broken harddrive

Livzz

Livzz

New Member
i have been using a WD3200KS hard drive in my old computer for ages and it worked a treat, but now that i've put it into a new computer it doesnt work as well. I cant boot from it, and when i use it for data storage the computer sometimes freezes when shifting data to and from the drive.

anyone know why?

I've run the WD diagnostics software (from their website) and each time i run a test it tells me theres a problem with the cables, but the cables are brand new and ive tried a few different ones.

i kinda need this drive working, and cant afford to buy another one...
 
Does it have an operating system on it? If so, it may only work with the original hardware? Also what file system?

If need be, you could format it to FAT32 and it should work with any system. This will delete everything though.
 
i backed up everything onto my new 500gb drive, so i've already formatted it.

i have tried installing XP pro on it, and as soon as the computer restarts and tries to boot from the drive it gives me a 'disk read error'.

at the moment its partitioned into 2 x 150Gb parts, both formatted with NTFS
 
Designating one specific drive as the boot device when more then one is installed requires going into the bios not only to see the 1st boot device set to hard drive but also reuires bringing up the list of drives detected in order to move one to the top of the list. That sets it as the default.

With more then one drive in a case especially when an ide model is present the Windows installer will place the boot information on the ifrst drive ide first then the first sata if no ide model is found. The boot information may have ended up on the other drive there while you had the 320 set as the default. That would explain why you couldn't seem to boot up with it.

For correcting some occasional goofs seen with Windows in particular XP not Vista go into the device menager and open the storage devices section and right click on the 320 listing there. Selecting the uninstall option and restarting the system can often correct drive detection problems even if a drive is still seen but not responding well.
 
PC eye said:
Designating one specific drive as the boot device when more then one is installed requires going into the bios not only to see the 1st boot device set to hard drive but also reuires bringing up the list of drives detected in order to move one to the top of the list. That sets it as the default.
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yeah i know to tell it which drive to boot from. i even unplugged the 500gb hard drive to make sure.

PC eye said:
With more then one drive in a case especially when an ide model is present the Windows installer will place the boot information on the ifrst drive ide first then the first sata if no ide model is found. The boot information may have ended up on the other drive there while you had the 320 set as the default. That would explain why you couldn't seem to boot up with it.
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nup, i unplugged the other hard drive when i tried instaling XP pro. and they're both SATA anyway.

PC eye said:
For correcting some occasional goofs seen with Windows in particular XP not Vista go into the device menager and open the storage devices section and right click on the 320 listing there. Selecting the uninstall option and restarting the system can often correct drive detection problems even if a drive is still seen but not responding well.
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ok, i'll give that a go...
 
windowsvista said:
does you new computer fit the HDD.
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yep, its plugged in and my new computer can read the contents fine at the moment, but when i try and shift data it freezes.



if it helps, i'm using Vista 64bit on the new computer.
when attempting to install XP Pro on the drive in question, i am using the same computer, but unplugging the 500Gb drive (the one with vista on it).
 
Here I run two satas with one of the two ide drives use in the last case here. When unning that one XP Home was on the first ide with Vista replacing XP Pro on the second 250gb later seeing Pro go on the first of the two 500gb sata drives still in use on the new build.

Here I wanted some better then typical flat ribbon type cables to insure integrity of file transfers as well as being durable. Yet even with all 3 versions being multi booted you could see slow downs at times when going to simply browse one drive while booting from the other.

The question now would be was the 320 the only drive in the last case where it simply stood alone? As the single OS drive in a case read access would be like lightning while having multiple drives will tend to see longer delays in browsing as a rule at times.
 
sorry mate but that was difficult to read and i couldnt really see the relevance...

my 320gb has never been used as a boot drive before, and when i try to use it as a boot drive it is the only hard drive in the system.
I have never made or tried to make a multi-boot system.
All my drives (hard drives and cd/dvd) are sata.
 
I was simply pointing out what is seen often when having more then one drive installed. The read access time can slow down at times depending on a few things like how much is being moved or copied from pne place to another and what is running in the background when going to simply browse another drive.

Being sata not ide makes life easier when setting drives up since the only time a sata drive sees a jumper setting change is on the Sata 1 type where the mode not cablle postition is changed. That would be things like disabling the ATA150 capability. Yet eveb though the sata bus is faster you are still limited by the ATA100/133 to the greatest extent.
 
oh ok, that makes sense... but the problem isnt the slow access time, the problem is the computer simply freezing.

I just ran the WD diagnostics a few times, and the quick test stopped at a certain sector the first time, then ran clean on the second test, but the third test stopped at a different sector.

any ideas why?
 
