Is my HDD damaged?

[Macks]

Hey all! So I recently built my first computer and in the process of troubleshooting my computer catching on fire, my HDD slipped out of my case and hit my desk. I put the HDD back in and didn't think much of it, and everything was fine. But recently I've been transferring some large games from my SSD to my HDD and I noticed that the file transfer would start at a pretty good speed, 200-300 MBs, and then it dropped down to around 4MBs. Also, when I play Overwatch it takes and extraordinarily long time to load into hero select, and when I finally pick my character it takes a long time for all of the skins and sprays to load. I've tried defragging my HDD and I've run Windows error check, but they both say my HDD is fine. I've also tried reconnecting the SATA ports to my mobo and HDD. What do you guys think?

My HDD is a Western Digital Caviar Blue 7200 rpm 1 TB and my SSD is a Kingston SSDnow v300 series 120 GB 

 Thanks for your help!

 

Edit: Thanks everyone for the help!

Edited September 1, 2016 by Macks

[xdeathshot20]

4 minutes ago, Macks said:

Hey all! So I recently built my first computer and in the process of troubleshooting my computer catching on fire, my HDD slipped out of my case and hit my desk. I put the HDD back in and didn't think much of it, and everything was fine. But recently I've been transferring some large games from my SSD to my HDD and I noticed that the file transfer would start at a pretty good speed, 200-300 MBs, and then it dropped down to around 4MBs. Also, when I play Overwatch it takes and extraordinarily long time to load into hero select, and when I finally pick my character it takes a long time for all of the skins and sprays to load. I've tried defragging my HDD and I've run Windows error check, but they both say my HDD is fine. I've also tried reconnecting the SATA ports to my mobo and HDD. What do you guys think?

My HDD is a Western Digital Caviar Blue 7200 rpm 1 TB and my SSD is a Kingston SSDnow v300 series 120 GB 

 Thanks for your help!

it is defiantly possible that the hdd has been damaged.  it is also possible that your motherboards sata controller is messed up.  does your ssd run at its maximum speed or is it also slow?

[Enderman]

Use crystaldiskinfo to check the HDD.

Also depending on the file you're transferring, speeds will drop to 4MBps or even less. The initial 300+ MBps is the HDD cache, which is very small.

[Macks]

2 minutes ago, xdeathshot20 said:

it is defiantly possible that the hdd has been damaged.  it is also possible that your motherboards sata controller is messed up.  does your ssd run at its maximum speed or is it also slow?

I would think my SSD is fine, I only have my OS and drivers on it, and they all seem to work just fine. My OS boots in just a few seconds.

[Electronics Wizardy]

18 minutes ago, Macks said:

Hey all! So I recently built my first computer and in the process of troubleshooting my computer catching on fire, my HDD slipped out of my case and hit my desk. I put the HDD back in and didn't think much of it, and everything was fine. But recently I've been transferring some large games from my SSD to my HDD and I noticed that the file transfer would start at a pretty good speed, 200-300 MBs, and then it dropped down to around 4MBs. Also, when I play Overwatch it takes and extraordinarily long time to load into hero select, and when I finally pick my character it takes a long time for all of the skins and sprays to load. I've tried defragging my HDD and I've run Windows error check, but they both say my HDD is fine. I've also tried reconnecting the SATA ports to my mobo and HDD. What do you guys think?

My HDD is a Western Digital Caviar Blue 7200 rpm 1 TB and my SSD is a Kingston SSDnow v300 series 120 GB 

 Thanks for your help!

The speed drops probably happen when its copying small files, so thats normal. IDK about the game load times

 

Normally a slow hdd isnt' a failing drive. Check the drive with something like crystal disk info.

[Macks]

9 minutes ago, Enderman said:

Use crystaldiskinfo to check the HDD.

Also depending on the file you're transferring, speeds will drop to 4MBps or even less. The initial 300+ MBps is the HDD cache, which is very small.

which version should get (simple, full, or ultimate)? and what should I be looking for in the program?

