Slow HDD?

mOdO · 18 Jun 2007 at 10:37

Hi

I have recently bought an IDE hdd to replace my hdd that died. I have kept everything the same. After installation I noticed how slow the boot, installation of apps and copying files were compared to my old one. eg photoshop took 1hr 30mins to install

I have checked all connections to be sure.

So could this be a defected hdd? If so I will RMA it asap.

Thanks.

fobose · 18 Jun 2007 at 11:03

Why not download a HDD benchmark tool, such as HD Tach or HD Tune and see what sort of speeds you get with it?

http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public/index.php?request=HdTach

mOdO · 18 Jun 2007 at 11:05

Will do that, im just installing a fresh os

Thanks

fobose · 18 Jun 2007 at 11:19

What HDD did you buy by the way? I would have thought a new one would have been quicker than an older one..

rpstewart · 18 Jun 2007 at 12:41

At a guess it sounds like the HDD controller has kicked down to PIO mode which will severly limit the HDD speed. You should be able to tell from the properties of the controller in Device Manager if this has happened or if you use HDTach it'll show as a flat graph at about 12Mb/s with CPU usage > 25%. Usually if you delete the controller in Device Manager and reboot Windows will reinstall it and it should rever to UDMA mode.

mOdO · 18 Jun 2007 at 15:10

Well after the fresh install it seems to be working fine now

Its a WD800JB btw.

Thanks for the help anyway.