I have a 4TB HDD that I use to store music, films, images, and text files. I have a 250GB SDD that I use to install my OS and video games. So far I didn’t have any problem with this setup, obviously it’s a bit slower when it reads the HDD but nothing too serious, but lately it’s gotten way worse, where it just lags too much when I try to access files on that disk, and specially when it comes to listening to music, it’s super annoying. I’m using Elisa music player and it just takes ages to load the albums.

Below is my system and HDD information. I think I’m supposed to use hardlinks or something to access those files, could that be a reason? I’ve never even fully filled my HDD and it’s only 3 years old.

System Details Report

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Hardware Information:

  • Hardware Model: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. PRIME A320M-K
  • Memory: 16.0 GiB
  • Processor: AMD Ryzen™ 5 5600G with Radeon™ Graphics × 12
  • Graphics: AMD Radeon™ Graphics
  • Disk Capacity: 4.2 TB

Software Information:

  • Firmware Version: 6042
  • OS Name: Fedora Linux 39 (Workstation Edition)
  • OS Build: (null)
  • OS Type: 64-bit
  • GNOME Version: 45.5
  • Windowing System: Wayland
  • Kernel Version: Linux 6.7.11-200.fc39.x86_64

  • Extras
    -4•7 months ago

    Iirc with time mechanical drives do slow down significantly due to wear and tear so it kinda sounds its on its way out. If speed is a must maybe look at how much storage capacity you’re using and switch to appropriate sized ssd/s. You can keep the mechanical drive as a cold backup.

    Edit: not sure if you already done this and I usually don’t recommend it if you don’t have backups but benchmarking would show you the read and write speeds. Also depending on warranty status, you also have the option of doing a manufacturer replacement. Not sure what info Toshiba asks for but doesn’t hurt to look into if you do decide to replace it.

    • @[email protected]English
      7•7 months ago

      with time mechanical drives do slow down significantly due to wear and tear

      Do you mean “because it’s dying?” Because otherwise I’ve never heard of this or seen this before. The disks must spin at a precise speed for the read/write head to work since it expects data to be read at a constant rate.

      If it’s dying there should be a ton of crap in the system logs (try dmesg or journalctl -k -f). You can also use smartctl to check for reported errors, or badblocks to see if there are issues with the disk.

      • ghost_laptopOP
        1•7 months ago

        I used journalctl -k -f and this is the output, I’ve also tried dmesg and smartctl and replied with the output on other comments, and all show some kind of I/O error, I guess I’m fucked or can it be because of a bad cable or something?

        Apr 13 17:06:59 fedora kernel: sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#14 Sense Key : Illegal Request [current] 
Apr 13 17:06:59 fedora kernel: sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#14 Add. Sense: Unaligned write command
Apr 13 17:06:59 fedora kernel: sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#14 CDB: Read(16) 88 00 00 00 00 00 39 dd 26 78 00 00 00 08 00 00
Apr 13 17:06:59 fedora kernel: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 970794616 op 0x0:(READ) flags 0x80700 phys_seg 1 prio class 2
Apr 13 17:06:59 fedora kernel: sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#15 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=3s
Apr 13 17:06:59 fedora kernel: sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#15 Sense Key : Illegal Request [current] 
Apr 13 17:06:59 fedora kernel: sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#15 Add. Sense: Unaligned write command
Apr 13 17:06:59 fedora kernel: sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#15 CDB: Read(16) 88 00 00 00 00 00 39 dd 26 b8 00 00 00 20 00 00
Apr 13 17:06:59 fedora kernel: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 970794680 op 0x0:(READ) flags 0x80700 phys_seg 4 prio class 2
Apr 13 17:06:59 fedora kernel: ata2: EH complete
Apr 13 17:19:28 fedora kernel: ata2.00: exception Emask 0x50 SAct 0x400 SErr 0x30802 action 0xe frozen
Apr 13 17:19:28 fedora kernel: ata2.00: irq_stat 0x00400000, PHY RDY changed
Apr 13 17:19:28 fedora kernel: ata2: SError: { RecovComm HostInt PHYRdyChg PHYInt }
Apr 13 17:19:28 fedora kernel: ata2.00: failed command: READ FPDMA QUEUED
Apr 13 17:19:28 fedora kernel: ata2.00: cmd 60/00:50:38:e3:9d/01:00:39:00:00/40 tag 10 ncq dma 131072 in
                                        res 40/00:01:00:4f:c2/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x50 (ATA bus error)
Apr 13 17:19:28 fedora kernel: ata2.00: status: { DRDY }
Apr 13 17:19:28 fedora kernel: ata2: hard resetting link
Apr 13 17:19:31 fedora kernel: ata2: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310)
Apr 13 17:19:31 fedora kernel: ata2.00: configured for UDMA/33
Apr 13 17:19:31 fedora kernel: sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#10 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=3s
Apr 13 17:19:31 fedora kernel: sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#10 Sense Key : Illegal Request [current] 
Apr 13 17:19:31 fedora kernel: sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#10 Add. Sense: Unaligned write command
Apr 13 17:19:31 fedora kernel: sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] tag#10 CDB: Read(16) 88 00 00 00 00 00 39 9d e3 38 00 00 01 00 00 00
Apr 13 17:19:31 fedora kernel: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 966648632 op 0x0:(READ) flags 0x80700 phys_seg 32 prio class 1
Apr 13 17:19:31 fedora kernel: ata2: EH complete
        • @[email protected]English
          1•7 months ago

          That’s not great… No idea what those errors are specifically but something is very wrong. Hopefully you’ve made backups already because the drive may be failing.

      • Extras
        0•7 months ago

        Huh weird I do have experience of this happening especially on used drives that are technically beyond their lives, +7 years etc, guess it depends on manufacturer and classification since you haven’t personally experienced it. When I say slow down I’m referring to the read and write speed not the platter rpm even though that could happen such as with motor bearing wear. There’s really multiple potential hard wear issue that could cause read and write speeds to slow down: head wear, platter degradation, etc. Although i do want to clarify that I’m not necessarily saying its dying or even if its 100% a hardware issue since fragmentation could be the cause. Not even sure if it’ll be throwing out errors yet so I can’t wait to see what OP updates us with.

        • @[email protected]English
          5•7 months ago

          Those are signs that the drive is failing - not a “normal wear and tear”.

          The spindle must spin at a constant angular velocity for the drive to operate. It can’t slow down and work since the heads expect the bits to be on the platters in certain locations and to come at a fixed rate. It doesn’t slow down over time. HDD motors are extremely precise with feedback to ensure the rate is correct. It’s not a simple DC motor.

          Same with the heads - they don’t touch the platters so I’m not sure why they would be “wearing down.” But if they are that’s a sign of failing not just “normal wear and tear”. In fact if it does touch a platter that’s catastrophic…

          HDDs are made with excellent precision. I have a drive with a powered-on time of over 8 years and it performs as it did when I bought it. Just because there are moving parts doesn’t mean they’re bad. We’ve been making them for many years and have gotten very good at it.

          And fragmentation is almost certainly not an issue with ext4.

          • TimeSquirrel
            2•7 months ago

            We’ve been making them for many years and have gotten very good at it.

            This can’t be overstated enough. Modern mechanical hard drives are a hundred times more impressive than Swiss watches.