Hard Drive has slow read speeds a few days after reboots frequently

[D!ABOL!C]

Hello friends,

 

I have a 2TB Western Digital  hard drive internally on my system and I have been having this issue that I cannot seem to resolve. Whenever I try to access data on this drive, the files index really slowly. After a reboot everything is fine for a few days and then the read speeds begin to dip again.

 

I have run Crystal Disk Info and it says the drive is fine. I have done some searching and I know to enable the "Enable write caching on this device" which says it is supposed to improve system performance. I have run a check disk on it and there are no issues. Any thoughts or ideas will be helpful.

 

Additional Info-

 

Motherboard - MSI z170a Gaming M5

Hard Drive - Western Digital WD Desktop Performance 2 TB (Full Model #: WDBSLA0020HNC-NRSN)

Windows 10 Pro v1803

 

Thank you!

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

What does SMART say? Care to post up a pic of CrystalDisk? Not just saying "it's fine". Obviously it isn't.

[D!ABOL!C]

Here is a screen cap from Crystal

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

You try a different SATA cable, or another SATA port? As per CrystalDisk, not that much points to your issue...

[D!ABOL!C]

No, I haven't opened up the case and tried either of those. Think it will make a difference?

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

It may. In troubleshooting, the weirdest things can be your answer...

[D!ABOL!C]

OK, i'll give it a shot. Thanks.

[Jim K Global Moderator]

So, it is fine for a little while but gradually deteriorates until a reboot?  You sure it isn't something (a process or whatever) slowly eating up RAM (i.e. memory leak) causing more HDD read/writes?  How is the disk space? 

 

Have you looked at the Resource Monitor (memory/disk), specifically when these slow downs happen, to see if there is anything unusual?

 

I doubt it is hardware related ... if this happens after a few days and a reboot fixes it temporarily...sounds like OS/software.

[D!ABOL!C]

Funny you should mention that. I'm in the middle of one of those cycles right now and I just checked the task manager. The disk activity on that drive was at 100%. The only thing I really use on a regular basis is Itunes for music. Itunes will lock up too when this happens. I killed the task and waited a few minutes and the disk activity went back to zero. I also checked resource monitor right now and nothing.

 

This is so weird.

[spaceelf]

9 minutes ago, D!ABOL!C said:

Funny you should mention that. I'm in the middle of one of those cycles right now and I just checked the task manager. The disk activity on that drive was at 100%. The only thing I really use on a regular basis is Itunes for music. Itunes will lock up too when this happens. I killed the task and waited a few minutes and the disk activity went back to zero. I also checked resource monitor right now and nothing.

 

This is so weird.

Hmm.  iTunes can have a bad config, sometimes.  It was just updated so could've had problems, or be reindexing if you've got a lot of music.

[D!ABOL!C]

I swapped from the install off of Apple's page and went with the new one that is in the MS Store.

 

I'll try another music app and see if that makes a difference. Itunes is when I seem to notice it. After a reboot, when I change songs it is instant. When the issue happens, it lags a few seconds before changing.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

Sometimes external USB hard disk drives have firmware updates for the USB to SATA bridge inside the drive, and they can fix odd issues, like performance degrading over time.

Have you checked with the manufacturer to see if a new firmware update is available?

 

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

 

[D!ABOL!C]

17 hours ago, goretsky said:

Hello,

Sometimes external USB hard disk drives have firmware updates for the USB to SATA bridge inside the drive, and they can fix odd issues, like performance degrading over time.

Have you checked with the manufacturer to see if a new firmware update is available?

 

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

 

This is an internal drive. I did have an issue with an external, but I am beginning to think the internal drive was the root of the problem.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Well, if you are bored you can download a trial of HD tune pro and to a sector scan of the drive. Probably not the issue, but if no red dots appear you would at least know there are no unknown current pending sectors.

 

if the hdd is at 100% usage I would take a look at the resource monitor and see what's using up the disk i/os

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

 

From reading this thread on Western Digital's support site about a different HDD model, it does appear that they occasionally provide firmware updates for internal drives, but you have to contact their support to get them, e.g., they are not offered for download.  So, it might still be a good idea to check with their support department.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

[D!ABOL!C]

An update for those curious. I did open up a case with Western Digital and they just told me to run their diagnostic tool. After 11 hours the test completed with a pass.

 

After reading more articles about this, it seems to be an issue with Windows 10 and not a hardware problem. The troubleshooting continues...

[D!ABOL!C]

Fantastic news! My issue is resolved. There was a newer BIOS update for my Motherboard and since then everything is great. I even transferred 160GB from an External Hard Drive and it went nice and fast. When in doubt, update that BIOS!

[Mindovermaster Moderator]

1 hour ago, D!ABOL!C said:

Fantastic news! My issue is resolved. There was a newer BIOS update for my Motherboard and since then everything is great. I even transferred 160GB from an External Hard Drive and it went nice and fast. When in doubt, update that BIOS!

Well, only update BIOS when you need to. A CPU update or a feature you want.

 

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

[spaceelf]

2 hours ago, Mindovermaster said:

Well, only update BIOS when you need to. A CPU update or a feature you want.

 

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Disagree.  I've always kept up on my UEFI or former BIOS updates, as they almost always improve something worthwhile.

 

If it ain't broke you probably just haven't noticed yet.