Download speed varies with HD

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CLR - 14 Oct 2005 02:31 GMT

Hi all.........

I have a 1.2GB, 512MB AMD system with removable hard drive chassis on
Roadrunner Cable. I have three different plug in 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. Full ScanDisk and DeFrag
did not change anything.
Also, if I have this "bad" HD in the Master computer, then the bedroom
computer (on wireless) drops it's download speed from 1500kb to the
100-200kb range also........

Anybody run in to anything like this before?

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3

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Mike M - 14 Oct 2005 02:44 GMT

Chuck,

I've said it before in another NG and will say it again one last time.
Forget about the disk. That is a total distraction if you are talking
about your download speed. Concentrate on what matters which is why your
download speed seems to vary from system to system when using the same
connection.

Signature

Mike Maltby
mike.maltby@gmail.com

> Hi all.........
>
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
> Vaya con Dios,
> Chuck, CABGx3

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CLR - 14 Oct 2005 12:25 GMT

Well Mike, I appreciate you taking the time to respond to my posts, and I've
tried to make my situation clear, but your responses indicate that you just
don't grasp what I am trying to describe. I'll try once more in the hopes
that someone can see the problem as it is, and offer some constructive
advice.

I am talking about ONE computer system, it has a removable hard disk chassis
for Drive C. I have three different hard drives that I can plug in and boot
up with, one at a time. With my main HD in place, I only get a 100-200kb
download speed reading from www.pcpitstop.com where it should be between
2000-3000kb for my Roadrunner cable connection. With either one of the
other two HD's, (in the SAME computer but by themselves) I get the normal
2000-3000kb rating. The problem is OBVIOUSLY within the HD, (either
mechanical or the software), since that is the only thing being changed. It
would seem NOT to be the hardware, as such because the drive seems to
function normally in all other respects. I am convinced that my install of
WinMe on this one drive has been corrupted in some was as to be the source
of the problem.

My real question is if it is possible to "refresh" my WinMe install without
having to reformat the entire drive and totally re-installing WinMe. I feel
sure a total re-do would solve the problem, but only as a last resort as I
do not wish to disturb my email, drivers, and other software if possible.

Any constructive thoughts would be appreciated.

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3

> Chuck,
>
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
> > Vaya con Dios,
> > Chuck, CABGx3

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Mike M - 14 Oct 2005 15:33 GMT

> The problem is OBVIOUSLY within the HD

To you maybe but to anyone else no.

Once again forget, that is spelt F O R G E T the hard disk. If you are
talking about download speeds from the internet that is a networking
problem. That you appear to have completely failed to understand or
accept this after over a dozen posts indicates that it is virtually
pointless me continuing.

> Any constructive thoughts would be appreciated

But would you recognise or understand it?

Let me try one last time though I suspect that I am yet again wasting your
and my time.
For these purposes you have THREE computer systems albeit that they each
have identical hardware other than for the hard disk. Each has their own
copy of the operating system, drivers and other installed software. It is
the operating system that handles your net connection, not, surprising as
it may seem to you, the hard disk. OK, if you were on a gigabit
connection then maybe hard disk write speeds could be a limiting factor
and could influence your download speed but your are not on a gigabit link
so therefore the physical hard disk is an irrelevance unless it happens to
be failing.

So, what is different about the three systems? The operating system and
other installed software, and it appears one of those systems has a
networking problem - hence my advice to post here for further help. Such
problem might be with the network configuration and I have already
suggested that one thing you might want to check is the values for RWIN
and MTU for each system, but could also be the result of one system having
an application (possibly malware) that is affecting the connection speeds.

A good place to start might be to uninstall and reinstall the networking
components on the system having problems.

Signature

Mike Maltby
mike.maltby@gmail.com

> Well Mike, I appreciate you taking the time to respond to my posts,
> and I've tried to make my situation clear, but your responses
[quoted text clipped - 23 lines]
>
> Any constructive thoughts would be appreciated.

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CLR - 15 Oct 2005 17:45 GMT

Hi All.........

If any of you, who might not be intimidated by the other posts in this
thread, could offer some suggestions or assistance to my original posted
concern, I would certainly be appreciative.

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3

> Hi all.........
>
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
> Vaya con Dios,
> Chuck, CABGx3

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Noel Paton - 16 Oct 2005 01:42 GMT

I'm afraid that I have to agree with Mike -

I would not rely on PCPitstop for anything - least of all an HD test.

download and run a proper benchmarker for HD's

http://www.nodesoft.com/ would seem to do a reasonable job, in the 'real'
world

Signature

Noel Paton (MS-MVP 2002-2006, Windows)

Nil Carborundum Illegitemi
http://www.crashfixpc.com/millsrpch.htm

http://tinyurl.com/6oztj

Please read http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm on how to post messages to NG's

> Hi All.........
>
[quoted text clipped - 28 lines]
>> Vaya con Dios,
>> Chuck, CABGx3

Reply to this Message

CLR - 04 Nov 2005 03:01 GMT

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

> Hi all.........
>
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
> Vaya con Dios,
> Chuck, CABGx3

Reply to this Message

Mart - 04 Nov 2005 15:58 GMT

CLR wrote:-

> .... The trouble apparently really was a corrupt installation of WinMe.

Or more likely, a bad/corrupted installation of the Modem/Network driver. I
think Mike made it pretty clear that it wasn't a HDD issue.

Mart

> 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
[quoted text clipped - 28 lines]
>> Vaya con Dios,
>> Chuck, CABGx3

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