WD HDD spin down or stop working while transferring data

[Dr. Dro]

So this kind of speed is okay? i shouldn't be worried?

Yeah, no need to worry. That drive is very slow, and you're chucking large video files on it. SMR drives have serious tendency to slow down when there's any fragmentation at all, and will get below even 1 MB/s in some situations, They're horrible for anything other than just cold storage, which is what your drive is intended for. Not really something you'll want to stream video from.

 

[Shalvation]

Try with just the WD and see if the problem persists.

I hated that connector so much, I made sure to get a case with a C connector

View attachment 403955

problem still presists unfortunately
I will try powered hub, and if that didn't work then i will live with it

 

[nageme]

turns off or spins down while transferring data and then turn on again after it although it's stays connected to windows and shows the drive in windows, it's only happen while transferring data

What do you means spins down WHILE transferring? Does the transfer stop in the middle?

while watching videos that issue doesn't occur

So it sounds like it doesn't spin down while doing continuous I/O.

SMR drives have serious tendency to slow down when there's any fragmentation at all

The writing looks pretty consistent, so not fragmented:

@Shalvation
Is the drive near-full? 50MB/s fits an end-of-drive speed, not beginning-of-drive.

A 2020 review of My Passport 5TB, which might be similar to your drive (but I'm not sure), shows the following, I'm guessing for beginning-of-drive:

And 29MB/s is definitely too slow. But it's consistent. Maybe the port switches to a USB 2 mode?

 

[Shalvation]

What do you means spins down WHILE transferring? Does the transfer stop in the middle?


So it sounds like it doesn't spin down while doing continuous I/O.


The writing looks pretty consistent, so not fragmented:

@Shalvation
Is the drive near-full? 50MB/s fits an end-of-drive speed, not beginning-of-drive.

A 2020 review of My Passport 5TB, which might be similar to your drive (but I'm not sure), shows the following, I'm guessing for beginning-of-drive:

And 29MB/s is definitely too slow. But it's consistent. Maybe the port switches to a USB 2 mode?

Yes it does stop in middle of transferring files then come back, 200 gb is of free space left

What do you means spins down WHILE transferring? Does the transfer stop in the middle?


So it sounds like it doesn't spin down while doing continuous I/O.


The writing looks pretty consistent, so not fragmented:

@Shalvation
Is the drive near-full? 50MB/s fits an end-of-drive speed, not beginning-of-drive.

A 2020 review of My Passport 5TB, which might be similar to your drive (but I'm not sure), shows the following, I'm guessing for beginning-of-drive:

And 29MB/s is definitely too slow. But it's consistent. Maybe the port switches to a USB 2 mode?

I believe the problem from motherboard it doesn't consume much power because of how low my U chipset intel cpu, because sometimes even my keyboard stops working till i reboot, also even my other hdd seagate is having same problem while transferring files so yeah

 

[Shrek]

Tried a powered hub?

 

[Harlow]

This gives an idea why some people don't like SMR disks:
https://community.wd.com/t/4tb-wd-elements-with-wd40edaz-inside-smr-avoid/259281

I avoid SMR like the plague, especially in TrueNAS Core servers, but that's a niche use case.

In most situations SMR run very slowly, especially when they get heavily fragmented. SMR is OK for occasional archives, provided you're really patient and don't mind long waits.

I bought a Samsung X6 4TB in the 2024 Black Friday sales. Sequential transfer rates over 700MB/s for large files. It still takes a couple of minutes to transfer 100GB.
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/crucial-x6-4tb-portable-ssd-review/2

 

[Shalvation]

Tried a powered hub?

Alright so i tried powered hub called ugreen, i don't if it good or not it's 5v in, the transfer speed is much better, the only downside is that i can't connect both seagate 2tb and WD 4tb HDD at same time, when i transfer files between them i hear clicking noise on one them, so i decided to run one at time

 

[micropage7]

Alright so i tried powered hub called ugreen, i don't if it good or not it's 5v in, the transfer speed is much better, the only downside is that i can't connect both seagate 2tb and WD 4tb HDD at same time, when i transfer files between them i hear clicking noise on one them, so i decided to run one at time

clicking noise and heavy sound from the hdd? looks like the drive gonna out soon, better backup the data then

 

[Shalvation]

clicking noise and heavy sound from the hdd? looks like the drive gonna out soon, better backup the data then

it's just happened just now when i plugged both of them into powered usb port hub after unplugging both of them and keeping just one hdd plugged the noise went away

 

[nageme]

What's the hub model? How much power output?