Formatting new 3TB HDD as secondary drive crashes Windows 7

Obscure Reference · Apr 7, 2015

The computer recognizes the new hardware and I can see the drive properly in both BIOS and Disk Management and I'm making sure it's initialized as GPT and not MBR since the drive is >2TB. The problems is when I create a new simple volume to allocate the drive space the formatting fails and I get these messages on screen. Then when I go to format the disk it seems to start properly but after 10 - 15 minutes it crashes my computer and I get this screen. After that I can't get windows to boot unless I disconnect the new drive, it won't even boot into safe mode.

So far I've done this 4 times, twice with Seagate 3TB drives and twice with WD Green 3TB drives. Tech support at both companies just say that the drive is defective and to RMA it or exchange it at the store I bought it from. Usually when formatting I choose the smallest Allocation Unit Size but the last drive I tried I just left it at "Default" and I did not get this error message again and it went right into formatting the drive, but still 10 - 15 minutes in my computer crashed with this same blue screen and windows wouldn't boot until I unhooked the new drive.

The computer is a 4 or 5 year old Dell XPS 8300 running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1. As far as I can tell it doesn't support UEFI and I know it's not set to use UEFI now but I'm not trying to boot from the new disk so I don't think this should matter.

I've posted about this in several places and talked to friends and some IT guys at work about it and no one has a clue what's going on here. I know at this point that the issue is likely not being cause by the hard drive itself but I wasn't sure where else to post on the forum, if anyone knows a better place let me know and I'll go there.

If there's any other info required let me know and I'll be more than happy to supply it. Hopefully someone here knows what I can do about this and can save me any further headache.

Thanks in advance.

Darkbreeze · Apr 7, 2015

Try using another partition manager to do the work, like one of these, or something like Acronis Disk Director. I sometimes find I have to use one of them for a partitioning or formatting task that refuses to comply in disk management for some reason but works if I use a third party manager.

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/five-apps/five-apps-for-working-with-disk-partitions/

fzabkar · Apr 7, 2015

Could this be your problem?

SATA devices may not be detected at the 3 Gb/s ports of B2 stepping Intel 6 series and mobile 6 series southbridge:
https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Known_issues

"SATA link(s) performance may degrade over time on some B2 stepping Cougar Point PCH southbridge. Links will develop increased bit error rates and failed transfers have to be retried upon error detection by the SATA controller. As the wear out continues performance will get worse as the SATA controller will spend more time retrying failed transfers than it will spend on sending actual data. At some point things will get so bad that attached devices will be disconnected because of unreliable link from unstable clock and will not be detected at all."

Darkbreeze · Apr 7, 2015

In addition to what I posted above, I'd recommend trying it on a different header, preferably a native header and not one of the secondary headers if equipped with secondary Marvel or ASMedia headers. Or, try a different SATA cable.

What is your motherboard model number?

johnbl · Apr 7, 2015

if you can put up a memory .dmp on a server and post a link I can look at your machine info and drivers.
Your error codes indicate that no error was returned. (like it stopped talking)

Obscure Reference · Apr 7, 2015

Someone on another forum suggested that I may have some bad RAM so I tested it out and I did have one bad stick. I honestly don't know if that would cause the issue but I'm liable to go on what he's saying since his one suggestion panned out. I was running with 4x2GB but now I'm at 2x2GB because my motherboard is dual channel, not tri-channel. If anyone has any ideas on this theory that'd be great.

darkbreeze - I don't know what you mean by trying a different header, but I could try another partition manager.

fzabkar - I don't think that's the issue because I'm only using the 6Gbps SATA 3 ports on my motherboard.

johnbl - I'm unfortunately not familiar with how to do that, sorry.

Thanks for all the help guys, hopefully this will be solved soon!

Darkbreeze · Apr 7, 2015

A header is the place on the motherboard where something, a fan cable, sata cable, usb cable, whatever, plugs in to the motherboard. Some motherboards only have a couple of native (Meaning primary) headers while others have four, six or even eight headers for connecting drives or other SATA devices. Some may also have SATAe headers, for serial ATA express devices. Secondary headers are generally a different color from the primary headers and you should avoid using the secondary headers for installed devices unless there are no primary headers left open. Primary headers should always be used for the boot drive and is highly preferred to be used for secondary and tertiary drives as well. Optical drives aren't AS big of a concern, but again, use native headers when possible. This might explain it better than I can.

The white headers, to the left, are the native SATA headers. The blue headers to the right, are secondary headers and do not use the same storage controllers as the primary, or native, sata headers. Secondary controllers are often problematic.

Obscure Reference · Apr 7, 2015

Ok, I understand now. My mother board has 4 SATA ports, two are SATA 3 and two are SATA 2. I have tried using both of the SATA 3 ports but have not tried the SATA 2 ports. I've also tried different combinations of the ports and cords and my existing 1TB hard drive works fine no matter what and the new secondary hard drive fails during formatting and then prevents windows from booting no matter what.

ArtPog · Apr 7, 2015

Possibly you've already tried this but if you haven't - try connecting the secondary HDD to a different SATA connector to see if that has any effect on this problem.

Also, it appears your boot drive is connected to the SATA 1 connector and your secondary HDD is connected to the SATA 0 connector. What happens if you reverse those connections?

ADDENDUM: I hadn't previously seen your last post. Evidently you've tried what I was suggesting.

