Hard Drive Reads Slow @ 3.7MB/s

Hi All: Recent run at PCPitstop reports unusually slow HD read speed.

Segate 200GB HDD 7,500 RPM, Defragged last night.
on primary IDE channel, drive 0. Not boot drive, boot from raid controller
Second drive on channel is Artec CD-R/RW

Ran HD Tach, reports:

15.2 ms seek
3.7 MB/s Read
CPU usage 98.8%

Although I don't have numbers for write speed it seems extremely slow as well.

Other drives OK.


Device manager reports device working properly, Set for DMA if available, current mode PIO

Getting this from Event Viewer, System:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: atapi
Event Category: None
Event ID: 9
Date: 11/26/2004
Time: 10:40:34 AM
User: N/A
Computer: CATASTROPHY
Description:
The device, \Device\Ide\IdePort0, did not respond within the timeout period.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 0f 00 50 00 01 00 a4 00 ..P...¤.
0008: 00 00 00 00 09 00 04 c0 .......À
0010: 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0028: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0030: 00 00 00 00 07 00 00 00 ........
0038: 40 00 00 0e 00 00 01 00 @.......
0040: 00 00 06 00 54 00 00 00 ....T...
0048: 00 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 ........
0050: 00 33 b4 f7 00 00 00 00 .3´Ã·....
0058: 00 00 00 00 20 a2 45 82 .... ¢E‚
0060: 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0068: 03 00 00 00 12 00 00 00 ........
0070: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........

Drive contains hidden partition for Acronis True Image backup. Also contains backups from Drive Image 7.

Question, is the drive failing? Or software problems? Any Fix?

Any and all responses will be appreciated.

Martin

 

Since the drive is running currently in PIO mode that would seem to be the problem. Should probably be a least DMA mode 5 or 6.

Are you using an 80 wire IDE cable on this drive? This would cause this.

Dale

 

Hello Martin (welcolme back ),

Some checks/tests you could try:

Disconnect (the cables) to the CD-RW and try the read tests again.

I think you have probably checked before, but is your power supply big enough? http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/ . Have you added more hardware since you last checked? (disconnect the optical drives to reduce the power load and run the tests again)

You could run the Seagate Seatools on it (even disconnect other drives and connect it as master on IDE 0, then run Seatools. That will rule out a problem with the RAID controller...it's not in RAID configuration I take it ).

From previous posts , I remember that you had EZ-BIOS on your Maxtor drives. Did you get rid of it/them. It will corrupt the MBR of other drives.

If you have Partition Magic or Partition Manager, see what it says about the partitions. It may be something to do with the "hidden" partition. I remember you had trouble with the Acronis setup before, can it really handle your drive arrangement?

If the drive is on it's way out, the Seatools should tell you. Sounds like a configuration/setup problem though.

Matt

 

Hi Guys, thanks for the responses.

I'm getting nowhere with this drive, still won't read faster than 3.7MB/s

Dale: How do I get it into a DMA mode, the drive is set for "DMA if available" but current mode is PIO?

Mattman: You sure have a good memory. Had trouble with Acronis 'till I got the latest version "8" No problems since.

Per your suggestion, ran Partition Magic, it reported no problems with this drive.

Per your suggestion, downloaded Seatools, ran on this drive. It currently is the only drive, master, on IDE Channel 1 drive 0.
Report attached. It is telling me that drive is fine, file system errors is cause.

Ran Discheck/repair through management console on this and all other drives, no improvement. Ran SFC, no help.

Deleted all partitions on the drive, Formatted it, no improvement. Continue to get ATAPI error in Event Viewer, System.

Further development, in Computer Management, Disc Management is taking up to 90 seconds to load, one time did not load at all, got timed out error. Used to load instantly.

Since Seagate is telling me the drive is fine and the problem is file system error, I don't know where to go from here. Obviously, Seagate won't RMA it based on their report.

Anybody know how there can be file system errors on a drive that is blank? If this is a configuration problem, where, what is misconfigured?

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated!!

Martin

 

Martin, REALLY sounds like the MBR has been corrupted. I use a low level format to completely clear the drive. Others say that using the command
format /mbr
can do it, I have not tried it.

If you do this I would recommend you disconnect your other drives or swap it to another PC (Don't want to wipe the wrong one ).

