Ack! Ack! Ack!

[rabb1t]

Ack! I've been having very occasional random issues with my HD in gaming lately (skipping, slow loads) as well as oddness in general (taking a few seconds for favorites list to show the icons, despite them being all the same, several seconds to display web pages, etc.).

I found a free test thing on the web, and it seems this was my result (http://www.everbecoming.com/temp/hdtach.jpg). Good god 9 meg a sec read and 18 meg burst? Wtf? So I checked around and found this Anandtech review (http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2690&p=4) which shows my drive should be getting ~65 meg read and 127 burst. I'm running at like 16% the speed I should be running?!?!

/cry
/cry

Due to previous talks with Western Digital I'm at the point where they are saying to use their tools to do a full purge/reset of the drive which is supposed to revert it back to factory default settings.

No rabb1t for a while. Looks like I have the pleasure of a complete reformat much sooner than I was planning. (I was going to do it when I got Vista, as I always purge the system at a new OS.)

/cry
/cry

Hopefully things will be back up today (the core stuff should be back in a matter of hours), but if I'm not around for a while it will be because I'm reinstalling a zillion things or something asploded (http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbzone.html).

/cry
/cry

[Danth]

I used to reformat so often I had my Windows combination memorized. Have fun Rabb1t, and hope the PC gremlins don't put you out of commission.

Danth

[JAdams]

:eek: Ouch! Good luck!

[rabb1t]

/cry

I found a post or two on that software site referencing that the early gen Raptors had some firmware issues which prevents it from running correctly in 64-bit. I guess this explains why I feel that my system has been slow to load pages and stuff for quite some time. I've probably been gimped for over a year and didn't even realize it till I found that utility.

Looks like I get to have a partial setup for like a week till a new HD arrives.

/cry

[AgentJ]

That sucks... :(

I just bought a 250GB WD a bit ago for my upgrade... I heard good things about it... can only hope it performs up to standard *shrug*

My format will be in 5-6 days for the new gear.

(Btw, are both you and Foz ignoring my threads on purpose? :confused: )

[Slide]

Know how you feel, am gonna haveto RMA my ram back to ocz, and they want me to send the full kit - so unless i can find some spare RAM dotted around the PC will be ramless for a week or two. Thank god i have a laptop.

[Fozzik]

That sucks... :(

I just bought a 250GB WD a bit ago for my upgrade... I heard good things about it... can only hope it performs up to standard *shrug*

My format will be in 5-6 days for the new gear.

(Btw, are both you and Foz ignoring my threads on purpose? :confused: )

Ignoring threads? Never. I might miss one sometimes, or read one and have nothing useful to say, but never ignore. Which threads are you talking about?

[AgentJ]

Ignoring threads? Never. I might miss one sometimes, or read one and have nothing useful to say, but never ignore. Which threads are you talking about?

Nevermind :) Just posted about a low budget system guru3d had, just figured you might say something about it (like maybe they read your reccomendations here first, heh). Or that I finally upgraded (grabbing the rest of the parts tomorrow actually). No big deal, I dont always expect a response, just wanted to make sure I wasn't out-casted or something.

-------

Is the hard-drive under warranty, and/or will WD do anything about repairing/replacing it if the 'purge/reset' of the drive doesn't work right?

Hope all went ok, you'll probably post when you get back up and running :)

[rabb1t]

I bought it in like Aug of ‘04; so even under the 3-year coverage it would still be covered. (I think everything is 5 year now.) But yeah, they better replace it. Not working with 64-bit is just as gimped as 'doesn't run faster than 16% at all' since it is very likely the majority of peeps will be 64-bit based in the next few years as adoption of Vista increases.

In looking at more and more comparisons over the past day I think I'll just stick with the SE16 250 gig. The difference in gamming apps is just about nil (less than 1 second to a few seconds, typically 0-10% gain) and typically when I do things like a defrag I don't really care if it takes 2 minutes or 10, either is fine.

I was very very tempted to get the 150 gig Raptor, since the OEM version is ~$200 after rebate and I'd probably get ~$100 back from selling the RMAed Raptor, but I don't know. I think I'll just go with 'regular peep' drive types from now on and see what the hybrids will offer around '08 when they start showing up. (Though I've seen some stuff that says early ones will just be boosting boot speed, nothing more.)

I'll know more Monday. Roomie is going to get another HD I can test the speed (to be sure it isn't the MB), though from that firmware post it most likely is the Raptor failing to communicate correctly, and by like Thursday I should have the new HD and be recovering in full next weekend. :p

*bounces around hurriedly trying to get ready before the leet games that come at the end of the month*

[rabb1t]

Hope all went ok, you'll probably post when you get back up and running :)

Yeah. I'm in skeleton form now (just school programs and Zuma (http://www.popcap.com/launchpage.php?theGame=zuma) up on the system) and I'll disappear again around the end of the week when I install the new drive. So I'll peep in a couple times a day, then disappear for a day or so, then be back.

