Windows 10: Slow performance on large capacity WD drives in Windows 10

So I bought a 10TB WD drive last year and it went well until I noticed the write speeds became really slow when my drive started filling up, maxing out at 20MBps. I chalked it up to my old system and just lived with it until I built a new computer last month and still same poor write performance. I've done everything I could find on the internet but nothing has helped (disable write cache, defragment, chkdsk, update bios, update drivers, replace sata cable, try different sata port, etc.) The weird thing is that if I do a benchmark, the results say like 80MBps write which is still low but higher than I get in real world large single file transfers.

Now the really weird thing is that if I boot into Ubuntu, I get 170MBps real world write speeds so it's clearly not a hardware issue and a Windows 10 issue.

I just bought a 14TB WD Easystore and was hoping for better results but while transferring files, it's capping at 20MBps again and I don't know why. So I get the same issue whether it's USB3 or SATA. My other smaller hard drives have zero speeds issues. Has anyone else encountered artificial slow speeds on large capacity drives like this in Windows 10?

:)

 

Western Digital Increases WD Gold Hard Drives Capacity by 25 Percent

Western Digital Corporation, a world leader in storage solutions, today announced a new, high-capacity configuration of up to 10TB for its award-winning WD Gold datacenter hard drives. Designed for modern enterprise storage systems, WD Gold 10 TB datacenter hard drives feature HelioSeal helium-technology for high capacity, power efficient storage for datacenter environments.

WD Gold datacenter hard drives are designed for a broad range of applications - including small- to medium-scale enterprise servers and storage, and rack-mount datacenter servers and storage enclosures. WD Gold 10 TB datacenter hard drives feature an optimized design over the existing WD Gold 8 TB drives that helps reduce TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) of servers and storage systems through an 8 percent operating power reduction while delivering 25 percent more capacity. This benefits IT administrators challenged with keeping up with growing storage demands on limited budgets.





"It is Western Digital's ongoing goal to provide superior reliability and compelling value to our enterprise customers," said Brendan Collins, vice president of product marketing, Western Digital. "WD Gold drives are a key component of the overall WD portfolio, providing power efficient, capacity-optimized storage for a wide range of high workload applications. The new 10 TB capacity enables customers to efficiently deploy higher density storage solutions."

WD Gold 10 TB datacenter hard drives provide:

• Improved power efficiency - HelioSeal Technology delivers lower power with an increase in capacity. Power efficiency (watts/TB) during operation is improved up to 26 percent over the WD Gold 8 TB drive.
• Better performance - Up to 21 percent sequential performance improvement over WD Gold 8 TB datacenter drives
• High reliability - WD Gold drives incorporate best-of-breed design, manufacturing and test processes to achieve one of the highest reliability ratings in the industry - 2.5 million hours MTBF (8 TB and 10 TB offerings)
• Dedicated Premium Support Line - Western Digital offers a 24/7 premium support line for WD Gold drive customers and can be reached at U.S.: (855) 559-3733; International: +80055593733.

WD Gold 10 TB hard drives (model number WD101KRYZ) are currently available at select U.S. distributors, resellers and through the WD Store.

 

WD Launches Newest VelociRaptor, The Fastest SATA Hard Drive With Twice the Capacity

WD announced today that it is now shipping WD VelociRaptor 450 GB and 600 GB hard drives, the next generation of its 10,000 RPM SATA family of hard drives. The new WD VelociRaptor hard drive is designed for blade servers, high-performance PCs, Mac computers, professional workstations, as well as 1U and 2U rack servers that require a balance of high performance and capacity. As the only 10,000 RPM SATA hard drive on the market today, and a favorite amongst enthusiast and enterprise groups, the WD VelociRaptor hard drive now comes packed with twice the capacity and up to 15% performance increase over the previous generation.

The most popular hard drive for high-performance enthusiasts who demand the ultimate SATA drive, the WD VelociRaptor hard drive is built with enterprise-class mechanics that provide 24x7 durability under high-performance demands and packs up to 600 GB of capacity into a 2.5-inch enterprise form factor. The WD VelociRaptor drive is also available in the IcePack enclosure, a 3.5-inch mounting frame with a built-in heat sink - a factory customization that fits the drive into a standard 3.5-inch system bay and keeps this powerful drive extra cool when installed in a high-performance desktop chassis and 3.5-inch HDD form factor enterprise chassis.





