Disappearing / Reappearing 1Tb Green Drives

[Justintoxicated]

I have been having this problem for a while now. It seems to have started after installing Vista SP1 but I'm not positive...

My 1Tb Green drive Disappears from the system at random. I have also been using an external 1TB esata drive which also has a green power drive and it has also been lost from the system.

Rebooting the computer brings the drives back. I'm not sure there is anything wrong with these drives as they seem to be working fine other than the Disappearing / Reappearing Issue. Computer is listed in my sig. Should I flash to a different Bios? RMA the Hard Drives? I'm really not sure what to do... BTW, I also have 2 segate 1TB drives and they seem to work fine, and I'm running them in SATAII mode.

[Mav451]

How do you have your power options set? What really annoys me about Vista is that they default to an aggressive power model that forces HD to turn on and off - constantly. In a desktop situation no less - who's dumb idea was this?

If you have your HD set to always on though, I can't think of anything else. But my experience with Vista is pretty limited (x64 SP1, ~1 week of getting annoyed). I'd probably run the WD Diagnostics, but I doubt it's the hard drives...

[Justintoxicated]

Yea I changed the drives to always stay on, so thats not the issue. Good idea though.

Seatools says the drives are fine (short tests)

[Ockie]

What controller are you running these drives on?

[Justintoxicated]

What controller are you running these drives on?

Whatever the onboard controller is theres 6 green ports.

Come to think of it this all started happening when I enabled AHCI, but disabeling it, is not a valid solution.

[EnderW]

try turning TLER on

[Ockie]

Whatever the onboard controller is theres 6 green ports.

Come to think of it this all started happening when I enabled AHCI, but disabeling it, is not a valid solution.

Yep, sounds like it's a controller issue, not really a drive issue. You can try enabling TLER on your drives, that should fix the issue for you.

[Justintoxicated]

My Drives are not in a raid array though, why would I want to turn TLER on? That utility is a bitch to find anyways. Also why woudl I be the only person on the internet that has issues with Intel x48 chipset dropping drives?

It sounds lik emy best solution is to throw these 1TB drives in the trash or re-install XP...

[Justintoxicated]

Still have not solved this issue and it is still plauging my system. Is the only way to get rid of the problem to buy non western digital green drives?

[Syntax Error]

Sorry for asking the obvious, but have you tried plugging the drive in other computers or different SATA ports or on an external mount (like an external SATA case) to see if it drops out that way? Process of elimination is the name of the game here, and we'd like to know if the problem is originating because of the drive is starting to fail by dropping out, or if it's some other part of your computer, or inherent software (which is where the secondary computer comes in) or even something as trivial as a bad SATA cord. :)

[Justintoxicated]

Sorry for asking the obvious, but have you tried plugging the drive in other computers or different SATA ports or on an external mount (like an external SATA case) to see if it drops out that way? Process of elimination is the name of the game here, and we'd like to know if the problem is originating because of the drive is starting to fail by dropping out, or if it's some other part of your computer, or inherent software (which is where the secondary computer comes in) or even something as trivial as a bad SATA cord. :)

Not exactly. However, the drive was working fine until switching to AHCI mode. I need AHCI for my data backups. My Other 1TB Green drive is having the same issue. It's connected via external enclosure, but through esata so essentialy it is very similar. My Raptor and my two Segate 1TB drives do not have this problem. It only seems to consistently happen to my 1TB Green Power drives on vista 64 with AHCI turned on.

Once the drive is lost and refound, the computer tells me I need to reformat the drive. Powering down and back up the drive does not help. It will not be properly re-detected once lost until the computer is restarted. If a program continualy accesses the drive it seems to prevent it from droping, however this may be mearly coincidence.

[Lazn_Work]

well you can change from AHCI to IDE mode without reinstalling IIRC, so you can change that setting to see if that helps.. if it does, this will point to the SATA controller and not the drive being the culprit.

I would also try updating your SATA drivers.

[Justintoxicated]

I guess I can disable AHCI for now :(

As far as updating the SATA drivers where would I get them from? The Control Panel says they are up to date. I have used mostly Nvidia boards in the past so I would always get the drivers from nvidia rather than DFI, but I don't know what intel is calling them.