Over a period of time the drive may have seen bad sectors form now causing problems in the new build. The move of 3 out of 4 of the drives from the last case went smooth since they were known to be in good working order. The other possibllilty is that something still isn't configured optimally on the new build there if the drive hasn't decided to go doa at this time.

The best move at this point is to take notes on everything including any blue screen crashes. memory dumps, driver errors that will provide some clues. With two separate builds examined lately both were seeing drives that sould be read while formatting or creating new primaries once the original were removed. Both saw lockups when simply choosing an option in the F8 boot menu like safe mode as well as repair install and full reinstall arrempts were the copy of setup files would also freeze up.

The conclusion was reached for each that the single drive in each needed a replacement. Fortunately the data on the drives was copied to the new single primary to be used. Hopefully you simply have a need for a bios update or cable replaced rather then seeing a bad drive or need to replace the board from seeing a bad sata port.

On the one case where the drive was one I loaned out the WD tools first reported 0% defects and then failed like the post screen to even see the same drive on the same cable! bye bye 120gb there! A WD Sata 1 200gb model was waiting to go in and so far is seeing great results.

A WD 250gb ide drive used for storage on the second case replaced the Hitachi 80gb model that went there. The Hitachi was only a year old while the 120gb ide model was first used back in 2003 and actually saw three cases but also saw high temps when the owner never cleaned the dust since building it over a year ago. Talk about wool blankets and high temps! :eek: !
 
If the drive is found in good working order with no faults it may be a simple need to update the bios if the drive isn't being detected by that properly seeing everything hand up on you. Another item to consider when problems are seen accessing and copying files from any drive is the data cable being the cause if that is no good.

Fortunately those for sata type drives are far cheaper to replace then the good round ones for ide drives like the Antec Cobra UV white nylon wrapped heavy duty type cable where the shipping cost can go higher then the price of the cable itself! Try a different cable there and even try uninstalling that drive when right clicking on it in the device manager and seeing it redetected upon Windows restarting.
 
PC eye said:
If the drive is found in good working order with no faults it may be a simple need to update the bios if the drive isn't being detected by that properly seeing everything hand up on you. Another item to consider when problems are seen accessing and copying files from any drive is the data cable being the cause if that is no good.
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Its definitely being detected properly, and i've tried 3 brand new cables

PC eye said:
Fortunately those for sata type drives are far cheaper to replace then the good round ones for ide drives like the Antec Cobra UV white nylon wrapped heavy duty type cable where the shipping cost can go higher then the price of the cable itself! Try a different cable there and even try uninstalling that drive when right clicking on it in the device manager and seeing it redetected upon Windows restarting.
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nup, cables are fine... and i tried uninstalling it, which worked ok, but still has trouble in the WD Diagnostics.
 
My first impression seems to be holding up about bad sectors being the most likely thing being seen there. The worst would be now seeing the read/write heads starting to fail while the WD tool freezing at certain points to the likelihood of problem sectors now being seen on the platters themselves.
 
That guy will run you around in circles with useless nonsense. Thankfully the block feature works very well.

Anyways, try it on a different motherboard first. See if the errors persist. If the do, the drive is done. Quite possibly the controller on the drive. I'm sure you used 80 pin cables, but if you haven't, try one. Make sure the jumper is set to master, no slave present. Have it on its own controller, all by itself on the ribbon. Stuff like that. If it still chokes, even on another board, toss it. It's not worth fixing. If it doesn't, then look at what's going on in your current system.
 
SirKenin said:
I'm sure you used 80 pin cables, but if you haven't, try one..
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You might want a word with someone on that concerning 80conductor/40pin ide cables. At this late date it would be quite rare to even find any new 40conductor/40pin cables since there is no longer any need except for restoring some old case from the early 90s. :rolleyes:

One reason for swapping an old IBM I386 desktop for a newer cheapie AST I486 beater some years back was simply to get of the long gone older form there. The flat ribbon type 80conductor/40pin ide cables are what come with any new board as a rule while many prefer a higher quality round cable and the increase in air flow seen when using that type.

A review on the Antec Cobra syle round ide cable with a dual nylon wrapping for example can be seen at http://www.dvhardware.net/modules.php?name=Reviews&rop=showcontent&id=31
 
SirKenin said:
That guy will run you around in circles with useless nonsense. Thankfully the block feature works very well.

Anyways, try it on a different motherboard first. See if the errors persist. If the do, the drive is done. Quite possibly the controller on the drive. I'm sure you used 80 pin cables, but if you haven't, try one. Make sure the jumper is set to master, no slave present. Have it on its own controller, all by itself on the ribbon. Stuff like that. If it still chokes, even on another board, toss it. It's not worth fixing. If it doesn't, then look at what's going on in your current system.
Click to expand...

cheers for the advice, unfortunately i dont have anyother computers here with SATA, so i only have this board to test it on...
 
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