Clarification on HDD situation

[JoDaCu]

Just looking for some general advice and I apologise up front if any of these questions sound naive or very amateurish but hey, I'm asking the right people.

Built a PC Rig in late 2008. First ever time doing it and was pretty much in a rush to get it all fitted and operational. HDD that I had ordered didn't come and there was a problem with the company sending it. Long story short, I had my money returned for that particular part and ran out to PC World/Currys/Whatever and grabbed a Western Digital Caviar Green 500gb. Now I must admit, at first I didn't notice a problem (but maybe I just wasn't paying attention) but over the last 3-4 years, a consistent freezing issue has began to arise with Windows 7.

System freezes randomly for 1-2 minutes, at times when there is very little going on.

It continues with RAM sticks changed/removed/memtest86+ passing, the HDD being re-formatted, new thermal paste applied (thought it was maybe a overheating issue) and the actual HDD itself passing all the OEM tests.

So after all this, with the magic of google (...genius, I know) it turns out quite a few people have had the same problem with this particular disk (WD5000AADS for reference) and they have described the same 'freezing' problem. So all in all, it sounds like after all this time, all I need to do is get rid of this HDD.

Only thing that's bugging me is, could it be anything else? Seems certain now after reading all these people had the same issue with it but I want to be sure I guess.

Also, another question is that if I want to install a new HDD/SSD for booting Windows 7, could I still theoretically use the Western Digital as a storage drive without getting the freezing issue (seeing as it seemed to be the system itself)?

Thanks for any advice you can lend.

 

[wazza300]

i think the only way to know for sure is to pick up another hdd or an ssd and test,how much warranty is left on the wd? you could rma it for replacement or refund?

i only use samsung drives,ive used a few old seagates but never had any issues at all with samsung,the f3 1tb and f4 2tb drives are particularly good

 

[AbsenceJam]

Did a little Google and it does sound like this is an issue with that model, likely related to power saving features. It's the drive or the motherboard. Does the windows event log throw up anything when this happens?

It's also a damn slow drive, 2x250GB platters and 5400rpm. A modern HDD, let alone a SSD, will make your experience so much better.

 

[JoDaCu]

i think the only way to know for sure is to pick up another hdd or an ssd and test,how much warranty is left on the wd? you could rma it for replacement or refund?

i only use samsung drives,ive used a few old seagates but never had any issues at all with samsung,the f3 1tb and f4 2tb drives are particularly good

Yeah I guess it's the only way. I'll report back when I grab one in a few weeks. Don't believe the warranty is still valid.

Did a little Google and it does sound like this is an issue with that model, likely related to power saving features. It's the drive or the motherboard. Does the windows event log throw up anything when this happens?

It's also a damn slow drive, 2x250GB platters and 5400rpm. A modern HDD, let alone a SSD, will make your experience so much better.

Doesn't show anything particularly distinctive. There is errors showing up from time to time but not always (different reasons so not something I can narrow in on.)

Yeah I only noticed that spec and people saying it's slow as hell. Didn't even think about it when I was grabbing the HDD in the shop so obviously that's my fault for not taking a look at it (a lesson I guess.)

Hopefully I can report back with good news once I tried installing a new SSD/HDD.

Thanks guys.

 

[llamadal]

it's such a slow drive, I use it for backing up old media, even then it takes quite a while to open up and become accessible - i'd dread to think what it's like as a system drive.

SSD's are so cheap these days, if you can move the OS and any key programs/games to this, then have the green as storage, you will have a much better time of it.