External Hard Drive speed problems

[rJCaiG]

I've got a 1tb Seagate external hard drive that I've had for about 4 months now. It's always worked perfectly and I've had no problems whatsoever with it.
However, two weeks ago, I formatted my computer. I reinstalled the same version of Windows XP Pro with the same CD even, installed all the drivers for the motherboard, wifi device, keyboard, etc etc, until everything was basically at the same point it was before I formatted.
Only one thing has changed - my external hard drive is working at extremely slow speeds. It's plugged into a USB3 port (although I don't think it's USB3 compatible) as it always has been, and yet, I can't figure out what could be causing the slowness.
I think it might be a USB problem and not one with the hard drive, because when I plug my phone in and try to move files onto it, it also works pretty slowly.
I've been trying for a few days to figure it out, and I've even gone to such lengths as buying myself a 1tb internal hard drive, which arrived today, only for me to realise that I needed to move all the files from the external onto it - which is going to take hours, if not days.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

[StrikeFreedom]

Open the external up, take it out of the enclosure and plug it into your PC directly.

[rJCaiG]

I'm not too keen on doing anything that could potentially damage it in any way :/

[Vukasin]

GiacJr, i have the same problem, i also posted in Hardware/Software support, but i guess nobody can help us....

[StrikeFreedom]

An external HDD is just a normal hard disk inside of a fancy case...

[Gandalf]

If the harrdisk was plugged in during the re-installation it might use a different driver which causes less than optimal performance.

Use the USB tool to safely unplug the harddrive.
Remove the USB controller if your mouse and keyboard are not USB. Else check which driver is linked with the harddrive and remove it from the USB devices.
Restart you PC without the harddrive plugged in.
Plug in your harddrive and let it be recognized. If it asks to install some software, allow that.


This should bring back the correct driver to the USB, and bring the device back to speed.

[Devin]

If you installed Windows again while the external was connected it may have caused a driver corruption as gandalf has stated,
 his solution is your best option, otherwise you will need to reformat and install again and hope for the best.

[rJCaiG]

Yeah it was a corrupt driver. I had to uninstall a few of the USB controller drivers and stuff, and then let it reinstall new versions and it's all fixed now.
15 mins to transfer 21gb sounds correct
Thanks guys.

[Neave]

trying going into device manager, find the hard drive,
rightclick >
Uninstall (wont delete any data).
then "Scan for hardware changes" button and it will reinstall itself.

if that doesnt fix anything, then goto
My Computer >
Rightclick the HDD >
Properties >
Hardware tab >
select external HDD >
click Properties >
Policies tab >
checkmark "Enable write caching on device"

otherwise, i dont know. ive never heard or seen anything like that

[Devin]

ironically I had the same issue two days ago, my internal hard drive was even running slow, to move something from C drive to the desktop it was transferring at 1.2mb/s.

I rebooted my system and it fixed the issue, now its running perfectly again at around 15+mb/s

[StrikeFreedom]

My external 250GB just crashed and failed....

[Neave]

best thing to do if it truly failed is to put the hard drive in a sealed plastic bag, and freeze it in the freezer for about an hour or two.

what is does it that the cold shrinks the heads and platters in the hard drive. and it allows the hard drive to work a little bit longer. but it will fail again, so dont continue to use it.

saved my old 250gb data that way ^.^

[Wayne]

indeed Neave, but it must be made with all caution, otherwise you can permanently lose it!

Just like you said... seal the harddriver nicely, avoid contact with humidity at all cost.

[Bilbo]

First thing that popped in my head was same what Gandalf proposed, the drivers are screwed up - who knows if instead of USB3.0 drivers it is actually using 1.1 drivers? :razz: