Karlsnooks,
Thanks for your comment...
I have used the cables from 3 other working hard drives to check this 1TB drive out. Those cables are all OK and none of them work with this 1TB drive. I have even used a Bytecc USB 2.0 to IDE/SATA adapter kit to hook the drive up to the computer. That doesn't work either, and that's using the USB channel to check it out instead of the SATA channel (and a different power source).
Is there anything else I should try before I RMA it?
Noel
@Noels
Having gone through HW diagnostic steps I and others have outlined, I think it is pretty much assured that you HDD is defective.
RMA will do the trick, notwithstanding the downtime and aggregation. But hey . . . .
Monk
@Noels
Just before you RMA the drive. I bought a WD drive to use in my eSATA enclosure a few months back, and I couldn't initialize it with the eSATA port, or USB. It works fine by plugging it into a normal motherboard SATA port, initializing it, and then putting it into the eSATA enclosure. It's been fine ever since.
I have no idea why this is. I'm not sure from your posts, but have you tried to init the drive from a motherboard port? It might save you the aggravation of an RMA.
Mellon Head,
I was using it from my motherboard SATA ports before this problem occurred. I had it running on eSATA for some time but decided to enclose it, hook it up to the mobo and make it faster. It worked fine for some time, then decided to go belly up...
I can't initialize it using Windows Management or any other way, nor can it be formatted.
WD offered to give me an "upgrade," - to sell me a new drive if I would give up the warranty on the bad drive. I selected a 150GB Raptor for $117 . I decided to take the offer since I was going to buy a new larger Raptor anyhow (I have a 74GB now), and I can keep the bad drive to work on it at my leisure to see if I can repair it somehow in the future...
Thanks for your help and comments, Noel
Well, it's good the WD is able to help you out. I've heard of drives failing in poorly ventilated eSATA enclosures. I wonder if that happened with yours?
Oh well, good to see there is a resolution for your issue.
Cheers.
Thanks to everyone for your help.
The last thing I tried this morning was to unhook all my other drives and then FDisk the bad drive (the only one connected). The response FDisk gave me was something like "Can't access the drive..."
I think it's really dead, so I'll put it away on one of my shelves for later digest and play
Thanks again to all, Noel
Glad to be of assistance.
May the replacement work well.
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