Delay when I access D drive (new problem -why?)

[meerkat]

Hi!
I just made some changes to my (homebuilt) PC. This was after problems
booting from the drive that contained the OS. This drive is now the D
drive.

Since I made the changes I have noticed that it takes up to 5 seconds to
open the D-drive. This has not been a problem before.
I don't understand what's going on and am hoping for some advice, so I
can understand the problem and fix it.

I have an ASRock motherboard which I bought because it has both an AGP
and PCI-E slot. *ASRock 939 Dual SATA 2".
RAM = 3 GB.

Hard drives are:
-An old 60GB Seagate 7200 rpn SCSI - C Partition with OS installation
FAT32

-250 GB Samsung Spinpoint SATA (D-drive, repartitioned... used to have
two partitions, one with OS (FAT32) and one for storage (NTFS) after
problems with the C drive, I used Partition Magic to merge both drives
into one (D). I managed to keep all the data from the original D
partition, but I re-formatted the partition that used to be C, and
merged it into the D drive to create one large drive.
This drive was the drive that I had problems with previously; The
problem seemed to be with the Master Boot Record, so I had it rebuilt
using a partition tool. I wasn't very confident about what I was doing
but it appeared to be working.I am not sure what caused the problem with
the MBR in the first place.

-400 GB Samsung Spinpoint SATA (E drive) Does not have the same delay
when I open it.

Why does it take 5 seconds before the tree view for my D drive to expand
when I click on it.
Obviously it is not a showstopper, but I am curious and would like to
understand what is going on. I did not have this problem earlier.
Any advice appreciated.
Cordelia

D/load the HD test tools from here...
http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287#samsung

and run them on that drive, to see if it has inbuilt troubles.

 

[kony]

Hi!
I just made some changes to my (homebuilt) PC. This was after problems
booting from the drive that contained the OS. This drive is now the D
drive.

What kind of problems? Is it possible the drive is failing?

Since I made the changes I have noticed that it takes up to 5 seconds to
open the D-drive. This has not been a problem before.
I don't understand what's going on and am hoping for some advice, so I
can understand the problem and fix it.

I'm wondering if your power management settings are putting
it to sleep and it's just taking a few seconds to come
online again.

After the first delay of 5 seconds, what if you then try the
same thing again 30 seconds later, does it still have a 5
second lag or is it almost immediate to open?

 

[Cordelia]

Hi!
I just made some changes to my (homebuilt) PC. This was after problems
booting from the drive that contained the OS. This drive is now the D
drive.

Since I made the changes I have noticed that it takes up to 5 seconds to
open the D-drive. This has not been a problem before.
I don't understand what's going on and am hoping for some advice, so I
can understand the problem and fix it.

I have an ASRock motherboard which I bought because it has both an AGP
and PCI-E slot. *ASRock 939 Dual SATA 2".
RAM = 3 GB.

Hard drives are:
-An old 60GB Seagate 7200 rpn SCSI - C Partition with OS installation
FAT32

-250 GB Samsung Spinpoint SATA (D-drive, repartitioned... used to have
two partitions, one with OS (FAT32) and one for storage (NTFS) after
problems with the C drive, I used Partition Magic to merge both drives
into one (D). I managed to keep all the data from the original D
partition, but I re-formatted the partition that used to be C, and
merged it into the D drive to create one large drive.
This drive was the drive that I had problems with previously; The
problem seemed to be with the Master Boot Record, so I had it rebuilt
using a partition tool. I wasn't very confident about what I was doing
but it appeared to be working.I am not sure what caused the problem with
the MBR in the first place.

-400 GB Samsung Spinpoint SATA (E drive) Does not have the same delay
when I open it.

Why does it take 5 seconds before the tree view for my D drive to expand
when I click on it.
Obviously it is not a showstopper, but I am curious and would like to
understand what is going on. I did not have this problem earlier.
Any advice appreciated.
Cordelia

 

[kony]

Yes - Power management settings how does that work? There is no
clear consistency as to when the problem happens.

It would begin happening "X" number of minutes after you had
last accessed it. X is the number in your Power Management
settings. If X minutes had not elapsed since you last
accessed it, it should not then hesitate for 5 seconds until
the next time X number of minutes had elapsed.

