WD VelociRaptor 300GB (D3000HLFS)

[GUNNYCANUCK]

Hi There,

I was hoping someone here might have developed a way around the issue with the HLFS versions of WD's VelociRaptor drives...specifically that they are not supported during installation, they work fine as storage drives but Win7 Ultimate 64bit will not install to them. When an intallation is attempted it corrupts out at about 30-33%. The drives and the rest of the hardware all pass everytest you can throw at them, on Microsoft's supported HW website it lists these drives as "We are checking with the manufacturer to confirm compatibility."

The Win7 copy will install and run fine on other drives and as noted previously all HW has been fully and repeatedly tested, all bios version are up to date, all firmware has been updated as well.

 

[Qdos]

Install to a different drive, then transfer a cloned system image to your WD drive. It's a feasible workaround until such time as WD issue updated firmware, or Windows7 SP1 emerges...

 

[HammerHead]

Velociraptor

Hmm....
I have two HLFS 300 disks. The first time I installed to them it was the RC ver. and I had them in a raid 1 config. No problem.
The second time I installed my retail ver. and I broke the raid config and went to just one disk. No problem. Makes one wonder doesn't it?

 

[GUNNYCANUCK]

It does...and you had no issues during install? Did you have to add a driver during the installation?

 

[GUNNYCANUCK]

I initially only had one WD3000HLFS and could not get an install on to that drive. I purchased a 2nd and still had the same issue.

 

[GUNNYCANUCK]

Does anyone have a suggestion regarding what image software works for Qdos's suggestion, I have not found one that Win7 doesn't like touching it's privates...

 

[Qdos]

I use Acronis TrueImage 2010, a paid for life-saving software...

 

[GUNNYCANUCK]

Acronis was the first one I tried today...it BSOD'd me.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Try Macrium Reflect Free Edition or Paragon.

 

[Qdos]

It sounds like you must have something very wrong with your system then.

From what the other poster says about the WD drives working, to the fact Acronis TrueImage works beautifully with Windows7.

Please post your minidump files for analysis.

 

[HammerHead]

No Problems

I had no issues. Did not install any special drivers or workarounds. Ditto on Acronis 2010. I use it all the time with no BSOD's. Something is amiss in your system I would tend to think.

I Don't think this is the answer but I will add it on. When I install an OS cleanly I disconnect all hard drives except the target.

 

[GUNNYCANUCK]

I am not sure how he got them working as it specifically states on MS's website that they have yet to have these drives certified.

I have even taken the system in to the shop (first time I have had to do that since I was 12...I'm 34 now so it was a dark day in my history) and they are baffled as well.

It doesn't BSOD at any other time, it runs Eve perfectly fine and while running XP it is flawless and runs countless games (I have a rather embarrassingly large library), this isn't a hardware failure. The drives have both passed the WD extended debug diagnostic, RAM has passed Memtest with flying colors.

Would a direct copy of the entire drive to the Raptors work?

 

[GUNNYCANUCK]

I had no issues. Did not install any special drivers or workarounds. Ditto on Acronis 2010. I use it all the time with no BSOD's. Something is amiss in your system I would tend to think.

I Don't think this is the answer but I will add it on. When I install an OS cleanly I disconnect all hard drives except the target.

That is a prudent choice...I will try this as well.

 

[GUNNYCANUCK]

I just thought of an easy fix...the shop I purchased them from lists the 300Gb as the GLFS versions, and yet what they gave are HLFS's. I am going to call them when they open up after the New Years weekend and ask that they actually provide me with the GLFS versions as that was what I had thought I was purchasing. I know it's a bit of a cop out but really...they should not be saying one thing and selling another, especially when it results in my present situation.

 

[Tommy Trauma]

A question if I may. Whats the difference between the two? Read this thread and looked at my WD300 raptor and its a GLFS. Wont be installing W7 until tomorrow when it arrives.

 

[GUNNYCANUCK]

You know after much investigation I really couldn't say what the difference is other than one is listed as "Enterprise Edition" (HFLS). I do not see a difference other than the compatibility, both have the same cache size...everything is identical so it has to be different Controller chips with different firmware possibly?

From what I have read you should have no trouble at all with the GFLS.

 

[WiFi Ed]

A question if I may. Whats the difference between the two? Read this thread and looked at my WD300 raptor and its a GLFS. Wont be installing W7 until tomorrow when it arrives.

I have one of each, and the only difference appears to be the aluminum heatsinks and way the HD's mount into them. I think the "Enterprise" version is mounted in the heatsink in such a way as to position the HD SATA and power connectors so that they will line up with a server's backplane connectors ("backplane-ready").

You can see the differences at WD's website WD VelociRaptor 300 GB SATA Hard Drives ( WD3000HLFS )

I use them in a desktop with the usual SATA and power cables so the slight difference in HD connector positions is not a factor. Amazingly enough, the "backplane-ready" model connector placement matches regular 3.5" HD connector positions, and the "cable-connect" version's connectors are slightly offset in comparison.

BTW, my Win 7 installation is on the GLFS model.

 

[GUNNYCANUCK]

The GLFS model is the one that is certified to work on Win7...my issue is that both of my VRaps are HLFS models and it seems that Win7 just refuses to install on them but will install on any other HDD I put into the machine.

 

[WiFi Ed]

As an experiment, I just did fresh installs of Windows 7 Ultimate x64 RTM (TechNet version) on both of my VelociRaptors, GLFS and HLFS models. Both accepted the new installations without errors.

I wonder if your problem is related to drive firmware versions? My GLFS version is
03.03V01 and the HLFS version is 04.04V01

My Windows Kernel Version is 6.1.7600.16385

 

[dsperber]

Just in passing, I have Win7 Pro x64 installed on a WD1500HLFS, though it is partitioned into 41GB, 16GB, and 83GB partitions. Win7 is installed to the 41GB partition.

No problems.

Note that this machine has 4 hard drives, 3 U320 SCSI drives (running in U160 speed since my ASUS P5Q3 board does not have PCI-X slots and so the Adaptec 29320ALP card has to fit into a "short" PCI slot and thus runs in 32-bit U160 mode, rather than in 64-bit U320 mode).

WinXP Pro 32-bit was previously installed on one partition of one of the SCSI drives. So the install of Win7 64-bit discovered the existing Windows when it went to the target location I pointed it to on the SATA drive. Hence Win7 Boot Manager is installed onto that original partition where WinXP lives, providing bootability from either WinXP on that SCSI drive or Win7 on the SATA drive.

But no problems here installing Win7 onto a 41GB partition of a WD1500HLFS. Are you trying to install Win7 to the full 300GB virgin drive? Or have you created a partition that is much smaller specifically for Win7? If not, can you put the 3000HLFS into another machine, partition it (say with Partition Magic or Partition Wizard) at least to create a relatively small Win7 target partition, and then put it back in your new machine and try the Win7 install again?