I have bought a WDC WD1002FAEX-00Y9A0 black series internal SATA hard drive (firmware ver: 05-01D05) in May 2012 and attached it as storage drive in a Windows XP system. The OS is installed on a 320GB Seagate drive. I have researched that WD1002FAEX-00Y9A0 model is a non-Advanced-format (non 4-k) drive before bauying so that it would be compatible with Windows XP.
After a clean install of OS I have noticed pauses and freezes while accessing files & folders on the WD drive. These pauses lasted few months and initially I upgraded the power supply to a 850 watts 80-plus Gold certified unit. However upgrading PSU did not help at all. Then I isolated the problem by disconnecting the WD drive, and all the pauses and delays went away when system is booted without the WD drive. I have performed full scan using WD LifeGuard utility (twice) and no error is found. I could not download the WD alignment tool even after registering on WD site and I think is because the drive is a non 4-k format drive so it does not need alignment for Windows XP.
Then just for kicks I temporarily installed Windows Vista (64 bit) on the Seagate drive and all the pauses went away. I can access WD WD1002FAEX-00Y9A0 under Vista x64 without any pauses. I am not sure if Vista uses a larger cache to mask disk access pauses or is there any other reason for it.
So what do you guys think, why am I having pauses on disk access under Windows XP and how can I fix it?
You’re right, it’s not an adv format hard drive, so that should not be the problem. Check if you have all of the latest windows XP updates installed. If the problem continues try connecting the hard drive to another PC with XP to see what happens.
Ok I have tried the hard drive in another WIndows Xp lptop with eSATA connection and it worked without thoses pauses.
Then I reinstalled the Windows XP on that old system that was giving pauses and enabled AHCI mode. I have tested the hard drive and all the pauses and clicking sounds have disappeared.
I’m having the same pauses and freezes reported by Rugal, the difference is my OS is the Windows 8 and I have two WD1002FAEXs, one brand new for the system (C) and another, 1-2 years old, for data storage (D).
The system WD1002FAEX is freezing the whole system frequently. The older one works fine all the time…
I open the Windows’ system monitor and its HDD performance trend chart shows 100% access on drive C, even with 0% CPU rate.
I installed that drive to the 6GB SATA III, P0 of the Intel DZ77SL-50K motherboard.
Did you figure out your problem? I have the same exact mother board SL50k along with the WD Black and it freezes intermittently for a few minutes then resumes to normal. The drive late stays solid on freezes. Tried other hard drives and it still does it so I think it’s the Intel motherboard? Any thoughts?