This may be a "leftover" from when you had EZ-BIOS on your Maxtor drives. If there is a chance that EZ-BIOS is still around on one of them, I would check it with MaxBlast and remove it (you will need to back that drive up). HJ was telling me about removing it here:
http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=37786

EZ-BIOS is OK running on a single drive that cannot be seen by the computer's BIOS. Once you start adding to/changing the drive configuration it "loses the plot ".

Matt

 

Hi Mattman: I read through the post with HJ, I'm not sure I understand everything though. For sure I don't know what an eprom is!

Anyhow, I find it hard to believe that the EZ Bios would still be anywhere on this machine, I got rid of it a long time ago. Also, this drive performed normally up until recently, it has been in the machine for sometime and never had a problem, not the first time I did a PC Pitstop run, an have done HD Tach before, no problem with this drive.

But something is really messed up for sure. Seagate has a DOS program, "Disc Wizard Starter Edition" containing a zero fill write program to erase everything off of the drive. (Low level format?) I used the quick version which erases the first 63 allocation units. Afterwards, had to uninstall and reinstall to get Windows to recognize and quick format the drive.
The end result is no improvement. The last full format on this drive took about 4 hours. For Naught.

I don't know if using their zero fill write program on the entire drive would help any at all.

I'm also still getting the ATAPI error, in Event Viewer, System, repeatedly telling me this drive timed out. .

I'm about to find out how far I can throw this drive from my second floor back porch.

Maybe plug a different drive into this IDE channel and see what happens?? Or maybe plug this drive into a different controller?

Have you (or anybody) figured out what I'm doing wrong??

Anyhow, thanks for all your help, I really appreciate it.

Martin

P.S. I'm going to bed now, tired of this for the moment.

 

Latest Test Results

 

Looks like it has been reset the way it was before.

Try the L-L format again, this time, after the format, set the partitions using Seagate Diskwizard. Don't format from Windows. Do a full low-level format if you can (waiting a few hours may save many hours of troubleshooting afterwards).

Before starting Windows with it again, I would consider running the Windows "repair" from the CD.

Matt

 

Martin, I wish I could say "here is the problem and here is how to fix it ". There seems to be a small error (corruption) somewhere in the boot records. My bet is that the error originated from EZ-BIOS and Windows is still reading it. How to find the error with so many drives (and with the data on them) may be a problem. IT pros can back up to other drives and "clean up" the system, you are in a limited situation.

You may need to get a spare drive just for data holding/transfer/backup while you work on others.

Matt

 

Hey Mattman: Thanks for sticking with me on this knotty problem. I get so frustrated dealing with this machine, Remember the cartoon with the guy tossing his machine down the stairs at work? Or the one with the man shooting his monitor with a 45. That's how I feel when Regseeker generates a BSOD.

In the meantime, my printer quit, HP says "faulty power adapter ", sending me a new one under warranty. Their step by step diagnostic required taking the printer into another room and plugging it into a different electrical outlet??? Good thing it didn't work there either, I can just picture me running into the dining room, printer in hand, each time I wanted to print something. Their support is available through "Live Chat" which I used, but I'd be willing to bet I was chatting with a machine.

Back on topic, I have 6 internal HDDs on the machine plus 1 USB hard drive, 6 of them behaving just like they are supposed to, one rogue. Boggles my mind. It is really the only HDD connected in the "normal" way on MOBO channel 1, drive 0. That's got to have something to do with the problem.

The other hard drives are either on the RAID controller or PCI controller with 50MB/s+/- write speeds and under 10% CPU usage, compared to 3.7GB/s and 98.7% CPU usage on the Seagate. My logic tells me that channel 1, drive 0 should be the fastest drive with the least CPU usage. Wrong again?

The Seagate drive is now sitting on my desk while I resist the urge to see if it will float in the pond.

Anyhow, your suggestions make sense, I'm just trying to figure out a step by step.

Yesterday I ordered another 200GB drive (WD) and will swap it out into the USB enclosure. I bought it for backups and imaging. Now, I'm thinking along the lines of your suggestion of emptying/imaging the other drives onto the new one (USB2), doing low level format on each then restoring images.

In the meantime I will go with step one, do a complete zero fill on the Segate drive, format it with their DiscWizard and see what happens next. I just hope that works, otherwise I have a lot of work to do on the machine. Will post results.

