wd7500aaks failure

Tril · Jan 13, 2009, 05:16 AM

The last time I got a harddrive failure, it was a 20 GB harddrive many many years ago. It looks like I just got my first HDD failure since then.

One year ago, I bought 4 Western Digital Caviar 750GB HDD (wd7500aaks). It seems like one of them just died. 3/4 of the time, it's not detected in the bios. The other 1/4, it's detected but it does not last until it gets to Windows. If I touch it while the computer starts, I can feel that it starts spinning, then a few seconds later, it stops spinning, then tries to spin again, then stops, etc. It does that a few times then stops completely. When it works long enough to be detected by the bios, it still pass the S.M.A.R.T. I did not see it coming.

I'm going to lose some data but at least it's still on warranty with the 3 years warranty.

Luckily, this was a drive on which I just stored non-important random stuff but it's still frustrating to lose data. I'm feeling a bit worried about the others and about putting in a repacement of the same model.

When I was a kid, it was less worse to get an HDD failure. You just loss about 800 Mb of data. Now, you can lose hundreds of GB or even TB.

I feel more safe with Seagate drives. I've got three of them in my pc. I've had them for longer than the failed WD drive and they are still working.

I'm thinking of going through the RMA but give the HDD to my brother and buy a bigger one. A 1.5TB drive from Seagate would be nice but I've just read stuff about a bad firmware.

Cow_160483 · Jan 13, 2009, 06:00 AM

I think Seagate drives are the best I have had most of mine for a couple of years and they are still working even a 20 & 40GB that i used on my first PC. So i would go there and get myself a couple of Segates, but before that do a google search on the HDD that you want to see if it has any issues !

Tril · Jan 14, 2009, 07:56 AM

I've still got some luck. I got the drive to work for five minutes until it disappeared. I'll try to backup the data by rebooting many times. With some luck, I'll be able to copy all the data. It's going to take a long time.

EDIT : I was able to copy all the data off the HDD. It took a few reboots. After copying all the data, I ran the WD Diagnostics software of Western Digital. SMART test passed but the extended test failed with the error message "Too many bad sectors detected". I rebooted my computer and this time the disk was not even detected in the bios. I tried a few times to reboot and it was never detected again. I got all the data just in time, it seems. I'm going throught the RMA process. I'll have a new drive in some time.

I'm thinking this drive has always been a bit bad. When I first got my computer, I tried to put my new 4 drives in RAID (before changing my mind and not doing it) and I had issues with it not working well. It was sometimes not recognised during boot-up, it often had to repair itself for unknown reasons.

When looking at making an RMA, I noticed that WD offers an upgrade program. Basically, they void the warranty on one of your old drive, you get to keep the old drive and in exchange, they sell you a more recent model for a price lower than the retail price. That seems nice. If your drive is near its end of warranty and you happen to be looking at buying an HDD, you could save some money with this program.

EDIT2 : I went through the RMA for the HDD and I got a new one delivered in about 3 to 4 weeks. I'm very pleased with the RMA experience. I had to ship the HDD to a place in my country in another province so it was not too expensive and too long to ship. I also bought two new HDD and I went with Western Digital since I heard bad things about the 1 GB and 1.5 GB Seagate HDD.

Jan 13, 2009, 05:16 AM	#1
Tril S-3D enthusiast Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Canada Posts: 1,676 Rep Power: 64 System Specs	wd7500aaks failure The last time I got a harddrive failure, it was a 20 GB harddrive many many years ago. It looks like I just got my first HDD failure since then. One year ago, I bought 4 Western Digital Caviar 750GB HDD (wd7500aaks). It seems like one of them just died. 3/4 of the time, it's not detected in the bios. The other 1/4, it's detected but it does not last until it gets to Windows. If I touch it while the computer starts, I can feel that it starts spinning, then a few seconds later, it stops spinning, then tries to spin again, then stops, etc. It does that a few times then stops completely. When it works long enough to be detected by the bios, it still pass the S.M.A.R.T. I did not see it coming. I'm going to lose some data but at least it's still on warranty with the 3 years warranty. Luckily, this was a drive on which I just stored non-important random stuff but it's still frustrating to lose data. I'm feeling a bit worried about the others and about putting in a repacement of the same model. When I was a kid, it was less worse to get an HDD failure. You just loss about 800 Mb of data. Now, you can lose hundreds of GB or even TB. I feel more safe with Seagate drives. I've got three of them in my pc. I've had them for longer than the failed WD drive and they are still working. I'm thinking of going through the RMA but give the HDD to my brother and buy a bigger one. A 1.5TB drive from Seagate would be nice but I've just read stuff about a bad firmware.

Jan 13, 2009, 06:00 AM	#2
Cow_160483 HH's only cow moooooo... Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: BOTSWANA Posts: 6,817 Rep Power: 300 System Specs	Re: wd7500aaks failure I think Seagate drives are the best I have had most of mine for a couple of years and they are still working even a 20 & 40GB that i used on my first PC. So i would go there and get myself a couple of Segates, but before that do a google search on the HDD that you want to see if it has any issues ! __________________ Decode! Muhahahahah!

Jan 14, 2009, 07:56 AM	Thread Starter #3
Tril S-3D enthusiast Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Canada Posts: 1,676 Rep Power: 64 System Specs	Re: wd7500aaks failure I've still got some luck. I got the drive to work for five minutes until it disappeared. I'll try to backup the data by rebooting many times. With some luck, I'll be able to copy all the data. It's going to take a long time. EDIT : I was able to copy all the data off the HDD. It took a few reboots. After copying all the data, I ran the WD Diagnostics software of Western Digital. SMART test passed but the extended test failed with the error message "Too many bad sectors detected". I rebooted my computer and this time the disk was not even detected in the bios. I tried a few times to reboot and it was never detected again. I got all the data just in time, it seems. I'm going throught the RMA process. I'll have a new drive in some time. I'm thinking this drive has always been a bit bad. When I first got my computer, I tried to put my new 4 drives in RAID (before changing my mind and not doing it) and I had issues with it not working well. It was sometimes not recognised during boot-up, it often had to repair itself for unknown reasons. When looking at making an RMA, I noticed that WD offers an upgrade program. Basically, they void the warranty on one of your old drive, you get to keep the old drive and in exchange, they sell you a more recent model for a price lower than the retail price. That seems nice. If your drive is near its end of warranty and you happen to be looking at buying an HDD, you could save some money with this program. EDIT2 : I went through the RMA for the HDD and I got a new one delivered in about 3 to 4 weeks. I'm very pleased with the RMA experience. I had to ship the HDD to a place in my country in another province so it was not too expensive and too long to ship. I also bought two new HDD and I went with Western Digital since I heard bad things about the 1 GB and 1.5 GB Seagate HDD. Last edited by Tril; Feb 18, 2009 at 05:28 AM.