Solved WD 5GB external USB dive Head parking problem

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Bernardus

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I have a WD 5TB external SATA/ USB3 drive, who seems to parks the head every 4 seconds with a dumb clicking sound that drives me nuts.
I downloaded the software WDIDLE3 and loaded up to an USB card with Rufus bootup utility.
Now starting this utility in DOS won't recognize the external drive?
It starts with C:\>
However there is no way to change that to the external drive.
Or to get any list of available drives. (I took out the normal fixed drives/ SSD and SATA)

It's to long ago that I did something with DOS commands so I may be wrong.

It must be possible to change the setting of the counter in the drive to a much longer period of head parking.
Crystaldisc is greyed out on advanced options, so that won't do either.

Anyone have an answer?
 
Last edited:

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Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bits 7601 Multiprocessor Free Service Pack 1
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Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3.00GHz
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ASRock G41MH/USB3.
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8,00 GB
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ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus + Firewall version: 12.0.104.000 Vs
Msdos wouldn't understand NTFS or 5 gig
 

My Computer My Computer

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win 8 32 bit

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5GB HDD seems awfully small.
 

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Sorry WinDozeUser, it's of course a 5 TB.
I upgraded the driver and firmware of the HD already.
No change.

Samuria, maybe you're right about that, the 5 TB has also another filesystem GPT.

I read more comments on the internet that the utility WDIDLE3 won't work on external drives.
Not all drives are access-able to change the value of the countersettings for the headparking.

No further reply until now from WD.
 

My Computer My Computer

Computer type
PC/Desktop
OS
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bits 7601 Multiprocessor Free Service Pack 1
CPU
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3.00GHz
Motherboard
ASRock G41MH/USB3.
Memory
8,00 GB
Graphics Card(s)
(1) Intel(R) G41 Express Chipset (2) Intel(R) G41 Express
Sound Card
(1) VIA High Definition Audio (2) Intel(R) High Definition
Monitor(s) Displays
S24B350 Samsung
Screen Resolution
1920 x 1080 x 32 bits (4294967296 colors) @ 60 Hz
Hard Drives
(1) ST31000528AS ATA Device (2) Generic- Compact Flash USB Device (3) Generic- MS/MS-Pro USB Device (4) Generic- SD/MMC USB Device (5) Generic- SM/xD-Picture USB Device
Antivirus
ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus + Firewall version: 12.0.104.000 Vs
Got enough of it and opened the case, took the drive out and put into my SATA adapter.
Reboot with a bootable version of WDIDLE3. Now my drive was being recognized and I disabled the idle timer. Confirmed.
Problem solved, the drive won't go in Idle mode anymore and there will be no more excessive head-parkings.
(*It took approximately 900 headparkings/hour. Really silly, every 4 seconds.)

DOS probably wouldn't recognize external drives since there are no DOS drivers.
Sometimes you need to set the storage-mode temporarily in IDE to be able to detect a drive.

If I now throw out the drive, it will indeed switch off.
 

My Computer My Computer

Computer type
PC/Desktop
OS
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bits 7601 Multiprocessor Free Service Pack 1
CPU
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3.00GHz
Motherboard
ASRock G41MH/USB3.
Memory
8,00 GB
Graphics Card(s)
(1) Intel(R) G41 Express Chipset (2) Intel(R) G41 Express
Sound Card
(1) VIA High Definition Audio (2) Intel(R) High Definition
Monitor(s) Displays
S24B350 Samsung
Screen Resolution
1920 x 1080 x 32 bits (4294967296 colors) @ 60 Hz
Hard Drives
(1) ST31000528AS ATA Device (2) Generic- Compact Flash USB Device (3) Generic- MS/MS-Pro USB Device (4) Generic- SD/MMC USB Device (5) Generic- SM/xD-Picture USB Device
Antivirus
ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus + Firewall version: 12.0.104.000 Vs
If it's clicking every 4 seconds, it's probably a bad drive.
 

My Computer My Computer

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Dell
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Linux Mint 18.2 xfce 64-bit (VMWare host) / Windows 8.1 Pro 32-bit (VMWare guest)
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Haswell
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4 GB
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Two hard drives, 1TB each: One for Linux, one for my data.
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Sophos (Linux), Trend Micro (Windows)
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Firefox, Opera
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I use Samba to share my data drive with the other computers at my house and with my guest session in VMWare Workstation Player.
Maybe, I'm going to claim a reward and get another example. I'ts already agreed.
 

My Computer My Computer

Computer type
PC/Desktop
OS
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bits 7601 Multiprocessor Free Service Pack 1
CPU
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3.00GHz
Motherboard
ASRock G41MH/USB3.
Memory
8,00 GB
Graphics Card(s)
(1) Intel(R) G41 Express Chipset (2) Intel(R) G41 Express
Sound Card
(1) VIA High Definition Audio (2) Intel(R) High Definition
Monitor(s) Displays
S24B350 Samsung
Screen Resolution
1920 x 1080 x 32 bits (4294967296 colors) @ 60 Hz
Hard Drives
(1) ST31000528AS ATA Device (2) Generic- Compact Flash USB Device (3) Generic- MS/MS-Pro USB Device (4) Generic- SD/MMC USB Device (5) Generic- SM/xD-Picture USB Device
Antivirus
ZoneAlarm Free Antivirus + Firewall version: 12.0.104.000 Vs
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