Hard Drive Problems

[dirtybubble1332]

So I got a new Western Digital Caviar Green 2TB hard drive for Christmas. Yippee, right? Not so much. I installed the drive and backed up my data onto it. I then reformatted the drive to install Windows. Windows installed ok with a couple bumps but works ok for the most part. My hard drive showed up ok. Everything was good. After installing some updates and shutting down, my computer would hang on the shut down screen for at least an hour. So I restarted with the physical button. Then my hard drive is saying it needs to be formatted to be usable. I was reluctant but ended up formatting and recovering my data with other software. I tried copying some files onto it and that worked ok. Now the hard drive doesn't show up. When booting, chkdsk will come up and complete then the drive shows up. Then it will disappear again. Now chkdsk comes up to stage 2 and the screen goes blank. What should I do? Is this windows related or is it the drive? Is there a way to make chkdsk come up for sure when I start? I've tried unplugging the drive, restarting then plugging it back in. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[theog]

Check the hard drive with the manufacturer's diagnostic tools.
Hard Drive Diagnostics Tools and Utilities (Storage) - TACKtech Corp.
HD Diagnostic

 

[dirtybubble1332]

Thanks but the drive doesn't show up at all. Not on these diagnostic programs nor Windows. The only time it shows up is after chkdsk runs. The thing is chkdsk doesn't run everytime I start up my computer. Is there a way to make sure that it does run everytime?

 

[Dave76]

Welcome to Seven Forums.

Make sure your SATA and power cables are firmly attached.
I know it's a basic request but, it does happen.
Try using a different or new cable.

Did you initialize the new drive?

 

[1Bowtie]

I'm not possitive about this but i remember a thread talking about the WD green not being a good drive for an OS as Black is best and Blue is next also Win 7 doesn't like the 2 tb drive yet, just a couple things to check

 

[bobkn]

I'm not possitive about this but i remember a thread talking about the WD green not being a good drive for an OS as Black is best and Blue is next also Win 7 doesn't like the 2 tb drive yet, just a couple things to check

The Green drives run at a lower RPM than 7200. (The actual number is hard to find.) This increases latency (delay), which is not optimal for an OS drive. 2TB is the max for a drive using the MBR. Larger drives must use a GPT:

GUID Partition Table - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If you want the drive that's larger than 2TB to be bootable, the motherboard must be able to boot from a GPT drive. (That's not a Windows limitation.) That requires a board with a uEFI rather than a legacy BIOS. uEFI isn't common yet.

Aside from all that, a look at www.newegg.com suggests that there have been a lot of mortality problems with the 2TB Caviar Green. That may only mean that a lot of them have been sold.

 

[dirtybubble1332]

Thanks all but I'm not booting from it. I had 2 250GB with my data on it before. I plugged the new 2TB drive into an external enclosure and backed up my data onto it. So I know it works with my OS. I then took one of the 250GB out and put in the 2TB. I reformatted the other 250 GB and installed Windows on that. The 2TB showed up and I could access my data. After a couple reboots the 2TB disappeared. Sometimes it shows up and sometimes a chkdsk comes up for it. I guess it could be the mobo. It's an A8N-SLI Deluxe. Could the mobo be the problem since it was ok while plugged into the enclosure? Could I put it in the enclosure and be able to run games and access data from it at a reasonable speed?

 

[1Bowtie]

The ramblings in your first post were easy to misinterpete, nobody clean installs an os and says it work ok with a few bumps. The clean install is so it works perfect, if done right with no other hdd's plugged in it should be flawless, i can't tell if you had an os on the green drive or not, it should not run chk disc everytime you boot. Maybe more info on what you did would help.

 

[Zepher]

You may have a bad drive. there have been quite a few failures with the Green drives the last few months.
I bought a 2TB WD Green 64MB cache drive about 3 months ago and it was DOA, drive would spin up and then spin down over and over.
there are 2 common 2TB Green drives, the EADS with 32MB cache and EARS with 64MB cache.

 

[James Colbert]

Thanks but the drive doesn't show up at all. Not on these diagnostic programs nor Windows. The only time it shows up is after chkdsk runs. The thing is chkdsk doesn't run everytime I start up my computer. Is there a way to make sure that it does run everytime?

As long as the drive shows up in the bios, you can run the WD utility software to check the drive. Also, as Dave76 suggests, first switch your sata cable to be sure that's not your issue.

Here is the link for the WD (free) software:

WD Support / Downloads / SATA & SAS / WD Caviar Green / GP

I also notice that there is a 'WD version' of Acronis True Image. Nice.

Here is a direct link to the Diagnostic utility:

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=608&sid=30&lang=en

Probably easiest if you download the iso. If you need iso burning software:

http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecorder.htm

Just install iso recorder, right click on the iso file and choose Copy to CD. This will create WD's diagnostic boot CD, which you cna boot from to diagnose the drive.

Oh, and welcome to the forums.

James

 

[dirtybubble1332]

Sorry about my ramblings. What I meant was that sometimes I'd get a black screen or something would freeze. I never had problems like that before.

I have an EARS drive. I just don't understand why it would work and then suddenly stop working.

 

[Zepher]

Sorry about my ramblings. What I meant was that sometimes I'd get a black screen or something would freeze. I never had problems like that before.

I have an EARS drive. I just don't understand why it would work and then suddenly stop working.

that is usually what happens when things break.

 

[dirtybubble1332]

What I meant was what could have caused it to break. Are some WD products so crappy that they break after a few hours use? I didn't buy a Seagate because the last one I bought turned out to be worse. I guess I just have bad luck with hard drives.

I ran the DOS version of the diagnostic utility and it says "WD drives were detected but are not compatible with this program". When I restarted my computer, the new 2TB drive actually showed up under Windows. I then used the Windows version of the diagnostic utility. First, it said the drive had failed SMART status. I closed the utility and opened it up again. This time, it said it had passed. So I ran an extended test. It said there were too many bad sectors. I'm not sure what to do with the Acronis program.

For the time being, the drive shows up in Windows. Whenever I click it in Windows Explorer, it says "E:/ is not accessible. Access is denied." Would it help if I formatted it again? Would my data be recoverable after two formats? I was able to recover stuff after one format using Recuva. Thanks.

 

[James Colbert]

The drive is bad. It happens. You can contact WD to RMA it. They may ask for an error code.

Formatting the drive again will not help.

The Acronis True Image software will not help you here. It is for cloning drives, i.e., if you are replacing a drive, it will copy the old drive for placement on the new drive (if possible).

James

 

[1Bowtie]

The chances are slim and none and as others have said WD Green are not very reliable drives, my choice would be WD Cavier Black w/ 5 year warranty

 

[James Colbert]

The chances are slim and none and as others have said WD Green are not very reliable drives, my choice would be WD Cavier Black w/ 5 year warranty

+1 on the Caviar Black. Good warranty, good performance. Green drives are too slow, IMO.

James

 

[1Bowtie]

I totally agree James, i'm running 2x500's and a 1tb without any iisues