can hdd be a bottleneck?

[mouser]

i have a 1tb WD caviar black edition (7200rpm) with single partition and no raid. the drive is connected internally (sata2) and is about 80% full and i defrag it regularly

i've noticed it's really hard to seed the files on that drive. in fact, the same file seeds better (faster) on another drive WD 500gb caviar i have connected to the same machine.

is it common for these larger drives to become a bottleneck in utorrent?

[GTHK]

Have you checked the specs out on WD's website? Somewhat smaller drives are usually faster. My old 80GB for example is rated to perform better then my 750GB WD (haven't actually tested though). Other factors exist too, like the cabling used, drivers installed, and the current transfer mode.

[mouser]

Data Transfer Rate (maximum)

- Buffer to Host

- Buffer to Disk 3 Gb/s max2

145 Mbytes/s max

LBA support Yes

Average Latency 4.2 ms

Rotational Speed 7200 RPM

Read Cache Adaptive

Write Cache Yes

Buffer 32 MB

Load/Unload Cycles 50,000 min

Error Rate

(non-recoverable) <1 in 1015 bits read

there are no driver or firmware updates but my chipset controller (intel ich9) is current and the cabling is all standard/supplied. the only inconsistency was that i was using a sata--->molex power converter because i was too lazy to add another sata power cable to my psu but i addressed that issue a few weeks ago and nothing has changed. the current transfer mode is set to standard 3gb/s sata2 based on jumper map.

my issue is that i can have a torrent on one of my smaller drives and it will seed without a problem at 100kB/s+ but if i stop the torrent and point the path to the same folder on the 1tb drive and restart it.....i get about 20kB/s upload rate while the peerlist remains unchanged. i haven't had the chance to do a more comprehensive data integrity scan but the few (quick) ones i've done say everything is working as it should.

EDIT: does utorrent have a read/write logging or debugging function?

[GTHK]

Is the 1TB also a Windows drive? Is the paging file on it? Is it being used for anything else? This and many other factors can have an effect. Try comparing the specs of one to the specs of the other. Also, jumper map? Try checking the controller from inside Windows using the device manager, both the current transfer mode and if Native Command Queuing is enabled. Sometimes a speed test option will be available too.

I guess read/write info would be to go to the speed tab and from the drop down list pick Disk Statistics, instead of upload/download.

[mouser]

there is no o/s installed on the 1TB. it's just an extra (logical) storage drive.

jumper map=the thing that shows different transfer/power modes on the actual drive. i dont know what else to call it...doesn't really matter though because they are both set to "no jumper" which is the standard operation mode

i took a damn good look through device manager and was not able to find what you are talking about. i know that under atapi-controller-something there are options to change transfer modes for ide drives but that's it. where exactly should i be looking in device manager? from what i can see they everything is set to DMA mode if applicable