Problem with Western Digital Green drive and Asus motherboard
in [Computers]
|
Prev: Win 7 Pro in USA
Next: Windows Live Hotmail Question
From: Rod Speed on 8 Dec 2009 03:51 annily wrote: > Rod Speed wrote: >> annily wrote >>> Clocky wrote >>>> Rod Speed <rod.speed.aaa(a)gmail.com> wrote >>>>> annily wrote >>>>>> Gregory Shearman wrote >>>>>>> annily <annily(a)ihopethisdoesntexist.com> wrote >> >>>>>>>> A few weeks ago, I bought a cheap PC, without operating system, >>>>>>>> and installed Windows 7 on it. >> >>>>>>>> It developed a problem where the system woould freeze for 30 >>>>>>>> seconds or more at seemingly random intervals, with the hard >>>>>>>> disk LED on solid. I originally thought it was a problem with Win 7, >>>>>>>> since other people had reported similar symptoms with that. >>>>>>>> After quite a bit of troubleshooting, trying things that had >>>>>>>> apparently worked for other people and getting nowhere, I >>>>>>>> decided to try Win XP on the same hardware. Lo and behold, it >>>>>>>> had the problem too. I then installed Win 7 on an older Dell >>>>>>>> system. This worked fine, so I began to suspect that it was >>>>>>>> some sort of hardware-related problem with the new system. >>>>>>>> So today, I replaced the WD drive with a Samsung HD502HJ, and >>>>>>>> after several hours running, the problem has not occurred. >>>>>>>> The WD drive is a WD10EADS. The motherboard is an Asus >>>>>>>> P5KPL-AM/PS. Another interesting point is that the new Samsung >>>>>>>> drive does not show up under Disk Drives in Device Manager, >>>>>>>> despite the fact that it shows in the BIOS and works fine. I've never seen that >>>>>>>> before. >> >>>>>>> I run the same Western Digital HDD. It's a SATA drive and I've >>>>>>> had no problems at all with it running under Linux. I've had the >>>>>>> drive for around 6 months now. >> >>>>>> Good for you, but not particularly relevant to my problem with >>>>>> the drive under two different versions of Windows and presumably >>>>>> different hardware from yours. I certainly was not suggesting >>>>>> that the drive would cause this symptom in all cases. I can only >>>>>> assume I have a fairly unusual configuration. >> >>>>> Or you just have a dying drive and the Everest SMART report will >>>>> prove if that is the case. >> >>>> Not always. >> >> Yes, always if its dying due to reallocated sectors or pending >> sectors. >>> SMART isn't all that reliable. >> >> Its completely reliable on those two stats. >> >>> Well, I've had a fun time today, NOT! >> >>> I haven't yet given the WD drive a good run with the latest BIOS, >>> but I thought I'd try to re-partition my Samsung using True Image >>> from the rescue disk, as suggested by Rod. I couldn't actually work >>> out how to do that without restoring something, >> >> Thats how you do it, should have said that explicitly. Acronis' Disk >> Director Suite will do it without a restore, but you did ask for a freeware app >> that could do it, thats why I mentioned TI which does have an older version thats >> freeware. >>> so I restored my latest backup. >> >>> I did this to the latter part of the drive, which it managed by >>> reducing the size of the existing partition (which was the whole >>> 500GB disk). Unfortunately, after this, the existing partition, >>> which had my current Windows 7 OS on it, became unallocated space, >>> so that OS was no longer accessible. >> >> That shouldnt have happened. Most likely its some quirk of Win 7. >> >> You should be able to fix that by repeating the restore with the new >> drive partitiioning. > > I was actually planning to do that (probably today) anyway, because > for some reason, after I restored the Win 7 system with TI, it was no > longer activated, despite being activated when the backup was taken. > This may have been a result of all the mucking around with boot > records I had to do yesterday to get a bootable system again. > >>> I was hoping it would leave this part of the drive untouched >>> (except for reducing it's size). >> >> Thats what it should have done. >> >>> Anyhow, at least I got my two partitions on the drive, and the >>> backup image I restored was only a couple of days old, and I had other >>> backups for important files up to 22:00 last night, so I didn't >>> lose much. >> >>> The interesting part was that, after the partitioning, the Samsung >>> drive now shows up in Windows Device Manager and Disk Management. >>> God knows why it didn't before, but the partitioning achieved the >>> desired result. >> >> Bet its some quirk of Win7 again. It is after all very new. >> >>> To complicate matters, the problem I had the other day with the >>> network not working after installing the WD drive, decided to occur >>> again. Normal Windows troubleshooting, including resetting the >>> network adapter and trying different cables, had no effect. >> >>> Eventually, I decided to open up the case, and jiggle the >>> connection of the Ethernet socket to the motherboard. Lo and >>> behold, it works again. >> >> Yeah, I get that with the PVR, the connector isnt that solid. >> > > Yeah, I'll know what to do if it happens again. > >>> When I've had time to recover from all this, I'll probably try the >>> WD drive again. I should probably leave well enough alone, but I >>> can't resist the urge to fiddle with things. >> >> Yeah, its the only way to really understand stuff. >> >> > > Can be very frustrating though, when things don't work the way you expect. Sure, but life wasnt meant to be frustration free.
From: Gregory Shearman on 9 Dec 2009 19:53 On 2009-12-04, annily <annily(a)ihopethisdoesntexist.com> wrote: > Gregory Shearman wrote: >> >> I run the same Western Digital HDD. It's a SATA drive and I've had no >> problems at all with it running under Linux. I've had the drive for >> around 6 months now. >> > > Good for you, but not particularly relevant to my problem with the drive > under two different versions of Windows and presumably different > hardware from yours. I certainly was not suggesting that the drive would > cause this symptom in all cases. I can only assume I have a fairly > unusual configuration. My comments are relevant as far as reassuring others considering a purchase of this hardware that problems aren't universal. This newsgroup isn't only about you and your problems. -- Regards, Gregory. Gentoo Linux - Penguin Power
From: annily on 9 Dec 2009 20:43
Gregory Shearman wrote: > On 2009-12-04, annily <annily(a)ihopethisdoesntexist.com> wrote: >> Gregory Shearman wrote: >>> I run the same Western Digital HDD. It's a SATA drive and I've had no >>> problems at all with it running under Linux. I've had the drive for >>> around 6 months now. >>> >> Good for you, but not particularly relevant to my problem with the drive >> under two different versions of Windows and presumably different >> hardware from yours. I certainly was not suggesting that the drive would >> cause this symptom in all cases. I can only assume I have a fairly >> unusual configuration. > > My comments are relevant as far as reassuring others considering a > purchase of this hardware that problems aren't universal. > Why would anyone have needed reassurance? I though it was pretty clear from my post that I had a problem specific to my configuration. > This newsgroup isn't only about you and your problems. > I never suggested it was. -- Long-time resident of Adelaide, South Australia, which may or may not influence my opinions. |