WD Green 3TB WD30EZRX not formatable/usable

hans_schmitt · February 23, 2017, 2:59pm

Hello.

I have bought a WD30EZRX off ebay some days ago. I asked for a screenshot of CrystalDiskInfo and the drive was all OK.
So when i got it, i connected it via SATA with my pc. The drive would be recognised by windows and i started formatting it.
After a while the formatting was eventually “done”, giving me an error message “Windows was unable to complete the format” and just left me with a RAW-Partition.
So i’ve been doing some research the last two days and tried out a few possible solutions, as follows:

I downloaded TestDisk and tried to repair the gpt-partitiontable. → now gpt-partitiontable was found → i tried to rebuilt it, but it didn’t help.
i booted up gparted and tried to format the drive there, all i got was alot of read/write errors on dev/sde. it appeared to have formatted the drive to NTFS anyway, but when i booted up win10 again it would just be RAW again.
i took my external 3TB apart, put the WD30EZRX in that case and connected it via usb 3.0 to my Computer. I tried formatting in Windows again - didn’t work.
checked the drive for errors with WD’s Data Lifeguard software. didn’t complete. made a “quick erase” which should’ve deleted the first and last 1 000 000 sectors but after it erased the first one million i got only error messages for the last million.

I even tried to format it to other filesystems like sun or fat32 but it just wouldn’t complete the format. At first, after some TestDisk attempts, CrystalDiskInfo gave me a warning for the HDD because it had 40 pending sectors. Now after i have tried erasing the first and last million sectors with the Data Lifeguard software the count dropped to 0 again but now the “reallocated sector count” got to 14 which gives me a warning again.

I don’t know what to do anymore. anything i try seems to be not working. I can’t really believe that the HDD is broken after just 3000 hours. is it even possible anymore to save this drive?

Here is the Info on the HDD from CrystalDiskInfo:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskInfo 7.0.5 (C) 2008-2016 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    OS : Windows 10 Enterprise [10.0 Build 10240] (x64)
  Date : 2017/02/23 15:20:29

-- Controller Map ----------------------------------------------------------
 + Standardmäßiger SATA AHCI- Controller [ATA]
   - Samsung SSD 840 EVO 120GB
   - ST3500418AS
   - WDC WD30EZRX-00D8PB0
 - Microsoft-Controller für Speicherplätze [SCSI]

-- Disk List ---------------------------------------------------------------
 (1) Samsung SSD 840 EVO 120GB : 120,0 GB [0/X/X, pd1] - sg
 (2) ST3500418AS : 500,1 GB [1/X/X, pd1] - st
 (3) WDC WD30EZRX-00D8PB0 : 3000,5 GB [2/X/X, pd1] - wd

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 (3) WDC WD30EZRX-00D8PB0
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
           Model : WDC WD30EZRX-00D8PB0
        Firmware : 80.00A80
   Serial Number : [Deleted]
       Disk Size : 3000,5 GB (8,4/137,4/3000,5/----)
     Buffer Size : Unknown
     Queue Depth : 32
    # of Sectors : 5860533168
   Rotation Rate : 5400 RPM
       Interface : Serial ATA
   Major Version : ACS-2
   Minor Version : ----
   Transfer Mode : SATA/600 | SATA/600
  Power On Hours : 3039 hours
  Power On Count : 916 count
     Temperature : 35 C (95 F)
   Health Status : Caution
        Features : S.M.A.R.T., 48bit LBA, NCQ
       APM Level : ----
       AAM Level : ----
    Drive Letter : 

-- S.M.A.R.T. --------------------------------------------------------------
ID Cur Wor Thr RawValues(6) Attribute Name
01 198 198 _51 000000000B6F Read Error Rate
03 197 177 _21 0000000013FC Spin-Up Time
04 100 100 __0 0000000003D8 Start/Stop Count
05 200 200 140 00000000000E Reallocated Sectors Count
07 199 197 __0 000000000083 Seek Error Rate
09 _96 _96 __0 000000000BDF Power-On Hours
0A 100 100 __0 000000000000 Spin Retry Count
0B 100 100 __0 000000000000 Recalibration Retries
0C 100 100 __0 000000000394 Power Cycle Count
C0 200 200 __0 000000000035 Power-off Retract Count
C1 197 197 __0 00000000244F Load/Unload Cycle Count
C2 115 111 __0 000000000023 Temperature
C4 186 186 __0 00000000000E Reallocation Event Count
C5 200 200 __0 000000000000 Current Pending Sector Count
C6 200 200 __0 000000000000 Uncorrectable Sector Count
C7 200 200 __0 000000000000 UltraDMA CRC Error Count
C8 200 200 __0 000000000000 Write Error Rate

