WD5000AAKS only seen as 128Gb/137Gb

[BeatMaster]

I've got a problem, just got a new hard drive WD5000AAKS 500Gb SATAII drive but it only appears as 128Gb or 137Gb in the BIOS and the same in Windows. I've tried the drive in 2 machines with different motherboards (DFI Ultra-D and Gigabyte GA-K8N-Sli) and both do exactly the same. Both are uptodate with the latest BIOS' but don't recognise the drive.

The problem is, both machines already have hard drives that are over this size so it shouldn't be a problem. The Ultra-D has a 320Gb Seagate 7200.10 running with no problems so how come this drive is playing up?

Should I ring up Western Digital as seems like a hard drive fault?

BeatMaster

 

[BeatMaster]

Yes. Both machines have drives of over 137Gb, mine has a 320Gb Seagate and shows correctly

RMA I think

BeatMaster

EDIT:// Could be an nForce4 problem, as both motherboards use this I'm certainly not upgrading to C2D just to fix it though. Could get an enclosure to put it in, surely that would solve the problem?

 

[BeatMaster]

Maybe it's a problem with either jumper settings on the drive or you need to use the "Data Lifeguard Tools" software from Western Digital to format the drive?

link

As you say you've got large drives in your boards already ( I should have picked that up in original post) so I don't think it's a motherboard problem.

No jumpers on the drive, however tried setting it as 1.5Gbps rather than 3Gbps and still no go. Downloaded the "Data Lifeguard Tools" but that just saw it as 128Gb and formatted it accordingly. It's really strange especially with having drives > 137Gb already

Can LBA be turned on/off on the drive itself? I had a search around and there was a Seagate tool that had something regarding this?

Before you RMA, I'd see if you can create 4 partitions.
If you can and you can see all of the 500GB then there is unlikely to be a problem with the drive, and an RMA would be a waste of time and money.

Sadly, once I'd made the 128Gb I was unable to make another partition as there was no unallocated space. Trying to find someone nearby with SATA on their board so I can try it out elsewhere before sending it back.

BeatMaster

 

[BeatMaster]

are you sure there's no jumpers on the drive ?

Yep. SATA rarely come with jumpers, infact this drive came with no jumpers...I just dug one out to try and see if making it slower might increase the space. Sadly with no avail. Trying it on a friend's computer to 100% assure the drive is fubar

*curses western digital*

BeatMaster

 

[BeatMaster]

UPDATE://

Just heard back yesterday that the drive was definitely fubar and they're sending a new drive out which should be here on Tuesday

In between RMA'ing the drive and now I've ordered another WD5000AAKS along with a 2Gb Corsair Voyager GT USB pen which should be here on Wednesday. Going to migrate to Vista 32 or 64bit Business Edition with the USB pen as readyboost

Will do a review of readyboost in the Windows forum once I get the drive, so keep an eye out

BeatMaster

 

[BeatMaster]

Did you get the drive from OcUK ? As my mates jut received the same drive and its not showing up in windows at all ... he's got it all plugged in correctly and has a 200gig drive in there already so its not the 137gig problem :/

Am thinking it too might be fubar as yours was ...

Didn't get it from OcUK, but perhaps a faulty batch Not a good start as have a Seagate 7200.10 which I've had no problems with *touchwood* Hopefully the RMA replacement and my 2nd drive will be fine.

Does the drive appear in the BIOS?

I just got my Voyager GT pen drive yesturday (4gb), its really really really fast compared to my old 256mb drive, I think its something like 24mb/s write speed IIRC. I dont have vista yet so wont be able to test it on it, the place I ordered it from didn't mention it was ready boost, only after looking at a few review sites I saw it mentioned. Not bad for £32 though

Wow, tis really quick! Yep tis a bargain for the 4Gb drive, was tempted by it but just plumped for the 2Gb @ £17.52

BeatMaster