WD4003FZEX freezes system

Hi,

I recently upgraded from a WD Green 2TB to a new WD4003FZEX (Black 4TB) as system drive with one partition (fresh Windows 7 Professional x64 installation). I experience a strange and severe problem from time to time: The HDD seems to freeze the whole system, all programs stop reacting and the only thing I can do is moving the mouse. It starts with the drive not showing free space in the explorer and then continues with a total freeze. Windows resource monitor shows a sudden decrease in HDD load (dropping to about 10 KB/s) and the drive stops making the typical noise it normally makes when active (I can feel it spinning though). After 3-5 minutes the freezing stops and the PC continues running normally (e.g. music starts playing again). However, Windows explorer suddenly says the the drive is full (normally I have about 3,1 TB free space). Refreshing explorer continually then shows the free space increasing again within about 20 seconds to 3,1 TB, but when reaching this value, the drive instantly shows as full again. This happens around 2-3 times, then I can continue using the PC.

I found out that these freezes mostly happen while, but often after installing VCRedist, DirectX and Windows Update.

With the old HDD, everything ran perfectly fine with the same components. This is the second WD4003FZEX I have, I got my first one replaced (same problem). S.M.A.R.T. values are all fine, drivers and updates are installed.

System configuration:

OS: Windows 7 Professional x64

MB: MSI ZH77A-G43

CPU: Intel i5-3450 @3,1-3,4 GHz

RAM: 16GB DDR3 RAM @1600 MHz

GPU: Gigabyte GTX 970 Gaming G1, 4GB

HDD 1: WD4003FEZX (system drive)

HDD 2: ST3000DM001 (storage drive)

HDD 3: WD20EZRX (old system drive, now used for storage only)

PSU: Thermaltake Berlin 630W

Thank you very much for your help, I’m completely desperate!

Hello and welcome to the community,

Try running a diagnostics on the drive using WD DLG to determine the drive’s health.

Hi,

the test results are:

Test Option: QUICK TEST 
Model Number: WDC WD4003FZEX-00Z4SA0 
Unit Serial Number: [Deleted]
Firmware Number: 01.01A01 
Capacity: 4000.79 GB 
SMART Status: PASS 
Test Result: PASS 
Test Time: 00:55:46, February 13, 2015 

Test Option: EXTENDED TEST 
Model Number: WDC WD4003FZEX-00Z4SA0 
Unit Serial Number: [Deleted]
Firmware Number: 01.01A01 
Capacity: 4000.79 GB 
SMART Status: PASS 
Test Result: PASS 
Test Time: 10:20:42, February 13, 2015

 I have uploaded a video to YouTube to show the problem. I made it after the freeze, when the PC slowly starts working again and the drive goes crazy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrND22tJRIo

Thanks for your help!

Any ideas?

Hello,

try running an antivirus to discard it as the cause of this issue.

I have KIS 2015 running, no issues detected. Apart from that, it was a clean windows install.

The VSS-services (Volume shadow copy) was the villain! After creating a restore point, the system would freeze. I disabled it and since then no problems occurred. Strange, don’t know why this happens. Do you know what could be the cause of this? I would like to use system restore points, but can’t now.