very very Weird hard disk write speed

[chesss]

20 GB, 7 years old HDD
Model no: Samsung SV2042H

I just noticed something totally out of the blue:
I copied a 24MB .msi file from c: to e: . The copy operation took 2 seconds . I checked the source and destination files, both work.

24mb in 2 seconds = 12mb/sec
Right?

Generally I get write speeds of 1.2MB in my drive! Generally here means am getting low slow speeds for 7 years.

Next I copied a 10mb .exe file from c: to e: , it took 7-8 seconds to copy == 1.2mb/seconds..why?

Lastly I used total copy to accurately see the speeds of all file copying 'tests'

Some tests - files copied from one e drive to cdrive
a) 24 mb .msi file , copied at - 12mb/sec. (My drive seems to like this particular file)
b) 10mb .exe , copied at 1.2 mb
c) 160mb .zip file - The weirdest part.The first half of the file copied @ 12mb/sec but then it slowed to 1.2 mb. I can see this accurately through total copy.

wtf is going on here? Whats my drives actual speed? Why are some files being copied 10x

P.S: The files work after copying @ 12mb, I am not confused between Mb and MB, and I certainly wasn't creating shortcuts.

[hansraj]

I think it has something to do with the content of the exe file as well as zip file which is making its transfer a bit slower. For example if u have to copy a folder of 700 mb with one dat file and the other with thousands of jpeg files then u will find that the former gets copied quickly however the later one takes quite a long time. Just a guess from my side!!

[parthbarot]

may be... you r right..bcs exe is older then microsoft's new MSI installer...

But may be wht i think is... you can't judge the speed as like this... i mean.. its only 24 MB.May be... the processor is idle at the time and can pick file so speedily...

nothing wiered..dude..so don't worry.. :d

[Cool Joe]

It depends on the contents of the items you are copying.
For example, if you are copying a single 160 MB file, it will copy quicker than a zip file of the same size containing many different files.

[chesss]

well a possible explanation

The numbers here all refere to Max Burst Rate...Very seoldom doesn't anyone come close to hitting the max numbers and even then it'd for a second or two at the most.

So for some reason while copying certain files my HDD decides to hit its maximum transfer rate.. for a couple of seconds.

[parthbarot]

yo... yah.can be.. its it's decision afterall.. .

Parth.

[dheeraj_kumar]

Hansraj is partially correct. It depends on the no. of files, the filesystem, and what programs access the file when its being copied. Antivirus/antispyware programs access it when its being copied and take their sweet time to scan the entire archive. MSI is a closed file format, so its fast, EXE needs to be scanned indepth, so its slower, and for the zip, my guess is the first half of the file contains easily scannable files (like txt, jpg) and the second half contains "heavier" files.

[chesss]

MSI is a closed file format, so its fast, EXE needs to be scanned indepth,

BUt it happens randomly , not with all msi files.
Like yesterday a 73 mb .rmvb file got copied in 5-6 seconds @12mb/sec . Normally it takes 50 seconds.

[dheeraj_kumar]

No idea, my best guess is you have several processes running which access the file being copied.

[chesss]

Its happening again...

copied a 700mb file from cd to c: in 1 minute flat @10MB/s!!

[mrintech]

Dude install anyone of the software from here: http://tech-baby.co.cc/3-best-utilit...th-at-its-best

It will warn you if there's any future / sudden failure

I suggest SMART Monitoring Tool. Install and get alerted

[dheeraj_kumar]

^^ That was really pointless, this has nothing to do with hard disk problems, as I said earlier, my guess is some processes try to access the file.

@OP

Can you post your HJT log?

[mrintech]

[Faun]

Originally Posted by dheeraj_kumar

Hansraj is partially correct. It depends on the no. of files, the filesystem, and what programs access the file when its being copied. Antivirus/antispyware programs access it when its being copied and take their sweet time to scan the entire archive. MSI is a closed file format, so its fast, EXE needs to be scanned indepth, so its slower, and for the zip, my guess is the first half of the file contains easily scannable files (like txt, jpg) and the second half contains "heavier" files.

yup, thats why archive and transfer many files to pen drive in less time.

More the number the more time it will take cuz more th system calls to create and write several files. System calls are costly on resources.

[IronManForever]

Is your HDD going kaput? or was it bad in the first place when you bought it 7 years ago? A lot many bad sectors? Virus infection? Something worng with DMA?

Could be any of the above..

[chesss]

^well the smart reading shows that everthing is well above the threshhold..
no bad sectors.. no viruses.. I don't know if anything is wrong with the DMA