive is failing is to download the diagnostics from the manufactures website.

Thanks for the reply as i thought,im glad i caught it in time,i should have a raid backup setup really, though i dont think the Caviar Greens can be used in raid

23JMZ07 · 4 May 2011 at 20:06

If there are bad sectors the drive will try and compensate thus constantly checking itself for places where it can store data. Eventually the drive will slow down to a stop almost. WD Caviar Greens can RAID fine but they sometimes cause issues with how TLER works and the RAID controller marking them as unstable.