A computer components & hardware forum. HardwareBanter

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » HardwareBanter forum » General Hardware & Peripherals » Storage (alternative)
Site Map Home Register Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

I think I've solved my Spin Retry Count problem



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old September 17th 09, 07:09 PM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
Yousuf Khan[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,296
Default I think I've solved my Spin Retry Count problem

I have stated previously that I have an older drive that seems to get a
lot of Spin Retry Counts in SMART, but other than that it's rock solid:
it has outlasted a whole bunch of newer drives that were previously
giving no error messages whatsoever in SMART. Well, it looks like I've
now also solved its Spin Retries too.

Here's the older thread for reference:

comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage | Google Groups
http://groups.google.com/group/comp....n+spin+retr y

Well anyway, what I did recently was that I converted two of those old
IDE drives into SATA drives using an IDE-to-SATA converter board that
fits right onto the back of the drives themselves. I started noticing
that the Spin Retries were gone about two weeks ago, but that was only a
week after I installed them, so I didn't want to say anything until I
saw a bit more time pass. Well, it's now the three week mark, and I
haven't seen any additional spin retries! I've also rebooted the system
quite a bit more often than I usually do in that time. HD Sentinel is
also now starting to upgrade its Health rating automatically, it had
gone down to 40% at its lowest and today it's at 52%.

I had previously suspected the IDE cables to be the culprits, so I did
change them, but that didn't help any at that time. So at that point I
began suspecting the drive itself was getting old (which it is). Looks
like now that it's going through SATA cables instead of IDE ones, that
the cables were the culprit, even with the newer IDE cables. I'm not
sure if this is endemic to IDE cables in general, or if it was just two
bad IDE cables in a row.

Yousuf Khan
  #2  
Old September 17th 09, 08:00 PM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
Daniel Prince
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 147
Default I think I've solved my Spin Retry Count problem

Yousuf Khan wrote:


I had previously suspected the IDE cables to be the culprits, so I did
change them, but that didn't help any at that time. So at that point I
began suspecting the drive itself was getting old (which it is). Looks
like now that it's going through SATA cables instead of IDE ones, that
the cables were the culprit, even with the newer IDE cables. I'm not
sure if this is endemic to IDE cables in general, or if it was just two
bad IDE cables in a row.


How long were your IDE cables? Were they flat or round?
--
I don't understand why they make gourmet cat foods. I have
known many cats in my life and none of them were gourmets.
They were all gourmands!
  #3  
Old September 17th 09, 10:17 PM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
Rod Speed
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 8,559
Default I think I've solved my Spin Retry Count problem

Yousuf Khan wrote

I have stated previously that I have an older drive that seems to get a lot of Spin Retry Counts in SMART, but other
than that it's rock solid: it has outlasted a whole bunch of newer drives that were previously giving no error
messages whatsoever in SMART. Well, it looks like I've now also solved its Spin Retries too.


Here's the older thread for reference:


comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage | Google Groups


http://groups.google.com/group/comp....n+spin+retr y

Well anyway, what I did recently was that I converted two of those old IDE drives into SATA drives using an
IDE-to-SATA converter board that fits right onto the back of the drives themselves. I started noticing that the Spin
Retries were gone about two weeks ago,


Gone from what report ? They shouldnt go from the Everest SMART
report, the raw value is a total and should just stop increasing.

but that was only a week after I installed them, so I didn't want to say anything until I saw a bit more time pass.
Well, it's now the three week mark, and I haven't seen any additional spin retries!


Presumably thats what you meant and the previous is just poorly worded.

I've also rebooted the system quite a bit more often than I usually do in that time. HD Sentinel is also now starting
to upgrade its Health rating automatically, it had gone down to 40% at its lowest and today it's at 52%.


I've never considered those numbers are very useful, what matters is the raw value.

I had previously suspected the IDE cables to be the culprits, so I did
change them, but that didn't help any at that time. So at that point I
began suspecting the drive itself was getting old (which it is). Looks
like now that it's going through SATA cables instead of IDE ones, that
the cables were the culprit, even with the newer IDE cables. I'm not
sure if this is endemic to IDE cables in general, or if it was just
two bad IDE cables in a row.


Its much more likely to be a lot more complicated than that.

