Author Topic: WD RAPTOR dies..... (Read 473 times)

boxboy28 · « **on:** February 23, 2004, 01:11:15 PM »

Ya i got a Western digital Raptor SATA HD for Xmas and it died this past friday!

Ive never had any problems with and WD HD's (had 3)!!
I installed the Raptor back in med January and she ran great !!!! Its an excellent fast drive boot up time were incredible, but she died!!!!

Friday i come home from work turn on the PC - and it goes into a check disk mode ....... unable to read sector XXXX all the way downthe screen for every sector it tryed to read!

Then i used to WD diag. tools and it passed the extended test, wrote 0's to the drive , but would run the quick test! next i tried to formate the drive in Wndows(XP PRO) and it told me it could formate the drive.........

So is it truely dead?????

JB66 · « **Reply #1 on:** February 23, 2004, 07:50:03 PM »

Hey Boxboy,

This is going to sound very basic, but did you try another cable. I've seen some strange things when a cable is bad, such as a drive works fine, then it won't be reconized etc...

bloom25 · « **Reply #2 on:** February 23, 2004, 11:36:08 PM »

Generally if a drive is going to fail, it usually will do so within the first few months. I've used 2 36 GB Raptors in one system (Raid 0) - they really should have, I'd almost say require, some form of active cooling. The case I used (Antec) had a spot for a front case fan in front of the drives.

Personally, I've had really bad luck recently with certain Western Digital drives. I'm up to 4 20 GB (WD204 model) drives and 2 40 GB (WD400) drives failed within between 3 days and 8 months of installation in the past 2 years. Two of the 20 GB drives were in the same computer, the first lasted 10 days (died on Christmas Eve), it's replacement lasted 8 months. I've haven't had one of their Special Edition drives die yet. I've also had good luck with the newer Seagate drives. Maxtor and Quantum are probably the worst brands IMO. They are even worse than IBM/Hitachi IMO.

(Just as an aside, most of the failures happened in systems owned by heavy smokers.)

Roscoroo · « **Reply #3 on:** February 24, 2004, 01:55:44 AM »

ive had decent luck with my 3 maxtors and my 6 yr old Quantum is still kicking ..

ive got a smart capable out on my 30 gig WD but it still works ..

I have seen several bad seagates lately , the slim 40 gig 133 ata ones.

check the cables ... and go into the bios and turn off the S.M.A.R.T capable for the harddrive. it may work after that .

boxboy28 · « **Reply #4 on:** February 24, 2004, 08:20:31 AM »

(Just as an aside, most of the failures happened in systems owned by heavy smokers.)

SO bLOOM WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY? LOL well i am a smoker!

I have great cooling the Raptor sits in the lower front of my case with 2 fans blowing in on it ( case has 6 total 3 in 3 out).

I will try the cable and look in the bios ....... but i dont think thats it(never know)

boxboy28 · « **Reply #5 on:** February 24, 2004, 01:44:52 PM »

Well i ran home at lunch and swapt cables ....(keep in mind this SATA not IDE) well it ran fin thought WD diagnotics test both Quick and Extended tests, but Windows is now seeing this as a "Removable drive/media" (like a CDrom or DVD player) and is not letting me format it! Whats the problem now?

boy this is getting frustrating!:confused:

boxboy28 · « **Reply #6 on:** February 25, 2004, 03:58:33 PM »

Well so far so good, It runs thru all the tests i had to go into Windows Disk Managment and reallocate the drive , reformat and every thing looks fine now!

I just need a good Drive copy (mirror) program and i want this to be my master boot drive and keep the other drive as a bootable back up.

I tried using the WD Data Life Gaurd tools (for windows version 11) thing but after i install it it wont run!

boxboy28 · « **Reply #7 on:** February 25, 2004, 10:52:20 PM »

bumPPPPPPPPP