Thank you so much for your help and support. I couldn't do this alone.

Martin

 

Martin-

Once again, I feel for you Dad ....... It sounds like mattman has you headed the right direction so my inclination is to shut up and leave well enough alone. Unfortunately, good judgement doesn't always overrule the rest of whats going on in this thick skull. While I truly believe mattman has nailed the problem (pretty much confirmed by your seatools report) I'm a bit lazy in my approach to certain problems. I would encourage you to follow the recommendations that have already been proposed and will add a couple of comments.

Don't ask me why because I don't entirely know, but when I have a problem drive like that, I have found that putting it in another machine and jumpering it as Slave, then running FDISK /MBR followed by removing all partitions with FDISK and then creating a new partition with FDISK usually does the trick. Most drive overlay programs write to sector 63 and trying to do anything with them in the original computer can be frustrating as hell. Again, don't ask me why - its just my first line of attack with problematic drives.

Stick with mattman's recommendations but if you keep coming back to that second floor porch, give this a whirl before you launch the drive into the dark Georgia sky.

 

Hey Rockster: Thanks for chiming in on this nightmare that kept me up most of the night. Too bad I wasn't really dreaming.

I just can't get it through this thick skull of mine why a long gone drive overlay would impact a completely different drive on a different controller at this late date. Also, I used Seagate's Disc Wizard to wipe the 1st 63 sectors of the drive and have formatted it both Quick and Full since. None of this has helped.

Your suggestion seems like quite a shortcut as opposed to moving everything, wiping all the drives by zeroing and then restoring, and I'd certainly like to try it. I started the zeroing of the Seagate drive then cancelled as it looks like it will take at least 4 or 5 hours, and I have other work to do on the computer. (at least I'm still up and running)

I'd put the drive in my daughter's machine as a slave drive. Would you be kind enough to send the exact command prompt string to FDISK /mbr? and for the plain old FDISK, I'm just not sure of the correct syntax.

You know I appreciate your help.

Martin

 

I guess I don't know all the info on your machine.

A few important questions...

Does the machine boot into Windows?????

Do you have and 80 wire IDE cable attached to this drive and then to the motherboard???? Without an 80 wire IDE cable it will run in PIO mode........Very slow.

In the BIOS, how is this drive recognized????? Please set it to AUTO detect.

If EZ BIOS was not installed on this drive, it should not be an issue.

If it boots into Windows, I can't see how the MBR could be messed up!

I assume this is a storage drive only?????

Answer the above, then we can move on.

Dale

 

Hi Dale: I appreciate your interest.

Yes, boots into Windows from Channel 1, drive 0 on RAID Controller. High Point Bios 3.41. No raid array; used for IDE drives, 4 drives on this controller, all run normally.

Yes, 80 wire cable, Segate diagnostics reports cable OK.

Connected to MOBO IDE Channel 1, drive 0

Bios set at Auto Detect. BIOS recognizes drive on POST as normal, first drive to come up, shows this drive as master, CD drive as slave. This is the only HDD on MOBO.

Drive used for storage only. (used to be, now blank)

No drive overlay was ever installed on this drive. This drive used to run normally with DMA enabled. I became aware it had developed this problem after a recent run at PCPitstop. Always tested OK there before with this same configuration.

OK?

Martin

 

Martin

Been out of pocket all day. Pretty straight forward stuff. Would suggest you make a WinME boot disk (gets you over the hump re: drive size restriction in Win98 FDISK). Boot to the floppy and type FDISK /MBR - done in a couple of seconds. Then Type FDISK -> Then change to the correct drive and in your case, Delete non-DOS Partition, then create a DOS partition. ESC your way out and power down. Then you can rejumper and put the drive back in that Black Dragon and use Computer management -> Disk Management and again delete the partiton, create a partition and Format NTFS. Should be in business but I'd still go mattman's recommendations first. Use this as a backup - whats a little time when you are talking about Catastrophy.



edit - bad spelling of Martin's #1 babe - replaced e with y

 

I cannot say for certain that I am on the right track (except Rockster thinks so )

The drive utility says there is a problem with Windows. The drive itself is fine.

