wd10eads-11m2b2 Very strange bihavior, need help.(Firmware)

[koolance]

Dear All,
i am working in IT infrastructure about 6 years,but never had such issue.

I am expecting very strange error with WD HDD. I have bought external elements 1 TB WDBAAU0010HBK, inside of box is wd10eads-11m2b cavian green.

Problem:

All files, after copied to a drive are corrupted. I used md5 hash utility to check source and copied file hash and it is always different. I have called to WD support, they advised me to make full format and write "0" to all sectors. This procedure took me 2 days and was successful. But after i created new NTFS partition, again all files that i copied to a drive changed their MD 5 hash sum. So i got corrupted file result again. After checking on bad blocks there was no errors, so this seems very strange.
I decided to flash modules or firmware, but WD support said there are no such things. (my suggestion is that some how, something is operating wrong with partition table)

Can you please help me to understand what can be a problem and how to fix it.

[lcoughey]

When the data is being read as corrupted, are you reading it while the hard drive is still in the WD UBS enclosure or are you removing the drive and trying to read from it directly? Some WD enclosures encrypt the data without asking...I haven't seen this model yet, but I've seen the complaints about it.

If it were me and I wasn't concerned about the warranty, I'd remove the physical hard drive and connect it directly to a system. Format it, copy data to it and confirm that it is working fine. If so, then I'd re-insert the drive into the WD enclosure and see if the data is still visible. It isn't out of the realms of possibility that you have a defective enclosure.

Note: I'm assuming that you don't have any critical data on the drive, as your post implies that you have already formatted the unit at least once since discovering this problem.

[koolance]

I have removed drive from box, format first million and last million to zeros, that copied files again,but md 5 of files was different again.

[lcoughey]

I'm not clear on why you are wiping the first and last million sectors of the drive. So, with the drive outside the box, you format it NTFS, copy files to the drive and the files instantly are corrupted? That is odd.

[koolance]

Yes correct, i work in IT 6 years, my friend works on HP company in support and he says he never saw such problem in practice. Its very unique drive )

all files i cope change md 5 hash... (i also tried fat 32 and full format that took me 2 days, but no luck)

Is there any tool to flash (firmware), or some how reprogram something?

[lcoughey]

I'd just RMA the drive and get a new one. Let Western Digital figure it out.

[koolance]

Noticed 1 thing, i copied small files about 15 mb. everything goes fine md 5 is equal. But when i copy big files 300m > files got currupted ...

[koolance]

Found MFT is damaged, utility test disk said boot sector and backup boot sector are different and i fixed his. They are now identical, but cant fix MFT usinf test disk. Please advice software to fix MFT.

[koolance]

Got this

[alcomposer]

Hi Guys

Ok

I need your help like anything on the planet right now...

Just working on a project, and used a WD MY BOOK STUDIO mac edition to temporary store project files. Just in the process of transferring about 400 Gig. Everything fine. Then suddenly as I was video editing, files would have issue playing back etc

I just kept working, researched it a bit... but thought turned off the default virtual CD. Everything good. Then the drive just stopped responding. I disconnected it, and then reconnected it, and it did not mount. Gave me an error, "Drive Unreadable".

Anyone have any ideas? I have been using Ddrescue, however this will take a long time, and also its finding lots of errors. (long time as in 10 hours 60gig?).

Let me know your thoughts anyone? What about a PCB transfer? Just want to get the data back!

Regards

Alex

[drc]

Sounds like bad sectors or head failing

[alcomposer]

Hi Drc

Any thoughts on repair? Its just such a horrible thing to have a drive fail after less than 10 days of use- without any real warning?

One real issue with the "WD My book studio mac edition" nearing the end of its current life, as I mentioned, is that it would easily ingest data, but on accessing it it would slow down after 5 seconds. So I would be there playing back a video in FCP, and then it would just crawl to a halt. I used AJA disk monitor to stress test it. This came back with very strange results, as it would easily read in/out small chunks of data, but not larger ones, and also higher data rate chunks.

I just don't know what is wrong with this WD drive???!!!!

Any idea the best course of action? I put the drive into my MacPro and started using Ddrescue as I mentioned... but other than that 70Gig in 10 hours...(probably do it in a week- plus time to go back and patch the holes )

I just don't understand what is going on?! The thoughts are bad heads hey? On a drive 10 days old?