Darkbreeze · Apr 7, 2015

Your primary, OS, drive, should preferably be connected to SATA 0. Your secondary drive should be connected, again, preferably, to SATA 1. Those should both be native controllers. I'm guessing this is one of those boards where the native controllers are SATA II and the secondary ones are SATA III, which misleads MANY users to use the secondary, more problematic headers, thinking it's better since they're theoretically faster.

Technically speaking, no HDD is capable of using the full SATA II speed anyhow, and the only time you'd see any realistic difference even with a native SATA III header over a SATA II header and using an SSD, which can make much better use of the available throughput than a HDD can, is during a sequential transfer. Random operations, which is the majority of operations, won't be hamstrung by using the SATA II headers and will be much more stable.

This may NOT be your issue, but it is AN issue, and could very possibly be the cause of YOUR issue.

Obscure Reference · Apr 7, 2015

To be clear the two hard drives are connected to the SATA 0 and SATA 1 ports. I believe I have tried all possible configurations of hard drives, ports, and wires without expanding to the ports labeled SATA 2 and SATA 3.

Also, Toshiba tech support pointed the finger at Dell and told me they need to fix this. Dell won't help me unless I pay them but I did put up enough of a fuss that someone there pointed me at the SATA mode in the BIOS, but they seemed to think there would be an option that there wasn't or something but I'm not too sure because they were cryptic and didn't speak the best english. The only SATA mode options I have are AHCI and RAID and I've so far left it in AHCI mode. Also, while on hold I dug out an old external enclosure and found that the most recent drive that I tried to format that also caused this issue can be seen and used when hooked up in the enclosure but when I put it back inside the PC it prevents windows from loading and it just hangs on the "Starting Windows" screen.

Darkbreeze · Apr 8, 2015

Ok, so as I asked before, what is your motherboard model number? If you don't know, it should be printed on the motherboard itself, or you can download and run CPU-Z and look on the mainboard tab. Most times it will list the model number there.

CPU-Z: http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

Obscure Reference · Apr 8, 2015

It's a Dell OY2MRG. I'm pretty familiar with it's relevent specs at this point too so let me know if you need anything else.

Darkbreeze · Apr 8, 2015

Ok. Heh. I believe it. I'll let you know if I see anything that might be relevant. I'm going to take a look at the BIOS options and do a little research on this unit. It might be that the storage controller on the mb is just old and has just finally said "that's it", which happens sometimes. Did you try the other headers, the SATA 2 and 3 just for shits and giggles, you never know. If one controller is having issues, the other may not be. If both react the same, then the problem is probably not the fault of the controller itself.

Obscure Reference · Apr 8, 2015

I didn't try that but I might as well.

Would switching the SATA mode to RAID have any possible effect?

Darkbreeze · Apr 8, 2015

What is the full model number of your computer, or the service tag number. Trying to get information on specific components through Dell is like talking to a wall. You'd probably have more luck with the wall than with Dell, unless you know the exact full model number or service tag. What I can find on the board itself is minimal but generally a lot more information is available by model.

Unfortunately the XPS 8300 is only part of the full model number. The full number or service tag will open up options according to exactly what components were used on THAT specific sub-model.

Darkbreeze · Apr 8, 2015

RAID is useless unless you're using a RAID array, which you are not.

Obscure Reference · Apr 8, 2015

I don't know the full model number but the service tag is F0WZDP1

Darkbreeze · Apr 8, 2015

That should work, I'll look into it further.

XPS 8300 (Late 2010)

Service Tag: F0WZDP1 | Express Service Code: 32707133461

Darkbreeze · Apr 8, 2015

I think I would begin by upgrading to SP2. I already saw something related to that. Have you not ever applied the windows updates to this machine or is there another reason it's still on SP1?

Obscure Reference · Apr 8, 2015

Hooking the new HDD to one of the other SATA ports did not work. Also, not that it matters, the manufacture date for this actual unit was in early 2011.

Darkbreeze · Apr 8, 2015

Install this to start. It's the updated Intel rapid storage driver as listed on the drivers page for your model. The release date is 2012 and if you're still on SP1 and have not updated drivers, there's a good chance these are not installed.

http://downloads.dell.com/SATA/R284354.exe

Darkbreeze · Apr 8, 2015

What is your current BIOS version?

Obscure Reference · Apr 8, 2015

All my drivers are up to date including my BIOS which is A06, I've seen mention of someone who had a motherboard replaced and had BIOS version A07 but that doesn't seem to actually be available and they may have made a mistake.

Also, my Windows is all up to date and I'm not seeing anything for SP2, even on the windows site it says the latest pack is SP1. http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/service-packs-download#sptabs=win7

Darkbreeze · Apr 8, 2015

You're right, there was no SP2 released. Don't know what I was thinking. Sorry. Must have been thinking all the way back to XP. Jesus, too many OS versions, and now 10 is getting ready to be released. It's bad enough as it is, now they jump right over 9 just to confuse us more. Heh. Anyhow, ok.

Well, the product service manual is thoroughly useless, however, there don't appear to be many user configurable options in the bios anyhow. The fact that the drivers page for your model lists a number of specific firmware updates for a variety of drive models concerns me, as that's not something generally provided on a motherboard or PC product page, but I don't know if it's relevant or not.

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