# Solved: High disk response time, but disk is fine



## STOICmang (Oct 27, 2014)

Hey everybody. First a little background, I have a 64 gb SSD which has my operating system on it, and I use a 3 tb HDD for all of my data/programs. Yesterday I was playing Counter-Strike for a while and I noticed every now and then I would get about a 3 second sputter where there's a noticeable lag spike. I figured it was just because I was on wireless so I ignored it (even though it hadn't done this in the past). After logging out of Steam to switch to another account, everything I started became excruciatingly slow. After doing some research I opened the Resource Monitor and navigated to "disk" tab to find that the response time of 20+ items were in the thousands+. I will try to give a list of all the things I've done to troubleshoot this problem, but might forget some:


Rebooted
rebooted in safe mode
did a malware check (malwarebytes)
did a quick check with MSE on my HDD (E (all clean)
ran chkdsk and one other I can't remember what the command was, both turned out clean
defrag'd the drive
installed SeaTools (SMART check successfull, all other checks stop at 90%)
cleaned trashcan
reinstalled STEAM (was the first program that encountered any difficulty)

I know there's more to this list but I can't think of anything else right now. As you might have already guessed, I'm pretty sure my disk itself is all right. I'm not sure what is causing the extremely slow response time, but whenever a program from my E: drive (HDD) is used, the "Highest Active Time" in resource monitor jumps to 100% and stays there. The only way for it not to be at 100% is if I'm not using any programs from E: at all. And even then, it takes some time for all the items to clear out.

My system specs are as follows:
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (6.1, build 7601)
Asus Mobo (can't recall exact right now and system information just shows "system manufacturer" and "system product name" for those fields [now that I think of it, that's probably a problem])
Intel Core i5-2500k @3.3ghz
16gb RAM
nVidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti

I would appreciate any help given as I am in quite the rut!


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## Macboatmaster (Jan 15, 2010)

How much free space is there on E please


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## STOICmang (Oct 27, 2014)

Macboatmaster said:


> How much free space is there on E please


1.38 tb


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## STOICmang (Oct 27, 2014)

Currently attempting to get SeaTools DOS set up to see if that works better than SeaTools for Windows.


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## Macboatmaster (Jan 15, 2010)

OK come back when you have done that and run the test, then when you are ready I will continue with other suggestions


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## STOICmang (Oct 27, 2014)

After completing the SeaTools DOS, last I saw there were about 98 errors that were fixed. I rebooted and things seem to be running ok to the naked eye, but resource monitor tells a different story. I had a few items with 50+ms responses, then after steam started up there were several in the hundreds. I opened Counter Strike and was able to play fairly seamlessly but alt+tabing still showed multiple items (most of which were steam) running in the hundreds and some in thousands. At least the disk isn't CONSTANTLY 100% for highest activity time, but it is spiking between 40~90. Is this normal? I thought these shouldn't ever have times over 50ms...


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## Macboatmaster (Jan 15, 2010)

If you mean seatools for dos found 98 errors
then my guess is that the hard drive has bad sectors
if that is the case Seatools nor any other tool can FIX those errors.
They simply rewrite data to good sectors




However long it takes to run 
chkdsk /r 
if that is NOT the chkdsk you have run
is your next step


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## STOICmang (Oct 27, 2014)

I only did "chkdsk e:" and it didn't return with any problems so I didn't do /r or /f.


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## Macboatmaster (Jan 15, 2010)

it will not as it is read only and does not check for bad sectors


not indeed on an NTFS vol can it even detect corruption of the file system
Chkdsk in Read-Only Mode Does Not Detect Corruption on NTFS Volume


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## STOICmang (Oct 27, 2014)

Okay, I'm going to run chkdsk e: /r /f


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## Macboatmaster (Jan 15, 2010)

no need to cmd that as /r implies f


that said it will make no difference


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## STOICmang (Oct 27, 2014)

Running it right now, steps 1-3 went by quickly with no problems. It's on step four right now and moving quite slow. It's been at 10% for a while but is still processing.


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## Macboatmaster (Jan 15, 2010)

cheers it could take a Loooong time


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## STOICmang (Oct 27, 2014)

I figured as much :/ guess I'll go get a 12 pack while I wait!


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## STOICmang (Oct 27, 2014)

So the chkdsk finally finished. and this is what it said: 

Checking file system on E:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is Derp.

A disk check has been scheduled.
Windows will now check the disk. 