"WD is a leader in the performance and reliability of enterprise SATA hard drives," said Tom McDorman, vice president and general manager of WD's enterprise business unit. "Demand for performance combined with an increase in capacity continues to rise and WD is the leader in this category. WD customers can rely on the new WD VelociRaptor to deliver high performance under the harshest conditions, while continuing to keep user data safe."
Features of the new WD VelociRaptor hard drives include:

• Killer speed- SATA 6 Gb/s interface and 32 MB cache enhance the next generation 10,000 RPM WD VelociRaptor making it up to 15% faster than the award-winning previous generation.
• Monstrous capacity - WD VelociRaptor SATA drives are available in capacities up to 600 GB, double the capacity of the previous generation.
• Rock-solid reliability - Designed and manufactured to mission-critical enterprise-class standards to provide enterprise reliability in high duty cycle environments. With 1.4 million hours MTBF, these drives have the highest available reliability rating on a high capacity SATA drive.
• Ultra-cool operation - Consumes no more power than the previous generation WD VelociRaptor while offering double the capacity and higher performance.
• IcePack mounting frame - The 2.5-inch WD VelociRaptor is enclosed in a backplane-ready 3.5-inch enterprise-class mounting frame with a built-in heat sink that keeps this powerful little drive extra cool when installed in high-performance desktop chassis.
• Rotary Acceleration Feed Forward (RAFF) - Optimizes operation and performance when the drives are used in vibration-prone, multi-drive chassis.
• NoTouch ramp load technology - The recording head never touches the disk media ensuring significantly less wear to the recording head and media as well as better drive protection in transit.
• Environmentally conscious - In addition to being ROHS compliant, this generation of WD VelociRaptor is also a halogen-free design.

Price and Availability
WD VelociRaptor (model WD4500HLHX and WD6000HLHX - 3.5-inch version with IcePack) hard drives are available now at select distributors and resellers. WD VelociRaptor 2.5-inch hard drives (model WD4500BLHX and WD6000BLHX) are under evaluation with OEM customers and will be available through select commercial distributors within this quarter. Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) for the WD VelociRaptor 450 GB (model WD4500HLHX) is $299 USD and the 600 GB (model WD6000HLHX) is $329 USD.

For more information, visit the product page.

 

WD drive C5 yellow - Problem ?

I would back up that drive, asap. Sometimes if you move your programs off the disk, then reformat the disk problems go away. That WD...AAKS is 10-15 years old? Relocated sector count is growing and sometimes there is a cascading effect that grows rapidly. So move your files and try a long format. The extra stress of a long full format may show further weaknesses.
In any event it will always show yellow, at best, going forward.

You can use this WD tool to test the drive: Software and Firmware Downloads | WD Support

Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows
File Size: 975 KB
Version: v1.29
Release Date: 10/2015 | Release Notes

Download

Description
This is a Windows version of the Data LifeGuard Diagnostics. It will test WD internal and external drives. In additional, it can provide you with the model and serial of WD drives attached to the system.
Supported Operating Systems

• Windows 10
• Windows 8 32/64-bit versions
• Windows 7 32/64-bit versions
• Windows Vista 32/64 bit versions
• Windows XP 32/64-bit versions

Instructions

• Download the Windows Data Lifeguard Diagnostics, .zip
• Extract and run the program, WinDlg.exe. If running Windows Vista (or later), you will need to Right-Click on the WinDlg.exe file and choose to Run As Administrator.
• Read and accept the license agreement to continue.
• On the main program screen, there are two windows. In the top window, you will see the drives in your system that are available for testing. The model number, serial number, capacity, and SMART status of each drive will be displayed. In the bottom window, the partition information for the selected drive will be displayed.
• Highlight the drive and select the icon on the top row to test or run SMART status.
• When you select the run tests icon, the "DLGDIAG - Select an Option" window appears.
• You will see the following options:
  • QUICK TEST - performs SMART drive quick self-test to gather and verify the Data Lifeguard information contained on the drive.
  • EXTENDED TEST - performs a Full Media Scan to detect bad sectors. Test may take several hours to complete depending on the size of the drive.
  • WRITE ZEROS - writes zeros to the drive with options of Full Erase and Quick Erase. File system and data will be lost.
  • VIEW TEST RESULT - displays the latest test results.
• Select the test you wish to perform and click the Start button.
• When the test completes, you will be notified with a pass/fail message. Click the Close button.

Applicable Products
My Passport AV-TV, WD Elements Desktop, WD Caviar RAID Edition, WD Caviar Blue, WD Blue SSHD, WD Blue / SE / SE16 (SATA II / III), WD Blue, WD Green, WD Green / GP, WD Black SSHD, WD Black, WD Black2 Dual Drive, WD Red (Mobile), WD Red, WD Red Pro, WD Re+, WD RE / WD RE4, WD Se, WD Ae, WD Purple, WD AV-GP, WD VelociRaptor, WD AV, WD Protégé, WD Laptop Mainstream , WD Xe, WD Desktop Mainstream , WD Desktop Performance, WD S25