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WD 300GB Velociraptor Issue

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SeanBest

Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2006
Location
Harrisonburg, VA
Ok so I came downstairs this morning turned on my PC, gets ready to load desktop ... black screen with mouse pointer. Figured video card ... reboot. Reboot stalls at BIOS screen. Reboot open BIOS and it sits at loading HDDs. Reboot again it goes to hardware monitor and gives me an error about no partition. Reboot into BIOS ... see it only sees my secondary backup HDD not my main drive.

My main drive is a 300GB Velociraptor and my backup is just a small 80GB WD for storing my backup image and a small linux boot. So I make sure the cables are connected they are. Unplug one at a time and try booting, the 80GB boots fine. The 300GB raptor alone won't. Unplug and plug it back in a few times and it boots finally,

When I plug the SATA cable into my 80GB drive it makes a click sound. My raptor doesn't. Seems like ti doesn't snap in and just hangs in there. It's always been like that. Had this happen a few times, but never really looked into I guess.

Anyone else with a 300GB Velociraptor out there tell me if there SATA cable clicks into the connector or just slides in? I think the connection is nonexistent so I might need to RMA.

Thanks!
 
Anyone else with a 300GB Velociraptor out there tell me if there SATA cable clicks into the connector or just slides in? I think the connection is nonexistent so I might need to RMA.

Thanks!
Usually depends on the cable, not the HDD. Maybe the frame around where the cable sits has been "damaged" preventing proper cable seating? Usually cables with locking mechanisms click, those without, don't.
 
My cables click. I have 6 cables that came with the mobo. All 6 click in the 80GB drive but none click with the raptor.
 
Gotcha. I have both and either has worked fine with my VR's. I can't see a failure to click as an indication there is no contact between the cable and drive. If it's fully pushed on, whether secure or not, I'd expect a solid connection. But you have problems, so.......maybe not.
 
Same thing happened again tonight. This time it was just sitting on the desktop downloading the Ubuntu 10.04 alpha 1 iso. Walked by the room when I heard my video card spin up and the pc was stuck on the bios screen. Several reboots and it came back. Read the 80GB drive, but didn't see the 300GB drive.

Might have to RMA it ...
 
I can't be sure what your trouble is, but right now I'm going through my third WD Velociraptor. They are sending me a 3rd replacement, and I'm getting very frustrated with WD. At least I've learned not to put vital stuff on the WD drive, and to do way better backups. The fact remains, though, if you pay a bunch for a drive, you should be able to rely on it.
 
Running at stock speeds for little over 4 months now, has happened 3 times in those 4 months.

This morning turned PC on and no more than 5 minutes in Windows it became unresponsive. This happened 4 times, each time after reboot I would reboot 5+ time each saying disk error then would reboot.

I can't run the WD diagnostic tool, it says cable test::write sector failed on both drives and my 80GB hasn't had any problems. I read online that their tool doesn't like some SATA controllers and won't run at all.

Replaced my SATA cables this morning after those few unresponsive boot attempts and it's been running fine since then. We'll see how long it lasts. Next crash/freeze/bad boot and I'm gonna RMA it. Hoping it was just a cable, but I think it's the actual connector on the drive, the cables don't seem to snap in or stay put like they do on the 80GB drive.
 
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