-- IDENTIFY_DEVICE ---------------------------------------------------------
        0    1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9
000: 427A 3FFF C837 0010 0000 0000 003F 0000 0000 0000
010: 2020 2020 2057 442D 574D 4334 4E32 3230 3336 3233
020: 0000 0000 0000 3830 2E30 3041 3830 5744 4320 5744
030: 3330 455A 5258 2D30 3044 3850 4230 2020 2020 2020
040: 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 2020 8010 4000 2F00
050: 4001 0000 0000 0007 3FFF 0010 003F FC10 00FB 0100
060: FFFF 0FFF 0000 0107 0003 0078 0078 0078 0078 0000
070: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 001F 970E 0006 004C 0040
080: 03FE 0000 746B 7D61 4123 7469 BC41 4123 007F 00CD
090: 00CD 0000 FFFE 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
100: A3B0 5D50 0001 0000 0000 0000 6003 0000 5001 4EE6
110: AEE2 B97D 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 401C
120: 401C 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0021 0400
130: 0001 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
140: 0000 0000 0004 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
150: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
160: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
170: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
180: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
190: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
200: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 7035 0000 0000 0000
210: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 1518 0000 0000
220: 0000 0000 103E 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
230: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0001 1000 0000 0000 0000 0000
240: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
250: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 50A5

-- SMART_READ_DATA ---------------------------------------------------------
     +0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +A +B +C +D +E +F
000: 10 00 01 2F 00 C6 C6 6F 0B 00 00 00 00 00 03 27
010: 00 C5 B1 FC 13 00 00 00 00 00 04 32 00 64 64 D8
020: 03 00 00 00 00 00 05 33 00 C8 C8 0E 00 00 00 00
030: 00 00 07 2E 00 C7 C5 83 00 00 00 00 00 00 09 32
040: 00 60 60 DF 0B 00 00 00 00 00 0A 32 00 64 64 00
050: 00 00 00 00 00 00 0B 32 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00
060: 00 00 0C 32 00 64 64 94 03 00 00 00 00 00 C0 32
070: 00 C8 C8 35 00 00 00 00 00 00 C1 32 00 C5 C5 4F
080: 24 00 00 00 00 00 C2 22 00 73 6F 23 00 00 00 00
090: 00 00 C4 32 00 BA BA 0E 00 00 00 00 00 00 C5 32
0A0: 00 C8 C8 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C6 30 00 C8 C8 00
0B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 C7 32 00 C8 C8 00 00 00 00 00
0C0: 00 00 C8 08 00 C8 C8 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
100: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
110: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
120: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
130: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
140: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
150: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
160: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 82 00 F0 96 01 7B
170: 03 00 01 00 02 FF 05 84 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
180: 00 00 01 06 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
190: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1C0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 75

-- SMART_READ_THRESHOLD ----------------------------------------------------
     +0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +A +B +C +D +E +F
000: 10 00 01 33 C8 C6 C8 C8 C8 C8 00 00 00 00 03 15
010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 00 00
020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 05 8C 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
030: 00 00 07 00 C8 C8 C8 C8 C7 C8 00 00 00 00 09 00
040: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0A 00 00 00 00 00
050: 00 00 00 00 00 00 0B 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
060: 00 00 0C 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C0 00
070: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C1 00 00 00 00 00
080: 00 00 00 00 00 00 C2 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
090: 00 00 C4 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C5 00
0A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C6 00 00 00 00 00
0B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 C7 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0C0: 00 00 C8 00 C8 C8 C8 C8 C8 C8 00 00 00 00 00 00
0D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
100: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
110: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
120: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
130: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
140: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
150: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
160: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
170: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
180: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
190: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1C0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 B0

Edit: My system Specs are:

Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3 Mainboard
AMD FX 4100 Quad Core processor
Windows 10 Enterprise

Bill_S · February 23, 2017, 7:24pm

I wouldn’t trust the drive. I would check the drive’s existing warranty status, and if it’s still in warranty, RMA it. If it’s no longer in warranty, I would seek to return it.

hans_schmitt · February 24, 2017, 11:15am

The drives warranty expired about a year ago, therefore i cannot return it to WD and because i bought it on ebay as ‘used’ i cannot return it ther either… so i guess i just lost money?