Storage Solutions [Help] HDD freezing every 5 minutes

[StillWaters]

Hi Guys,

I have AMD X3 8450 and Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H based computer with 4GB RAM and on board graphics. My OS is Win 7 64 bit and the only HDD is WD Green 500GB (WDC WD50 00AADS-00S9B0 SATA Disk Device).

My issue is that every 5 or so minutes my Computer would freeze up for 3+ minutes. During that time the Resource Monitor would show the HDD Disk Que at Full, with Response time going upto 7000+ ms for applications accessing the HDD. CPU usage would be almost at 0%. This happens extremely frequently when browsing the web (tried Chrome, Firefox and IE). Less frequently like every 15-20 minutes while watching a movie or listening to music. Only occasionally while playing games like LOL, WOW, etc.

The Resource Manager screenshot shows the following:


I have kept my drivers and software updated constantly. I have been getting this problem right from day 1 of installing Windows 7 64 bit on this WD HDD. Before that I had Seagate Barracuda as my primary drive on which Win XP was installed, with the WD being my 2nd drive for storage only. After my Seagate HDD failed, I had to start using WD as primary Disk and I started seeing this issue.

I have run WD Diagnostics (Short and Long), HD Tach and HD Tune. They all indiacte that drive is fine. Here are the screenshots:

HD Tune:


HD Tach Quick Test:

HD Tach Long Test:


WD Diagnostiscs and SMART:



I have tried updating Flash, .NET, SATA/AHCI drivers, choosing IDE instaed of SATA, Turning Disk Caching On and Off, etc but no luck. I would really appreciate if anyone here can help me diagnose this issue and possible fix it.

Searching the net tells me that most probable cause is WD Green Drive and choosing a non-green drive as primary will fix this issue. I want to see if we can fix this issue before spending cash on a new drive.

Thanks,
StillWaters

 

[Kuantum]

If OS installed using ide bios option then can't just switch to ahci mode. Switching back to IDE from AHCI may not solve corrupt registry values...

 

[axeman]

try using another power connector from your PSU which is on another wire segment?

 

[ALPHA17]

@StillWaters the Western Digital Green family drives have a very aggressive 'ECO' mode in which the idling hard-drive goes to a near-Sleep power consumption status.

This happens with my 1TB Green hard-drive as well, if I access it after a long time of the system idling it would take time to spin up [I can hear this and then initialize the process I wanted]. That is why they are recommended as data-dump drives rather than OS drives OR secondary drives, on which a constant set of low-key tasks keep running. Curiously it never hangs on me, maybe because none of my programs / applications are installed on the same.

Just as a measure if there are any instances of power-saving running in the background [via the Control Panel settings] switch them off and see if there is any change in the situation.

So I suggest that you get a different hard-drive as your primary OS drive / partition and keep this current as a dump drive for your HD Ripz and TV series.

Hope this helps, Cheerio!

 

[jinvidia]

^^ Think you are right. These so called green drives are usesless when it comes to random data access. Just like microsd class 10 cards i guess..

 

[StillWaters]

If OS installed using ide bios option then can't just switch to ahci mode. Switching back to IDE from AHCI may not solve corrupt registry values...

Hi #[member='Kuantum']. Thanks for the reply. I had infact installed my OS while SATA/AHCI mode was selected in BIOS.

try using another power connector from your PSU which is on another wire segment?

Hi #[member='axeman']. Thanks, I will try that out and reply if the situation improves.

StillWaters the Western Digital Green family drives have a very aggressive 'ECO' mode in which the idling hard-drive goes to a near-Sleep power consumption status.

This happens with my 1TB Green hard-drive as well, if I access it after a long time of the system idling it would take time to spin up [I can hear this and then initialize the process I wanted]. That is why they are recommended as data-dump drives rather than OS drives OR secondary drives, on which a constant set of low-key tasks keep running. Curiously it never hangs on me, maybe because none of my programs / applications are installed on the same.

Just as a measure if there are any instances of power-saving running in the background [via the Control Panel settings] switch them off and see if there is any change in the situation.

So I suggest that you get a different hard-drive as your primary OS drive / partition and keep this current as a dump drive for your HD Ripz and TV series.

Hope this helps, Cheerio!

Thanks @ALPHA17 #[member='Alpha17']. If the ECO or Sleep Mode was causing the problem, won't the SMART LCC Value increase over time? Its been stable at 177 for as long as I have started monitoring.

Also I have all the power saving settings turned off except for the Monitor which is 10 minutes. I have specifically disabled HDD Power saving. I will take your advise and get a different HDD for my primary OS drive.

 

[ALPHA17]

Thanks @ALPHA17 #[member='Alpha17']. If the ECO or Sleep Mode was causing the problem, won't the SMART LCC Value increase over time? Its been stable at 177 for as long as I have started monitoring.

Good point, I did not note that but keep us updated if changing the SATA power connector makes any noticeable changes to the situation. I noticed that you have a Cooler Master eXtreme Power Pro SMPS it may not be supplying a steady flow of electricity / power to the drive over the current connector.

P.S. -- If you want to tag anyone in your posts, use this syntax -- @<follow by name> e.g. --@StillWaters.

 

[Kuantum]

Further to ALPHA17 post install PSU voltage monitoring software or physically connect voltmeter to power supply leads 3.3V 5V 12V

Or try a different psu

Good point, I did not note that but keep us updated if changing the SATA power connector makes any noticeable changes to the situation. I noticed that you have a Cooler Master eXtreme Power Pro SMPS it may not be supplying a steady flow of electricity / power to the drive over the current connector.

P.S. -- If you want to tag anyone in your posts, use this syntax -- @<follow by name> e.g. --@StillWaters.

 

[StillWaters]

Good point, I did not note that but keep us updated if changing the SATA power connector makes any noticeable changes to the situation. I noticed that you have a Cooler Master eXtreme Power Pro SMPS it may not be supplying a steady flow of electricity / power to the drive over the current connector.

P.S. -- If you want to tag anyone in your posts, use this syntax -- @<follow by name> e.g. --@StillWaters.

Thanks ALPHA17. I was used to old way of tagging .

Further to ALPHA17 post install PSU voltage monitoring software or physically connect voltmeter to power supply leads 3.3V 5V 12V

Or try a different psu

Thanks Kuantum. Is there a recommended PSU Voltage Monitoring Software? I use CPUID HW Monitor and CPU-Z. The screens for those are attached here:

HW Monitor:



CPU-Z:



I also tried another thing. I went to Device Manager and Uninstalled the AMD SATA Interface and also selected the Remove/Uninstall Driver option. I let the computer restart twice to accept the change and re-install the driver it picked. Although it installed the same driver again, but the situation did improve a lot. Now instead of Freeze every 3 minutes, I get Freeze every 30-40 minutes or so and it lasts 2-3 minutes max.

Waiting for opportunity to visit Nehru Place to pick a new drive or convince the Dealer to honor the warranty on the failed Seagate HDD.

Thanks,
StillWaters

 

[Kuantum]

@StillWaters

Try PSU voltage monitoring software that came along with your motherboard