WD SATA II Hard Drive Wonky...

Keebler Elf · Jun 18, 2008

I have a 500 GB Western Digital SATA II hard drive that has been running fine until recently. Now, it conks in and out. It's on an old motherboard via a PC card that enables the mobo to utilize SATA cables.

The drive is detected on start up but intermittently connects and deconnects from my system.

I've tried unplugging and replugging, as well as rebooting but the problem persists.

Any ideas what the problem could be?

Radio_Shack · Jun 18, 2008

Check your events log to see if any error detected (ie. I/O errors). Perhaps the drive is failing but still able to come back. Also, slight chance of cable issue but with SATA not as likely as USB cables.

vavog · Jun 18, 2008

I'm assuming you're using a SATA card but what speed is it. It might be Sata and not SATA II. Remove the jumper on the back of the drive (which designates 3.0m speed). That might be the root of it. Chances are new drive failing is pretty slim but its possible.

Does Sata card have settings or configuration options? Check those too. And read the requirements for that card. Might be clue in that.

Keebler Elf · Jun 18, 2008

I don't think its the configuration because I've been using it successfully for about a year now. It may be the cable (I had that problem before but with an EIDE cable, not SATA).

I thought WD had a diagnostics program to check your hard drive but Data Lifeguard doesn't seem to have that option (it only sets your hard drive up).

Right now the drive is working but I expect it to conk out again at some point.

The Event Viewer shows a whole bunch of disk errors.

vavog · Jun 18, 2008

What Sata card are you using? Whenever I've had issues like that its turned out to be the controller itself and not the hd. Quick test would be to attach another HD, install XP and see if the problem pops up again (well, maybe not so quick a test actually).

Radio_Shack · Jun 18, 2008

If you can manage to get the data off the drive and copy it someplace safe, reformat the drive and put the data back I think you will be ok. Seen that happen before where the logical structures on the drive cause it to screw up like that. Maybe put the drive in an external case if it's internal disk and see if it works there as test.

Keebler Elf said:
I don't think its the configuration because I've been using it successfully for about a year now. It may be the cable (I had that problem before but with an EIDE cable, not SATA).

I thought WD had a diagnostics program to check your hard drive but Data Lifeguard doesn't seem to have that option (it only sets your hard drive up).

Right now the drive is working but I expect it to conk out again at some point.

The Event Viewer shows a whole bunch of disk errors.

svtcobra · Jun 18, 2008

Does the drive power down and then power on ?

If so you may have a power issue with the drive itself (motherboard), power connectors, or the PSU.

Keebler Elf · Jun 18, 2008

vavog said:
What Sata card are you using? Whenever I've had issues like that its turned out to be the controller itself and not the hd. Quick test would be to attach another HD, install XP and see if the problem pops up again (well, maybe not so quick a test actually).

There are currently two drives on the card and the other works fine.

Keebler Elf · Jun 18, 2008

svtcobra said:
Does the drive power down and then power on ?

If so you may have a power issue with the drive itself (motherboard), power connectors, or the PSU.

Hmmm, how can I tell?

When it conks out I get that "da-dum" Windows sound, a few seconds pass, and then "ba-dah" it comes back up. Sometimes it's down longer than others and sometimes it's fine for hours.

Keebler Elf · Jun 18, 2008

It just went down, came back up, went down, and came back up.

The Event Viewer shows two warnings (both the same) of "ftdisk" as the source, followed by 14 error messages with "disk" as the source.

vavog · Jun 18, 2008

Keebler Elf said:
There are currently two drives on the card and the other works fine.

Ahhhh.. new information. For $80 don't risk it. Get a new drive.

However, check the jumper settings. WD drives have some "spread spectrum clocking" feature.

Also, there is LifeGuard Tools for setup, then there is LifeGuard Diagnostics for testing (2 separate products). Maybe you have the wrong one?

Keebler Elf · Jun 18, 2008

I just took everything apart, cleaned the inside of the case, and put everything back together. No problems... yet.

I also just downloaded and ran WD Lifeguard Diagnostics and the drive came up clean with a quick test. I'm going to wait a bit and see if I lose the drive again. If I do, I'll try and run the full test after.

Device Manager is clean (shows no yellow warning flags).

If it is the drive, it's less than a year old so I should be able to get a replacement (I hope).

Ironic, since I was planning on buying the 750 GB model but have been holding off because I've heard there's technical problems with the WD 750 drives. Now I have a problem with the 500 GB drive!

vavog · Jun 19, 2008

my my my.. size really does matter!

WoodPeckr · Jun 19, 2008

Read up on WD drives. There were reports that the large WD drives, 1 TB and maybe the 750GB drives had a DRM feature installed. Don't recall if you can defeat it but it's worth researching.

Horney_Senior · Jun 19, 2008

WoodPeckr said:
Read up on WD drives. There were reports that the large WD drives, 1 TB and maybe the 750GB drives had a DRM feature installed. Don't recall if you can defeat it but it's worth researching.

OK, so What is a DRM feature? I'm about to buy one of the larger drives so this is a good time to find out.

WoodPeckr · Jun 19, 2008

Horney_Senior said:
OK, so What is a DRM feature? I'm about to buy one of the larger drives so this is a good time to find out.

Digital rights management (DRM) is a form of software copy protection.
It's in Vista to some extent and limits your ability to save/use data, pirated programs/apps, music, movies, etc.

WD was the first to put DRM into their 1TB ext HDD.
Seagate is still free of any DRM.

Keebler Elf · Jun 19, 2008

Fuck that! I just want a hard drive!

24 hours later and the problem of the disconnecting SATA drive has not reoccurred. Hopefully it's fixed.

Keebler Elf · Jun 20, 2008

WoodPeckr said:
Read up on WD drives. There were reports that the large WD drives, 1 TB and maybe the 750GB drives had a DRM feature installed. Don't recall if you can defeat it but it's worth researching.

Looks like this is just for WD's external drives.

And from the amount of bad press out there, I wouldn't be surprised if they quickly drop the DRM feature from future products.

jwmorrice · Jun 20, 2008

WoodPeckr said:
Digital rights management (DRM) is a form of software copy protection.
It's in Vista to some extent and limits your ability to save/use data, pirated programs/apps, music, movies, etc.

WD was the first to put DRM into their 1TB ext HDD.
Seagate is still free of any DRM.

See: http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/12/western-digital.html

jwm

WoodPeckr · Jun 20, 2008

jwmorrice

jwmorrice said:
See: http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/12/western-digital.html

jwm

Thanks for that link which shows what happens to a WD drive with DRM.
Don't know what WD was thinking to do that....that Ext HDD is pretty useless.

WD SATA II Hard Drive Wonky...

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