Barracuda XT, Barracuda, Barracuda Green, DiamondMax and other desktop SATA and IDE drives

[WIZz]

I just brought a new 2TB ST2000DL003 drive and put it in my TT Chaser MK:1 external SATA drive mount that's built into the top of the case, I then started up the pc and in Vista32 I initialized the drive and partitioned it then shut down Vista and removed the drive, I then placed it in my older XP dual core and connected up to the leads where I had been running a 640gig drive for the last two years and the newly partitioned drive was not showing in windows so I removed it and put it back in my VISTA pc and it again failed to work, putting my ear on the drive I could hear it was not running, I took the drive back got a replacement and repeated what I had done previously and it is also dead and not powering on so I did everything the same with a 640 and 320 of another brand and a 1.5 Seagate and the drives are working fine.

How could this happen with two drives in a row but not with any of my older drives, Does anyone have any idea's?

[Cantbecanit]

They aren't dead, it's something you are doing to them.

You won't hear it running if it's not spinning, do a test if you can by putting it in a usb enclosure and then search for new hw, I think the whole problem may well be you are lacking a driver for it, enable ahci in the bios and hack Vista to enable it or you will get a bsod at load time, once this is done the new drive as a slave should show up, that or install it on it's own and get a floppy made up with the sata driver on it and when Windows asks for a 3rd party driver load it, F6 as set up is booting.

I had the same thing with XP last week, wouldn't see my drive in My Computer, it was in disk management though but I couldn't get any further with it because it wanted to format it first, so have a look here as well for it and assign it a drive letter, hth.

[WIZz]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

I assumed because it's not spinning that the drive is dead, It was spinning on my Vista system and I was able to partition the drive but after connecting it to the other system it now won't spin up in either system, the computer shop couldn't get the first drive running either.

I didn't explain but I'm not installing windows on this drive it's just a back up drive, my Vista system is running Intel RAID Mode Raid0 selected in the bios but AHCI is a selectable option instead of RAID, my array contains my Vista install.

I do have a running 2TB Usb2/Esata enclosure that i could put the drive in and test if you think that might help, I will do this as soon as I have the time to swap it over.

Regards,

WIZz

[WIZz]

Ok I put the drive in the external case connected it up and the drive is still not spinning up so I think it is dead.

Now I need too try and workout how the drives are dying so quickly when other drives work fine.

[Cantbecanit]

In Vista it would spin because Vista has things that XP doesn't.

Do this, have an XP system ready to boot, slave the new drive in a higher number sata slot than the boot drive, i.e Boot 0 slave 1, then boot it and enter your bios, set the bios to run ide mode save and exit, when XP is loaded right click My Computer and select Manage, when disk management opens up see if the drive is in there, if it is format it and select it a drive letter.

p.s also swap sata cables and ports, if you have a duff cable this maybe why

iirc this drive may not spin until the correct config is available to it, so make sure all drives are sata and properly connected.

with the external enclosure, does it have a switch to power it on and it's own psu wall plug, if it doesn't then it wont be meaty enough to drive the drive on usb power alone.

Lemme know how it goes.

[WIZz]

The enclosure does have an external power supply, It's a Vantec NexStar 3.

The drive has also been tried in two different systems and it doesn't spin up, It did initially when I partitioned it but hasn't spun up since it was powered down.

I've got 3 computers and had dozens of drives over the years but never had problems like this, I don't usually buy Seagate since my first drive was a Seagate 9gig and it suddenly died after 3 months with no warning and with many hours of work not backed up, with changing brand I have not had a failed drive since and have only recently decided to give Seagate a go again, I'm going to return the drive and hopefully they can swap it for a different brand.

This has left a sour taste in my mouth and I just can't trust these drives after this.

[fzabkar]

ISTM that your Windows XP box may be killing your drives.

I would measure your power supply voltages, particularly the +5V and +12V outputs. It could be that your 640GB drive may be able tolerate a mild overvoltage whereas the Seagates have tighter protection. If you can remove the PCB and upload a detailed photo of the component side, then we may be able to see what damage has been done. Typically there will be a shorted TVS diode near the SATA power connector. In your case there may also be a burnt inductor. That would explain why the PSU is not shutting down.

[WIZz]

I do have a torx screwdriver but the screws on the PCB are a half size or something because size 7 is too small and size 8 is too big so I am not able to remove the PCB.

In the XP PC I am currently running a WD320 and WD640 and a 1.5tb 7200.11 Seagate drive with no problems, the PSU is an Antec True power 430 and is 6-7 years old.

I don't know how to measure the voltages can you explain please?

I don't understand what you mean about the power supply not shutting down?

[WIZz]

I just had another look at the screws and i mentioned the wrong sizes it was 6 and 7 not 7 and 8, I checked 6 again and it was able to undo the screws and yes right in the middle of the SATA connector is a burnt component, that makes me question if these drives are too sensitive to power fluctuations compared with other drives.

How can one type of drive burn out when 4 others have been fine for years.

I'm thinking it's either the Cases SATA dock on my Vista PC or the PSU on my old PC but need to find the cause so I don't have this problem again.

[WIZz]

I wish I could edit my posts rather than create a new reply each time.

When i said burnt out in the middle of the SATA connector I meant power connector, there's a 6mm round burnt area and it looks like something melted.

I just tried a 5 year old 80 gig SATA drive that i was given and had never used and it ran fine in both computers with half a dozen power ups and shut downs in each.

[fzabkar]

The following document should explain what has happened. It also explains how to measure the PSU voltages:

http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/TVS_diode_FAQ.html

Here are several photo clips showing damaged TVS diodes:
http://www.users.on.net/~fzabkar/HDD/

You can obtain a cheap multimeter for around US$5.

Cen-Tech 90899 7 Function Digital Multimeter (US$5):
http://www.harborfreight.com/7-function-digital-multimeter-90899.html

Cen-Tech 90899 7 Function Digital Multimeter User Manual:
http://manuals.harborfreight.com/manuals/90000-90999/90899.pdf

You could also go into your BIOS setup and observe the voltages in the Hardware Monitor screen. However, these voltages may not reflect the values when the PSU is loaded. For that you would need an application such as SpeedFan, or your motherboard's own hardware monitor application.

Sad to say, but I think your Antec TruePower 430 PSU may be the problem. Unfortunately I also have an Antec (350W). :-(

Just search for Antec and Fuhjyyu and you'll see what I mean.

[WIZz]

Thanks for all the info.

I already have a multi meter but had not used it on a PC before.

From looking at images It looks like the 5v inductor is burnt out but i could be wrong.

My PSU is running 4.98v in bios and in speedfan but 4.92 with a multi meter that peaks at 4.98 on startup so looks like bad caps, my other PSU is showing 5.02, I would of though it took more power to fry components not less and I can't see the voltage spiking on the meter, unless it's too fast to get a reading on.

I also checked my 12v, speedfan and bios show 12.2 but multi meter shows 12.07, my other PC is 12.22 with multi meter.

I think I will invest in a new PSU asap and before getting a new drive, replacing bad caps sounds like a lot of work.

I  think with so many drives that run without a problem that the ST2000DL003 is too sensitive to voltage fluctuations which isn't good!