HDD head parking causes lags

Some drives are pretty noisy, and depending on how they mount, the sounds can reverberate through the case and make a lot a racket. But I agree with TG and if the drive is making a lot of noise, and there is noticeable access lag, it is worth running a diagnostics on it. While it is not common for a brand new drive to be bad or fail early in life, it happens. here is WD's diagnostics for your drive - or at least, you should let chkdsk /r run it's course - even though it could take many hours, or even overnight.

I also think that few notebooks make good game machines

The problem is not the computer hardware inside, it is the fact gaming is one of the most demanding task you can ask of a computer, and therefore, is one of the most heat generating tasks. Even desktops with multiple large fan support often struggle to keep the electronics supplied with sufficient cool air flow through the case. There is no way a notebook, because of the size restraints, can provide adequate cooling. Additionally, with a PC, you can easily open the side and blast out all the heat trapping dust and dirt. Notebooks, being proprietary, just don't allow the "normal" user access for thorough cleaning. And since notebooks have fans, dust and dirt is sucked in. Dust build up is inevitable. No way around that. While the generated heat may not be enough to cause immediate failure or sudden reboots or freezes, it frequently causes the notebook to toggle down in speed. And long term exposure to high heat, even if not excessive, contributes to component aging.

Notebooks were designed for, and still are for the road warrior, and best suited for Word and PowerPoint document writing and presentations for work (and school), web surfing, email, and the occasional DVD movie.

I've downloaded and ran HDTune. Performing error scan through first 60GB (I'm sure that beyond this point there are no files) found no errors and quick scan through whole HDD also found no errors.
Here is benchmark screenshot:

Should you notice those two dramatic transfer rate falls and one acces-time dot at the bottom: I guess it's connected with my problem.
The strange thing is:

For some reason I can't see my HDD health status. Is the reason that my driver doesn't support it? Maybe it is indeed under a generic driver?

(I'm sure that beyond this point there are no files)

Then you are the only person in the world with such skills - what is your trick? Seriously - you need to let the diagnostics run through completion.

Originally Posted by Digerati

Then you are the only person in the world with such skills - what is your trick? Seriously - you need to let the diagnostics run through completion.

The trick? Lol. Defragmenter analization shows where is the data located.

Gonna check WD diagnostics now.

EDIT:
Quick test fully passed - no problems. Running extended test now - estimated time 2-3hrs.

EDIT:
Done more research and found an interesting report.
http://daniel.gnoutcheff.name/hd-park/report.pdf
It's about excessive head parking issue and seems to address my problem.

To decide when to park, many hard drives use a very simple fixed timein
algorithm. This algorithm assumes that if the drive has not been accessed for n
seconds (where n is a predefined constant), then it will probably remain idle for
a reasonably long time. Thus, the hard drive will always perform a head park
after n seconds of idle time. For laptop hard drives, n typically defaults to a
value on the order of 6 seconds.

This fits my situation perfectly! Lags when game requests to load new graphic or location after like twenty seconds of inactivity. Sadly the report is just about creating a better algorithm for deciding when to park the heads. It doesn't cover how to actually implement this and few useful information relates to Linux.

Defragmenter analization shows where is the data located.

It shows where the "stored" data is located. It does not show where temporary data is temporarily stored by the OS and other programs when they are running. If the system is trying to stash them in a bad location, it will cause problems.

Are you sure? I can see all kinds of caches, and also the swap file. And do you think that for some reason my OS wants to store temporary data at the edge of HDD platters? Nevermind - right at the moment I'm performing a full deep HDD scan. We'll see

EDIT:
Test done! Guess what? Passed!


In my opinion, there is enough evidence that my HDD is not faulty. Anybody disagrees?

I think that most probably the problem is that head parking issue presented in my previous post. Now - how to disable it or lengthen its timeout? I look forward to any help and also other ideas on what might cause the damn lags. Gonna do more research on myself as well and post a solution if I manage to find any.

Is it somehow possible for you to record the "clicks" or "noises" with a microphone and post a link to the audio file? Perhaps send it to Rapidshare if you can then post.

I'll be able to tell you straight away if the sounds are normal or the evidence of a faulty drive.

Sure - tomorrow I'm buying headphones with a microphone and I'll try to record the sounds. Though I'm afraid they can be too quiet, especially when they are being muted by my fan. Still I'll do my best.

And do you think that for some reason my OS wants to store temporary data at the edge of HDD platters?

I never said anything about the edge. I don't deal with extremes. You only scanned 60Gb of a 500Gb drive - that hardly left just the edges.

I am glad you did the full test, nevertheless. That eliminates that as the cause.

I note one reported cause of constant spin ups is due to a low +12VDC voltage. What is your +12V really at?

I guess my HDD is supplied with enough power as I've never modified anything inside or even opened the case (my notebook is less than two months old and under guarantee).