What else did you change when you moved from IDE to SATA ?

Did you change the motherboard or power supply ?

The old thread did say you upgraded the power supply.
Did you see the spin retry count keep increasing after that ?

The only raw value you did post wasnt that high, just 20.


  #4  
Old September 18th 09, 12:01 AM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
Yousuf Khan[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,296
Default I think I've solved my Spin Retry Count problem

Daniel Prince wrote:
How long were your IDE cables? Were they flat or round?



They were around 20 inches long, from the furthest ends.

Now, they were rounded cables in both cases. I had thought of using flat
cables, but in the crowded conditions in my case it was pretty difficult
to use them without moving a lot of stuff around. Plus the rounded
cables gave better cooling.

Yousuf Khan
  #5  
Old September 18th 09, 12:14 AM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
Yousuf Khan[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,296
Default I think I've solved my Spin Retry Count problem

Rod Speed wrote:
Yousuf Khan wrote
I've also rebooted the system quite a bit more often than I usually do in that time. HD Sentinel is also now starting
to upgrade its Health rating automatically, it had gone down to 40% at its lowest and today it's at 52%.


I've never considered those numbers are very useful, what matters is the raw value.


Well, they seem to be based on the same criteria that we'd use to judge
quality: how many errors are there, and how often do they occur.
Recently they've been occurring much less frequently, so it's been
upgrading its rating for the drive.

Its much more likely to be a lot more complicated than that.

What else did you change when you moved from IDE to SATA ?

Did you change the motherboard or power supply ?


Neither were changed. Power supply was obviously changed in the previous
round of troubleshooting, so it didn't need to be changed again.
Motherboard and processor remained what they were too; as a matter of
fact the reason this change was done was to eventually upgrade the
motherboard and processor down the road -- it's extremely difficult to
find new motherboards with more than one IDE channel anymore, so I am
preparing for the next generation. It was difficult to find a
motherboard with two IDE channels (i.e. 4 connectors) the last time too.

There were 4 SATA connections, and 4 IDE connections. Two SATAs were
previously unused, so I just moved two IDEs over to SATA. The only
things left on IDE are the optical drives.

The old thread did say you upgraded the power supply.
Did you see the spin retry count keep increasing after that ?


Yes, it did keep increasing after that. But the PS upgrade fixed many
other unrelated problems so I wasn't unhappy about that.

The only raw value you did post wasnt that high, just 20.



Well, it's gone upto 32 since then -- and holding.

Yousuf Khan
  #6  
Old September 18th 09, 12:40 AM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
Michael Cecil
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 120
Default I think I've solved my Spin Retry Count problem

On Thu, 17 Sep 2009 19:01:40 -0400, Yousuf Khan
wrote:

Daniel Prince wrote:
How long were your IDE cables? Were they flat or round?



They were around 20 inches long, from the furthest ends.

Now, they were rounded cables in both cases. I had thought of using flat
cables, but in the crowded conditions in my case it was pretty difficult
to use them without moving a lot of stuff around. Plus the rounded
cables gave better cooling.

Yousuf Khan


I thought of using certified life vests, but the cardboard ones were much
cheaper. Plus the cardboard ones were easier to store.
--
Michael Cecil
http://home.roadrunner.com/~macecil/
http://home.roadrunner.com/~safehex/
http://home.roadrunner.com/~macecil/hackingw7/
  #7  
Old September 18th 09, 02:38 AM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
Arno[_3_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,425
Default I think I've solved my Spin Retry Count problem

Yousuf Khan wrote:
[...]
I had previously suspected the IDE cables to be the culprits, so I did
change them, but that didn't help any at that time. So at that point I
began suspecting the drive itself was getting old (which it is). Looks
like now that it's going through SATA cables instead of IDE ones, that
the cables were the culprit, even with the newer IDE cables. I'm not
sure if this is endemic to IDE cables in general, or if it was just two
bad IDE cables in a row.


Yousuf Khan


Well, it is nice that the problem went away, but I frankly cannot
imagine any way an IDE cable would be responsible. Did you change or
at least unplug/replug the power connections? Bad power
connections can cause spin problems as especially old drives
draw a lot of power on spindle startup.

