WD15EADS Windows Xp Delayed Write Failed

I have been working on this problem for two weeks and can’t seem to get it figured out. I have a WD15EADS-00R6B0 drive that is only about two months old. I installed it on my Windows Xp system (used as Home Theater PC) to have storage for my ripped Dvd collection. It worked great for two months, never having to get my lazy butt off the couch to put a DVD in the computer to watch a movie. Then all of the sudden, I started getting Delayed Write Failed errors everytime I copied something to or from the EADS drive.

Just to clarify, the EADS drive is a secondary storage drive only, there is no operating system on it. The first hard disk with Windows Xp (Sp3 plus hotfixes) is a Western Digital WD500AACS.

Further Information on My Setup:

Motherboad: Asus P5n7A-VM with Intel 2x2.50 Ghz Duo

RAM: 2x1Gb Crucial

PCI: Satellite Recording Card

I have tried the following steps in order to clarify if it was a hardware problem not related to the hard drive.

1. Replaced both SATA cables, issue still present.

2. Memory Check Boot DIsk - no issues found

3. Had a spare motherboard (exact model) which I swapped in, problem still occurred

4. Swapped the EADS drive out with a Samsung SATA drive that I had laying around, tried some file copy tests, absolutely No Problems occured.

With the above steps, I was satisfied that there was no other issues within the PC that caused the Delayed Write Failed. The Next Steps were:

1. Look at the drive SMART Info:

       Raw Error Read Rate  Value: 200 Worst: 200

       Spin Up Time Value: 144 Worst: 142

       Reallocated Sector Count Value:200 Worst:200 

       Seek Error Rate Value: 100 Worst: 253

2. Put the drive in another computer, A Vista 32-bit system built on the same motherboard. Absolutely No Delayed Write Failed messages! I can copy small and large files without a problem.

Now with the above results I was pretty confident that it was the operating system and not the EADS drive, so I tried a couple different solutions.

1. Completely new installation of Windows XP SP3. Still had Delayed Write Failed when copying to the EADS drive

2. Completely new installation of Windows XP SP3 on another (Samsumng) SATA primary drive. Still had Delayed Write Failed problems to the EADS drive. This seems to rule out the primary SATA drive was causing the issues.

3. Followed every step in the Microsoft knowledge base under the web page http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330174. Still had delayed write failed messages.

I don’t know what is left to do. It appears that I have a working hard drive that does not work in the computer I need it to. Does anyone else have any insight? Do I really need to buy a new operating system just to use the hard drive I bought? Why did WIndows Xp work for two months without any problems, then start giving errors?

Thanks

Josh



Hi there, Test the drive with Data Lifeguard Diagnostics and let me know the outcome.

Ok, so I tried both the quick and extended tests and both passed. This was on the Vista computer because I do not want to put the hard drive back in the windows xp computer for fear of data loss. I guess I really need to conduct the tests in the computer where the problem occurs, but nontheless, the hard drive seems to be without failure physically. I just won’t allow itself to be used anymore with windows xp.

Any other suggestions?

thanks,

Josh

Thread moved to WD Internal Drives: Desktop.