System slowing down when downloading Steam/GOG games on HDD

[Mankybus]

Hi there, lately I’ve been running into a problem where downloading games from Steam and GOG.

Basically the way I consistently keep running into this problem the last few days is I download a game with a large file size to any of my HDDs, something like The Evil Within or Dishonored 2, starting out the game downloads perfectly fine but after a while I notice a pattern where the download would slow to an absolute crawl, with the HDD said game is downloading to also slowing to a crawl. It makes navigating through my HDD in dolphin an incredibly slow and tedious affair even several minutes after I stop the download.

My system largely runs okay, my SSDs are seemingly unaffected from what I can tell, but any program that looks into my slowed down HDD is made pretty much unusable as it takes forever to load anything. Sometimes whenever I try to reset my PC, it gets stuck in a loop of trying to unmount all of my drives with no success, forcing me to force reboot my machine. So it’s pretty clear my PC is freaking it out for one reason or another, because I’ve never experienced any of these issues until this all cropped up recently.

I’ve tried looking through several different forums but have never found anything that resembles my problem. My CPU and RAM usage look perfectly normal without any speaks or weird behaviour, I’ve ran smartctl tests (short and long) as well as fsck but there’s no reports of any hardware issues, I’ve changed kernels multiple times with no luck and tried just about everything I could think of to no avail. Needless to say, I’m stumped and I have no clue how to diagnose the problem or even where to start, so I was hoping if anyone here might have a clue what the issue could be. As long as I’m not downloading large files to my HDDs, my system is fine, so it’s still workable so long as I don’t download too much.

As for the drives themselves they are both Seagate Ironwolfs, with one being 2TB and the other 4TB, not sure of which model exactly since it’s been a while since I put this machine together. Here’s the inxi:

