WD BLUE 3.5 2tb - the notorious "SLOW DISK" problem

[itdatagroup]

Dear hhd Gurus

explain to me ( the disk profane ) how the f... can
ONLY 7 BAD CLUSTERS on a 2tb wd blue 3.5 drive ( 44gb user data out of 2tb capacity )
can effing jam and bog down the disk from average normal 30mb/s
to effing 300kb/s and make the disk hardly responsive and slow as f...k !

history:
- used disk was reformatted, checked with chkdsk /r /f /x
and supposed to be used for simple backup of a backup of a backup
- atto benchmarked at up 30mb/s on usb2, ie normal speed
- smart in CrystalDiskInfo is decent, minor bad sectors, caution status
- in win10, copying/backing up files to this external disk
- all going well, decent speed, no problems
- all of the sudden the disk slows down to a crawl
- WTF is uttered, scramble activated
- next, what to do ?
- measured speed in ATTO, effing 300kb/s now
- disk is slow to respond, to mount, reading/writing is virtually unusable
- win explorer -> drive -> tools -> error checking -> took around 2 hours
no errors
- next did chkdsk /f /r /x , took about 1 hour
- found and replaced 7 bad clusters ( see printout below )
- ran atto benchmark again -> SPEED IS BACK UP TO 30mb/s ie PROBLEM SOLVED

now, the question again
how the f...k can only 7 bad clusters virtually make the disk unusable
by slowing it down to a effing crawl ???

please, I need freaking answers, what is happening internally ?
same question/issue "SLOW WD drive" is plastered all over the internet
with no solutions for the common folks, other than clear relo-list for pros
WD is silent on the issue ( probably afraid of class action lawsuit ) other
then we are sorry and start warranty replacement process or replace the drive

bad WD firmware ??? crappy WD implementation ???
what is likely to be the problem ??? really only 7 bad clusters is the disk is kaput !

I can not believe that ONLY 7 effing bad sectors can jam the drive to not usable status !!!
and that fixing those 7 sectors restores disk speed to specifications .

++ I ran chkdsk again on same data ( no data change on disk, no write to disk )
and it found 1 more bad clusters again, what the f...k again?
it appears to be not a consistent algo for finding bad clusters with chkdks

Please experts, drop a few lines of explanations for the poor here...

++ I developed phobia for WD drives... most of them seem to go bad left and right
for minute problems...


( removed file names )
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.18363.1500]
(c) 2019 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>chkdsk /f /r /x F:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is WD Blue.

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
49152 file records processed.
File verification completed.
449 large file records processed.
0 bad file records processed.

Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
8 reparse records processed.
53670 index entries processed.
Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned.
0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found.
8 reparse records processed.

Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Security descriptor verification completed.
2260 data files processed.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
2432976 USN bytes processed.
Usn Journal verification completed.

Stage 4: Looking for bad clusters in user file data ...
Windows replaced bad clusters in file B725
of name \Archive\LM10\Backup\Grub\...
Windows replaced bad clusters in file B777
of name \Archive\LM10\Documents\...
Windows replaced bad clusters in file B950
of name \Archive\LM10\Documents\Pdfs\...
Windows replaced bad clusters in file B951
of name \Archive\LM10\Documents\Pdfs\...
Windows replaced bad clusters in file BBB3
of name \Archive\LM10\Documents\Pdfs\SPORT\...
Windows replaced bad clusters in file BBE1
of name \Archive\LM10\Documents\Pdfs\...
Windows replaced bad clusters in file BC13
of name \Archive\LM10\Documents\Pdfs\...
49136 files processed.
File data verification completed.
An unspecified error occurred (766f6c756d652e63 470).

[Lardman]

If you fill a bucket with water everything is fine until it overflows at which point every drop after that overflows.

Is this still the same drive, you've been working on for weeks?

[itdatagroup]

I don't buy the bucket argument.
If the drive is out of reserve sectors then how can chkdsk possibly fix the bad sectors ?
It most likely simply relocates files or file bits to a different place on a hard drive having
plenty of free space for that purpose.

It's shitty WD firmware likely to be the problem... the disk gets choked by those 7 bad sectors
is a joke ... and the problems is wide spread and WD knows about it but keeping quiet.
and ... there design proves they are... well, let's just say "not smart".
Book design for externals, yeah looks attractive but stupid nonetheless, you knock the
drive over - here goes your data + at least $300 to get the data out of that brick.

I proved it, 7 bad sectors - drive speed 300kb/s
chkdsk fixes those 7 sectors - drive speed goes back to 30mb/s the norm on usb2
that tells me it''s crappy WD firmware we are dealing with unable to handle that little hickup and is self-choking ...
not windows because the disk is choking in linux as well.

chkdsk was coded in 1980 by the same guy who coded DOS.

forget it, nobody knows or not many here know what's going on inside that wd firmware code
they know approximately that it's choking on the relo-list

[SirForensic]

If you are using PC3K, solving the Slow Response Issues might help you.
These kinds of things are not only WD drive issues.

