New 2TB WD Black no longer recognized in OS

[michaeldean]

So I got this HDD in yesterday from Newegg, today I got around to opening it and installing it. First thing I noticed was the poor packing. It came in a decent sized box with some of those air cushion bags, but the HDD was just laying at the bottom of the box with those on it. Since it wasn't in the clamshell packaging that I've had before I was worried and wanted to test it first, so I added it as a second HDD.

Well I eventually got it recognized by Windows 7 by initializing/formatting it and all appeared to be good. I figured I would do the disc check thing and that's where issues started. Very shortly after starting that the progress bar no longer moved and eventually the box itself disappeared. Since then, the drive can't be seen in the OS though it can in BIOS.

Two different PCs, different SATA cables, different OS and different power cables. Same results, drive can't be seen in the OS but is shown in BIOS. Trying to set it up as the boot drive, Windows installation can't find it either.

I've never had this much hassle from a hard drive. I'm tempted to contact either Newegg or WD for an exchange, but wanted to see if there was anything I could/should do that might fix the current problem.

 

[Paperdoc]

If you suspect a faulty HDD, you should download from the maker's website their free diagnostic utility package and install it on your C: drive (if you get the "for Windows" version). Then use it to test the suspected bad new drive. Since yours appears to be from WD, get their Data LifeGuard utility. I REALLY prefer the version called "for DOS", though, because it can run and test any drive, even if you do not have a working drive with an OS on it you can boot. It loads its own mini-DOS into RAM and runs tests from there completely independent of you regular OS.

However, the "trick" with "for DOS" versions is that what you download is an .iso file, which is an image of an entire bootable CD. Then you must use some CD burning software capable of "burning" an .iso image to a CD-R disk, something like Nero. The resulting CD is bootable, so you must set your BIOS to boot first from your optical drive, and then from your normal HDD.

Put the CD in your optical drive and power on. It will boot from the CD into its own mini-DOS and show you a menu of HDD units found and tests it can do. Choose your suspect HDD and first it will show you the SMART info. If it can't even read that from the HDD, you really have a dead unit. The Short Test will test a few things and sample some of the drive, giving you a result. The Long Test will test EVERY part of the unit, so it takes a long time, but that is how you can be sure you have no problems.

If ANY errors are reported, write them down. Most HDD maker's Tech Support people will require the error reports before they will authorize a replacement under Warranty.

The utility generally does not write reports to any drive, because it can't know which one is working. BUT it does establish a virtual drive in RAM and write some reports there. BEFORE you exit from the utilities, you can use the menu to copy some of those reports in that virtual drive to an external unit like a USB stick if you need to. (Once you exit, the machine reboots and the data in the virtual drive in RAM is lost.)

 

[michaeldean]

But if the issue is that nothing is reading the drive?

I had continued testing and it's iffy whether or not it will even show in BIOS. Sometimes it will, though it shows 0.0GB. I really wanted it to be something I can fix, but after trying numerous things with diskpart, Easeus and Live CD with no avail, I think it's an issue with the drive. It's just weird running the Windows Error Checking would stop it from working correctly on numerous machines and cause BIOS to not even read it correctly.

I can hear the drive spinning as well has the head move, but it also sounds like fluctuation in the spinning, kind of like a car revving.

 

[Paperdoc]

Well yes, if nothing can access the drive, even to the point that the BIOS cannot detect it, then the unit is faulty. This was NOT caused by CHKDSK. The drive was faulty from the beginning, and it just became abundantly apparent once you started to use it. If it really is this bad, even the Data LifeGuard utility would not read it.

One thing to check before going further, though. Some SATA data cables can work themselves loose easily. Just open the case and make sure the cables to the HDD are seated properly in their connectors; check the mobo end of the data cable, too. Then reboot the machine and see if it still cannot work.

 

[michaeldean]

Trust me, it's not a SATA cable connection. That's the first thing I hoped it was and I've tried 5 different SATA cables and every power cable possible. Multiple SATA slots, too.

I'm in queue for Live Chat right now with Newegg, hoping to get a free shipping label since my guess is their poor shipping caused the issue. I wouldn't mind sending one of the clamshell packages from a previous HDD along with it so they can correctly ship the new one.

I'll follow your advice for the new one and use one of those programs on the next drive. I had figured it would let Windows test it while I looked around for a better way to test it, so that will save me some looking. This is actually the first HDD I've ever bothered testing. I've just read too many things about HDD issues after poor packaging and since this is going to my brother for Christmas, I figured I'd better test to make sure all was fine. Good thing, too.