WD Caviar Blue, are dying?

Lt_Dan · Post by **Lt_Dan** » Sat Jul 18, 2009 4:12 pm

Hi,
i have a WD SE 640GB - http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=394
which i got around a year ago.
i have another segate 7200.10 320GB ( http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?l ... cale=en-GB ) which i bought much(!) longer ago.
the WD has "problems" (i think it died) - i use it for BT downloading so maybe it's accessed more.
does it have known problems? it is soft mounted and it's average temp is 47~
(the same as the seagte - and the Sgt works perfectly fine).
what do you think?
thanks,
Dan

line · Post by **line** » Sat Jul 18, 2009 4:46 pm

I'm not aware of a broad issue with it. What kind of problems does it give you? Please upload a HD Tune screenshot showing the Health tab for the drive. You can also run a diagnostic test using Western Digital's software from here and see what it says.

Lt_Dan · Post by **Lt_Dan** » Sat Jul 18, 2009 11:55 pm

thanks,
as it is, it doesn't recognize the drive.
even when i checked it with windows "Computer Management".
i'll will try to connect it and see if it recognizes it or it's some of a software problem.

line · Post by **line** » Sun Jul 19, 2009 3:09 am

As far as you can tell, does the BIOS recognize the drive? I would also check for external problems -- change the SATA data cable, try a different port on the motherboard, and gently clean the drive's contacts with alcohol.

Lt_Dan · Post by **Lt_Dan** » Sun Jul 19, 2009 6:35 am

I tried all of your recommendations.
and my BIOS can't detect it.
i think that's it for it.
but, do you think a hdd can be fixed? i don't think it got erased.

line · Post by **line** » Sun Jul 19, 2009 10:21 am

Have you tried the drive in another computer?

Bare drives have a 3 year warranty so you can just RMA it, but if you need the data it's more about recovery than repairing the drive for future use.

Chances are the data is still there, and depending on how much you value it you can either try to 'do it yourself' or contact a professional service.

Seeing as your problem is physical and not logical (i.e. recovery software is no use), I would not advise you to try repairing by yourself because it's easy to make things worse.

Lt_Dan · Post by **Lt_Dan** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 10:39 am

update:
i got my 640GB replaced.
got a new 640AAKS. it looks different - the sticker is blue and has caviar blue written on it (which my previous 6400AAKS didn't have)
don't know about the sound yet - too much noise in my room, also i still have my seagate which is noisy, and i actually forgot how the old 640 sounded [:)]
also, and i didn't ask about it before - is there a difference between different 6400AAKS, like there is with the 320gb?

psiu · Post by **psiu** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 1:31 pm

I hope they aren't. The one in the HTPC is like your original, a pre-Blue designation model, while the one in my machine I am on right now is a Blue variant. Both have been fairly cool, quiet and fast so far.

*Knocks on particle board desk*

Kaleid · Post by **Kaleid** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 1:40 pm

No problem with mine. Had it for quite some time... and temp has very rarely been above 40C

Lt_Dan · Post by **Lt_Dan** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 2:28 pm

maybe the differences are minor.
i thought it might be like the 2 320gb models.

it runs at 45c, when ambient is 22 (i think i'm not sure about my ac)

alleycat · Post by **alleycat** » Wed Sep 02, 2009 4:06 pm

I'm also having problems with a 320GB Caviar Blue which I bought around April last year. Tried to install Windows 7 RC to it but the installer told me the drive is about to fail. Also, tried to benchmark it but that failed half way. The drive had been suspended, running about 12 hours per day and used for office type work.

markyb · Post by **markyb** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 10:47 am

You guys are getting me worried!

Ive always had WD drives and been very reliable. So when building my lastest pc i naturally chose WD as my primary hhd which happens to be the 320gb caviar blue. I also bought the green caviar 500gb and on the other part of the forum heard they are suffering from the intelpark problem.. sheesh.. im going to have to keep my eye on these arent i!

Lt_Dan · Post by **Lt_Dan** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 10:59 am

i didn't want to suggest that the problem with the my hd is something spesific to the 6400aaks,

the problem with the 2 320gb models - where found out by spcr.

btw - the 500gb GP is single platter? how hot does it go?

dhanson865 · Post by **dhanson865** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 1:13 pm

markyb wrote:You guys are getting me worried!

Ive always had WD drives and been very reliable. So when building my lastest pc i naturally chose WD as my primary hhd which happens to be the 320gb caviar blue. I also bought the green caviar 500gb and on the other part of the forum heard they are suffering from the intelpark problem.. sheesh.. im going to have to keep my eye on these arent i!

I've bought dozens of WD caviar Black(32mb cache sata), Blue (16mb cache sata), and standard (preblue 8MB cache PATA) drives over the last two years for work and haven't had any abnormal failures.

So long as you are buying the drives that are below 1TB in size (any drive advertised as 80GB to 750GB) you should be able to treat it interchangeably in reliability as though it were a Samsung, or Seagate drive.

There are issues with 1TB, 1.5TB, and 2TB drives that you might have to pay attention to manufacturer or model number but I don't chase the high capacity drives.

Going forward as SSDs gain in size and popularity you'll probably see WD/Seagate/Samsung increase drive size and cache size to keep their niche alive but so long as you don't chase the highest or lowest capacity hard drives you should be able to buy them until the day SSDs beat them on price per GB.

Keep making backups but don't worry any more based on the name on the label. It just isn't that significant to reliability for the average user.

Lt_Dan · Post by **Lt_Dan** » Sat Sep 05, 2009 1:21 pm

as this is a noise oriented forum, the noise of the drive is important.
that is not to say that reliability and warranty aren't important.

my dream machine would be an ssd for the os and a large GP or other low power hdd as storage.
until the prices of SSDs come down that is.