Problem with HDD performance.

[Jhair1787]

Well, I have a problem.
I test regularly my PC with UserBenchmark to check everything is working properly and try out overclocking settings, but on the last few weeks I've had an important decrease on my HDD performance and I really don't know why.
I've tried connecting it on different SATA ports (right now on SATAExpress) but still no improvement. It's a 1TB Seagate Barracuda.
As I said, it used to work pretty decently getting a 74% score, wich now has decreased to 27%. Here are the benchmark runs' links:
"Before": https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/11259866
"After": https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/11754521
I haven't really seen it affect my "experience" using my PC, but it's just something that worries me.

Thanks for your time, and hope you can help me out.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Userbenchmark really isn't great, I wouldn't look to much into it.

 

Have you used any other benchmarks?

 

Is the real life performance difference?

 

Full system specs?

[eira]

If you can't feel the difference and the hard drive isn't showing any signs of failure then I wouldn't worry about it that much. 

[Metallus97]

check your SMART status and defrag the drive

also check for background activity on the drive 

[flibberdipper]

First off, it's not running on SATA Express. The SATAE ports are more or less only "sharing" the SATA ports.

 

That out of the way, aside from UserBenchmark not being that great for trying overclocking settings and making sure shit's working, the reason for your HDD's score tanking could be due to Windows doing it's usual funk of god knows what, or your drive could just be fragmented. Analyze it and if the defrag utility says it needs it, go ahead and run it. If you're really worried, run CrystalDiskInfo and make sure it's not trying to roll over and die.

[Jhair1787]

Hey guys, thanks for replying.
I've just "defragged" my HDD and ran the bench again, but no improvement at all.
I always make sure there's no background activity with the Task Manager, and have not tried any other benchmark programs.
My PC Specs:
Asus Z170 Pro Gaming Motherboard
i5 7600 Boosted to 4.1GHz
Asus Dual GTX 1060 6GB OC
Corsair Vengeance RGB 16GB (2x8) DDR4
Common Samsung 120GB SSD
HDD Seagate Barracuda 1TB 2016
PSU EVGA 600w +80
I really don't see any actual difference on my everyday PC experience and it has not affected me at all, but I just don't feel okay knowing that it might not be working on its full potential and that it could even become a bigger problem in the future.

Thanks, again for your time.

[rheyL]

try using HD Sentinel to check on your SMART status of the drive.