System:
Kernel: 6.17.9-zen1-1-zen arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 15.2.1
clocksource: tsc avail: hpet,acpi_pm
parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/@/boot/vmlinuz-linux-zen
root=UUID=c87e17cf-c2aa-4cb7-9b3f-535b1b50e245 rw rootflags=subvol=@
quiet quiet rd.udev.log_priority=3 vt.global_cursor_default=0 loglevel=3
Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.5.3 tk: Qt v: N/A info: frameworks v: 6.20.0
wm: kwin_wayland with: krunner vt: 1 dm: SDDM Distro: Garuda
base: Arch Linux
Machine:
Type: Desktop System: Tactus product: Custom v: N/A
serial: 
Mobo: ASUSTeK model: ROG STRIX X570-E GAMING WIFI II v: Rev X.0x
serial:  part-nu: SKU uuid: 
Firmware: UEFI vendor: American Megatrends v: 5003 date: 10/07/2023
Battery:
ID-1: hidpp_battery_0 charge: 99% condition: N/A volts: 4.17 min: N/A
model: Logitech G915 TKL LIGHTSPEED Wireless RGB Mechanical Gaming Keyboard
type: N/A serial:  charging: status: full cycles: N/A
CPU:
Info: model: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Zen 3+ gen: 3
level: v3 note: check built: 2022 process: TSMC n6 (7nm) family: 0x19 (25)
model-id: 0x21 (33) stepping: 2 microcode: 0xA201211
Topology: cpus: 1x dies: 1 clusters: 1 cores: 12 threads: 24 tpc: 2
smt: enabled cache: L1: 768 KiB desc: d-12x32 KiB; i-12x32 KiB L2: 6 MiB
desc: 12x512 KiB L3: 64 MiB desc: 2x32 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 1825 min/max: 598/5222 boost: disabled scaling:
driver: amd-pstate-epp governor: performance cores: 1: 1825 2: 1825 3: 1825
4: 1825 5: 1825 6: 1825 7: 1825 8: 1825 9: 1825 10: 1825 11: 1825 12: 1825
13: 1825 14: 1825 15: 1825 16: 1825 17: 1825 18: 1825 19: 1825 20: 1825
21: 1825 22: 1825 23: 1825 24: 1825 bogomips: 186841
Flags-basic: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a
ssse3 svm
Vulnerabilities: 
Graphics:
Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Navi 21 [Radeon RX 6800/6800 XT
/ 6900 XT] vendor: Gigabyte driver: amdgpu v: kernel arch: RDNA-2
code: Navi-2x process: TSMC n7 (7nm) built: 2020-22 pcie: gen: 4
speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: DP-2,HDMI-A-1
empty: DP-1,HDMI-A-2,Writeback-1 bus-ID: 0c:00.0 chip-ID: 1002:73bf
class-ID: 0300
Display: wayland server: ``X.org`` v: 1.21.1.21 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.9
compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: amdgpu dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu
d-rect: 4480x2520 display-ID: 0
Monitor-1: DP-2 pos: bottom-r model: Dell S3222DGM serial: 
built: 2023 res: mode: 2560x1440 hz: 165 scale: 100% (1) dpi: 93 gamma: 1.2
size: 697x392mm (27.44x15.43") diag: 806mm (31.7") ratio: 16:9 modes:
max: 2560x1440 min: 720x400
Monitor-2: HDMI-A-1 pos: primary,top-left model: MSI MP223 E2
serial:  built: 2025 res: mode: 1920x1080 hz: 100 scale: 178% (1.78)
to: 1080x1920 dpi: 102 gamma: 1.2 size: 476x268mm (18.74x10.55")
diag: 546mm (21.5") ratio: 16:9 modes: max: 1920x1080 min: 720x400
API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: amd radeonsi platforms: device: 0 drv: radeonsi
device: 1 drv: swrast gbm: drv: kms_swrast surfaceless: drv: radeonsi
wayland: drv: radeonsi x11: drv: radeonsi
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: amd mesa v: 25.2.7-arch1.1
glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT (radeonsi
navi21 LLVM 21.1.5 DRM 3.64 6.17.9-zen1-1-zen) device-ID: 1002:73bf
memory: 15.62 GiB unified: no display-ID: :1.0
API: Vulkan v: 1.4.328 layers: 13 device: 0 type: discrete-gpu name: AMD
Radeon RX 6800 XT (RADV NAVI21) driver: mesa radv v: 25.2.7-arch1.1
device-ID: 1002:73bf surfaces: N/A device: 1 type: cpu name: llvmpipe
(LLVM 21.1.5 256 bits) driver: mesa llvmpipe v: 25.2.7-arch1.1 (LLVM
21.1.5) device-ID: 10005:0000 surfaces: N/A
Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor gpu: amdgpu_top,corectrl wl: wayland-info
x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Navi 21/23 HDMI/DP Audio
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 16
bus-ID: 0c:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:ab28 class-ID: 0403
Device-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Starship/Matisse HD Audio
vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 4 speed: 16 GT/s
lanes: 16 bus-ID: 0e:00.4 chip-ID: 1022:1487 class-ID: 0403
Device-3: Creative Pebble V3 driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid
type: USB rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 1-2:3
chip-ID: 041e:3272 class-ID: 0300 serial: 
Device-4: RODE Microphones NT-USB driver: hid-generic,snd-usb-audio,usbhid
type: USB rev: 1.1 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 1-3:5
chip-ID: 19f7:0003 class-ID: 0300
API: ALSA v: k6.17.9-zen1-1-zen status: kernel-api with: aoss
type: oss-emulator tools: N/A
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.4.9 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
4: pw-jack type: plugin tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
