Western Digital Raptor WD360 dead...

[TX3RN0BILL]

Hi!

Yesterday just as I was playing Planetside my Western Digital Raptor WD360 SATA I just died on me. It refused to reboot properly, and lastly just refused to reformat. Its predecessor of same model had developed bad sectors on the same system. The system is an ASUS A7N8X Deluxe motherboard (AMD XP 3000+ CPU 333mhz FSB, with 2x512mb 333mhz FSB DDR RAM). The hard drive is connected to the onboard Silicon Image SiI 3112 SATALink Controller, which is a RAID controller AFAIK. I wonder if all these HD troubles are because I'm just using a single HD with a RAID controller... does anybody else have info or the same problems? The only thing other than the onboard stuff I have running is my graphics card (Gigabyte Geforce 6800 GT AGP-8X version), LG model 4167B multidisc reader and writer, and a 3.5" Floppy. The OS is Windows 2000, Service Pack 4 with all the updates, with DirectX9.0c, and all the latest drivers for everything else (motherboard, graphics etc etc etc).

[Giovanni]

Aren't WD's covered with a 5 year waranty?

Shouldn't be much of a problem replacing it... as far the your inquiries go for the proper plugging. I couldn't help you there.

[Rbstr]

Using a single drive on the raid should cause no problems. Though, if you've got another SATA controler on the board trying it wouldn't hurt.

To me It sound's like your HD died, call up WD and they should replace it.

Something to remeber with raptor drives: They acctualy heat up a fair bit, and need decent ventilation around them.

[TX3RN0BILL]

Well, yesterday I went to the store and there they checked the drive and strangely, it was running just fine. Now I'll have to reinstall the OS and everything, hopefully it's ok. They said it might have been a power spike, maybe my Antec Overture II's power supply didn't protect my hard drive from a power spike or something, I hope it'll all be working today when I try to reinstall it... a curious thing is that I have the box forcefully open - the top lid can't close because the Gigabyte Geforce 6800 GT's heat pipes are too tall! Of course I only figured that out AFTER I had bought all components... well, guess I'll have to build an acrylic hood for it or something... but it's well aired for now... :)

[TX3RN0BILL]

Well, apparently it's working again ok!! Switched the SATA power connector though to a dedicated one, so it should be more stable... :)

[Electrofreak]

A little hint about hard drives: often the problem lies with an overheated hard drive motor. Once the motor overheats it'll write bad sectors and do a bunch of other nasty stuff. The hard drive I'm using right now once died on me, I took it out, flipped it over, put it back in, and it's worked fine since. The motor simply had been working too hard and had too much weight placed on it, so flipping it over had taken a lot of strain off the motor.

Also, at this point, I believe ALL SATA drives have to be run through a RAID Controller (at least if you're using on-board SATA). I only have a single SATA (this one) but it runs through a RAID controller as well. It's the controller that manages the SATA bus so AFAIK it shouldn't be part of the problem.

[OneManArmy]

to add to electros insights. when watching your vast amounts of porn, skeet away from the box. this should prolong harddrive life as well as overall computer life.

best wishes.

[Electrofreak]

to add to electros insights. when watching your vast amounts of porn, skeet away from the box. this should prolong harddrive life as well as overall computer life.

best wishes.

Especially those with window or top-mounted fans. :thumbsup: