WD velociraptor/external sata controller vs internal sata controller

[Lauw]

Hi
I was playing around with an old drive of mine and i noticed the following:

I connected it with an external sata controller through a USB connection and the drive appears as healthy in disk management. so I assumed this drive could still be used to run an OS on.

I put the drive in a secondary pc so i could migrate the OS from a noisy drive to this one.
turns out that disk management from the secondary pc marks the healthy drive as unhealthy.

So i tested the drive again with the external sata controller and all seems fine again.

can anyone tell me whats going on?
greets and much appreciated

 

[ArtPog]

1. When you refer to connecting the HDD to a "external sata controller through a USB connection" are you referring to installing the HDD in a usual type of USB external HDD enclosure?

2. So then you uninstall the HDD and internally connect the HDD in a "secondary pc" (what's a "secondary pc"? not your regular PC?), but Disk Management "marks" the HDD as "unhealthy"? Precisely how does DM "mark" a drive as "unhealthy"?

3. It's listed in DM with a drive letter assignment but you can't access its data? Is that what you mean?

4. So when you reinstall the HDD in its USBEHD enclosure (I assume that's the device in which you install it), "all seems fine again". In what way? You can access its data?

 

[Lauw]

1. no its not an enclosure, its something like this. http://www.videk.co.uk/section.php/1063/1/usb-3-0-to-sata-adaptor
when i use this device and connect it with my regular pc it just automounts normally and it shows up in my 'devices and drives' list.

2. yes not my regular PC and well DM would say "bad disk" or gives an error message when you try and initiate the drive.

3. it doesnt want to initiate. when i use diskpart it shows as a typical drive gone bad situation like a few KB visible but in use.

4.with "all seems fine again" i mean that the disk has no issues at all and is working properly.

 

[ArtPog]

1. Aside from the fact that when the HDD is connected as a USB external device it "shows up" in your "devices and drives list", are you indicating you're able to access data from the drive? That the HDD in that situation functions as a normal non-defective external HDD in that (as you indicate in 4.) the disk has no issues at all and works properly?

2. So if that's the case it's ONLY when the drive is connected as an internal drive in the PC that problems are experienced with the drive, yes?

3. Test the drive with the WD Data Lifeguard program to determine its health.

 

[Lauw]

1. yes i can access its data.
2. yes
3 I already checked with HWinfo and the drive its health is indicated as healthy ( a green V) no errors, though when i use WD data lifeguard the test fails after 10 seconds.

edit: after this i wrote zeros to the first and last million sectors and the drive failed the self test again but this time it completed a third of the self test before failing. Im now writing zeros on the full drive. I`ll see what happens. it takes a long time though, i guess this is due to the adapter.

 

[ArtPog]

The fact that the WD Data Lifeguard diagnostic program apparently found the drive defective is significant in my view. (I'm not familiar with the HWiNFO program which you indicate found no problems with the disk.)

But given the problems you've encountered with that VelociRaptor the drive is suspect and I would personally discard it. But as the old saying goes "Yer pays yer muny an' yer taikes yer cherce."

In any event, use Diskpart's clean command and then initialize, partition, and format the disk (assuming the system will permit doing so) and see the results.

 

[Lauw]

The fact that the WD Data Lifeguard diagnostic program apparently found the drive defective is significant in my view. (I'm not familiar with the HWiNFO program which you indicate found no problems with the disk.)

But given the problems you've encountered with that VelociRaptor the drive is suspect and I would personally discard it. But as the old saying goes "Yer pays yer muny an' yer taikes yer cherce."

In any event, use Diskpart's clean command and then initialize, partition, and format the disk (assuming the system will permit doing so) and see the results.

Right (I had to look up that expression though) I wasnt familiar with it until now.
I guess fingers crossed.

much appreciated
thanks

Edit: its weird that a noisy drive still works fine and the (almost) silent one has issues.