Device-1: MEDIATEK MT7921K Wi-Fi 6E 80MHz driver: mt7921e v: kernel pcie:
gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 14c3:0608
class-ID: 0280
IF: wlp4s0 state: up mac: 
Device-2: Realtek RTL8125 2.5GbE vendor: ASUSTeK driver: r8169 v: kernel
pcie: gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: e000 bus-ID: 05:00.0
chip-ID: 10ec:8125 class-ID: 0200
IF: enp5s0 state: down mac: 
Device-3: Intel I211 Gigabit Network vendor: ASUSTeK driver: igb v: kernel
pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: d000 bus-ID: 06:00.0
chip-ID: 8086:1539 class-ID: 0200
IF: enp6s0 state: down mac: 
Device-4: ASUSTek ROG KERIS WIRELESS driver: hid-generic,usbhid type: USB
rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 1.1 bus-ID: 5-1:2 chip-ID: 0b05:195e
class-ID: 0300
IF-ID-1: wg0-mullvad state: unknown speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: N/A
Info: services: NetworkManager, systemd-timesyncd, wpa_supplicant
Bluetooth:
Device-1: MediaTek Wireless_Device driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 2.1
speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 mode: 2.0 bus-ID: 1-6:7 chip-ID: 0e8d:0608
class-ID: e001 serial: 
Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 rfk-id: 0 state: up address:  bt-v: 5.3
lmp-v: 12 status: discoverable: no pairing: no class-ID: 6c0104
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 37.29 TiB used: 7.15 TiB (19.2%)
SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Seagate model: FireCuda 530
ZP1000GM30013 size: 931.51 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B
speed: 63.2 Gb/s lanes: 4 tech: SSD serial:  fw-rev: SU6SM001
temp: 45.9 C scheme: GPT
ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 870 QVO 2TB
size: 1.82 TiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
tech: SSD serial:  fw-rev: 2B6Q
ID-3: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Seagate model: ST2000DM008-2FR102
size: 1.82 TiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
tech: HDD rpm: 7200 serial:  fw-rev: 0001
ID-4: /dev/sdc maj-min: 8:32 vendor: Seagate model: ST4000NE001-2MA101
size: 3.64 TiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
tech: HDD rpm: 7200 serial:  fw-rev: EN01
ID-5: /dev/sdd maj-min: 8:48 vendor: Seagate model: Expansion HDD
size: 10.91 TiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B type: USB
rev: 3.2 spd: 5 Gb/s lanes: 1 mode: 3.2 gen-1x1 tech: N/A serial: 
fw-rev: 1802 scheme: GPT
ID-6: /dev/sde maj-min: 8:64 vendor: Crucial model: CT4000X10SSD9
size: 3.64 TiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: USB rev: 3.2
spd: 5 Gb/s lanes: 1 mode: 3.2 gen-1x1 tech: SSD serial: N/A fw-rev: 1000
scheme: GPT
SMART Message: Unknown USB bridge. Flash drive/Unsupported enclosure?
ID-7: /dev/sdf maj-min: 8:80 vendor: Seagate model: Expansion HDD
size: 14.55 TiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B type: USB
rev: 3.2 spd: 5 Gb/s lanes: 1 mode: 3.2 gen-1x1 tech: N/A serial: 
fw-rev: 1802 scheme: GPT
Partition:
ID-1: / raw-size: 931.22 GiB size: 931.22 GiB (100.00%)
used: 816.37 GiB (87.7%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
used: 664 KiB (0.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1
ID-3: /home raw-size: 931.22 GiB size: 931.22 GiB (100.00%)
used: 816.37 GiB (87.7%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
ID-4: /var/log raw-size: 931.22 GiB size: 931.22 GiB (100.00%)
used: 816.37 GiB (87.7%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
ID-5: /var/tmp raw-size: 931.22 GiB size: 931.22 GiB (100.00%)
used: 816.37 GiB (87.7%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
Swap:
Kernel: swappiness: 133 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default) zswap: no
ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 62.69 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 100
comp: zstd avail: lzo-rle,lzo,lz4,lz4hc,deflate,842 dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 43.0 C mobo: 37.0 C gpu: amdgpu temp: 62.0 C
mem: 60.0 C
Fan Speeds (rpm): N/A gpu: amdgpu fan: 938
Info:
Memory: total: 64 GiB note: est. available: 62.69 GiB used: 8.64 GiB (13.8%)
Processes: 572 Power: uptime: 47m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: deep
avail: s2idle wakeups: 0 hibernate: platform avail: shutdown, reboot,
suspend, test_resume image: 25.05 GiB services: org_kde_powerdevil,upowerd
Init: systemd v: 258 default: graphical tool: systemctl
Packages: 1829 pm: pacman pkgs: 1763 libs: 476 tools: octopi,paru,yay
pm: flatpak pkgs: 66 Compilers: gcc: 15.2.1 Shell: Bash v: 5.3.3
running-in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.3.40
Garuda (2.11.1-1):
System install date:     2023-06-21
Garuda release:          230501
Last full system update: 2025-11-29
Is partially upgraded:   No
Relevant software:       snapper NetworkManager dracut garuda-hardware-profile-standard garuda-hardware-profile-standard-x11
Windows dual boot:       No/Undetected
Failed units:

