Please help with hard drive problem

[Daniel]

Hi

I have a PC with Vista Ultimate, 2.66 CPU and 3 Gb RAM, the PC has two hard
drives C: and D:

The C: drive is a Raptor 150Gb 10,000 RPM drive and the D: drive is a
Seagate 500 Gb 7,200 RPM.

I do not believe I am getting the performance speed I should from the faster
C: drive

Comparative speeds are

Avg Transfer Rate - C: 71.0 MB/sec - D: 62.8 MB/sec
Access Time - C: 8.5 ms - D: 13.6 ms
Burst rate - C: 85.7 MB/sec - D: 102.9 MB/sec

Would anyone with knowledge of how Hard Drives are meant to work please
comment on these figures, would you say I had a problem.

Thanks for any help and advice

regards

Daniel

 

[Curious]

Are they both SATA 300 drives?
Without knowing the details of the Avg Transfer Rate test it is hard to
determine why C does not do as much better then D as it does in the other
two tests which appear to definitely able to take advantage of the faster
RPM.

 

[Tae Song]

Hi

I have a PC with Vista Ultimate, 2.66 CPU and 3 Gb RAM, the PC has two
hard drives C: and D:

The C: drive is a Raptor 150Gb 10,000 RPM drive and the D: drive is a
Seagate 500 Gb 7,200 RPM.

I do not believe I am getting the performance speed I should from the
faster C: drive

Comparative speeds are

Avg Transfer Rate - C: 71.0 MB/sec - D: 62.8 MB/sec
Access Time - C: 8.5 ms - D: 13.6 ms
Burst rate - C: 85.7 MB/sec - D: 102.9 MB/sec

Would anyone with knowledge of how Hard Drives are meant to work please
comment on these figures, would you say I had a problem.

Thanks for any help and advice

regards

Daniel

It might because the bits are bunched together much tighter on the 500GB
drive. The read/write head doesn't have to move as much because there's
more bits per track than on the 150GB.

This also means more bits fly under the read/write head on the 500GB drive
even though it has a lower RPM.

 

[Tom Ferguson]

Probably, Tae Song put the finger on it. Check the areal density (AKA bit
density) spec of both drives. In general, drives with higher numbers tend to
be capable of greater data transfer speeds given identical conditions
otherwise.

Tom Ferguson

 

[Daniel]

Hi

both are SATA drives, I really do not know how to find out if they are SATA
300

The drives are

C: WDC WD1500ADFD 00NLR5
D: ST 3500830AS, does that mean anything.

In Intel Matrix Storage control it lists the C: WDC drive as
ATA Transfer mode: Generation 1
and the D: Seagate as
ATA Transfer mode: Generation 2

But I have no idea what that refers to, but it worries me because it is
different.

thanks

Daniel

 

[Curious]

As best I can determine the Raptor is a SATA 1.5 (150) and the Seagate is
SATA 3(300) which means that the max transfer rate between the drive and the
PC with the Seagate is twice what is it is with the WD raptor.
Also the number of platters, the number of cylinders per platter and the
number of sectors per cylinder(track) can vary be varied by the drive
manufacturer for drives with the same rated capacity which is why you do not
see these numbers show up in the drive model specs. For example a drive
manufacture may make a 450 GB drive with 3 platters holding 150 GB each or
with one newer designed platter holding 450GB.

 

[Daniel]

Thanks Tom

I'll check it out but I guess I cannot say the Hard Drive is faulty
and have it replaced.

cheers

Daniel