Error while repairing bad sectors - 08 on WDC WD10EARS-22Y5B1 (WD Caviar Green)

Hello everbody here,

i hope somebody with more expirience about WD HDDs can help me here, or maybe to share his expirience, my problem is nextt ,  I bought the WDC WD10EARS-22Y5B1 HDD (internal drive) before 1 year, warranty is 2 years I think, i checked on WD site and it says

WD10EARS-22Y5B1     In Limited Warranty     8/28/2013

when i check wi but I’m not sure if my case is subject to guarantees, and the case is as follows:

I used the HDD normal, the machine where it is placed is: MB- ASUS P5Q-S2, CPU: Intel C2D, etc… All worked with this WD WD10EARS 1TB HDD ok, about 1 year, up until 1 month, on the PC do not have any special applications, games, and the PC isn’t often used because I have a notebook, and the notebook is widely used, this PC with a WD10EARS 1TB HDD i used as a storage space, although it rarely, and for that I use …

Viruses do not have, safe the OS, the OS is OS XP prof. SP3 OEM x86, clean OS, and worked without any problems, because otherwise I do professionally IT - that’s my job, and care for my PC that is always clean and optimized, but suddenly after 1 year of use this HDD, appeared to bad sectors, from unknown and unclear to me reasons, as before, I bought WD HDD 200, 500GB, and I never had a similar problem and even after 3-4 years of using, simply because I look at the whole HDD and PC, as an IT professional - HDD defragmentation regularly, keeping the data on non-systemic partition, and my OS is on D: , because the virus attacks the default C: \ …

Literally everything is at maximum optimized, and besides all this, the HDD after only 1 year of use, applying the diagnostic tool report bad sectors! ? This really can not understand, I tried them and your WD diagnostic tool repair tool, bad sectors repapiring operations, but it did not help either!

Please help and advice to repair bad sectors, whether will retailer of your HDDs accept a guarantee where is problem of the bad sectors, to the emergence of bad sectors after only 1 year of use included in warranty?

I’m now in troubles, now hdd-s have increased prices, due to floods in Thailand, and the HDD I bought new, and I do not want the extra pay, because the HDD is the guarantee for 2 years, and I use only 1 year?

Enclosed are the pictures and report WD Diagnostic tool, which could not fix bad sectors, sure that i before contact you, I run t as an IT professional and a chkdsk tool from MS, but after repair with it still logged in bad sectors, and I think that in the D: \ - the system partition

I tried all the possible variants, but still bad sectors, applying your tool for diagnosing WD diagnostic tool, again not repaired bad sectors? It seems this error 08 like i found in S.M.A.R.T  errores description is near to full HDD failure

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.

08     0x08     Seek Time Performance     -   Average performance of seek operations of the magnetic heads. If this attribute is decreasing, it is a sign of problems in the mechanical subsystem.

Quick test is passed ok, but Extended test failed… Report from WD diagn. tool bellow

Test Option: QUICK TEST
Model Number: WDC WD10EARS-22Y5B1
Unit Serial Number: 
Firmware Number: 80.00A80
Capacity: 1000.20 GB
SMART Status: PASS
Test Result: PASS
Test Time: 02:02:27, January 17, 2012

Test Option: EXTENDED TEST
Model Number: WDC WD10EARS-22Y5B1
Unit Serial Number:
Firmware Number: 80.00A80
Capacity: 1000.20 GB
SMART Status: PASS
Test Result: FAIL
Test Error Code: 08-Error was detected while repairing bad sectors.
Test Time: 08:27:25, January 17, 2012

I think maybe is useless to try another tools like Hard Disk Sentinel, HDD guru, Spinrite, etc. cause most of them work on similary way like WD Diagn. tool use similary way of checking and not too much chance to isolate-exclude bad sectors from partition in many cases, or somebody has maybe some better advice?

Thank you in advance!

If the drive is under warranty as you clearly mention WD will replace the drive at no extra cost for you.

Yes, but here in my country, out of European union doesn’t exist oficially WD representative, just some distributor of WD HDDs, which makes problems to customers, for ex. taking HDD in service for “analyzing” , even i analyzed it with many diagnostic tools, like WD Diagnostic tools and it’s clear error 08 about bad sectors couldn’t be repaired, and they don’t give some replacment HDD for 30 days, like WDD in USA, to save my files, now i’m in troubles, i don’t have another HDD to save my data files, and i can stay without all my files!

I hope some of WD staff will see this, and will make some changes in policy in countries out of USA and European Union, Canada, etc.

