having problem with old WD raptor

[Solarium]

not sure if this is the right forum to post, but:

I got a 3 year old WD raptor (36gb version) that's been with me for several computer upgrades. I clean installed windows vista 64 on it after a recent major upgrade. However, I've been experiencing some kind of weird random lag/freeze whenever I do normal daily tasks, such as loading a website (it's not the internet connection, but IE actually freezes up), loading up windows experience index benchmark, trying to install drivers for my video card, and such. Keep in mind this isn't some few second lag, but more than a minute. I chkdsk'ed the HD (after pressing start it took like 5 minutes just to load up the pop window whether I want to restart my computer) and it seemed to be normal, without any bad sectors or corruption. I get the feeling that the lag is at the beginning of some task that I'm doing, and when it loads up it usually speeds up again. The overall performance of my HD is really fast, it has no problem loading up programs or such, but it's just that this weird lag or freeze is bothering me a lot.

Anyone knows what's the reason for this lag? I already ordered a replacement HD but would still like to keep this raptor so I don't have to reinstall windows again.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[emnuu]

it seems like u have some bad sectors or physical damage on disks...try scandisking it completely...best is to buy an additional one to keep data safe.

 

[Solarium]

I scandisked and found no problems. I have no idea what's going on.

I just bought the seagate 500g HD from that hot deals thread (http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/...451&prodlist=celebros), will this be much slower than the WD raptor 36g?

 

[Urtho]

You have checked for any spyware or perhaps some type of program that does drive indexing that maxes out your CPU, right? Vista itself does hit the hardrive pretty hard on an initial install as it gradually learns your usage patterns and can preload software for you to make things appear to load faster than they normally would.

 

[Solarium]

this is a cleanly installed vista, so I wouldn't think so.

does overclocking have anything to do with it... not having enough voltage? I'm only O/C'ing the E8400 to 3.6ghz tho and not O/C'ing the ram at all, so I wouldn't think that there's a problem.

 

[pcslookout]

What serial ATA port are you using?

 

[Solarium]

Originally posted by: pcslookout
What serial ATA port are you using?

port? if that means which plug I plugged my raptor into it's the SATA 0 one

btw I'm using this mobo

 

[boomerang]

Have you got AHCI enabled in the BIOS?

 

[Solarium]

Originally posted by: boomerang
Have you got AHCI enabled in the BIOS?

what the heck is AHCI?

 

[boomerang]

Originally posted by: Solarium

Originally posted by: boomerang
Have you got AHCI enabled in the BIOS?

what the heck is AHCI?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...t_Controller_Interface

I've never seen it enabled by default, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's not enabled on your system.

Myself, I couldn't get Vista to install with it enabled. Vista is supposed to have support for it built in if my understanding is correct.

Just type AHCI in Google and there are a number of hits that should give you more info. Then check your BIOS for the option or whether it's enabled.

Otherwise, I would run the WD diagnostic on the drive, but I think you have a driver issue. Are you using the latest from the Gigabyte site or what Vista provided? There are two versions of your board, I don't know if the drivers are different. Probably not, but nonetheless there are drivers there with very recent dates.

Site with links for HD diagnostics.

Also, the Windows Experience Benchmark does take forever to do it's thing. I suppose it could seem like it's hanging. I've seen looong waits on driver installs with Vista too. The IE thing, well that would be a problem for sure. I'm not trying to minimize your problems, just relating my experiences.

Lastly, go to Control Panel > Performance Information Tools > Advanced Tools > Generate a system health report. Might help, might not.

 

[Solarium]

using HD tune I found 3 bad 46-meg sectors... I wonder if that's the reason why it freezes up sometimes, tho now it hardly does that anymore

also I benchmarked twice, once with prime95 and azureus running and once without anything running in the background

notice the 2 sharp dips towards the end, both happening at the same place for each time I benchmarked, does this mean that the hard drive cannot access those sectores when the benchmark eventually reached there?