HD Tools Taking Longer Than Expected

[stuartshaw]

I'm up through "Installing Windows XP" in my new PC build with the following H/W:
Motherboard ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition
Processor AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ AM2 (dual-core)
Ram Crucial 4096MB (4GB) PC8500 DDR2 (about 3.25GB usable)
Video Card eVGA Geforce 8800 GTS 320MB DDR3 PCI-E
Hard Drive Western Digital 500GB 7200rpm SATA
DVD RW Sony DRU-840A Dual Format Double Layer

Everything's going well except that any HD operations that use the entire disk (like WD Lifeguard Diagnostics scan, write 0's and Windows HD format) are taking much longer than described in Rob's instructions. His instructions indicate about 45 mins to scan or format the disk, while mine are taking around 2.5 hours. Is this a sign of a problem? I haven't completed the XP install yet so I don't know if the system as whole is slow. All the BIOS settings and info looks the same as in the instructions. Any opinions would be much appreciated.

Thanks very much for all of the info on this site. It's been a great project so far.

[The Wise Monkey]

Probably because Rob only uses a 320GB HD while yours is 500GB. :)

[stuartshaw]

Actually, I'm using the 750G WD drive (lazy copy and paste of the hardware configuration above). I'm using Rob's newest instructions which, I think, show a 750G HD. Also, the transfer rate is spec'ed at 300Mbs which, I think, would yield about 40 mins to read the entire 750G drive. The XP install went OK (it just took 2.5 hours to format the drive). The machine seems to be responding OK, but I guess I was expecting a more noticeable speed improvement from my 5 year old PC. Are there diagnostics I can run to check the HD transfer rate? Thanks very much for the help.

[zburns]

My WD hard drive is 320 gig; CPU is AMD 5600. Otherwise, my hardware is identical to yours. I have Vista Ultimate. I ran the WD Data Lifeguard tests,both of the long ones. Actually Rob's book on page 154, "Test the PATA Hard Drive" says 46 minutes for the first "Extended Test" and 90 minutes for the "Full Erase" test. As I recall, my second test took longer than what Rob says in the book. I think your 2 1/2 hours is ok.

My system may have been slow at first; do not really know because it cured itself as follows. Check your "Device Manager" to see that your 8800GTS is recognized and has an up to date driver. Initially mine was not recognized; current driver is Invidia and dated Nov 6, 2007. I was in the middle of having just loaded Vista, then downloading some 80 updates when "Windows informed me of a new device and offered to find a driver on my computer or the internet" -- I let it go this way, 8800GTS was then recognized in Device Manager and my Windows Experience speed rating jumped to 5.3 (it was under 2 before the 8800GTS was recognized in Device Manager).

Soon after this "Windows help on the 8800", I went to the Evga website and downloaded the most current driver.

I should also mention that once I loaded Vista initially, I was able to connect to the Internet and had lots of "Windows generic drivers", many of which are still installed. Overall, my software loading experience was very good. Good luck!! zburns

[The Wise Monkey]

You won't notice a huge speed difference on day to day tasks like word processing/checking email, but you will certainly notice the difference if you go for more CPU/GFX intensive tasks e.g. gaming or video processing.

[Rob]

Our configurations are very similar and I'm pretty sure it took over 2 hours to do my 750GB hard drive. The web-page needs to be updated. I'll run it again and get a more exact time. Thanks for the heads up!

Currently the page says 90 minutes but I believe that it was longer than that.

http://www.mysuperpc.com/build_your_own_computer/pc_sata_hard_drive_diagnostics.shtml

[Rob]

I've re-run the Extended Test and Full Erase test. Each test took about two hours and 40 minutes. I've corrected the web page.