But it seems WD support doesn’t care about this forum, i wait on some help from their support 2 days, that’s not really nice!

i think you should contact the store where you bought it … if you bought it online you should send to warranty to other country

talk in the chat first… or email…have some patience

The WD Community was created for Users, such as yourself, to help one another, and to share your experiences and ideas with one another. As Moderators, we are here simply to facilitate and oversee the community. If you have a question relating the what’s going on in the community, we will be happy to respond. However, if you are looking for technical support from WD, you will need to contact them directly.

To Contact WD for Technical Support
http://support.wdc.com/contact/index.asp?lang=en

You are on your own as far as the data goes.  If you aren’t already making regular backups, then your data may as well already be lost – sooner or later a drive will fail.

As for the drive itself, call WD and ask for an RMA and they will replace the drive.

Regular backup with 1TB data is impossible, only buying +1 HDD 1TB, i don’t have so much money to spend on +1 1TB HDD, cause they are so expensive now!

When  i buyed this Caviar green 1TB hdd, i expected it will work at least 2-3 years, cause that’s usually warranty period 3 years, but i get, after 1 year it stoped to work! I never buy WD hdds in future, i had similary expirience with previous WD HDD 320GB, same problems with bad sectors.

Even this 1TB i didn’t use for usually things like playing games, surfing, work, etc. i used it just for storage, and it wasn’t used often! But this is terrible hdd!

Normally that i contacted firstly WD support, they don’t have chat option, like other serious companies, for cases like my, urgent situation, then i wrote them mail, and what i get,  just ignoring my mail sent on january 16-17, waiting 3-4 days, event they wrote “1 business day” usually waiting, but not, i wait much more! I’m not in situation to wait!

And then i tried in forum to write, normally i don’t expect solution from forum, normally that i know what’s forum, not necessary explanation by wd’s mod, i know here aren’t wd specialist, to tell me solution, it was just my try to solve my big problem…

Normally that i called retail shop, where i bought this thrash of HDD, and what i get, just uncessary loosing time and talking like “we need to send hdd to service, and waiting 7-10 days” bla bla usually much more waiting, and they didn’t offer me replacment HDD to save my data in meantime, whil i wait for “analyzing” HDD in service, even i analyzed with WD diagnostic tool, and other professional tools SPINRITE, SENTINTEL, HDD guru tools, etc. but always same results- bad sectors with no recovery option, S.M.A.R.T notified many errors, and error 08 says this disk has to be replaced, but no solution by WD official distributor here, and to send me some replacment HDD to save my data…

Really i’m disapointed with WD relates to their customer, and don’t care about their customers, and don’t control official distributor, and to check their relates to customers, and gives license to companies who aren’t serious to be their distributor!

At the end, i never recommend to my business partners, friends, and other people to buy WD HDD, specially out of EU and USA, where they don’t have official representative, just some bad distributors, to buy WD HDDS, cause supporst is horrible!

However thank you!

Greetzz!

For all of you, if you expirienced problem like my with bad sectors and specific Error 08, notified at extended test with WD Diag tool, then to next, this solved for now my problem, but i’m not sure it will not happen soon…

First of all you need WD diagnostic tool, called " Data Lifeguard Diagnostic" ,  I tried with CD version, IMG was burned ok, at i tried to boot it, but after starting boot screen it notifies “can’t locate license agreement file” bla bla, even that .txt file is located on CD, i tried other media, other dvd rw burners, but again same **bleep**, WD didn’t provide good CD IMG file, and it’s useless on their support-download section

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=608&sid=2&lang=en

i didn’t have other option, than to use DOS version  -floppy disk version… I found some old floppy disk, put files from archive on floppy from link above, and put to put floppy, with instructions from WD site, from link above, i tried to start it with this instructions

“4. At DOS prompt type DLGDiagv519.exe to run the program.”

typing this it wouldn’t start, WD provided wrong instructions for DOS!

