Is there something wrong with my hard drive?

masskiller1523 · Jan 26, 2015

After a month of owning a WD Caviar Blue 1TB I noticed it's very loud when doing everyday tasks as its always grinding away being the loudest part in my PC. But in the last two days that was followed by Windows not starting correctly and ultimately led to this benchmark of the drive.

HD Tune Pro: WDC WD10EZEX-00BN5A0 Benchmark

Test capacity: full

Read transfer rate
Transfer Rate Minimum : 1.2 MB/s
Transfer Rate Maximum : 166.3 MB/s
Transfer Rate Average : 65.8 MB/s
Access Time : 20.6 ms
Burst Rate : 301.2 MB/s
CPU Usage : 5.1%

SchizTech · Jan 26, 2015

Try this diagnostic test

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=606&sid=3&lang=en

masskiller1523 · Jan 26, 2015

SchizTech :

Tried that came back as a pass.

SchizTech · Jan 26, 2015

Some hard drives are just noisy. The problem with Windows may be a separate issue then. Can you elaborate on "windows not starting correctly?"

masskiller1523 · Jan 26, 2015

I get the Starting Windows screen then a black screen which no matter how long I wait will not load passed that. So i have to restart my PC which takes me to the Windows recovery and just a moment ago i restored from an earlier date which was the recommended thing was to do.

SchizTech · Jan 26, 2015

Did the PC start correctly after the system restore?

masskiller1523 · Jan 26, 2015

SchizTech · Jan 26, 2015

Well it seems you had some error in Windows. Is the system behaving normally since the restore?

masskiller1523 · Jan 26, 2015

I would say so, but this has happened before a couple of times which I have no explanation why it happened.

SchizTech · Jan 26, 2015

Let me just ask you to check a thing or two. Open the task manager (right-click an empty space on taskbar or use CTRL-ALT-DEL) and go to the "performance" tab. If nothing is running there should be essentially no CPU activity. What do you see there?

Is this WD drive your only drive right now? Perhaps you can run memtest overnight to test for memory errors.

masskiller1523 · Jan 26, 2015

When nothing is running I see 0% usage and yes this is my only drive which is the reason I don't want to RMA it because then I would be without a hard drive.

SchizTech · Jan 26, 2015

Have these problems with Windows not starting properly all occurred only in the month you've had this drive? It's possible Windows didn't install quite correctly, in which case a reinstall might be considered. I do notice you replied quickly after I suggested the diagnostic which implies only a short test was run. There should be an option for a "full" or "long" test in the WD diagnostic.

masskiller1523 · Jan 26, 2015

Well earlier this month I did do the full test, but i would be able to do it again if necessary. Also the problem with Windows only started a couple of days ago.

SchizTech · Jan 26, 2015

OK, then before returning the drive it might be worthwhile to see if a re-install would help. If you have Windows 8 or 8.1 you can use the built-in reset or restore function (insert the disk if it says files are missing)

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/restore-refresh-reset-pc

masskiller1523 · Jan 26, 2015

Does Windows 7 have that feature?

SchizTech · Jan 26, 2015

No. If you have 7 you'd have to use the disk and manually do it.

masskiller1523 · Jan 26, 2015

The Windows 7 upgrade disc would work for that right?

SchizTech · Jan 26, 2015

Whatever disk you used to originally set up the system. Just make sure you have your activation key on hand

masskiller1523 · Jan 26, 2015

Okay. Thanks for your help. Gotta find my Windows 7 disc now. Great......

SuperSoph_WD · Jan 27, 2015

Hey there, masskiller!

Awesome troubleshooting steps you've completed with SchizTech's help!
I'm very sorry to hear about your WD Blue though!

It shouldn't be so loud and the grinding definitely does not sound good! This might indicate a physical damage.
I'd suggest you to contact our tech support and send out an RMA request. It shouldn't take them long to send you a replacement drive as well. You can track the whole procedure from our WD Support Portal.
Here are the contacts: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=bF3Ymi
How to RMA your product: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=WvH78I

Hope I helped!

SuperSoph_WD

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