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 5)...
399616 file records processed. File verification completed.
244 large file records processed. 0 bad file records processed. 0 EA records processed. 0 reparse records processed.  CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 5)...
460368 index entries processed. Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned. 0 unindexed files recovered. CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 5)...
399616 file SDs/SIDs processed. Cleaning up 212 unused index entries from index $SII of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 212 unused index entries from index $SDH of file 0x9.
Cleaning up 212 unused security descriptors.
Security descriptor verification completed.
30377 data files processed. CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
34962520 USN bytes processed. Usn Journal verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying file data (stage 4 of 5)...
Read failure with status 0xc0000185 at offset 0xc329494000 for 0x10000 bytes.
Read failure with status 0xc0000185 at offset 0xc329494000 for 0x1000 bytes.
Read failure with status 0xc0000185 at offset 0xc3294a5000 for 0x10000 bytes.
Read failure with status 0xc0000185 at offset 0xc3294aa000 for 0x1000 bytes.
Read failure with status 0xc0000185 at offset 0xc32960b000 for 0x10000 bytes.
Read failure with status 0xc0000185 at offset 0xc329611000 for 0x1000 bytes.
Read failure with status 0xc0000185 at offset 0xc329612000 for 0x10000 bytes.
Read failure with status 0xc0000185 at offset 0xc329612000 for 0x1000 bytes.
Read failure with status 0xc0000185 at offset 0xc32a073000 for 0x10000 bytes.
Read failure with status 0xc0000185 at offset 0xc32a07d000 for 0x1000 bytes.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 263353
of name \PROGRA~1\Steam\STEAMA~1\common\REDORC~1\ROGame\BrewedPC\RSGame\Packages\Vehicles\VHCC32~1.UPK.
Read failure with status 0xc0000185 at offset 0xc329311000 for 0x10000 bytes.
Read failure with status 0xc0000185 at offset 0xc329317000 for 0x1000 bytes.
Windows replaced bad clusters in file 263355
of name \PROGRA~1\Steam\STEAMA~1\common\REDORC~1\ROGame\BrewedPC\RSGame\Packages\Vehicles\VH279A~1.UPK.
399600 files processed. File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
367124174 free clusters processed. Free space verification is complete.
Adding 6 bad clusters to the Bad Clusters File.
Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

2861458 MB total disk space.
1460897624 KB in 326736 files.
150336 KB in 30378 indexes.
24 KB in bad sectors.
589331 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
1468496700 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
732533503 total allocation units on disk.
367124175 allocation units available on disk.

Internal Info:
00 19 06 00 06 73 05 00 4e a7 09 00 00 00 00 00 .....s..N.......
6f 04 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 o...............
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................


On startup resource manager is still showing several items in the thousands ms and a constant 100% highest active time , but im not noticing any extreme problems while in-game.


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## STOICmang (Oct 27, 2014)

After some more troubleshooting, it looks like whenever I open a program on my E drive, that program starts up with responses in the hundreds to thousand ms, but after a while it all drops down. After idling for a while, all items are under 4 ms response times. If this is totally normal and you think the problem is fixed you can just tell me I'm an idiot. haha


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## Macboatmaster (Jan 15, 2010)

Your hard drive is failing
note please the read failures - that means of course that the data in that block could not be read due to errors
Also note please the bad sectors
the chkdsk has attempted to recover the data from the bad sectors and re-write it to good sectors
It has then marked the sector bad to prevent data being written to it in future

A cast iron test of the fact that failure is imminent is if those bad sectors increase

HOWEVER be aware that the stress of running the chkdsk /r can occasionally tip a failing disk over the edge

It is also vital to note that this disk has not been fixed. The fault still exists - back up all data ASAP and of course if programs have actually been installed on this disk then you will need a complete image rather than a simple backup to ensure that when you obtain the new one the image can be sent to the new disk

The bad sector record can then be cleared using a special chkdsk cmd.

I do not think it is other than the disk itself, as were it to be so I would have expected other problems

Relevant details from chkdsk
Read failure with status 0xc0000185 at offset 0xc329494000 for 0x10000 bytes.
Read failure with status 0xc0000185 at offset 0xc329494000 for 0x1000 bytes.
Read failure with status 0xc0000185 at offset 0xc3294a5000 for 0x10000 bytes.
Read failure with status 0xc0000185 at offset 0xc3294aa000 for 0x1000 bytes.
Read failure with status 0xc0000185 at offset 0xc32960b000 for 0x10000 bytes.
Read failure with status 0xc0000185 at offset 0xc329611000 for 0x1000 bytes.
Read failure with status 0xc0000185 at offset 0xc329612000 for 0x10000 bytes.
Read failure with status 0xc0000185 at offset 0xc329612000 for 0x1000 bytes.
Read failure with status 0xc0000185 at offset 0xc32a073000 for 0x10000 bytes.
Read failure with status 0xc0000185 at offset 0xc32a07d000 for 0x1000 bytes.
 Windows replaced bad clusters in file 263353
of name \PROGRA~1\Steam\STEAMA~1\common\REDORC~1\ROGame\BrewedPC\RSGame\Packages\Ve hicles\VHCC32~1.UPK.
Read failure with status 0xc0000185 at offset 0xc329311000 for 0x10000 bytes.
Read failure with status 0xc0000185 at offset 0xc329317000 for 0x1000 bytes.
 Windows replaced bad clusters in file 263355
of name \PROGRA~1\Steam\STEAMA~1\common\REDORC~1\ROGame\BrewedPC\RSGame\Packages\Ve hicles\VH279A~1.UPK.
399600 files processed. File data verification completed.
CHKDSK is verifying free space (stage 5 of 5)...
367124174 free clusters processed. Free space verification is complete.
 Adding 6 bad clusters to the Bad Clusters File.
 Correcting errors in the Volume Bitmap.
Windows has made corrections to the file system.

2861458 MB total disk space.
1460897624 KB in 326736 files.
150336 KB in 30378 indexes.
 24 KB in bad sectors.
589331 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
1468496700 KB available on disk.

As I said please see bad clusters in red and the read failures

*My advice - act sooner rather than later*
*Only a few weeks ago I similarly advised someone and they left it as is and it failed cmpletely*
*Errors in Vol Bitmap will make the disc work very hard - in simple terms you may consider it to be the index to the disk *


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## STOICmang (Oct 27, 2014)

Okay, well thanks a lot for your help macboatmaster, looks like I'll be ordering a new HDD :/


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## Macboatmaster (Jan 15, 2010)

You are welcome.


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