Maybe, as far as Windows is concerned, there may have been an EZ-BIOS drive in that "location" (the drive next to that one over there ) at some stage in the past, the "incorrect" data was fed to Windows which has not been correctly updated. With all the other drives working fine and this one "playing up ", I cannot think of another reason.

Martin, let us know how the L-L /zero format or format /mbr goes. Hopefully it should make Windows reset the boot records. At least then we know it's boot records are OK.

A question for you all...what about doing a swap of that HDD with another...that is, make Windows and the BIOS totally rebuild their settings for that drive? When both drives are completely recognised in the new location, then swap them back again? I cannot see any danger with that (Edit: except, maybe, runing programs that are located on a HDD that has been changed), Windows should reset everything afterwards (and hopefully the drive configuration/boot records with it).

Dale, appreciate your input. Let me know if what I propose seems wrong or dangerous for the other drives/data (my first priority). I think we should make sure that the drive is completely "clean" before we proceed, then look at how to make Windows run it correctly.

I will see if I can find the Maxtor "disclaimer" that says that after you install EZ-BIOS, then change the configuration, anything could happen! I hope it is something else. Martin, you should "be prepared" for any eventuality, you will need to be your own Harddrive Guru ...swap and change...swap and change...

Matt

 

"Morning all:
Some better news. Looking in device manager, I noticed that there were 2 Primary IDE controllers and 2 Secondary IDE controllers.

That seemed strange to me as the other HDDs are on their own controllers, Raid and PCI.

I asked myself if somehow, Windows had installed one component twice? Certainly possible, I have seen that happen before.

Since Windows boots off of the RAID controller, I took a chance and uninstalled all four IDE controllers, half expecting to loose the whole works and be unable to boot.

After the deletion was complete and Windows was still running (Whew!), I went to install new hardware in control panel.

Windows reinstalled ALL FOUR IDE controllers plus 6 drives, 2 of which are on the Primary IDE Channel, 2 on the PCI card and 2 on RAID secondary channel.

Windows boots from the Primary RAID channel.

The good news is the Seagate drive is now installed as DMA mode 5. According to HDTach is writing at 50+Avg. MB/s

Apparently somehow the IDE controller drivers got corrupted.

But, I'm still getting the ATAPI error in Event Viewer, System. Drive continues to fail to respond in allotted time and times out. As I write this, I am again formatting the Seagate drive, hoping that will cure the ATAPI error.

Will post results, I don't expect format to cure it, I couldn't be that lucky.

Again thanks to all who have helped with this and hopefully will continue to help get rid of the ATAPI error.

Edit: No, did not get lucky. Still getting the ATAPI error. Drive performs normally, Computer Management, Disc Management slow loading, takes 30-40 seconds, generates same ATAPI error, timed out.

Any Ideas out there?

Martin

 

Well, seems you are part way there.
Just need to clarify a bit here......again. Sorry. Confusing with so many drives in there!!

The 200 gig Seagate is connected to the Primary IDE channel of the MOBO as the master.

Is there anything else now connected as a slave on this Primary channel with the Seagate??

What is connected to the Secondary IDE channel of the MOBO??

Are you using the native XP drivers for the MOBO IDE controller or the VIA 4 in 1's??

Can you tranfer any files to your Seagate from another drive??
If so does the transfer seem fast enough??

Also, please clarify what you are doing when you get the atapi timeout error.

Dale

 

Dale
Little Background ..... re: Martin's machine, Catastrophy.
Martin, you may be best to update as my memory - (this was last year I think) - has been taxed. Soyo SY KT400 Black Dragon or Dragon Ultra with High point controller for IDE 3 & 4, Via chipset running IDE 1 & 2. Full compliment of HDD's on the HighPoint but hard headed Martin wanted to boot from a Via controlled drive so he could auto-backup (never could quite understand this myself) and auto restore images from an optical drive after an unscheduled shutdown. Believe he was using Primary on IDE #1 for boot and somewhere along the way he brought in an external but since he only references 5 HDD's I'm still confused. Again, never quite understood the logic but Catastrophy isn't your "average girl" either. Martin's hard head is surpassed only by Castrophy's brilliant disposition and I'm sure Martin will welcome all suggestions - just one word of caution - she's his #1 babe so be careful. Ya gotta love it though - quite the affair they have going on.

 

Rockster...ROFL

Johanna