WD 1TB HD Kinda Sorta Responsive

MugMugs

Hi Folks

Bought a 1TB WD HD off a lad on Adverts but when I plugged it in and went to Format it the format screen ran very slow.

XP recognises the HD and it's values just seems to run VERY slow.

It's a USB 2.0

Anyway, Ran chkdsk on it and then ran chkdsk/f yet when I go to format again it's just sitting there. The HD light is flashing and the Format screen is just working but no real action.

Tried to load a 10MB file onto it aswell. Started out with a work time of 20 secs then up to 30 secs and then on to 20 minutes etc etc....

Any ideas or have I just bought myself a Dud ?

MugMugs

Anyone?

Voodu Child

A full format of a typical 1TB drive will take at least 8 or 9 hrs over USB 2.0

Same goes for a full disk check.

Check the smart data on the drive to see if it has a lot of bad sectors etc. HDTune might let you read the smart data or run a quick check. Also there is a utility from WD themselves.

Someone will probably suggest you remove the drive from the enclosure and format it directly but in my experience 99% of the time when an external drive is giving trouble it's the drive itself and not the enclosure/controller.

If its a second hand drive then there is always a chance its a dud, drives deteriorate with age and its a false economy to buy used. I don't see any comments on your adverts profile so i've no idea about the circumstances surrounding the drive.

If its a brand new drive then it'll have a warranty.

MugMugs

Thanks for the response.

I never linked my Adverts and Boards accounts. Here is the drive though

Never heard of HD Tune

Downloaded it there and got this

HD Tune: WD Ext HDD 1021 Benchmark

Transfer Rate Minimum : 0.0 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Maximum : 2.8 MB/sec
Transfer Rate Average : 0.1 MB/sec
Access Time : 1780.2 ms
Burst Rate : 10.2 MB/sec
CPU Usage : 2.6%

I am not expert but I assume a transfer rate of 2.8MB is pretty bad. I did an error scan too and got this

HD Tune: WD Ext HDD 1021 Error Scan

Scanned data : 953485 MB
Damaged Blocks : 0.0 %
Elapsed Time : 150:03


I assume these results aren't normal.... Is there anything that could be causing it ?

Voodu Child

You should get about 20-30MB/s average transfer rate with a USB 2.0 external drive. So clearly something is not working properly.

Check the drive with the WD diagnostics tool, you can download from the site (wdc.com).

Failing that, you could try formatting it in a different machine, to rule out a problem with your own. Also try a different USB cable. And finally you could try the HDD outside of the enclosure, either directly connected via SATA (if you have a desktop) or else in another external enclosure/dock (which you can buy for about €10-20).

The last one will void the warranty if it still has one. So check if the drive has been registered on wdc.com; if it has you'll see how much warranty is left.

If not you can still register it, although you'll need the date of purchase and if you make a claim on the warranty you will likely then need proof of that date (so don't just make one up).

MugMugs

Just wanted to let people know.

I used the RMA process of WD. Cost me about a tenner to post and had the drive back wthin 4 days of sending the old one back.

EXTREMELY impressed with the service given by WD and the speed in replaced the damaged drive.