WD Caviar Black 1TB Troubleshooting

[mns8]

Hi all,

I recently asked for some help in the build forum to make my first computer. Well, the parts all came in and I have assembled the beast. All seems to be well except for one big problem: my secondary drive (1 TB WD Caviar Black) won't work.

I have an ASRock Extreme4 Z77 motherboard with a SSD running my Windows 7. The WD drive showed up in all the BIOS stuff before I got to Windows setup, so I assumed all was well. Once I got into Windows, though, I was perplexed that the HDD didn't show up in My Computer. Then I did a quick Google search and saw I had to partition and format it. Ok, newbie mistake. I did that and even installed Steam to the drive (though it had some kind of exception error when I tried to run it). After that, it seemed to go fine initially, but upon a restart or two later, the drive disappeared. Now, I can't format it at all. I've tried Windows and I've tried EASEUS Partition Master, and neither one can get a successful format going. I'll partition it (seemingly) successfully, try to format, then fail. Sometimes it will just disappear after that from everywhere including device manager until I restart. Quick formats fail somewhat fast, and I even did an extended format and got a sweet 90 minute wait watching it go to 100% then fail on me the same way a quick format would.

I checked out Western Digital's site and got their Data Lifeguard Diagostics tool. This is where I get worried. The SMART tool test passes, no problem. But when it does the proper disk quick test, that's when I get a failure about 7-10 seconds into the test.

Here's the big problem that WD DLG is saying:
06-Quick Test on drive 1 did not complete! Status code = 07 (Failed read test element), Failure Checkpoint = 97 (Unknown Test) SMART self-test did not complete on drive 1!

I can hear the device quietly spin when I try to perform these functions on it, so it seems to be working in that sense, but something is definitely wrong. Am I missing a crucial point? Is there something I need to update driver-wise or in the BIOS for this to work right? Is this something that can be fixed at all with software or do I need to return the drive itself? And would I do that through WD or Amazon where I bought it? This is a pretty nightmarish scenario for me being it's my first experience putting things together and this component seems broken.

Please help!

[Vile]

There is not anything you need to update in terms of drivers or BIOS settings.

From your description & the symptoms it seems you have a bad HD, which is sadly not uncommon for a new drive once in a while. (I build dozens of new computers weekly and occasionally have new bad hard drives)

Also note that the quick tests (using WD DLG, DFT, SeaTools Diag, etc) is often not a reliable test, you should always do the "Extended" or "Full" tests, or even a "write zero" test to get the most accurate results. I'd guess that if you used WD DLG to do a write zero tests on your HD, it would fail.

If you just bought the drive, I would recommend returning/exchanging it through where you bought it. You can go through WD RMA but in some cases they will send you a re-certified drive as a replacement (which is fine, but not necessary for you to get, if your original is a brand new drive)

[Deleted]

I assume you've checked the physical connections, some s-ata connectors are so loose that any accidental yank on the cord can cause one end to pull out a bit.

[Cyclonus]

the diag error is saying it cannot read the disk...

so check connections etc... if you can hear it spinning then i guess the power cable is fine, so check the sata

[Eliathe]

I'd have to go with Vile on this one, it's incredible how many bad hard drives I get right out of the box. But also like others said, check the SATA cable and than run a long test if possible. It will probably fail from what your describing. The good news is it will be covered under MFG so you'll be able to RMA it no problem (or if you bought it form a retail store return it there).

[mns8]

Hm. I bought the drive from Amazon. Unless I am misreading something, they can't do a replacement, only a refund. For that reason, should I go ahead and do the RMA process through WD? It seems they have an Advanced RMA process, which would be awesome for me. Anyone have experience with them and their process? Is a "recertified" drive that bad of a thing? Or is there a way I can request a new replacement that you guys know of, either through WD or Amazon?

[Creotor]

I've RMA'd a HDD to WD once. Very smooth, very fast. You have to pay for shipping it to them and they also put a charge on your card for the price of the HDD until they receive the defective one. The charge doesn't actually go through, it's just pending, sorta, and goes away once they get the HDD.

However, I RMA'd the first one due to the fact that its read/write noise suddenly became audible after a month of usage. I got a hard drive with the same problem back, and the casing also had some tiny scratches all over it... I RMA'd it once again and it was the same thing, audible read/write noise. It also runs a few degrees hotter than the original drive. Anyway, I gave up on RMA'ing (that's also when the flood in Taiwan happened so I'd have felt bad about complaining about such a minor problem under those circumstances). The HDD's been working fine for over half a year so far.

[Vile]

Hm. I bought the drive from Amazon. Unless I am misreading something, they can't do a replacement, only a refund. For that reason, should I go ahead and do the RMA process through WD? It seems they have an Advanced RMA process, which would be awesome for me. Anyone have experience with them and their process? Is a "recertified" drive that bad of a thing? Or is there a way I can request a new replacement that you guys know of, either through WD or Amazon?

Yea, with Amazon I believe you would need to print the pre-paid shipping label, ship the HD to them, wait for them to get it & process the refund and you would have to re-purchase the drive.

The recertified drives are not a bad thing, it's basically just a refurbished drive. WD RMA is usually fairly quick for me, it usually takes about a week - week and a half for the entire process, including the new drive being sent back.

[mns8]

Ok so I have a replacement on the way. Can someone give me either a breakdown or a link to procedures for exactly what I need to do to properly use the card? I've googled around but want to make sure I'm doing everything just right in case it's something I did wrong with this faulty one.