WD Caviar Blue SATA 160GB hangs

WD Internal Drives Desktop & Mobile Drives
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My WD Caviar Blue SATA 160GB starts hanging from last week. When I m working suddenly the computer gets freeze.

I ran an virus scan but there are no viruses. Sometimes it hangs on booting also. I also replaced the wires of HD but it is of no use. So now please can anyone help me?:cry:

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Does not sound like a hard drive issue. Make sure Windows is updated, make sure your motherboard BIOS is up to date, make sure your Anti-Virus software is updated. Also if you think it may be a virus/malware issue us Malwarebytes Antimalware.

Go to: http://www.malwarebytes.org/ and download the FREE version, once it is installed open/run the program. Once the program is open click on the UPDATE tab and click on Check for updates. Once it is updated close everything. Reboot the machine. when it start to reboot start tapping the F8 key and then boot it into SAFE MODE, once in SAFE MODE open/run Malwarebytes and click on the SCANNER tab and check PERFORM FULL SCAN and then let is scan, if any issues are found then remove them. Reboot the machine. Once back up and running make sure you clean all your Cache, Cookie, History, etc.(Open control panel and internet option, also Start, program, accessories, system tools, then disk cleanup)  Also open Windows Explorer in the the Windows folder open the PREFETCH folder and delete everything inside this folder.

Hope this helps a little. if it is still hanging the BEST thing to do it backup any/all documents/pictures/music/etc then just format and reinstall Windows, cause after time Windows does slow down I format and re-install once a year. Everyone does something different. If all else fails format it.

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Hey, I’ve started experiencing the identical problem with the same hard drive.  My HD LED light remains lit and the computer hangs, like the hard drive is frozen in time.  Very little CPU and RAM activity.  To resolve the issue, I simply formatted the hard drive with a complete Vista reinstall.  But the problem is still here.  I removed one of the RAM sticks, then the other to see if the computer would die, but it didn’t so I assume the RAM is fine.  So I don’t suspect the operating system, malware, virus, RAM and CPU appears fine.  With the HDD LED light remaining lit when the computer hangs, I suspect the problem lies with the hard drive.  I did the Western Digital hardrive test and that was fine, so I have no idea what to check next.  Any other suggestions as I’m all ears.  The only issues left besides the HD is the motherboard and bios updates but I really don’t want to go there.  I’m hoping that someone else corrected this problem with a new HD as that would be the simplest to fix compared to the motherboard.

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It’s me again.  This hanging problem is truly annoying, and I’m now asking if there is a test I can do for the electronics on the hard drive.  I ask because I’ve done Western Digital’s Data Lifeguard Diagnostic test and that came out fine, however, that test, from what I can tell, checks for bad sectors and not the electronics.  Is this true?

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I am having the exact same problem but with a 500GB Green Series (WD5000AADS).  I have also tried all the tests in the WDC Data Lifeguard (or whatever) program, with no failed tests.  I have tried reformatting and the problem persists.  I have swapped out the hard drive and the problem goes away so the problem is specific to the drive in question.  My next step will be to try the problem drive on another system.

Please let me know if anyone can offer any more information or a solution.

I have another thread with this same topic  here

Thanks for your help.

1 Like
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Ok, I had a similar problem.  My computer would hang for no reason.  Ran a virus scan, disk clean, defrag, checked the WD hard drive with their test and did so many more things including reinstalling windows.  I finally took my computer to a repair shop and they diagnosed the problem as being with the hard drive.  Although the hard drive was working, it wasn’t working as fast as it should, causing the hanging issues, as if it was worn out.  After the hard drive was replaced, the computer works wonderful.  Hope this helps.

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Oh, and I forgot to mention that my hard drive light would remain lit when it was hanging, like it was working.  It was working alright, just extremely slowly which was causing the hanging.   Good Luck!

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Hi all I have a WD3200AAJB PATA (IDE for clarity) drive that just went south, and exhibited the same symptoms as shown here.   I was using it fairly regular on a MOBO IDE connection when the system started hanging and then the E drive gradually stopped working.   Now it s making a clicking noise when I use it so that is a bad sound I know.   This drive had my older system backup on it some PICs and files may be gone for good.  :frowning:

Just my two cents Thanks for the forum WD…

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Last 2 weeks I have experienced similar problem with WD Caviar Green SATA 1TB (just resolved).

First I started experiencing hang/freeze delays around  20…60 sec. on WinXP. Mouse pointer was affected as well. Task Manager was showing CPU Usage dropping to 0% with minor spikes during such delays, HDD LED was lit. Within 2-3 days delays increased up to 5 min.

Updates, HDD scans, malware/antivirus checks and SMART reports did not show any issues.

Resolution:

I have used ntfstools on Knoppix CD for resizing of WinXP partition and cloning it to 250GB hard drive (other brand).

So far so good… There are no delays anymore on another hard drive.

I experimented with original WD without success: connected HDD alone and played with jumpers. So, it seems to be a hardware issue. The hard drive was manufactured less than a year ago.

1 Like
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hii