trouble with Western Digital hard disk

[Hawke]

I am having a strange time with my hard disk, recently I have found one of my hard disks missing (it is used to store my iTunes music on) - I initially thought it could be some obscure windows 7 problem but the HDD is not there in BIOS.

The disk has reappeared and Windows 7 sees it yesterday night after I pulled and put back the power lead and the SATA cable in but this morning, the disk vanished from the BIOS and Windows 7 again but right now it has reappeared (I am copying over my iTunes folders onto another HDD as I write this) - the disk is a Western Digital WD5000AAKS and it is almost 3 years old and has a capacity of 500Gb

Does anyone know what is going on and should I contact Western Digital about this?

 

[Psi*]

In short, this does not sound good.

1st drill into the WD web site & look for their tech support. They have HDD test software that works or only their drives. As I recall thre is a HDD intgrity testing program & a version of acronis that will run if there is at least one WD HDD in the system ... I would backup everything off that HDD ASAP.

 

[Hawke]

Thanks for the prompt response, I have switched on my PC again at the time of writing, the HDD in question is "recognized" by the BIOS and Windows 7 - I replaced cables (power and SATA) inside my case when this first happen and I still had the same problem

The HDD power cables are extremely stiff and I am now wondering if there is any physical damage to the power connectors on the hard disk, I also swapped SATA and power cables around with other HDDs and still came with the same problem, the other HDDs worked fine, thankfully since the HDD is just under 3 years (will be 3 years in August) I am assuming my warranty with WD is still valid (as their warranty is usually 3 years).

SMART has reported that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the disk (as well as the utilities from WD)

Thankfully I have backed everything from that HDD up now

 

[Psi*]

Given that SMART has reported no problems, then I suspect that the issue could be a connector problem as you also seem to suspect. If the HDD had a problem, it would not be intermittent.

You approach is good in trying to determine if the problem follows a cable or not.

I was too lazy to look for it last night, but maybe a better diagnostic is Data Lifeguard. Careful, some of those tests write to the drive, so just be sure that is what you want to do.

 

[Tharic-Nar]

I have never found SMART to be of much help. After 3 drive failures over the years, not once was SMART able to present any kind of warning. SMART is only useful if it has a baseline comparison, an identical drive profile, this is why the self test systems by HDD manufacturers are better (typically). If the the wake from sleep/powersave spin-up times are increasing, then it's likely heading for a spindle failure. With two of my drives, it was a rapid clicking, sounded like a pendulum clock; not the normal crackling, but a distinct clicking. Other tell-tale signs are a high read-error-recovery, or relocation counts.

The fact you caught it before an unrecoverable failure is good. The problem with those warranties, namely the extended ones with manufacturers, is that you often need to register the product within 30 days of purchase, otherwise you only have a retail warranty, which is either 90 days or 1 year. If you still have the box you bought it in, even if it's OEM, they should come with a warranty slip for you to find out the details. Still worth a try and contacting WD just in case though.

 

[Hawke]

I did use Data Lifeguard, it said there is no problems, I am really thinking that there is some damage to the connectors now, and also, with the SATA power cables (the power cable has three connectors in a daisy chain) being very stiff and the drive bay holding the hard disks so close together, I should have seen it coming.

UPDATE: Well at this time of updating, that hard disk is playing up, if WD refuses to replace it, then £30 for another 500Gb hard disk isn't so bad

 

[Rob Williams]

Thankfully I have backed everything from that HDD up now

Grats on that; it could have been a lot worse!

I did use Data Lifeguard, it said there is no problems, I am really thinking that there is some damage to the connectors now, and also, with the SATA power cables (the power cable has three connectors in a daisy chain) being very stiff and the drive bay holding the hard disks so close together, I should have seen it coming.

Just be careful. I have used Seagate's version of Data Lifeguard in the past and even if no errors are detected, it doesn't mean that the drive is in fact fine. The last drive I had Seatools read "OK" for turned out to be bad. Seatools said it was fine, but no matter what I did, the drive was uber-unreliable.

If you are going to continue using that drive, please be sure to not keep anything important on it.

 

[Kayden]

Just be careful. I have used Seagate's version of Data Lifeguard in the past and even if no errors are detected, it doesn't mean that the drive is in fact fine. The last drive I had Seatools read "OK" for turned out to be bad. Seatools said it was fine, but no matter what I did, the drive was uber-unreliable.

If you are going to continue using that drive, please be sure to not keep anything important on it.

I can not reiterate this point enough, it may come back fine but it may fail at any time or slowly corrupt data. I have seen this happen myself, with WD and Seagate the software is not perfect. I have even seen the software say it is fine in one PC and fail in another, it is stupid I know but it happens. TBH I would just cut your loses with it and get a new one. I know money is tight for every one but losing money is better then losing money and data you can never get back.

 

[Hawke]

Since 500Gb drives only cost aprox £30, I will be getting a new one and possibly ghosting it if the old drive decides to come to life (again)

 

[Kougar]

Since it's an internal drive and you've tried different cables, it is theoretically possible it's an issue with the PC power supply... but my money is on a failing drive.

I have never had SMART nor HDD manufacturer utilities report a problem with a failing hard drive, for all intents and purposes they're useless. Or by the time they would discover the problem the drive itself can no longer be detected and the point is moot.

I'd test the drive in another PC if you could, or even with a USB docking station on another system. If it exhibits the same problem then you'll know it is the drive itself and I would immediately warranty it before the warranty period expires on you... that model has a 3 year warranty.

As for HDD warranties, I never had to register an internal hard drive after purchase to get warranty service. I wish that was true of most other hardware components, though. I can't speak for them all, but WD, Seagate, and Hitachi don't require it. You just need to register the drive as one of the steps of the RMA process itself, all the pertinent info is on the drive label.