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HDD Faulty Connection?

1K views 3 replies 2 participants last post by  ip101 
#1 ·
Hi,

My system has a OCZ Vertex 2 SSD with Windows 7 64-bit installed and 3x 1TB HDD's for storage and data. I have set up my Windows user folders so that they are located on one of the HDD's. A WD Caviar Black 1TB.

Ever so often when listening to music or playing a video the content will stop playing as if paused and will resume but then stop again. Eventually it stops playing and (depending on the software or what'd being played) the application will freeze or throw up an error message saying that it cannot find the media. Windows will then stutter/lock up for several seconds at a time.

This has happened on my old HDD, which I presumed was faulty due to it being several years old. However, the WD was bought and installed in August 2011 and as it is having the same issues as the previous drive I don't believe the drive itself is faulty.

After rebooting the computer the problem either persists or goes away (if it persists I have found that reseating the SATA connection works for a while) and after another reboot Windows performs a CHKDSK on boot, where it deletes/repairs any corrupted files and indexes and recovers orphaned files.

I ran the WD diagnostics tool and it passed all of the tests. It did initially fail the SMART test but then passed it. I then ran HD Tune Pro (Trial) and under the Health tab the C7 Ultra DMA CRC Error Count was highlighted in yellow and the number in the data column was '4'. I then performed an Error Scan and there were no damaged blocks, however when going back to the Health tab the number in the data column for DMA CRC was now '45'. I googled this error and it said that this can be completely normal unless the number increases, which would indicate there is a problem with either the SATA cable or SATA controller.

As this is the 2nd drive to have this problem I do not belive there is a fault with the drive but rather the cable or mobo. I am going to replace the cable and try a different port.

If someone could confirm my suspicions or offer an alternative theory, I would appreciate it. Are there any other tests that I can run to help diagnose the problem? I used this guide Sean's Windows 7 Install & Optimization Guide for SSDs/HDDs to move my user folder to the HDD. Could there be a problem there? Everything usually works fine.

My system spec (no overclocking):
Core i7 2.66 GHz D0 Step
Gigabyte Ex-58 UD5 (using latest BIOS)
3x2GB Patriot Memory
Nvidia Geforce 570GTX
OCZ Vertex 2 60GB SSD (using latest firmware) (no errors)
1 TB WD Caviar Black (the faulty drive)
1 TB Samsung Spinpoint (no errors)
1 TB WD Caviar Green (no errors)
850W Antec CP PSU

Thanks
 
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#2 ·
Have the SATA cables been replaced? I'd suspect a cable or motherboard/controller issue as opposed to a HDD issue.

The best test, would be to attach the HDD's to another PC, and test each one using the manufacturers disk tools (available from the manufacturers website). Run the short and long test. If there are no errors, the drives are most likely fine.
 
#3 ·
Thanks for replying.

I've replaced the SATA cable and used a different SATA port on the motherboard. I'm hoping that as the other drives are fine, it's just a faulty port.

Unfortunately I do not have a spare computer here but I will run the WD diagnostic tools again.
 
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