When you have an attitude like that most likely people just are not willing to help you, and many here do know very well what's happening in the firmware.

Looks like you are doing just fine yourself anyway, good luck.

[rec]

Dear hhd Gurus

explain to me ( the disk profane ) how the f... can
ONLY 7 BAD CLUSTERS on a 2tb wd blue 3.5 drive ( 44gb user data out of 2tb capacity )
can effing jam and bog down the disk from average normal 30mb/s
to effing 300kb/s and make the disk hardly responsive and slow as f...k !

How could just one torpedo have killed the deathstar in Starwars? It hit the right spot. Was ist just "only 7 bad clusters"?
That is what you pretend. You did not deliver any proof by posting your SMART parameters.
If flying your T-Wing fighter against a disk, which sector(s) would you attack, assuming one partition with a NTFS file system on the disk?

history:
- used disk was reformatted, checked with chkdsk /r /f /x

Your hourly rate must be pretty low that you can afford wasting your time on the disk. Seven bad clusters is a reason for replacement of the disk.

and supposed to be used for simple backup of a backup of a backup
- atto benchmarked at up 30mb/s on usb2, ie normal speed
- smart in CrystalDiskInfo is decent, minor bad sectors, caution status

I prefer to look at water temperature, oil pressure and oil temperature when driving my car. For some reason my car manufacturer has not implemented an overall status indicator as a traffic light: Green, yellow and red indicator!

- in win10, copying/backing up files to this external disk
- all going well, decent speed, no problems
- all of the sudden the disk slows down to a crawl
- WTF is uttered, scramble activated
- next, what to do ?
- measured speed in ATTO, effing 300kb/s now
- disk is slow to respond, to mount, reading/writing is virtually unusable
- win explorer -> drive -> tools -> error checking -> took around 2 hours
no errors
- next did chkdsk /f /r /x , took about 1 hour

Wrong strategy applied here. Duplicate and replace!

- found and replaced 7 bad clusters ( see printout below )
- ran atto benchmark again -> SPEED IS BACK UP TO 30mb/s ie PROBLEM SOLVED

That is just your opinion.

now, the question again
how the f...k can only 7 bad clusters virtually make the disk unusable
by slowing it down to a effing crawl ???

Try to imagine what the equivalent to the reactor trench is for hard drives!

please, I need freaking answers, what is happening internally ?
same question/issue "SLOW WD drive" is plastered all over the internet
with no solutions for the common folks, other than clear relo-list for pros
WD is silent on the issue ( probably afraid of class action lawsuit ) other
then we are sorry and start warranty replacement process or replace the drive

Pure rant and no proofs.

bad WD firmware ??? crappy WD implementation ???
what is likely to be the problem ??? really only 7 bad clusters is the disk is kaput !

I can not believe that ONLY 7 effing bad sectors can jam the drive to not usable status !!!

I do.

and that fixing those 7 sectors restores disk speed to specifications .

Removing the tip of the iceberg leaves 90% of it unchanged.

++ I ran chkdsk again on same data ( no data change on disk, no write to disk )
and it found 1 more bad clusters again, what the f...k again?

That is what I call the avalanche effect with disks: Take a broken disk with pending sectors, duplicate it a couple of times and watch the figure rising.

it appears to be not a consistent algo for finding bad clusters with chkdks

This is only what you want to believe.

Please experts, drop a few lines of explanations for the poor here...

++ I developed phobia for WD drives... most of them seem to go bad left and right
for minute problems...

When I look at disk prices WD is the most expensive and Seagate is the cheapest, for instance withe a size of 4 TB, 5400 rpm, CMR.
I buy WD drives, as somebody who is rarely making backups.
How come I am willing to pay more?

Think about how certain you are with your judgment "WD SLOW DISK problem". Have you ever experienced other broken drives with pending sectors?

If you dislike this posting, be aware that I am just an amateur with no professional insight in disks. You are free to keep your judgment - chiseled in stone...

[itdatagroup]

To all
You are all right !
I tossed the drive away.
I though I restored it.
Nope, I learnt a lesson again, rehabbing damaged drives - waste of time and once it goes bad - toss it without 2nd thought.
I played with WDR and WDMarvel and most other higher level programs - mostly waste of time on a bad disk.
The lesson I learnt - professionals don't restore drives they restore data and toss the drive.

I got one more WD to deal with, with slowness problem.
But this time around I don't plan to mess around with it, once I pull data out - I will toss the f..r as far away from me as possible.

so 4 WD drives:
My Book - managed to pull all data out and tossed it.
Blue - resurrected only to find out there is no cure for bad drive - tossed it.
Passport - plan to fix the slowness pull the data and toss it far.
Blue Scorpion - seems to be holding well, no problems, older dual boot linux win drive, still chugging along.

Regards.