Short DST Fail

[NeonJam]

Hey all,

 

I've noticed my computer running sluggish and slow over the past few months. It usally take about 3 minutes to boot up from the 20 seconds I recorded when I first built it, it has also suffered from full computer crashes where the computer seems to just turn off, the whole computer freezes and on startup there are bugs such as the task bar at the bottom appearing to be invisible and windows Pop-Ups that you get when a program needs your permission are invisible apart from the top bar containg the exit buttons ect... So I decided to run the SeaTools harddrive testing software, the SMART, Short/Long Generic all passed but the Short Drive Self Test failed at 80%. I've been looking over the web but can't find the answerer I need what does this mean for my computer and drive, is the drive failing? Do I need a new drive? Can I fix this? How do I fix this?

 

Thanks all. 

[DevilishBooster]

Hey all,

 

I've noticed my computer running sluggish and slow over the past few months. It usally take about 3 minutes to boot up from the 20 seconds I recorded when I first built it, it has also suffered from full computer crashes where the computer seems to just turn off, the whole computer freezes and on startup there are bugs such as the task bar at the bottom appearing to be invisible and windows Pop-Ups that you get when a program needs your permission are invisible apart from the top bar containg the exit buttons ect... So I decided to run the SeaTools harddrive testing software, the SMART, Short/Long Generic all passed but the Short Drive Self Test failed at 80%. I've been looking over the web but can't find the answerer I need what does this mean for my computer and drive, is the drive failing? Do I need a new drive? Can I fix this? How do I fix this?

 

Thanks all. 

Use HDTune to run a benchmark and sector error scan and post the results. It should tell us pretty quick if it's an HDD issues.

[NeonJam]

@DevilishBooster Ok ive got the program got to go to sleep will run the test over tommorow in the uk and get back to you by this time tommorrow

[RossMadness]

Running a second HDD diagnostic tool is not a bad idea, just in case there was a false positive with Seatools. I doubt it though, Seatools has proven to be very reliable for me over the years. If the second tool reports a failure then the drive is bad. Back up ALL important data and replace the drive. 

 

Edit: If the second tool does not report an error then I would run a third tool just to get a reading that isn't 1-1. Another handy tool is WD Digital Lifeguard.

[NeonJam]

@DevilishBooster I've done the Benchmark and Error Scan, the error scan dosen't show up any errors and as I have files that I back up to the OneDrive such as school work and Games would you recommend re-formatting the drive and re-installing windows 10. I have now started to see that files such as word documents are lost and I can't access them.

 

Thanks.

[DevilishBooster]

@DevilishBooster I've done the Benchmark and Error Scan, the error scan dosen't show up any errors and as I have files that I back up to the OneDrive such as school work and Games would you recommend re-formatting the drive and re-installing windows 10. I have now started to see that files such as word documents are lost and I can't access them.

 

Thanks.

Before you go formatting anything, can you post a screenshot or picture of the benchmarking test? If I can get a look at the graph then it might help diagnose the issue. The program by default opens up to the Benchmarking tab, which is the first tab on the left. If you have more than one drive in your system, make sure you select your C: drive in the drop down menu and then run the benchmark. It shouldn't take more than 5 minutes, even with a really slow system.

[NeonJam]

@DevilishBooster Here you go

[DevilishBooster]

@DevilishBooster Here you go

The spikes up and down seem a little odd, but that is probably due to you testing the same drive that the software is installed on. Other than that, everything appears to be normal.

Here are benchmark scores from HardwareLuxx for that drive.

Min Read

Max Read

Avg Read

Avg Seek Time

 

Your avg seek time is actually even lower and the read speeds are right there, so I don't think it's necessarily the hard drive itself. If you know for sure that you have everything important backed up already, you could reformat the drive and doing a fresh install of the OS. If possible, do an extra backup of personal files onto an external drive before reformatting/reinstalling. Also, if possible run BelArc Advisor so get copies of any license keys on the systems for when you are reinstalling software. How long has it been since this OS was first installed on the drive? Do you run regular Anti-Virus scans? Have you ever run a Malwarebytes scan?

[NeonJam]

@DevilishBooster I run a weekly scan with MacAfee and the install was just before New Years in 2014 and I will try BelArc Advisor it will most likely be a week or two before I do the reformatting as I need the computer for school work. Thanks and what is the best way in your opinion to go about the re-formatting? 

[DevilishBooster]

@DevilishBooster I run a weekly scan with MacAfee and the install was just before New Years in 2014 and I will try BelArc Advisor it will most likely be a week or two before I do the reformatting as I need the computer for school work. Thanks and what is the best way in your opinion to go about the re-formatting? 

I don't think there is any one answer to the "best" way to do it, but when I'm wanting a true clean install on a previously used drive I use a bootable CD, DVD, or USB (or if I have a different HDD/SSD that I can use as a boot drive I use that), boot into that OS, and then use a third party software to format the drive. If you don't have that option then really the only other thing you can do is to boot from the OS install disc and format the drive through the Install Utility.