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, Macks said:

which version should get (simple, full, or ultimate)? and what should I be looking for in the program?

get the normal 64bit version https://osdn.jp/frs/redir.php?m=gigenet&f=%2Fcrystaldiskinfo%2F65980%2FCrystalDiskInfo7_0_3.zip

[Macks]

7 hours ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

get the normal 64bit version https://osdn.jp/frs/redir.php?m=gigenet&f=%2Fcrystaldiskinfo%2F65980%2FCrystalDiskInfo7_0_3.zip

OK I've gotten it to work, what should I look for? Here's a screenshot 

Spoiler

 

Edited September 1, 2016 by Godlygamer23
Fixed image and put it in a spoiler.

[Macks]

22 minutes ago, Enderman said:

Use crystaldiskinfo to check the HDD.

Also depending on the file you're transferring, speeds will drop to 4MBps or even less. The initial 300+ MBps is the HDD cache, which is very small.

I've gotten crystal disk info to work. What should I look for? It says the HDD's health status is good, but there are also a bunch of other things I don't understand/

[Enderman]

11 minutes ago, Macks said:

I've gotten crystal disk info to work. What should I look for? It says the HDD's health status is good, but there are also a bunch of other things I don't understand/

Then the HDD is fine. It's probably just a bit slow since it's a old HDD but definitely not damaged.

The smaller the files you are transferring are, the slower it will go. Usually about 0.1 to 1MBps for hard drives with tiny files, that's normal.

[Macks]

12 minutes ago, Enderman said:

Then the HDD is fine. It's probably just a bit slow since it's a old HDD but definitely not damaged.

The smaller the files you are transferring are, the slower it will go. Usually about 0.1 to 1MBps for hard drives with tiny files, that's normal.

Would I be able to just drag and drop game files from my HDD to my SSD and still have them work fine? Would I just have to create a new short cut to the launcher?

[Enderman]

4 minutes ago, Macks said:

Would I be able to just drag and drop game files from my HDD to my SSD and still have them work fine? Would I just have to create a new short cut to the launcher?

No, usually games and programs need to be reinstalled.

Only regular files like documents, videos, etc... can be dragged over.

BUT sometimes you can change the file location of a game in the game launcher and then drag the entire game folder over to the new drive. Depends on the game though, so google "how to move _____ game" and there should be results on how

[Macks]

1 minute ago, Enderman said:

No, usually games and programs need to be reinstalled.

Only regular files like documents, videos, etc... can be dragged over.

BUT sometimes you can change the file location of a game in the game launcher and then drag the entire game folder over to the new drive. Depends on the game though, so google "how to move _____ game" and there should be results on how

Thanks for the help man!

[Enderman]

1 minute ago, Macks said:

Thanks for the help man!

You're welcome

[Electronics Wizardy]

52 minutes ago, Macks said:

I've gotten crystal disk info to work. What should I look for? It says the HDD's health status is good, but there are also a bunch of other things I don't understand/

If it says its good then your fine. Make sure you have a working backup as always.

[Captain_WD]

7 hours ago, Macks said:

~snip~

Hi

 

I'm not really able to see the data from the diagnostic tool, could you post it again? 

I would recommend using WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic and checking if that WD Blue passes both the quick and the extended tests. This should put you on the safe side that the drive is really OK and safe to use. 

Running a benchmark tool can also give you some info if the drive is working at its full potential. 

 

Captain_WD.

[Macks]

17 hours ago, Captain_WD said:

Hi

 

I'm not really able to see the data from the diagnostic tool, could you post it again? 

I would recommend using WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic and checking if that WD Blue passes both the quick and the extended tests. This should put you on the safe side that the drive is really OK and safe to use. 

Running a benchmark tool can also give you some info if the drive is working at its full potential. 

 

Captain_WD.

Hey, sorry it took so long to respond. I ran the tests and everything seems to be fine. It was my fault for expecting near-SSD performance from an older HDD.

[Captain_WD]

6 hours ago, Macks said:

~snip~

SSDs outperform HDDs by a lot due to the way they work. A typical current SSD performs with speeds around 550MB/s while regular HDDs operate with speeds between 150MB/s and 170MB/s. That plus the significant difference in access and seek times make the difference very noticeable so it is normal for you to experience slower performance when you compare them. Glad that the HDD turned out to be healthy. 

 

Captain_WD.