Resolved hard drive running slow

I am not sure if this ia a hardware or OS question.
I am using Win XP Pro and I have lots of home vidoe saved on three hard drives. I am having trouble loading & playing video from one of the hard drives. Video's that should take a few minutes to download are taking 4+ hours.
Is there anything I can do?
Thanks,
Lewis

 

Hi Lewis, it might pay to run the HD Mfg Diagnostic tool. ie. Seagate = Seatools as it might be going South. Neil.

 

Your system specs could do with an edit. Unless I am very much mistaken, you have your graphics card details as Hard Drive 1 and your external Lacie hard drive as Hard Drive 3. Also your Hard Drive 2 detail is missing the manufacturers name.

If this doesn't improve your transfer rates then there may be a problem with the drive. Running the manufacturers diagnostics may help resolve the problem, as suggested earlier.

 

HI Steve,
I take digital videos on tape and load onto external drives. I have external 4 drives and one is slow. If I click to play in WMP, if it runs it is slow and jerky. I tried to transfer a file, to the desk top that should take about 5 minutes and it estimated about 250 minutes. the drive is only about a year old.
Thanks,
Lewis

 

Hi,
I was not sure of the make of the hard drive, now I think it is Comstar.
There are numbers HDE6 640G which seems to be Western Digital and GU2S 3B/S1 which is Comstar.
The drive is a 640 GB Comstar, I know after seeing the box.
I see no support for the drive and looking at the forum on the store's website (Future Shop) the future does not look good.
I hope to be able to get the data off the drive or I'll have 50 hours of vidoe downloads. I will have to research Hard drives ad I have another Comstar 640.
Thanks,
Lewis

 

HI,
I have not been able to check out the manufacturer's disk diagnostics as I am unable to locate them.
The number that seemed to match Western Digital does not relate to a 640 gig drive. I have tried the suggestions, nothing worked, so I think the drive is porked. I will be careful in the next drives I purchase. I will get back up drives for my video.
Thanks,
Lewis

 

The choice is yours but if it is not a faulty drive you may wish you had run the dignostics to confirm it. The HDE6 640G is a Western Digital drive so this following instruction will get you the diagnostics and allow you to test the drive.

Use the link Arie gave. On the Western Digital web page click on "Data Lifeguard Diagnostics for DOS (CD) ". On the next page there is a selection for two Downloads. Select the one with ISO format and click the Download button. Save it to your desktop.

Burn the image file to a CD, boot the PC with the disc in the drive and run the diagnostics. You first need to set the CD drive to 1st in the boot order in the Bios setup.

If you do not have an image burner use this free software to make the CD.

http://www.isoimageburner.com/

If the drive is defective you could try removing it from its box and connecting it directly inside your PC to see if you can retrieve the data.

The number on the drive doesn't match anything on the WD site because it was made for the external drive, assembled by another manufacturer.

 

1st in the boot order in the Bios setup.
I have never altered the Bios and hesitate to. Are there any precautions I can take and when should I Change the Bios back?
Lewis

 

Is that a question? Do you need help to do this? Do you know how to get into the Bios?

Putting the CD drive to 1st place in the boot order simply makes the Bios look there first for a bootable disc, if there is no bootable disc in the drive it then looks at the 2nd boot device and so on. This can easily be changed back but will do no harm leaving it that way.

This guide may help but the bios layout in your PC may be different.

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ss/bootorderchange.htm

 

Run Error Checking (CHKDSK) on the drive. Look up Error Checking in Help and Support if you don't know it.

Mark, the drive is external, it probably only needs Data Lifeguard for Windows, not DOS.

If the Comstar USB interface seems to be the problem, you can take the HDD out of the case, get another external case and put the HDD in that. Without checking myself, you will need to find out if it is 2.5 inch or 3.5 inch HDD and if it is PATA (IDE) or SATA, example
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=92&name=External-Enclosures

Matt

 

Mattman, the Dos version can be used on an external drive or have I given the wrong information? I appreciate the Windows version would save having to burn a disc.

 

Not necessarily wrong Mark. Looking at their downloads for Legacy External Drives, they offer Data Lifeguard for Windows. They also have drivers for Windows 98, so DOS might require drivers for it to be recognised. Lifeguard for Windows is relatively quick and simple to install.

 

Hi,
A friend has offered to make an image of the drive and I hope to get it back in a few days and then I will want to check if the drive is porked,
Thanks,
Lewis

 

Hi,
A local friend has offered to make an image of the drive, I won't have it for a few days. If he is successful then I will neet to see if the drive still works.
Thanks for the time being,
Lewis

 

Hi,
My friend has returned the drive, he says it is fine but there was a problem with the housing. He advised me to buy a better quality housing as the original was rubbish. Thanks everybody for your help.
All the best,
Lewis

 

Your welcome

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