Poor RAID1 array performance

[DXBLouie]

I've been noticing lately that my newly setup system is EXTREMELY slow to respond at times!
for instance if i create a new document or photoshop file.. the moment i click anywhere on the screen the software wont respond.. and the windows performance monitor actually shows the process is waiting on disk operation (writing the temp file)

My system is based on the following:
MB: Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6(rev. 1.0) with Intel ICH8 RAID Controller, and Gigabyte SATA2 RAID controller
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 2.4GHz
RAM: 6GB DDR2 800
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit

Storage Setup:
Drive C: RAID 1 (Mirroring)
2x Western Digital 250GB SATA HDD (WD2500JS-00NCB1)
(The drives are physically connected to port 1 and 2 of the INTEL ICH8 chipset)

Drive D: Standalone SATA
1x Samsung 500GB SATA (HD502IJ 1AA01110), connected to port 1 of the Gigabyte storage controller

Drive E: RAID 1 (Mirroring)
2x Western Digital 1TB SATA HDD (WD10EADS-00P8B0)
(The drives are physically connected to port 3 and 4 of the INTEL ICH8 chipset)

i thought the additional array is adding an overhead, so i booted up with it disconnected (i physically unplugged both 1TB drives, and the volume E disappeared), i also unplugged the standalone drive D from the other controller, bascially leaving the main volume alone.
No change.. performance was still misrable.

i have enabled read/write cache enabled on all volumes, same result.

i ran a benchmark on the arrays (HD Tach) and the results seem pretty okay somehow:

C:, 250GB RAID1 Array:
Random Access: 13.6ms
CPU utilization: 4%
Average Read: 55.6MB/s
Burst Speed: 1908.1 MB/s

D: 512GB Standalone SATA Drive:
Random Access: 14.7ms
CPU utilization: 4%
Average Read: 77.3MB/s
Burst Speed: 166.4 MB/s

E:, 1TB RAID1 Array:
Random Access: 13.7ms
CPU utilization: 3%
Average Read: 83.8MB/s
Burst Speed: 2089.8 MB/s

Actually the reason i decided to post this, is today i had to copy a few files around 4GB in size to another machine
i plugged a memory stick, and the process took over 55 minute to complete!!!
i had the same misrable performance trying to copy the files over the network or even burn them on a DVD.
basically all read and write operations are extremely slow

(once done, the files took 4-5 minutes to be copied from the stick to the other machine running linux and a similar RAID1 setup)

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

Louie

 

[DXBLouie]

i'm about to set this damn thing on fire!

i got and installed my Adaptec 4805SAS RAID controller.. recreated my arrays from scratch and installed windows 7 64bit over again.

everything seemed perfect.. in fact when moving my data back from the backup to the array i was seeing ~85MB/s (quite an improvement over the 5MB/s i was getting before)
even Windows experience rating gave the storage system a score of 7.9, which is the highest possible!

however for absolutely no apparent reason, i noticed the file copy process slowed down, in fact my entire system got quite slower that i had to wait for just about anything, including clicking a link in the web browser seemed to hang for a second or two.

system monitor showed 50%+ CPU usage by explorer.exe, which is quite busy with the file copy process.. and as the CPU usage by explorer.exe got higher, the overall transfer speed went lower.. eventually i stopped everything and copied over a 1.5GB file.. and that went through at ~7MB/s

what the heck is going on? i'm seriously about to lose it here!

i mean what else is there? i have 6GB RAM that i've tested with memtest86+, and the powersupply has 100s of watts to spare :\

 

[DXBLouie]

and to drive me even more nuts, after typing up my rant.. i tried moving a few more 1+GB files... 4-5 seconds later, all done.. at 140MB/s :|

 

[kjv1611]

Well, some hard drives aren't as consistent with their read/write speeds, greatly fluctuating, while others are pretty consistent.

Another thing that COULD weigh in is how full are the drives you are writing to/from - if we didn't already cover that. If any is fairly full, then you'll have a greater chance for slowdowns.

However, given you're now using a hardware RAID, I'm shocked you're having any such issues.

I don't remember from before, but if you haven't scanned thoroughly for malware, I'd suggest doing so:

1. download, install, and quick scan, with malwarebytes from download.com

2. download, install, and quick scan, with superantispyware, also from download.com

3. What antivirus are you running. I personally suggest Avira Antivir or Microsoft Security Essentials.

 

[kjv1611]

One other thing - if you're not running your PC behind a router, then you need to go out and buy one. If you don't need wireless, then just find whatever you prefer that fits your budget best. Gigabit is good, but not necessary if you're not using more than one PC at your location... and if you are using more than one PC, you probably already have a router.

 

[DXBLouie]

You seem almost convinced the issue is caused by malware/virus, but it's highly unlikely
all my emails and browsing is done on my linux box..
my windows machine is merely there for entertainment (it's basically a media center.. has all my videos, music and photos)

in any case, i did run a full scan with the AV you recommended earlier, and it found nothing.
same thing with the malware scan, both with Spybot S&D and the software you recommended.. absolutely nothing.
also worth menotioning that this is a fresh install.. the PC had two empty storage arrays in the morning.. and i was merely copying AVI video files over when i started noticing the intermittent performance issue

i googled around with the keywords "windows file copy performance" and found SO many threads explaining almost the same issues (file copy starts at 50+MB/s, and slows down to ~5MB/s when copying a high quantity of large files, etc)

 

[kjv1611]

Well, as another alternative to see if you're having an Explorer issue, maybe related to drivers or something, you could use a 3rd party file transfer program (not FTP)..

For instance, TeraCopy works well, and I've used it on Windows XP, Vista, and 7.