Windows 7: I'm still using Microsoft HD drivers from 2006?

I have a two year old system: Asus P6x58D Premium, 24 gig Kingston Hyperix 1333 Ram, i7 930, Plextor SSD for drive C etc. Win 7 64 bit Prof.

I also have three Western Digital Black Caviars bought during the last 3 years - different models. The most recent is a 2tb SATA 6. All of these drives use the Microsoft drivers from 2006 and there don't seem to be any new ones on the WD site. Am I just not looking in the right place? It seems to me that these drives have got to be slowed down by such old/generic drivers.

The oldest drive did have a firmware upgrade available but I was afraid of losing data and I wasn't sure it was worth it.

Is everyone using the Microsoft drivers from long ago or are there better drivers available?

Thanks.

Louise

Are you talking about driver or firmware?
A disk doesn't use a special driver! All IDE drives use a IDE driver, all SATA drives use a sata driver

If those drivers work why fix it. if it aint brokend dont fix it.
by the way can you be more specific what drivers you refer to because microsoft HD i was thinking sound drivers then post was about HDD and.. it is controler or the HDD it self you look at?

Sorry I realize now I wasn't clear:

2 WD black caviar SATA drives 1 tb each purchased a year or two apart.
1 WD black caviar SATA 6 2tb recently purchased and using a SATA 6 connection to the controller
1 Plextor 256 SATA 6 using a SATA 6 connection
1 2+ year old Intel 160 model M25

ALL of these disks are using Microsoft driver 6.1.7600.16385.

One of the WD black caviar 1 tb SATA drives does show a firmware update available on WD but I'm questioning the wisdom of risking it and would I lose my data when I updated the firmware even if everything went ok?

The reason I've been investigating all this is that I am experiencing the all too common "application not responding", mostly in Office 2010, particularly Outlook, but also in Word as well as Photoshop and Lightroom from time to time. As a result of my trying to track it down, I discovered a thousand different suggestions, old drivers being one of them.

So I began to wonder about all these drives, old and new, using the same, apparently old, driver. I also discovered the one firmware update but didn't know about the wisdom of doing it.

I hope I've been clear and precise this time - and also hope you might have a suggestion as to whether there is anything to be done in this area.

Thanks again.

Louise

The Microsoft driver being used is 6.1.7600.16385. It is being used for 2 WD caviar black 1tb each, 1 WD caviar black 2tb SATA 6, one Plextor SSD 256 SATA 6 and one Intel SSD 160. Same driver.

One of the WD caviar black 1 tb was listed on the WD site as having a firmware update available but I'm not sure I should do it. Reason below:

The reason I've been investigating all these drivers, and a lot else, is that I am experiencing the all too common "application not responding", mostly in Office 2010, particularly Outlook, but also in Word as well as Photoshop and Lightroom from time to time. As a result of my trying to track it down, I discovered a thousand different suggestions, old drivers being one of them.

So I began to wonder about all these drives, old and new, using the same, apparently old, driver. I also discovered the one firmware update to one of the 1tb WD Caviars but don't know whether it's worth updating or whether I might lose data etc.

Hope this clarifies and I apologize for my vagueness - didn't realize it.

Louise

Based on your description of the driver, you have not updated to SP1 as yet. That I would do.
Are your Intel controllers set to AHCI?

I doubt these drivers or the firmware are the cause of your issue.

firmware update is not needed. Only in case of problems. standard Windows 7 sata control or intel.... both are fine. BIOS is in AHCI mode and Windows 7 as well (or both IDE mode). AHCI is faster, but both work.

The problem you have is just a software problem in dll, exe, resgistry or so!

One thing that everyone posting in this thread so far has failed to mention, THERE IS NO PROBLEM.

Every computer running Windows 7 has the exact same driver for any and all hard drives. And no you will not find a "new" driver for it from WD (or Seagate, or any other drive manufacturer), as they ALL use the exact same driver that comes with Windows.

So stop worrying about it and looking for a solution as there isn't one.

Funny I have SP1 (clean install with SP1 integrated) and have the same driver version. Microsoft doesn't change the version n umber just because a service pack comes out if there isn't a change to the driver itself.

Sorry - I have to fill out my profile. I have updated to SP1. Really running Win 7 Prof SP1 64 bit. Ran the Intel "check your system" online (can't remember the exact name), and it said it's stuff was fine but it didn't recognize Marvel. I did update the Marvel drivers/chips, whatever I could find from the Asus site for my motherboard.

Thank you for being so thorough and following up on this - especially all the things I leave out without realizing it

Louise

The PROBLEM happens when I randomly get a faded screen and a notice saying "this application has stopped responding". It's a nuisance in Outlook and Word 10 - and it's a creative problem when it happens in LR or Photoshop.

I only started looking at all of this because I can't find the cause of the problem.

Louise