HDS 4.3 Freezing My Computer

[DrRon]

I can confirm this is 100% normal, it is NOT the count of errors but the total number of operations.
The other drives (WD) are working differently, they do not count/report this kind of value there.

This is a common question, already discussed in this forum, for example: viewtopic.php?f=32&t=735

OK, thanks for the insight into the differences between WD and Seagate here.
I may not have followed the other post discussion in detail very well, but I will trust HDS to monitor my wonderful new Seagate 2 TB HD and alert me to anything that looks bad.
Thank you.

[hdsentinel]

> Please note that the computer has been running 24/7 and the new driver seems to be reporting
> a disk temperature 4 to 5 degrees higher than the previous temperature.
> The HD temperature trace coninued to rise after the new driver report, to a stable 41 degrees.
> There have been no hardware changes.
> The HDS trace of average disk temperature is also 4 to 5 degrees higher than before.
> This behaviour in average disk temperature is not apparent in the HD's running on my SATA controller.

The issue is caused by that the previous driver did not properly update and report the status information as should, it provided "cached" values when Hard Disk Sentinel was reading out the actual status information and temperature values.
This caused that for long(er) time the lower temperatures reported (even if the temperature of the drive is actually higher).
This also cause that the average temperature remained low (as it used the lower reported temperatures for the calculation of the average).

> I also notive that the VIA RAID card does not report the complete set of information on the WDC HD like the others.
> There is no ATA information, for example.
> This is apparent on both the old and new driver so I conclude it is a matter of the RAID card itself, right?

Yes, I can confirm this is the limitation of the VIA RAID controller - regardless of the driver.
Most other controller cards (for example with Silicon Image chipset - approx. same price and features like the VIA, but better compatibility) would work differently: with it, Hard Disk Sentinel should be able to provide full information.

[hdsentinel]

> So far so good. There have been no "seizures" with the new driver.

Thanks, glad to hear


> My MOBO has 4 SATA connectors, which are running 3 internal HDs and the eSATA bridge external HD (the new Seagate 2TB).
> I previously had an additional HD and DVD RW running on the IDE controller.
> I wanted to replace them both with a faster connection so I bought the VIA RAID card (which provides 2
> additional SATA connections) and a new SATA DVD RW optical drive.
> I replaced the IDE HD with a SATA HD that was previously running in my external enclosure.
> That external enclosure is actively cooled and does a great job of keeping its HD cool, as you can see with the new Seagate.
> So I have no historical temperature data for the WDC HD that is now inside the case, running on the VIA RAID card.

Thanks, I see. Maybe if we can see the other drive on the RAID controller, that would also help, by comparing its temperature with this one.
Anyway, I can confirm that according the status I saw, its temperature is fine.


> Bottom line, I have that HD and the DVD RW running on the RAID SATA ports and the 4 MOBO connections running the other 4 HDs.
> I could swap the DVD RW cable with one of the other HDs and see what happens, I guess.

It may worth a try ... and maybe (just for testing) to leave ony the 2 HDDs in RAID connected to the RAID controller.
(in any situation, Report -> Send test report to developer option helps to check any changes).

> The data transfer rates at the VIA RAID card are lower than the MOBO SATA connections since it is running on the PCI bus,
> but still better than the old IDE rates.

Yes, this is possible ...
Do you have free PCI express slot? Then you may consider a PCI express x1 SATA 300 controller, eg. with Silicon Image 3132 chipset (or even SATA 600 controller, Highpoint 620). That may give better performance.

> Sorry to make this into a large project here, but I am so impressed with the capability of HDS to let me look into
> the heart of my drives and keep watch over them.

No problems, I'm glad if I can help

> As you can see, I have a number of HDs with lots of data on them and just need to know if anything starts to fail.
> Your program is really great and your technical support is excellent.
> I have highly recommended it to my friends.

Thanks so much for your kindness, I hope Hard Disk Sentinel can be useful to protect your data!

[kendalljenner84]

Thanks for sharing with us a great post. I also get useful information from this post.