Download speed varies between hard drives

[CLR]

Hi all.........

I have a 1.2GB, 512MB AMD system with removable hard drive chassis on
Roadrunner Cable. I have three different hard drives (all Maxtor's), each
with WinMe on them. Using the www.pcpitstop.com (and others) download speed
test, one hard drive (relatively new 60GB) consistantly gets between 100 and
200kb speeds while the other two (smaller sizes) and my laptop on the same
wireless network all get over 2000kb consistantly. Both Norton and AVG
scans of the lowspeed hard drive turn up nothing. Anybody run in to
anything like this before?

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3

[Mike M]

Chuck,

Defrag all three drives and then check again. Note also that drive speeds
do vary, with not only rotational speed a factor but also the size of the
drive.
--
Mike Maltby
mike....@gmail.com

[CLR]

Thanks Mike..........I think I already did de-frag the errant drive recently
but am doing it again. I don't understand the point in defragging the two
"good" drives tho since only one of them is in the computer at any one
time..........PCPitstop.com says that a cable connection should download
between 2000 and 3000kb, without mention of drive speed or size. I am
getting those readings on the two good drives, but less than 1/10 of that on
the "bad" drive, and also when I have the "bad" drive in the computer and
wired in to the wireless network, my bedroom computer using wireless only
gets the 100-200 reading as well, but when I have a good drive in the main
computer, the bedroom computer gets over 1500kb from pcpitstop. The very
old 366 laptop with the 4gb harddrive gets between 2000-3000 all the time.

It seems to be either the WinMe install, or the hard drive.........is it
possible to re-install or refresh WinMe without having to reformat and start
all over? I especially want to keep my email files intact, and would like
to transfer them over to one of the good drives but don't know how.

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3

"Mike M" <No_Spam@Corned_Beef.Only> wrote in message
news:#6Wa#llzFH...@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...

[Mike M]

> I don't understand the point in
> defragging the two "good" drives tho since only one of them is in the
> computer at any one time

So that is you want to make comparisons you are starting from the same
state for each drive.

I don't know why you are worrying yourself about download rates or the
like since I thought the problem was hard disk write speeds with all else
equal. If that is not true then don't bother trying to make comparisons.
Better use a program such as HDTach although it does have the drawback of
only measuring burst and sustained reads rather than writes. If you want
to make valid comparisons of components or links you need to minimise the
differences between the test systems, such as varying the drive and
keeping all else equal or varying the connection, etc.

[Mike M]

Mike M <No_Spam@Corned_Beef.Only> wrote:

>> I don't understand the point in
>> defragging the two "good" drives tho since only one of them is in the
>> computer at any one time
>
> So that is you want to make comparisons you are starting from the same
> state for each drive.

Which should, of course, have read,

So that IF you want ...
--
Mike Maltby
mike....@gmail.com

[CLR]

Thanks Mike............
I understand now...............
Perhaps tho, I might have mistated my original situation. My system with
it's "regular" hard drive in place was running very slow on the net, so I
checked the speed at www.pcpitstop.com to see what it was, and it registered
100-200kb where it shoule have been 2000-3000kb! So I started trying to find
out what was wrong and during the process I decided to re-format another
drive and re-install WinMe and while doing it I also went to pcpitstop to
check the speed and found that it was in the proper 2000-3000kb range. Then
I checked another HD and it also was in the 2000-3000kb range. Only my
original HD was in the 100-200kb range, and the results are all repeatable.
I was elated to find that I had inadvertantly isolated the trouble, but was
wondering how the "bad" drive might be fixed, short of reformatting and a new
WinMe install. Can WinMe be "fixed", without having to re-do the whole
drive? I started to de-frag like you suggested but found it would not do it
because the "drive had errors", so am now going through the Scandisk process
first........i t ' s v e r r r y s l o w.

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3

[Mike M]

If you are having hardware problems these need to be fixed and will affect
all systems using that hardware regardless of the operating system in use.
--
Mike Maltby
mike....@gmail.com

[Walterius]

Is DMA turned on with the slow drive?

"Mike M" <No_Spam@Corned_Beef.Only> wrote in message

news:uLQ%23ywpzF...@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...

[CLR]

I don't know how to tell about the DMA.............
Tried to defrag and got error, "must run Scandisk first".......tried, and it
got 3/4 through (about 7 hours) and froze..........

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3

"Walterius" <inv...@nowhere.not> wrote in message
news:eGdFv2pz...@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...

[CLR]

Tried to defrag again and it started!........ran several hours and I had to
cut it off and go to bed.......tried to continue again this morning and got
error that I "must run Scandisk first".........hmmmmm these things seem to
feed on each other <G>........gotta head to work now.......still wonder if I
can "refresh" WinMe without a complete reformat of the disk...........anyone
know?

Vaya con dios,
Chuck, CABGx3

"CLR" <crob...@tampabay.rr.com> wrote in message
news:#wdG59sz...@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...

[CLR]

Finally completed the Scandisk and the Defrag..........checked the speed
again and no difference...........still 100-200kb where it should be
2000-3000kb.........any more ideas?...........can the WinMe be "refreshed"
in place or must the drive be reformatted to reinstall WinMe.....?

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3

"Mike M" <No_Spam@Corned_Beef.Only> wrote in message

news:uLQ#ywpzFH...@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...

[Mike M]

What is this "speed" you are measuring? Your connection speed or the
read/write speed of a hard disk. If the speed you are "measuring" is your
download speed then forget about your hard disk as this isn't going to be
a factor in your download speed and instead concentrate on connection
parameters such as perhaps values for RWIN and MTU and whether these are
the same for all systems or differ from one to another.

If your problem is with your internet connection I would suggest you
perhaps post to a more appropriate newsgroup such as perhaps the
windowsme.networking newsgroup.
--
Mike Maltby
mike....@gmail.com

[CLR]

Thanks Mike.........

Perhaps it would be better if I tried another group........

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3

"Mike M" <No_Spam@Corned_Beef.Only> wrote in message

news:Og4aWzF0...@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...

[CLR]

For those interested, I bit the bullet and re-installed WinMe on the Hard
Disk that was giving me the slow download speeds and now it works perfectly,
enjoying the same fast 2000-3000kb download speeds as the other two Hard
Disks. The trouble apparently really was a corrupt installation of WinMe.

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3

"CLR" <crob...@tampabay.rr.com> wrote in message
news:e71efZl...@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...