[Lazn_Work]

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=2973&lang=eng

[Pocatello]

IIRC, I have read here at the [H] that modifying the IDE/RAID/AHCI settings can FUBAR your OS install.

Why do you need it set to AHCI?

I now routinely use the RAID settings so I can run Raid 1 (mirror) for my OS install.

http://www.hardfolding.com/ftag1.php/mem/8455.png (http://www.hardfolding.com?go=38&tm=33&id=8455)

[Justintoxicated]

IIRC, I have read here at the [H] that modifying the IDE/RAID/AHCI settings can FUBAR your OS install.

Why do you need it set to AHCI?

I now routinely use the RAID settings so I can run Raid 1 (mirror) for my OS install.

http://www.hardfolding.com/ftag1.php/mem/8455.png (http://www.hardfolding.com?go=38&tm=33&id=8455)

So that when my esata backup kicks on the drive will be detected. Otherwise I'll have to set my alarm clock to 4am and manualy restart the computer (assuming it is not processing anything and can be restarted, and of course assuming that I am home on backup day) in order to get the drive to be detected. Of course if the driveit is supposed to backup has disappeared anyways I may as well jsut forget about the backups to begin with.

[Justintoxicated]

Still having this issue, I decided to increase the voltage to my SB, but I doubt it will help :(.

I may just have to build a new computer due to defective parts once again. Never would have dreamed my Hard Drives are not compatable with the MB (at least not all the way since the drive keeps disappearing and the only way to get it back is a restart)....This is almost as annoying as my dads ati errors he keeps getting every 20 minutes or so....

[DonDon]

I am running 3 1 TB WD GP drives in my Thecus N5200 NAS. 1 of the original 3 was defective and ZZF RMAd it. When I got the replacement drive in, I turned TLER on for all 3 drives and they have worked fine ever since. (Bout 3 weeks now.)

It really sounds like a driver issue to me. Only way to be sure would be to run the drives in a 32 bit XP or Vista system.

I still have 2 empty slots in my Thecus if you are selling them cheap.

Don

[Old Hippie]

If you have a spare slot, how about one of those cheap PCI/PCIe SATA controller cards?

I've used a couple of different brands for eSATA purposes and they work just fine.

I'm not sure if it would cure your problem, but for 20-30 bucks it would be worth a shot.

[Ockie]

Like I said, it's a controler compatibility issue, either A) you get a proper controller that will work with those drives, or B) you get diff drives like seagates and be done with it

[capreppy]

I've got a WD green drive (750GB) inside a SimpleTech enclosure (don't flame, it was free).

Mine was doing the same thing and I realized it was heat related. Basically the drive was overheating and when it cooled off (down one or two degrees), it came "back". I've since ripped open the enclosure (no fan) and will put in a new enclosure as soon as some funds become available. Basically with the top off and it is getting enough air to cool it, the issue has gone mostly away. There are times when the drive disappears and reappears if I am doing large data transfers causing it to heat up. I've felt the drive during those large data transfers and it was definitely getting more than a little warm.

If you're not getting any air on the drive and it is warming up (especially if it is sandwiched between other HDDs), this issue can possibly affect you.


Edit: This is the ONLY WD Green drive that I have and is the ONLY drive that displays this behavior. It will probably be my last WD Green Drive. My current wishlist contains only Seagate drives.

http://www.hardfolding.com/fhtag.php/mem/595009/26/2.png (http://www.hardfolding.com/fh_stats/?pz=102&tnum=33&id=595009)

[Justintoxicated]

I've got a WD green drive (750GB) inside a SimpleTech enclosure (don't flame, it was free).

Mine was doing the same thing and I realized it was heat related. Basically the drive was overheating and when it cooled off (down one or two degrees), it came "back". I've since ripped open the enclosure (no fan) and will put in a new enclosure as soon as some funds become available. Basically with the top off and it is getting enough air to cool it, the issue has gone mostly away. There are times when the drive disappears and reappears if I am doing large data transfers causing it to heat up. I've felt the drive during those large data transfers and it was definitely getting more than a little warm.

