Caviar Green 2TB 32MB Cache WD20EADS-00MVWB0 Lost Partitions!

WD Internal Drives Desktop & Mobile Drives
1

Hello guys,

I bought this drive and I’m having serious problems with lost partitions… It’s very unstable and unreliable!

Once when turning on the computer, the Windows checks the partitions for errors because the Windows has been shut down incorrectly (apparently). Once when turning on the computer, Windows checks the disk for errors because the Windows has been shut down incorrectly (apparently) then any partition is lost and I can’t access any data on some partition.

A message appears that the partitions are corrupt and unreadable. In the Disk Manager the partitions appears as RAW.

I did 5 partitions and lost two. Then form the entire hard drive, did the 5 partitions and lost a partition again.
I tried using Acronis to recover any data lost but could not recover anything, it seems that the data were deleted completely.

I have 3 hard drives from Seagate and never had problems with files or deleted partitions. These hard drives are really confident that I will not lose my files. This is the first time I bought a WD because of the price and I’m paying for it. Unfortunately.

I use Windows XP SP3 and Windows 7 Ultimate x86.

Details by Everest:

Model ID: WDC WD20EARS-00MVWB0
Revision: 50.0AB50
World Wide Name: 5-0014EE-60033860A
Device Type: SATA-II
Parameters: 3876021 cylinders, 16 heads, 63 sectors per track, 512 bytes per sector
LBA Sectors: 3907029168
Buffer: Unknown?!
Multiple Sectors: 16
ECC Bytes: 50
Unformatted Capacity: 1907729 MB?!
ATA Standard: ATA8-ACS

The Everest do not recognized these fields correctly:

Buffer: Unknown?!

Unformatted Capacity: 1907729 MB?!

I can’t find any firmware update and I think it’s the last revision… =(

There’re some WD link with all firmwares?

Att

Oliver

2

Your post subject says WD20EADS but the info you copied/pasted in the post says EARS model drive. One thing you need to check and be aware of is the jumper for 4096B/512B compatability. Usually for use in XP its recommended to be set. That is provided you’re only using the drive for 1 and only 1 partition.(Correct me if I’m wrong). So in using more than 1 partition you’re running into issues with whatever it is that jumper setting does. Check your drive jumpers against whats listed on the support site. iirc its pins 7-8 jumpered for “compatability” and also that you can only make 1 primary partition on the drive if you’re doing that.

Let me know what you find out!

edit I’m looking at the page now and it is pins 7-8 and ONLY for XP single partition compatability. Of course you’ll have to check your drive as it may not be the problem you’re having.

3

Your drive’s capacity is …

3907029168 sector x 512 bytes per sector / 1024^2 bytes per MiB = 1907729.09 Mibibytes.

http://www.google.com/search?q=3907029168+x+512+/+1024%5E2

As for the cache buffer size being incorrectly reported, see this explanation:

Detecting Buffer or Cache Size in ATA Hard Disk Drives. [203631]:
http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=203631