[rabb1t]

Minor update...

It does indeed look like the early gen Raptor is gimped when running under XP 64-bit. This means I've been gimped for over a year and didn't really know it. /cry /cry

Just tested with another WD drive, ancient history (04 label), early gen Sata (maybe like 100 speed?), but it showed it as pulling ~4x the data the Raptor was getting. (~75 meg a sec vs. ~18.)

So yeah. /cry
Let the warning go out to all those who were early gen Raptor adopters (I'd bet the 35 gig one may qualify as well), look for those that got on in 2004 or earlier, that their speed may be gimped when running in 64-bit. Use that HD Tach software (http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public/index.php?request=HdTach) (free to get) to check. (Anandtech often uses it in HD articles, so you can compare to something similar and see roughly what you 'should be getting' in terms of speed.)

If the post on the site was correct - this is not something which could be updated with an update, it is hard-coded into the drive.

[AgentJ]

It does indeed look like the early gen Raptor is gimped when running under XP 64-bit. This means I've been gimped for over a year and didn't really know it.

Meh...... I'd ask if they will replace it with another of the same type... but they dont make that type of drive do they? Or even if they do, it would still be the same way correct?

From what your saying its only Raptor drives... Is that the 35GB ones to 50-80GB? Or 35 and less?

I'll just say that my WD 250GB SATA seems like it shoots my old ATA's out of the water speed/performance wise (I dont have any games on it, but when reading/writing info, for now)... I've never had a 10k RPM drive... but if the increase really is 0-10% gain... well, I'd rather have the room since they are a bit pricey (imo) :)

[rabb1t]

From what your saying its only Raptor drives... Is that the 35GB ones to 50-80GB? Or 35 and less?

The 35 gig version of the Raptor was the first to show up on the market. I think around '01? The 75 gig came a bit later around '04. I'm assuming that both versions could be susceptible to the 'won't run in 64-bit at full speed' problem, as the poster mentioned that from a certain date and back the firmware was like that. So, considering that the 35 and 75 gig versions were both in production at that time, I'd assume they used the same firmware thingies.

I believe all versions produced in or after '05 should be safe. (That same poster mentioned the RMA version he got had an '05 date and it was fine.)

I'll just say that my WD 250GB SATA

No no, just the Raptors. Apparently the other drive types are fine.

but if the increase really is 0-10% gain... well, I'd rather have the room since they are a bit pricey (imo) :)

Compared to the new Sata 3 gig speed 16 meg cache types, yeah. Compared to an older drive, say 5,200 RPM with 2 meg cashe, no a Raptor would be way way faster. :p Basically, if you are buying new, the Raptor really isn't worth the cost for gaming.

[AgentJ]

(That same poster mentioned the RMA version he got had an '05 date and it was fine.)


Thats great to hear. Is that what your planning on doing, or did the reset of the drive work?...

I'll have around 500GBs of space after I get the comp finished... dont think I'll need another HD for at least a couple years.. My new 250GB is more room than all my old 3 ATA's put together... kinda hard to believe they've come that far that fast, and now at a really reasonable price!

Again, hope all is going ok. It's under warranty you said, so it shouldn't be to much of a hassle to get another (except the format....those are never, ever fun).

[rabb1t]

or did the reset of the drive work?...

The rest of the drive? I think you are confused.

35 Gig Raptor (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136054)
75 Gig Raptor (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136033)
150 Gig Raptor (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136012)

These are entire drives, not partitions. I had an early gen 75 gig type, meaning it had an 8 meg cache (the current ones have 16 meg).

(except the format....those are never, ever fun).

I was planning on reformatting when I installed Vista anyways, so I did consider just running on gimped 16% speed. But I just couldn't. Too many good games coming at the end of the month. :D :p

[Snake]

he might have meant reset, as in did you reformat it and fix the issue it was having...perhaps

[AgentJ]

he might have meant reset, as in did you reformat it and fix the issue it was having...perhaps

He just mis-read it, thats ok :p (I should've said purge/reset)

Was just curious if what WD said to do actually worked, or if it needs/needed to be sent in. I assume it worked? :ninja:

[rabb1t]

Oh gods. My bad. Hehehe. no no. I think I already said several posts ago that I purged it and it is still slow and the test drive I checked looked ok.

Hum, guess I didn't. Yeah.
- I tested it, showed clean.
- Western Digital reset to day 1 condition type format, still slow.
- Tested a server drive that the roomie got for me (looks like a Sata-100 type? 2+ years old) and it showed as running at 4x faster than my gimped raptor (roughly ~66% of the Raptors true speed))
- On the phone now ... 13+ min waiting to talk to them about RMAing the drive.

[rabb1t]

Woot! Back up and the HD Tach showed a speed faster than SATA-150 could achieve! (Faster than the Raptor 75 gig speed above.)

zzzzooooooommmmm zoooooooommmmmm zooooommmmm
*hugs new zoomie HD*

It's super quiet too. :D