If you're not getting any air on the drive and it is warming up (especially if it is sandwiched between other HDDs), this issue can possibly affect you.


Edit: This is the ONLY WD Green drive that I have and is the ONLY drive that displays this behavior. It will probably be my last WD Green Drive. My current wishlist contains only Seagate drives.

http://www.hardfolding.com/fhtag.php/mem/595009/26/2.png (http://www.hardfolding.com/fh_stats/?pz=102&tnum=33&id=595009)


Its the coolest running drive in my system, and theres a 120mm fan in front of it as well :) So far it has not dropped since In increase the SB voltage. I'll report back in a week or if it drops sooner.

[TechLarry]

It's something with the drive...

I have a 500GB GP in my external connected to my DVR, and every now and then the DVR loses contact with it and I have to reboot the DVR.

I think the drives are going in to some sort of internal sleep mode, and the computers/DVR's, etc... are not waking them up properly.

Where is this utility to adjust the GP mode pages?

[Boostage]

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1356875

[Justintoxicated]

Yea no solution over there in that thread either :(

Better not be this MB it was over $250!

[Justintoxicated]

Ok I'm still having this problem.

let me rephrase the Question.

Does anyone own a DFi X48 Motherboard and Successfully have Western Digital Green Power Drives working?

I want to turn RLER on but the tool will not run in 64 bit vista.

[EnderW]

Ok I'm still having this problem.

let me rephrase the Question.

Does anyone own a DFi X48 Motherboard and Successfully have Western Digital Green Power Drives working?

I want to turn RLER on but the tool will not run in 64 bit vista.
RLER? do you mean TLER?
I used a boot CD that loaded up the utility in DOS

[Justintoxicated]

ok, should I try to enable TLER then? Even though the drives are NOT part of a raid array?

[EnderW]

ok, should I try to enable TLER then? Even though the drives are NOT part of a raid array?
yes

[Ockie]

Ok I'm still having this problem.

let me rephrase the Question.

Does anyone own a DFi X48 Motherboard and Successfully have Western Digital Green Power Drives working?

I want to turn RLER on but the tool will not run in 64 bit vista.

I just don't understand why you don't listen to the folks who has had these problems before. Try a different controller or enable TLER and pray it works.

[DonDon]

ok, should I try to enable TLER then? Even though the drives are NOT part of a raid array?

No!!!! Not if you value your data.

You need to understand what TLER does. TLER greatly reduces the time that the drive can do onboard bad sector recovery. On a normal desktop drive, without TLER, error recovery can take a significant amount of time. If the drive is in a RAID 5 array, if the drive does not respond to a request in 8 seconds, the array will drop the "bad" drive and go into degraded mode. To restore the array, it will need to do a complete rebuild after you remove and reinstall the drive.

TLER limits the onboard error recovery attempt to 7 seconds. Then the Raid array can handle the bad sector without dropping the drive out of the array.

TLER should NOT be used on a single desktop drive, or even drives in RAID 0 as they have no error checking and recovery functions.

But if you don't want to heed my advice, the TLER tool must be run from a DOS boot diskette or CD. It will not work in ANY version of Winblows.

Don

[Justintoxicated]

No!!!! Not if you value your data.

You need to understand what TLER does. TLER greatly reduces the time that the drive can do onboard bad sector recovery. On a normal desktop drive, without TLER, error recovery can take a significant amount of time. If the drive is in a RAID 5 array, if the drive does not respond to a request in 8 seconds, the array will drop the "bad" drive and go into degraded mode. To restore the array, it will need to do a complete rebuild after you remove and reinstall the drive.

TLER limits the onboard error recovery attempt to 7 seconds. Then the Raid array can handle the bad sector without dropping the drive out of the array.

TLER should NOT be used on a single desktop drive, or even drives in RAID 0 as they have no error checking and recovery functions.

But if you don't want to heed my advice, the TLER tool must be run from a DOS boot diskette or CD. It will not work in ANY version of Winblows.

Don

yea but I have run RE drives in the past with no problems, I might try it to see if the controller will stop dropping the drive. I can always change it back.