In my last couple of resets I did also catch an error about a tainted kernel (6.17.9-zen1-1-zen), and something about a type-G, but I’m unsure on how to find those errors again. All other reboots did not mention that tainted kernel message however so it’s hard to say if the kernel is the problem, considering the problem persisted when using the standard Arch kernel and the Xanmod-x64v2 kernel. Since this is affecting both my HDDs, I’m assuming there’s some kind of software problem I’m not aware of.

If anyone else has had similar issues while downloading Steam and GOG games then let me know, I would greatly appreciate anyone helping me get to the bottom of this issue.

[Technetium]

@Mankybus

several minutes after I stop the download.

What options are applied for the mount?

cat /etc/fstab

you are probably filling up the cache, which is then continuing to sync to the disk. See my previous comment here for why this happens:

High single core usage while transferring files

This is correct. Unless you mount with sync. See more from man mount. I usually do not want to mount with sync, so I watch my writeback cache with this to ensure completion: alias watchsync='watch -n 1 -d grep -e Dirty: -e Writeback: /proc/meminfo' @PerseverantX please also include the results of cat /etc/fstab and sudo smartctl --all /dev/sdX, where sdX is the disk in question.

---

@Mankybus

In my last couple of resets I did also catch an error about a tainted kernel (6.17.9-zen1-1-zen), and something about a type-G, but I’m unsure on how to find those errors again.

Without the exact error and the surrounding context, it is hard to say what that means for you, but a tainted kernel is not inherently a bad thing. You could see it somewhere in here:

sudo dmesg

You can share it with https://bin.garudalinux.org/

[Mankybus]

I’m not quite sure, as I just mount drives through Dolphin and then used gnome disks to enable them to mount on startup. But here’s the fstab for you:

UUID=AF4E-7ACC                            /boot/efi      vfat    defaults,noatime 0 2
UUID=c87e17cf-c2aa-4cb7-9b3f-535b1b50e245 /              btrfs   subvol=/@,defaults,noatime,compress=zstd 0 0
UUID=c87e17cf-c2aa-4cb7-9b3f-535b1b50e245 /home          btrfs   subvol=/@home,defaults,noatime,compress=zstd
0 0
UUID=c87e17cf-c2aa-4cb7-9b3f-535b1b50e245 /root          btrfs   subvol=/ @root,defaults,noatime,compress=zstd
0 0
UUID=c87e17cf-c2aa-4cb7-9b3f-535b1b50e245 /srv           btrfs   subvol=/@srv,defaults,noatime,compress=zstd 0
0
UUID=c87e17cf-c2aa-4cb7-9b3f-535b1b50e245 /var/cache     btrfs   subvol=/@cache,defaults,noatime,compress=zstd
0 0
UUID=c87e17cf-c2aa-4cb7-9b3f-535b1b50e245 /var/log       btrfs   subvol=/@log,defaults,noatime,compress=zstd 0
0
UUID=c87e17cf-c2aa-4cb7-9b3f-535b1b50e245 /var/tmp       btrfs   subvol=/@tmp,defaults,noatime,compress=zstd 0
0
tmpfs                                     /tmp           tmpfs   defaults,noatime,mode=1777 0 0
/dev/disk/by-uuid/39407a3c-a589-4321-b0da-f84cb5839acc /mnt/39407a3c-a589-4321-b0da-f84cb5839acc auto nosuid,n
odev,nofail,x-gvfs-show 0 0
/dev/disk/by-uuid/098eab5a-ab07-4b8c-bed0-94543866fb22 /mnt/098eab5a-ab07-4b8c-bed0-94543866fb22 auto nosuid,n
odev,nofail,x-gvfs-show 0 0
/dev/disk/by-uuid/4A185A58774528A3 /mnt/4A185A58774528A3 auto nosuid,nodev,nofail,x-gvfs-show 0 0

I did also reformat the whole drive just an hour ago in case that would solve any of my problems, since I didn’t have much on there anyway, but to no avail. So I’m assuming there’s a system-wide problem I’m not privy to.

Also did the dmesg for you, here you go: https://bin.garudalinux.org/?d5de85978a9a9e8a#FLMqu2usUSeuQbpksh1axnCbaMmEU66e8UEd9BDJhnqg

And here’s the smartctl for you, in case that’s important as well:

smartctl 7.5 2025-04-30 r5714 [x86_64-linux-6.17.9-zen1-1-zen] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-25, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Seagate BarraCuda 3.5 (SMR)
Device Model:     ST2000DM008-2FR102
Serial Number:    ZK309PDT
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 0e33225ca
Firmware Version: 0001
User Capacity:    2,000,398,934,016 bytes [2.00 TB]
Sector Sizes:     512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate:    7200 rpm
Form Factor:      3.5 inches
TRIM Command:     Available
Device is:        In smartctl database 7.5/5706
ATA Version is:   ACS-3 T13/2161-D revision 5
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Sat Nov 29 05:07:41 2025 GMT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