You have to do following:

type dir *exe at dos prompt, with this dos command it will list you all files with .exe extension, and wd dg tool, it’s recognized by dos like “DLGDiag~1.exe” , and you have to type DLGDiag~1.exe at dos prompt A:\DLGDiag~1.exe to start this tool…

I hope they will put this in their instructions, then other customers will not be confused for solution, i solved it by myself…

Next what i tried to solve famous Error 08 after extended test is using function “ZERO FORMATING” - WRITE ZEROS TO DRIVE - The Write Zeros option, wipes all data off your drive. This option used when your data is no longer usable or recoverable. If you no longer need any data from your drive and would like to start over, run this option to set your drive to an as new condition. NOTE: Please make sure that you have selected the correct drive to perform this function on as once ran, no data will be recoverable

from WD DG tool, it will offer you 2 option for ZERO FORMAT - 1st and last million of hdd sectors, or full zero format, choose “full zero format”, it will put zeros on all hdd sectors 1TB = 1953525168 sectors to zero, something like hard reset on ppc devices :slight_smile: , it put device in factory state, like when it was bought…

After finishing zero format of this 1TB hdd - 2-3 hours, dependent of your PC configuration, i started again Extended test, and miracle, this time it didn’t notify ERROR 08 - can’t repair bad sectors, etc.

I’m not sure is this solved my problem for longer time, i wrote to WD support, to confir me this, or to bring this problematic HDD to retail shop where i bought, i wait on their response, even they didn’t response on last question more than  3 days… And didn’t respond on this my last question…

It seems i’m not only with this problem, many people all around are with similary problem with this WD Caviar Green 1TB !!!

http://icrontic.com/discussion/81134/1tb-western-digital-green-hard-drive-failure

http://bolt.cd/board/computer-internet-support/614829-fixing-bad-sectors-hdd-wd-1tb-faster-way-than-chkdsk.html

http://forum.hddguru.com/1tb-green-drive-blank-sectors-t20195.html

http://community.wdc.com/t5/Desktop/WD10EARS-bad-sectors/td-p/190888

http://datacent.com/datarecovery/hdd/western_digital/WD10EARS-00Y5B1

http://www.otest.co.uk/p/western-digital-tests/caviar-green-wd10ears-00y5b1-1-tb-reviews.html

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1679337

http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/137188-hdd-too-many-bad-sectors-what-should-i-do.html

and always bad sector after shorter period of using, even warranty period didn’t pass…

There is no way to repair bad sectors.  Anyone who tells you that software x will do it, they are lying.  All you did was just put those bad sectors in the glist on the drive, that is all.  Personally, I would have RMAed the drive because through the support site, there is an area for Europe…

See here:  http://websupport.wdc.com/warranty/rmainfo.asp?custtype=end&lang=en

As for the issues with the Lifeguard Diag software… I understand your point, however programming is diffiicult and there are people who wrote the code and the instructions.  People make mistakes all the time, it’s in human nature.  If someone who works for WD and revises the instructions, they know the software.  They fixed the mistake in their head.

As for other people having issues with the WDC Green drives… what do you expect?  They are the cheapest drives in the series.  I tell people not to buy the green drives for this reason.  I tell them to go for the Blue drives (laptops) or the Black drives (for desktops) because they are better drives overall.  Just look at the warranty… I have had my WDC 1TB Black drive running in my server 24/7 since October 2009 and it’s still running strong.  

As far as I am concerned, you made the mistake in buying the green drive…

I know they aren’t repaired 100%, they are just realocated to end of HDD, where is less frequency of writing… But however i asked WD support what they suggest me to do, cause ERROR 08 dissapered on Extended test after ZERO format.

No, that’s just for some european countries - EU, not for other countries in Europe which are out of EU, i explained that before, cause i tried through that link for RMA before posting here my problem… In my country they have just some “distributor”, i’m not sure does distributor have same obligations like oficially WD representative in EU countries…

Sure, i didn’t say that just cause i had problems, cause that wasn’t really problem for me, but for average user that will be really problem to find alternative to run from floppyy, instead from CD media, cause PC won’t boot this app from CD, even it was burned ok, or using DOS commands like alternative, etc. Yes, i hope, else other average pc users will have problems with things like these…

If i compare price of WD Green hdd with some Seagate hdd in same range of prices, i can expect that this piece of sh… WD Green will work at least like Seagate, or WD will have problems with their competitor… I’ll never buy WD in future, cause i have same problems in past, not all of us have too much money to buy more expensive WD HDDs, and if i said this WD HDD Green Caviar 1TB isn’t used often, it was more storage than active disk, i can expect to work ok more than 1 years, if it can’t fill this request, ok working 1 year with minimal using, then this is just trash!

I know for Black series, but it was too much money for me in period i bought Green… Now again HDDs are too expensive, after problems in Thailand, where are most of WD factores located, and not too much offer of HDDs, and sellers use this chance to put prices higher…

I’ll buy smaller SSD for runing OS, and some Seagate for storage, cause i don’t believe anymore in WD HDDs.

Definetely mistake, at all buying WD HDDs :wink: