WD20EARX DOA?

greenclaws

greenclaws

greenclaws

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Joined
12 May 2011
Posts
26
Just bought a WD20EARX 2TB sata drive and installed it. When I turn the PC on, the drive makes what I think is an initialising sound, like a #mmmmmmmm-bip# every two seconds and never stops. So my BIOS never stops searching for drives and the PC has to be turned off until the drive is removed. Is the drive DOA? I'm not even sure what's wrong with it so I can get an RMA.

If I put the computer in ACHI mode it only looks for the drive twice then stops, it doesn't show up in Computer Management > Storage or Western Digital Data Lifeguard as a drive.

Any assistance or experience gratefully received!
 
It doesn't sound healthy but before you send it back try:

  • a different SATA data cable
  • a different power connector
  • a different SATA port on the motherboard
 
That was the first thing I did actually, I should've mentioned that. I even took out a drive in use and plugged its sata and power cables into the new drive and it still did the same noise over and over.

Thanks for your quick reply
 
It's just very odd that the only mechanical hard drive I have bought in years turns up as a dud. An omen! Thanks for the suggestions. Lordy, they're just a bit more expensive... I bought the Caviar Green for its quietness, do you know if these ones give off a lot of noise or vibration? I would think the F4 would. I'm terrible.. and so is the hardware I buy xD
 
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I've got several Samsung 2TB F4's.

They're very quiet but perhaps not quite as quiet as the WD Green 2TB drives I own (if that makes sense). They are a lot faster though.

I don't know anything about the Seagate but there's a review here.
 
greenclaws said:
Could the error potentially be due to me having an 'old' motherboard Gigabyte P35C-DS3R with a latest Bios from 2009 and this drive being Sata3/2TB ?
Click to expand...

It shouldn't be.

SATA 3 is backwards compatible.

The only special measures you may have to take are if using these drives with Windows XP.

I have the WD20EARS and if you're using XP there's a jumper you have to set on the drive or you have to use the WD Align software. There's a label on the drive which explains this if it's applicable.
 
Mmmm no I am using Windows 7 64bit and the hard drive makes the noises basically at boot time. the EARX has a cluster of 6 pins but doesn't explain what they're for and there's no jumper with it to switch between them.
 
I've been told that the RMA has been rejected as there is 'Damage to connection ports and PCB'. !!!

I've been building my own computers for 15 years. Was extremely careful, more careful than necessary purely because it was brand new. Power off at the wall, power off at the PSU, anti static band, then plugged in the sata power and data cables the way I've done 100 times before and did absolutely fine with my other drives before and after this. I can't see how I could have possibly damaged it myself unless the connection or the pcb was faulty and then the RMA shouldn't have been rejected.
 
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