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: 		(    0) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: 			 (0x73) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
No 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: 	 (   1) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: 	 ( 200) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: 	 (   2) minutes.
SCT capabilities: 	       (0x30a5)	SCT Status supported.
SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000f   071   064   006    Pre-fail  Always       -       12270980
3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0003   096   095   000    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   020    Old_age   Always       -       788
5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   010    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000f   082   060   045    Pre-fail  Always       -       161627265
9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   069   069   000    Old_age   Always       -       28014h+15m+00.057s
10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   100   100   097    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   020    Old_age   Always       -       740
183 Runtime_Bad_Block       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
184 End-to-End_Error        0x0032   100   100   099    Old_age   Always       -       0
187 Reported_Uncorrect      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
188 Command_Timeout         0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0 0 0
189 High_Fly_Writes         0x003a   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022   050   041   040    Old_age   Always       -       50 (Min/Max 39/50)
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       430
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   001   001   000    Old_age   Always       -       211068
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   050   059   000    Old_age   Always       -       50 (0 19 0 0 0)
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered  0x001a   071   064   000    Old_age   Always       -       12270980
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0010   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x003e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
240 Head_Flying_Hours       0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       11233h+31m+03.875s
241 Total_LBAs_Written      0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       19688399707
242 Total_LBAs_Read         0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       13138938743

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error

1  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%     27921         -

2  Short offline       Completed without error       00%     27918         -

3  Extended offline    Aborted by host               90%     27915         -

4  Short offline       Completed without error       00%     27914         -

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.

The above only provides legacy SMART information - try ‘smartctl -x’ for more

In the meantime I’ll keep downloading to an absolute minimum on the HDD in question (sdb being the main one having issues). If there’s any more diagnosing I need to do to get this issue solved then let me know.

Cheers.

[gampel]

@Mankybus

ID-3: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Seagate model: ST2000DM008-2FR102

• this is a ext4 partition

• The fstab content for your drives (except root drive) are not the best.
  Mountpoint = partition uuid is not the best decision and without fstab option for partition type also not a good point. Of course you can set mountpoint = uuid.
  Better is this example: (my mind)

# sdc1
UUID=3e253ab2-9381-4b08-b1ac-f16328564871   /home/gampel/media   btrfs     noatime,nofail,auto,owner,rw,exec,suid   0 2

UUID= or /dev/disk/by-uuid = device to mount.
…/media = mountpoint;
next entry here btrfs = filesystem
after this the mount option and at the end then dump + fsck option.
The fstab entry should then look like this:
UUID=39407a3c-a589-4321-b0da-f84cb5839acc /mnt/games ext4 auto,exec,nofail,nosuid 0 0
(but your choice mountpoint + options)
as info to read:

Fstab File ( /etc/fstab ) Entry Options in Linux

Your smartctl log looks good.

If you change manual the fstab → unmount the drive → change the content over terminal with micro: sudo micro /etc/fstab to save ctrl + s and exit strg+x thensystemctl daemon-reload and mount the drive or make a reboot after.

sr 3:0:0:0: [sr0] tag#22 FAILED Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=0s
The i/o error messages (dmesg log) is the usb drive. If you don’t need pls disconnect always

ata4.00: failed to set xfermode (err_mask=0x1)
take a look in your bios settings: ahci mode not raid.

Last but not least disable ufw as test. (my mind)

[Technetium]

@Mankybus

195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered 12270980

Please use the drive more, then recheck SMART. If this number continues to increase, then you may have a bad SATA cable!

as @gampel explained above, mountpoints can (and should) be set in fstab, rather than mounting with the defaults from Dolphin. After you make an entry for your HDD, you could include the option sync–so that operations on that drive are written as they happen, and noatime–to not record when files are last accessed.

[Mankybus]

Hey I’ve done all of your recommendations, and while it hasn’t solved the problem outright it has definitely helped improve the situation. I’ve tested downloading a bunch of big games to the drive after your suggestions and it held its speed for much longer than it did before but eventually did slow to a crawl. However it did also recover from those insanely slow speeds much quicker too.

I did also forget to mention that recently Steam and GOG have been downloading to my HDD at much faster rates than they used to before, where it used to be anywhere between 10-20MBs on my HDDs but lately they’ve been downloading at like 50-70MBs (normal download speeds for my SSDs), with absolutely no changes to my home router or even my VPN connection. So I’m wondering if Technetium’s suggestion of the cache being filled up too fast for them to handle could be the cause? Luckily limiting download speeds avoids the issue from what I can tell and easy to set on Steam, but sadly Heroic doesn’t have any built-in option to limit download speeds.

For the time being I’ll continue running some tests with my downloads, if something comes up I’ll update my findings.