Now for example, I
wanted to trigger the problem. But it doesn't happen! I click on the
expand button in Win Explorer and it expands in a fraction of a second.
But other times, it takes 'an eternity' OVER 5 sec. It's more
mysterious than it is a serious problem.
I'd really like to know what;s going on.

Then why didn't you check your power management settings as
suggested and tell us if it seems a problem? That way we
can either focus on it, or ignore it and move onto other
possibilities.

I thought it might be related to the problem I had earlier - but maybe
it's just chance.
It's a SATA drive. My OS is now on my old Seagate SCSI drive.

If it's not Power Mangement settings, see if anything turns
up in Windows' Event Viewer.

 

[Cordelia]

Hi - Thanks for responding! I put my answers below your questions.
e.

What kind of problems? Is it possible the drive is failing?

---- The problem that happened was that the 250GB Samsung drive wouldn't
boot into Windows.
I checked all the BIOS settings but it was nothing to do with that.
I can't remember what the error message was any more, but I used a
hardware book that I have, and all the signs seemed to indicate that the
problem was related to the Master Boot Record. I could boot from a
floppy and see all my files on the C partition. But I couldn't boot
from the existing Windows installation. I couldn't even re-install
Windows on that drive. I thought for a sec that it might be a virus, or
it was just damaged.

I installed the OS on another drive, rescued the files, re-formatted the
drive and changed the size from two partitions (FAT32 and NTFS) to one
large NTFS only. I choose an option to re-create the MBR. I don't think
the drive is failing - it's only about a year old. On the other hand , I
don't know what caused the original problem.) .

I'm wondering if your power management settings are putting
it to sleep and it's just taking a few seconds to come
online again.

After the first delay of 5 seconds, what if you then try the
same thing again 30 seconds later, does it still have a 5
second lag or is it almost immediate to open?

Yes - Power management settings how does that work? There is no
clear consistency as to when the problem happens. Now for example, I
wanted to trigger the problem. But it doesn't happen! I click on the
expand button in Win Explorer and it expands in a fraction of a second.
But other times, it takes 'an eternity' OVER 5 sec. It's more
mysterious than it is a serious problem.
I'd really like to know what;s going on.

I thought it might be related to the problem I had earlier - but maybe
it's just chance.
It's a SATA drive. My OS is now on my old Seagate SCSI drive.

Cordelia

 

[CBFalconer]

oops - oh no I have to open up the case and check the cables!!
It's rather tight and messy in there...
How could a normal new SATA cable be funny?

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[Cordelia]

Sorrry - I didn't understand that you meant checking the normal Power
settings.. I did now, and I found a setting for the Hard Drive. It was
set to 'Never' switch off, so that was not the problem. (Other than
automatic monitor switch off, no other power saving settings are in use.)

I also checked the Event Viewe like you suggested. Scrolling back to
yesterday, I found hundreds of Errors logged, like this:

----------------------The driver detected a controller error on
\Device\Harddisk5\D

Could this be related to my problem? Or what's going on? Other than the
issue that this post is about, there was no problem on the disc
yesterday, so don't know what to make of this error message.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Cordelia]

oops - oh no I have to open up the case and check the cables!! It's
rather tight and messy in there...
How could a normal new SATA cable be funny?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Details
Product: Windows Operating System
ID: 11
Source: Disk
Version: 5.2
Symbolic Name: IO_ERR_CONTROLLER_ERROR
Message: The driver detected a controller error on %1.

Explanation
This problem is typically caused by a failing cable that connects the
drive to the computer.

User Action
Replace the cable.

 

[Cordelia]

I think the mobo SAT connector was a bit wobbly.
I changed the cable also and just expanded the D drive in Win Explorer.
No delay! Based on this, I think all this was down to a duff
connection between the drive and the mobo.

Thanks for your advice Kony!
Cordelia

 

[kony]

I think the mobo SAT connector was a bit wobbly.
I changed the cable also and just expanded the D drive in Win Explorer.
No delay! Based on this, I think all this was down to a duff
connection between the drive and the mobo.

Thanks for your advice Kony!
Cordelia

Any cable new or old can have an intermittent connection.
With SATA, along with some other newer connectors, it was a
bit disappointing to me that they keep going in the
direction of a more fragile and poor mechanical interface,
with it less robust it might work well enough in a lab
environment where everything is perfect but in the real
world implementations it is another weak link.