2-3month old WDC Blue 1tb semaphore error

[bluesap]

Hello I bought this hard drive around 2 or 3 months ago but barely used it maybe filled 100-200gbs, While I was storing files into it, it stopped transferring and stalled and then gave me the warning "The semaphore timeout period has expired". I tried to restart my computer and it usually takes around 5secs because I have a SSD but this time around after the error it took me around 15mins to just boot up. After I couldn't get in to my computer, windows tried to repair it self and when it restarted it self my computer automatically disabled the WDC blue 1tb storage drive and wouldn't let me reinitialize it, and when I try to it gave me another semaphore error. With the hard drive disabled my computer run completely smoothly and everything boots up as normal so I tried to move the hard drive to another computer and gave me the same error. Does this mean my the hard is completely dead? I cannot even initialize it to check its health and I've looked on the forums to look for similar problems and I cannot find any that are like mine any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[PTOWN GAMER]

dont get WD harddrives, they fail and bring up errors all the time. Always get Seagate, they are the best with Harddrives

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to the community, bluesap!

I'm really sorry to hear about your WD Blue drive causing you such troubles. 🙁 I'd recommend you to try plugging the HDD externally via SATA-to-USB cable with an adapter or via a docking station. Another thing you could try is using the DOS version of the WD's Data LifeGuard Diagnostic tool to test the drive without booting into any OS. Once you select your WD product, you should be able to find the utility here: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=y2ROV6
Another thing you should try is plugging the HDD in a different SATA port on the mobo and make sure you have updated the SATA controller drivers from your motherboard manufacturer's website.

Hope it helps. Keep me posted!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[bluesap]

I have already tried plugging into different sata ports and computer I don't have a adapter to do the sata-usb thing. God I'm I wonder why this happened. I don't know if the hard drive is just dead what does the dos version do or how does it work?

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

This seems very unfortunate, @bluesap! 🙁 Once you select the WD Blue in the WD Software (Downloads by Product). You should be able to find a description of the software with instructions on how to perform the tests. Here is a .pdf with the step-by-step tutorial: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=N2kg3E

It's possible that the drive is damaged but it's still under warranty, so I'd suggest you to consider sending an RMA request to our customer support as well.
Warranty policy: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=glhGcc
WD Support contacts: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=g34Epr

Let me know how the DOS troubleshooting goes, though! Best of luck!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[bcaballero]

I'm having the same problem with one I bought last month. My situation is this, I have a docking station iDSonix and Sabrent with a 1tb WD blue hd. Plug it in, powered it up and started a transfer of 930gb of files. It would start transferring after a slight delay around 130mb/sec then drop to 0 sit there for a while and give the semaphore error. Then I'd have to disconnect it and reboot to get it recognized again, windows would then try and fix it. I tried this with NTFS and exFat. Same error on both. I think it usually stopped on the larger files, over 1gb. Either way I finally gave up. This was in Win10 Pro on a brand new computer. I took that same drive plugged it into my older Windows 7 PC tried again and all 930gb went through with no problem. Still don't know how to fix this.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

I'm having the same problem with one I bought last month. My situation is this, I have a docking station iDSonix and Sabrent with a 1tb WD blue hd. Plug it in, powered it up and started a transfer of 930gb of files. It would start transferring after a slight delay around 130mb/sec then drop to 0 sit there for a while and give the semaphore error. Then I'd have to disconnect it and reboot to get it recognized again, windows would then try and fix it. I tried this with NTFS and exFat. Same error on both. I think it usually stopped on the larger files, over 1gb. Either way I finally gave up. This was in Win10 Pro on a brand new computer. I took that same drive plugged it into my older Windows 7 PC tried again and all 930gb went through with no problem. Still don't know how to fix this.

Welcome to the community, bcaballero!

It would be a lot easier if you create your own thread and get more people to share their opinion!
It's possible that since the HDD is working properly on the Windows 7 PC, the source of your issue is the Windows 10 compatibility with the docking station. I'd suggest you to try reinstalling the USB hub controller drivers from the motherboard manufacturer's website manually, instead of letting Windows Updates take care of them. Hopefully, that would help you with the transfer of those massive files.

Keep me posted, though. Good luck!
SuperSoph_WD