What is the hope for any of us then? We should all take up stone cutting I say!

Thanks for your ear - Regards

Alex

PS: If there are any HDD gurus out there, your thoughts are appreciated. Just for the record there are NO noises, sounds fine, no issues with spin up, nothing. I am starting to think that the firmware is corrupted.... Maybe a PCB swap will do the trick?

[BlackST]

Pcb? forget it. Get the most
data you can, then replace. And buy something else if you care about your data. You can't complain about cheapest drives that fail : the manufacturer sole responsibility ends in replacing the unit.

[alcomposer]

Ok

Update... the most data I can is like swiss cheese. The drive is now making a scrapping sound... Looks like head contact..

Don't really understand the last comment. This was not the 'cheapest' drive one could buy, neither am I complaining. This forum is called "HDDGURU". Thus people are here to discuss Hard Drives etc.

Of course back up is the name of the game, but this drive was simply a conduit for transport of files. I was not intending for this drive to last forever- as surely nothing will. I should have backed up to DVD or Blu-ray. Which also don't last forever.

I suppose that if you are Google and buy 1000's of drives a week, then that is fine, but if you are an independent producers of data then there is very little if no budget for hard-drive purchasing.

This drive was BRAND NEW only 10 days old. So the price of the unit has very little to do with the equation. This is a simple case of quality control or lack there of.

If a manufacturer of drugs has irregularities in their headache drug, this would be deemed unacceptable. Yet HDD manufactures seam to think that they can put out cheep drives onto the market that fail after 1 day, and that further more- you as the user should 'back up' everything that you do.

I would hate to be using a RAID system and have a second drive fail while this 'new' drive were also failing!

But then I suppose that one has to back up the back up, then back up that, then post that onto the net, then back that up into 2 places, then at the same time burn everything to DVD, then synchronize all the back ups!

I am starting to learn that computers don't really like to work at all, and that the total price of ownership and usage is actually very high. Especially considering that one needs today easily a RAID server for a 1st backup, then back that up onto another RAID server, then use a pipe network to store another backup onto a remote server.

Oh well... (One of the HDD companies are going to get LOTS of my money soon)

Regards

Alex.
PS: this is not a rant, simply a reminder that drives are NOT stable - no matter what anyone thinks.

[drc]

PS: this is not a rant, simply a reminder that drives are NOT stable - no matter what anyone thinks.

Indeed

It is also important to remember that hard drives depend on so many things working correctly and environmental conditions being favorable, etc. It is inevitable that some will work better than others. This is why the manufacturers' replacement policies are so generous.

[alcomposer]

It is also important to remember that hard drives depend on so many things working correctly and environmental conditions being favorable, etc. It is inevitable that some will work better than others. This is why the manufacturers' replacement policies are so generous.

Indeed. However one does have to consider that the only people out there that "ARE" able to take advantage of this are the larger players in this field. The average Joe will NOT be able to afford the large investment for infrastructure that is necessary for correct data management.

I think that this is something that will have to be discussed very soon, especially as HDD's get larger and more prone to failure, due to their Large size and the amount of data that can realistically fit on them, (Video, Audio etc). This was much more different when HDD's could only fit a few text files on them....

Lets discuss this...

Regards

Alex

[drc]

The average Joe will NOT be able to afford the large investment for infrastructure that is necessary for correct data management.

I would argue that average Joe doesn't have any data that he can't live without. If he does, then any halfway competent computer shop should know how to save it at least part of the time. For more advanced cases, there are plenty of DR shops that can get it back for him.

Unfortunately there are also plenty of computer shops that must be staffed by blithering idiots and "DR shops" that can lose it for him permanently, and/or double the price when it goes to a real DR shop.

[Magus]

I had a very similar problem:

Two years ago I bought two WD10EADS 1Tb units, plug they in RAID1 (mirror), everything works fine, very fast to read, not so fast to write (as RAID1 should be).

Exactly one-year and one-day later (1 year warranty), one of the units start to fail and gets off the RAID, I had to resync it many times. Finally I decided to replace the bad unit with a WD10EARS 1Tb.

But I still didn't drop away the bad unit, it still works, with some S.M.A.R.T. alerts but works: read @70Mb/s and write @10Mb/s, never corrupt a file , ideal to use as a big pendrive

The other one unit still works as a charm, I really don't know why only one got bad.