@Technetium

Please use the drive more, then recheck SMART. If this number continues to increase, then you may have a bad SATA cable!

I’ll keep an eye on that, even if the drives are fine from my tests I certainly can’t rule out the possibility of bad cables. Cheers for the help so far you two!

[Technetium]

Glad you have made some positive progress. I read your dmesg again, and I feel suspect of the SATA cable enough to recommend cable replacement outright as it is, also replacement cable for Blu-ray drive. Especially around 12202.446778 to 12243.471898. I do still stand by my previous recommendation to further watch Hardware_ECC_Recovered, especially after replacing the cable. If errors continue to grow with a new cable, it may be bad news for the HDD.

When things are slowed down, check dmesg again for any recent entries that may hold hints.

[gampel]

As Info: you can also use Qdiskinfo (frontend for smartctl)
install over terminal : sudo pacman -S qdiskinfo

[Duke187]

i couldnt find any firmware uodate to this HDD but if there is no s.m.a.r.t issue ( hope not for real ) just look that you have good amount free Space on the SDD download there and copy it to the HDD later so i do this is my trick. I use the nvme and is way faster just my usage of it

[Technetium]

In the rare case that there was a HDD firmware update, it would probably still not resolve this, and even worse would almost certainly require Windows to apply. Looking forward to the SMART data after cable replacement.

[Duke187]

This HDD isnt to old an their webpage showed me no update with his serial number yeah but its possible on linux too. Yes new cable and new data readout to see if its changed

[Mankybus]

Hi there, gave it a few days with some more thorough testing and I’ve definitely come to the conclusion that your suspicions are most likely correct, in that it’s either a bad SATA cable or the hard drive is giving up the ghost. I also tried the sync mounting option and it slowed the HDD even more and was pretty much unusable.

After all that I decided to run more of these tests with my 4TB Ironwolf drive and while it only goes as fast as a HDD can, it’s doing far better than my 2TB did. I had my suspicions when performing the smartctl that the problematic drive would take ages even to complete that, while my 4tb drive had no issue completing the smartctl even under heavy load. It downloads no problem, loads things no problem and feels buttery smooth in comparison.

So it’s pretty safe to say it’s definitely a hardware issue at this point, so for the time being I just reformatted the drive without a file system so it doesn’t do anything on my PC until I can get around to replacing the cable or get another drive, depending on the issue. I guess I’m glad the 4tb drive is fine at least! Cheers for the help nonetheless

Good thing you reminded me of the Blu-ray drive as well, that thing’s been problematic ever since I got it and thus barely used it and forgot about it haha.

@Duke187

i couldnt find any firmware uodate to this HDD but if there is no s.m.a.r.t issue ( hope not for real ) just look that you have good amount free Space on the SDD download there and copy it to the HDD later so i do this is my trick. I use the nvme and is way faster just my usage of it

For sure, I’m glad I have plenty of space to work with and I’m also glad all the other drives seem perfectly fine. I guess it’s just a drive that sadly went bad but glad I never used it for anything important, it was mainly just for old games and storing videos I downloaded from Youtube haha.

@gampel

As Info: you can also use Qdiskinfo (frontend for smartctl)
install over terminal : sudo pacman -S qdiskinfo

Cheers for the suggestion, that things come in pretty handy figuring this whole problem out

I might update this thread once I get around to changing the SATA cable, if I don’t update then it’s safe to say the drive is dead at that point and would likely have gotten myself an SSD to replace it. Honestly not sure why I didn’t get 2tb SSD in place of the HDD to begin with

Thanks everyone who took their time to lend a hand regardless!

[gampel]

Unfortunately, there’s no standardization on the information manufacturers store in the SMART parameters. They all do it slightly differently. Seagate has also written something about this:
“https://www.seagate.com/support/kb/how-do-i-interpret-smart-diagnostic-utilities-results-203971en/”

More Info and i hope not more confusion:
Default smartctl works with dez. not with hex. But only with hex it`s “real” correct.
The reason for this is that the distribution of places is done internally across the bits, and this can only be transferred 1:1 to places in hex and not with dec. One hexadecimal place corresponds to exactly 4 bits. (that’s why the hexadecimal representation is so widespread in IT)
Run smartlctl with this command:

sudo smartctl -s on -a -v N,hex48 /dev/sdX

The parameters 5: Reallocated_Sector, 197: Current_Pending_Sector and 198: Offline_Uncorrectable are much more critical.
But perhaps to much tech talk.