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(This is along the same lines as an earlier posting about Size on Disk being different, although ironically that was on a drive with proper speed.)
So I have this WD drive that of course is only a few months out of warranty  , and running super slow, as in I'm used to getting about 30 MB/s transfer, but now only getting 30 KB/s.
Should I presume that this is ready to go? I would do a CHKDSK, but at this speed, the Sun will have become a white dwarf before finishing.
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maybe the USB bus is busted ? have you tried on a different USB plug or another compyter?
you could try disassemble the drive itself and use another usb adaptor.
I'd rather be phishing!
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Other hard drives seem to work in the same USB ports. But this whole rig is on its last legs, so who knows. Once I get over my problem of HP selling me *my recently purchased) system without a valid Windows activation key , I can check it there, along with some dongles that have mysteriously stopped working.
I double storage for everything, and I have a just a few hundred gigs over 2 TB of stuff, but 900 gigs of it is torrent music that I haven't gotten around to trimming, so I will split that into 2 (making a spreadsheet for the torrents in there), and thus will be able to fit everything on the 2 remaining 2TB hard drives. 
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Maximilien wrote: maybe the USB bus is busted ? have you tried on a different USB plug or another compyter?
Other drives using the same port work perfectly.
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I had EXACTLY the same problem, about 6 months ago.
I took all of my PC apart to clean it, get the dust out etc, and when I put it back together, guess what?
The 2 WD External USB Hard drives I have plugged in, dropped thier speeds to stupidly slow, just as you described.
The solution?
First off, I took them out of the cheap little USB hub I had them plugged into.
Then I plugged them into another USB socket, and hey presto the speed shot back up.
So I started experimenting, swapping them around different combinations, on different ports, with different hubs and cables and such like.
What I found was that WD External hard drives are damn fussy about the sockets you plug them into.
On the PC I'm currently using I Have 16 USB Sockets.
5 of them are only USB 1, the rest are all USB 2 except for one which is a USB 3 mounted on a PCIe card.
The v1 sockets where a complete no-go, and the v3 socket just refused to even acknowledge there was a device there.
of the remaining sockets, 4 are sockets soldered directly to the mother board, 2 are mounted in the cases plastic front and are connected to the mother board with a custom ribbon cable that also carries the LED's power switch etc
The final 4 are those 10 pin double row industry standard things with 2 sockets on an expansion slot that plug onto a set of pins on the mother board.
Out of all the remaining v2 sockets, the only ones the WD drives would operate at full speed on where 1 of the 4 sockets soldered on, and one set of two connected by the pin header.
Also one of the USB cable, need to have one of those ferrite chokes on (The big round chunky things about and inch away from the plug), without the choke the 2Tb drive wouldn't get up any faster than about 700k
All the time I was going through different combinations, other devices I was testing with all had no issues what so ever on sockets and cable combinations that the WD drives where basically having a cow over.
Among some of the other devices I was testing with, where a seagate 3.5in desktop drive, a sandisc 2.5 in portable USB drive, various SD cards and card reader's and mobile phones and tablets connected by USB.
It took a LOT OF EFFORT and time to find the correct combination for each drive, but now I have them plugged in, I have stickers on them so if i do have to unplug stuff, I know exactly which USB ports are for which device.
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I would lean more towards it being near full.
"One man's wage rise is another man's price increase." - Harold Wilson
"Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." - Michael Simmons
"You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him." - James D. Miles
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I have noticed that drives do strange and unpredictable things when they are starting to go. If your backups are good then at least you are safe in that regard. Did you try scanning it with antivirus?
<sig notetoself="think of a better signature">
<first>Jim</first> <last>Meadors</last>
</sig>
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In my experience there are two major reasons for drives to slow down considerably.
Being full, and growing bad sectors.
Make sure you have a backup.
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Get a utility like CrystalDiskInfo to check the drive health stats.
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Try to read the SMART status (not all USB drives - resp. the internally used bridge - pass through SMART commands). You can use the smartmontools[^] to do that. See also USB – smartmontools[^].
If that does not work you can remove the HDD from the USB case and connect it to a SATA port of a any system to read the SMART status.
How to interpret the data depends on the HDD manufacturer. A general starting point might be S.M.A.R.T. - Wikipedia[^].
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With USB 3 drives I've noticed that the drive cables can be super-dicey, and will 100% impact the speed delivered by the drive. The easiest check is to swap out the cable and see what you get.
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
- Benjamin Disraeli
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My youngest, Hannah, is a sea cadet. On Sunday, she took part in the divisional kayaking competition (one division covers three counties). She was only supposed to do two races but ended up doing three instead (stepping in to do a doubles 2K time trial at the last minute). Three races, three gold medals for her. She has done so well that she is now going to represent the division in the area event. That covers what they class as the north; basically every unit from Leeds up to Aberdeen. If she does well there, she's off to represent the area in the national events. I couldn't be prouder of her if I tried - not because she won, but because she took part. I'm proud of all the cadets who took part, they gave up their Sunday to do the competition. They really do show that there is so much potential in the youth of today.
This space for rent
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Pete O'Hanlon wrote: they gave up their Sunday to do the competition
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Awesome. Hope she wins it all.
Sometimes the true reward for completing a task is not the money, but instead the satisfaction of a job well done. But it's usually the money.
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Amazing, well done Hannah.
Everyone has a photographic memory; some just don't have film. Steven Wright
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Pete O'Hanlon wrote: That covers what they class as the north...
Is that close to Oop Norf?
Pete O'Hanlon wrote: Three races, three gold medals
Athletically she takes after her mother? Well done to Hanna.
Michael Martin
Australia
"I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible."
- Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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Has Anyone Seen Mike Hunt wrote: Athletically she takes after her mother?
Obviously. If it were the national Couch potato competition, I'd be in with a serious shout.
This space for rent
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Is the competition at the kayak park used for the London Olympics?
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Pete O'Hanlon wrote: not because she won
Oh yeah, pull the other one!
(my daughter is off the world cup ballet competition in Sitges in June, even to get in is a big deal, the standard is very high, also proud )
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Munchies_Matt wrote: my daughter is off the world cup ballet competition in Sitges in June, even to get in is a big deal, the standard is very high, also proud
Good luck to your daughter. That's an amazing achievement.
This space for rent
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Well done Hannah! Kayak was destiny for you (both palindromic).
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Congratulations, Papa !
«... thank the gods that they have made you superior to those events which they have not placed within your own control, rendered you accountable for that only which is within you own control For what, then, have they made you responsible? For that which is alone in your own power—a right use of things as they appear.» Discourses of Epictetus Book I:12
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