WD Elements 1042 - Slow Transfer Speed

WD External and Portable SSD Portable SSD
1

I purchased a 1042 last year, and whilst it certainly hasn’t failed, the transfer speeds are down to 1.1Mb/s on USB2.

I’m running on Ubuntu so I’m not expecting any driver help or support, but I’ve noticed very similar problems for Win and Mac users who have posted on here. I’ve tested other drives from different manufacturers, including sticks and my smartphone on the same USB setup, and they all transfer as expected. My other external (from a different manufacturer) is also formatted to NTFS and works as expected, so I don’t believe it to be a driver issue from my Ubuntu rig.

The only thing I’ve noticed that will help is to wipe the 1042, format, and transfer back. Speeds go back up to 25-30Mb/s, which is fine, but after a few reconnects for other files, the speeds come back down to 1.1Mb/s.

This is extremely disappointing. For now, I have no other option but to abandon any future use of the 1042 and to rely on othe drives for my storage needs.

Edited for typos

2

Hello,

If possible try connecting the drive to a Windows computer and run a diagnostic using WD DLG.

3

Hi there, thanks for replying. I’m afraid it’s not possible to hook up to a Win machine for the software you suggested, but I can provide the SMART data from the drive if that’s of any help to you. Any attempt to self-test fails immediately. I purchased this drive in April 2013 and I’ve managed to make a full backup, so any further testing won’t result in data loss.

smartctl 6.2 2013-07-26 r3841 [i686-linux-3.13.0-43-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-13, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Western Digital My Passport (USB, AF)
Device Model:     WDC WD10JMVW-11S5XS0
Serial Number:    [[Deleted - Trancer]]
LU WWN Device Id: 5 0014ee 603274205
Firmware Version: 01.01A01
User Capacity:    1,000,204,886,016 bytes [1.00 TB]
Sector Sizes:     512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate:    5400 rpm
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   ATA8-ACS (minor revision not indicated)
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.0, 3.0 Gb/s (current: 3.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Mon Dec 22 21:40:58 2014 GMT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART STATUS RETURN: incomplete response, ATA output registers missing
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
Warning: This result is based on an Attribute check.

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x00)    Offline data collection activity
                    was never started.
                    Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0)    The previous self-test routine completed
                    without error or no self-test has ever
                    been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection:         (17700) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:              (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
                    Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
                    Suspend Offline collection upon new
                    command.
                    Offline surface scan supported.
                    Self-test supported.
                    Conveyance Self-test supported.
                    Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003)    Saves SMART data before entering
                    power-saving mode.
                    Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01)    Error logging supported.
                    General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time:      (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:      ( 192) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time:      (   5) minutes.
SCT capabilities:            (0x70b5)    SCT Status supported.
                    SCT Feature Control supported.
                    SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x002f   177   164   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       16881
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0027   174   169   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       2258
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   098   098   000    Old_age   Always       -       2604
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x002e   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   094   094   000    Old_age   Always       -       4486
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   098   098   000    Old_age   Always       -       2146
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   199   199   000    Old_age   Always       -       1365
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   199   199   000    Old_age   Always       -       5916
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   120   101   000    Old_age   Always       -       27
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   199   199   000    Old_age   Always       -       200
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0008   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged.  [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.