Arno





  #8  
Old September 18th 09, 04:08 AM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
Rod Speed
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 8,559
Default I think I've solved my Spin Retry Count problem

Yousuf Khan wrote
Rod Speed wrote
Yousuf Khan wrote


I've also rebooted the system quite a bit more often than I usually do in that time. HD Sentinel is also now
starting to upgrade its Health rating automatically, it had gone down to 40% at its lowest and today it's at 52%.


I've never considered those numbers are very useful, what matters is the raw value.


Well, they seem to be based on the same criteria that we'd use to
judge quality: how many errors are there, and how often do they occur.


The raw numbers for that particular drive dont support those 40% and 52%
claims, particularly with a parameter like spin retry count thats much more
likely to be a problem external to the drive than internal to the drive.

Recently they've been occurring much less frequently, so it's been upgrading its rating for the drive.


It shouldnt have ever given it a 40% with the raw values you posted.

Its much more likely to be a lot more complicated than that.


What else did you change when you moved from IDE to SATA ?


Did you change the motherboard or power supply ?


Neither were changed. Power supply was obviously changed in the
previous round of troubleshooting, so it didn't need to be changed
again. Motherboard and processor remained what they were too; as a matter of fact the reason this change was done was
to eventually upgrade the motherboard and processor down the road -- it's extremely difficult to find new motherboards
with more than one IDE channel anymore, so I am preparing for the next generation. It was difficult to find a
motherboard with two IDE channels (i.e. 4 connectors) the last time too.


Sure, I wondered whether you had changed the motherboard already.

There were 4 SATA connections, and 4 IDE connections. Two SATAs were previously unused, so I just moved two IDEs over
to SATA. The only things left on IDE are the optical drives.


The old thread did say you upgraded the power supply.
Did you see the spin retry count keep increasing after that ?


Yes, it did keep increasing after that. But the PS upgrade fixed many other unrelated problems so I wasn't unhappy
about that.


The only raw value you did post wasnt that high, just 20.


Well, it's gone upto 32 since then -- and holding.


I still find it hard to believe its a cable problem before the change to SATA.


  #9  
Old September 18th 09, 04:55 AM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
YKhan
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 266
Default I think I've solved my Spin Retry Count problem

On Sep 17, 9:38*pm, Arno wrote:
Well, it is nice that the problem went away, but I frankly cannot
imagine any way an IDE cable would be responsible. Did you change or
at least unplug/replug the power connections? Bad power
connections can cause spin problems as especially old drives
draw a lot of power on spindle startup.

Arno


The power connections were all brand new when the new power supply was
previously installed. The exact same power cables are still attached,
but now the data cables are SATA.

Yousuf Khan
  #10  
Old September 18th 09, 06:24 AM posted to comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage
Mike Tomlinson
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 431
Default I think I've solved my Spin Retry Count problem

In article , Yousuf Khan
writes

Well anyway, what I did recently was that I converted two of those old
IDE drives into SATA drives using an IDE-to-SATA converter board that
fits right onto the back of the drives themselves. I started noticing
that the Spin Retries were gone about two weeks ago, but that was only a
week after I installed them


I think the change in behaviour won't have anything to do with the
cables. A dodgy IDE cable is going to affect a lot more than the Spin
Retry count.

It's probably more to do with the fact hat you have now converted the
drive to SATA. Those plug-in converters are notoriously unreliable
(especially if you buy the ebay cheapo ones). I've used several
different ones with mixed results. How do you know the SMART data is
getting through from the drive correctly, if at all?

--
(\__/)
(='.'=) Bunny says Windows 7 is Vi$ta reloaded.
(")_(") http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/windows_7.png


 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Should I worry about Spin Retry Count? Yousuf Khan Storage (alternative) 18 July 7th 09 10:58 PM
Idle time spin-down-spin-up for disks? How often is too often? Al Dykes Storage (alternative) 3 March 10th 06 11:05 AM
Disk won't spin up/Possible voltage problem Paul General 14 April 28th 04 05:06 AM
Disk won't spin up/Possible voltage problem Paul Homebuilt PC's 14 April 28th 04 05:06 AM
OpenGL failed to initialize -- Problem Solved!!! well kind of solved. Jose Jiminez Nvidia Videocards 5 January 13th 04 12:51 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 03:56 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 HardwareBanter.
The comments are property of their posters.