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Western Digital Drives Disappear in RAID configuration

Unknown
edited February 2004 in Science & Tech
It has recently been reported that in some instances, Western Digital hard disks, with capacities between 40GB & 120GB, and some between 120GB and 200GB with manufacturing codes earlier than 25/03/03, may disappear from their IDE RAID array or system with no prior warning.

Ths problem is thought to be caused by a feature that reduces the drives idle noise output. If you are experiencing problems as described above, you can download a utility to disable the feature.

[link=http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_admin=1&p_faqid=913&p_created=1047068027]Download IDE Upgrade Utility[/link]

Comments

  • EMTEMT Seattle, WA Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    So can you run this straight off the Highpoint or do you need to put the drives on reg. IDE so they can be accessed individually?
  • PreacherPreacher Potomac, MD Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    From the website, it seems to indicate that you can run then from what ever RAID controller they are on. Since the RAID BIOS boots before the OS, wouldn't the drive be recognized in DOS? I'd try it and see how it works or you could call WD. In my experience, their tech support is very good.
  • PreacherPreacher Potomac, MD Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    EMT,
    I downloaded the WD file for the updates and it turns out you are correct.

    "The utility runs within DOS and is used to update WD drives connected to a host system via the primary IDE controller on the system's motherboard. "
  • EQuitoEQuito SoCal, USA
    edited October 2003
    It works from DOS even if the drives are RAID'ed.
    I just tested it on an AT7-MAX with 2 x WD800JB's RAID-0 array (HPT374) and both drives were updated.
    Funny noise during the update though... :scratch:
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    Does this mean I need to worry? I have been running my WD1000JB's in RAID-0 since shortly after the drives hit the market with no problem and the longest was over 6 months without any changes. I am now running the same 2 drives on my HPT 1520 PCI card and 2 WD600JB's on my onboard Silicon Image controller, both are in RAID-0.

    Also, does this do anything for the glitch in the ATTO scores on the 1.0 test run that is characteristic of all the WD 8mb cache drives?
  • PreacherPreacher Potomac, MD Icrontian
    edited February 2004
    All,
    posting a little late here, but this fix was a godsend to me. 2 of the 4 JBs in my RAID 5 array kept getting broken stripes. After applying the patch, I haven't had a problem in months. Highly recommended if you have the correct drives!
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