Older hard drives slow down in rotational speed?

TimTim Southwest PA Icrontian
edited October 2009 in Hardware
I was out driving the other day, and came across a computer repair shop I'd never seen before. I went in and was talking to their computer repair person for a while. During the conversation, this genius said that one of the big reasons why older computers run slowly is that their hard drives slowly wear out over time and turn slower and slower. For example, a 7200 rpm drive may only be turning 5000, 4000, or 3000 rpms when it gets old enough.

It made sense to me, but I don't remember ever hearing this theory before so I thought I'd post it here and see what people think of this older slower hard drive thing.

I've used HD tach to test hard drives that came out of slow running computers, and they were still showing data transfer rates similar to what reviews of them said they had when new.:confused2

Comments

  • RyderRyder Kalamazoo, Mi Icrontian
    edited October 2009
    coughbullshitcough!

    My 2 cents.
  • RichDRichD Essex, UK
    edited October 2009
    I would say this is crap. an electrical motor is basically an electromagnet and a couple of normal magnets. The power of the motor is defined by the current applied to the electro magnet and the number of coils in the electro magnet. Seeing as neither of those change the power/speed of the motor wont change. I suppose you could argue that the friction will increase around the pivot and maybe the normal magnets might loose some of their polarisation.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2009
    It's BS.
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited October 2009
    I have nothing to add except to agree with Thrax, Rich and Ryder and to say that I would never refer anyone to the repair shop that guy works in as he is clearly either A) ignorant or B) scamming people.
  • Cliff_ForsterCliff_Forster Icrontian
    edited October 2009
    Tim wrote:
    I was out driving the other day, and came across a computer repair shop I'd never seen before. I went in and was talking to their computer repair person for a while. During the conversation, this genius said that one of the big reasons why older computers run slowly is that their hard drives slowly wear out over time and turn slower and slower. For example, a 7200 rpm drive may only be turning 5000, 4000, or 3000 rpms when it gets old enough.

    It made sense to me, but I don't remember ever hearing this theory before so I thought I'd post it here and see what people think of this older slower hard drive thing.

    I've used HD tach to test hard drives that came out of slow running computers, and they were still showing data transfer rates similar to what reviews of them said they had when new.:confused2

    Often the best fix for a slow hard drive is a good ole reformat and fresh install of windows.

    I don't think that the mechanical components in the drive are physically slower, its just windows rot setting in, a jumbled registry, files being out of place, heads have to track and search more as the disk fills up. Most of the time you reformat, reinstall then the disk purrs like new.
  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited October 2009
    My SSD must be spinning slower then.
  • waxwax the neroberg Icrontian
    edited October 2009
    the problem is with the flux capacitor guys.. c'mon!
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited October 2009
    Cliff_Forster wrote:
    Often the best fix for a slow hard drive is a good ole reformat and fresh install of windows.

    You better be doing a defrag in there or you are only fixing part of the problem with an older drive.
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited October 2009
    kryyst wrote:
    You better be doing a defrag in there or you are only fixing part of the problem with an older drive.
    /me facepalms
    please tell me you're trolling.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2009
    This just in: Nuking the file system doesn't eliminate the file system's fragmentation. NEWS AT 11.
  • ardichokeardichoke Icrontian
    edited October 2009
    ... YES IT DOES. Fragmentation occurs when files get written to multiple different blocks of the hard drive instead of contiguous blocks on the hard drive due to the files changing size and requiring more space than they originally needed or writing new files to gaps on the drive from files that were smaller than the new file. Formatting a hard drive wipes out the file information thus new files being written to the drive are allocated in contiguous blocks over the old data or at least as close to it as the filesystem will ever allow it to be.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2009
    11/10. Would troll again.
  • ardichokeardichoke
    sighs.

    I'm so goddamn easy to troll. I hate you.
     Icrontian
    edited October 2009
    sighs.

    I'm so goddamn easy to troll. I hate you.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2009
    <3
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited October 2009
    Now what's interesting, is that I had file reads and writes slow down significantly on a hard drive. This was a problem over a couple weeks, not just an isolated incident. I moved the SATA cable to another SATA port on the motherboard and the problem was instantly solved. strange but true

    But yeah, I really don't think a hard drive's platter(s) will slow down over time. I think if that were to occur, the hard drive would fail. I'm sure there's a governor that maintains constant RPM, regulating the current to maintain the default speed.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2009
    If a drive's RPM/performance changes (and it's not an SSD), one of four things is happening:

    1) Windows rot.
    2) Dying spindle motor.
    3) Failing IDE controller.
    4) Inadequate power from the PSU.
  • kryystkryyst Ontario, Canada
    edited October 2009
    You didn't even let me get to the point where I try and prove you should defrag in between :(
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