Hello,

I bought two used WD VelociRaptor WD5000HHTZ drives from an eBay seller and a new WD5000HHTZ from another seller. One of the used drives has an odd problem which I've seen before but I couldn't find a solution for it. The drive seems to work ok if the SATA controller is in RAID mode but as soon as I switch the controller to AHCI mode my operating system (Windows 7 Pro 64-bit) will bluescreen sooner or later during the startup of Windows or shortly after and blame the iastor.sys driver. I have an ASUS P8Z68-V Pro motherboard http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8Z68V_PRO/ and the VR drive is connected to a SATA II port so I'm just using the Z68 chipset's integrated hardware controller. Basically I just connected each drive that I bought from eBay one at a time to a SATA II port and ran the extended test in WD's Data Lifeguard Diagnostic for Windows program on the drive. If the problematic drive is connected I'll see a bluescreen error before I can start running the extended test in the diagnostic program on the drive.

I tried contacting the seller about this but mysteriously [sarcasm?], even though I had quick responses within minutes to hours when I was asking him questions about his items that were for sale, now that I have the drives and he has the money I have not heard back from him for two days. ok, maybe he partied during the weekend and now he's back at work. I don't know. I shouldn't wait for help from him with solving this.

I read that he used the three drives for a data migration project for two weeks last summer. I'm wondering if his three drives were used in some kind of RAID configuration and something important was changed on the first drive in the array. The new drive and the other used drive that I bought seem to have no problems with the Intel Z68 controller's AHCI and RAID modes. The other used drive that doesn't have a problem has the same manufacture date as the one that has a problem. The seller listed a SANS DIGITAL EliteRAID ER104CT on eBay but I can't view its listing anymore so I don't know when it was removed, or ended, and I don't know if he used the EliteRAID with the problematic drive anyway. I have an old Albatron PX915P Pro motherboard http://www.albatron.com.tw/English/product/mb/pro_detail.asp?rlink=Specification&no=122 with SATA ports (btw, the audio and ITE RAID were garbage and I mention that every chance I have since Albatron's support wouldn't replace the board) and I could try connecting the VR drive to it to see what happens but I doubt there will be any difference.

I mentioned that I had this problem before with a different drive. A while ago I bought some used WD Black WD1002FAEX drives and one of the drives had this same problem. Now that I'm having this problem with the VR drive it seems like I read a similar description of what the WD Black drive was used for in its eBay listing. The seller told me the WD Black drive was used in a RAID configuration, if I remember correctly. Or, maybe the seller who I was chatting with back then just told me some bs and hoped I would go away. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find a solution for that drive and eventually returned it to the seller for a refund. I hate it when I remember something useful after I've encountered a problem which could have helped me avoid the problem completely to begin with. Maybe I can find some old emails that will refresh my memory of what happened back then.

Can I reconfigure the drive so that it will work with AHCI mode?

I think I fixed the bluescreen error related problem.
I was skeptical it would work but I tried the following: In my computer's UEFI I set the SATA ports to AHCI mode, successfully booted using a GParted Live (Debian) cd, chose GPT to initialize all 3 of the disks, and last I added the NTFS filesystems. I rebooted in to Windows 7 and so far there haven't been any bluescreen errors. I tried starting Windows with and without Intel Rapid Storage Technology installed and so far it's still OK.

What I'm trying to figure out is why I didn't find this solution that last two times I've had this problem with drives I've ordered from eBay. I didn't mention this in my earlier post but yes, I remember now that this is the third time I've had this problem with a used drive only bluescreening Windows while using AHCI mode. I'm sure I would have tried booting Linux on those two earlier occassions but I don't remember if I specifically tried booting using a GParted Live cd. I remember that in the past a drive formatted for Mac OS may not work correctly in a Windows computer even if the old partition was removed before putting it in the Windows computer. I remember there could be some traces left behind from the old partition or file system that Windows couldn't deal with back then. I think that isn't a problem anymore between Apple's OSes and Microsoft's OSes but I guess there were some left over bits on the one drive from something. I'm still curious about exactly what the seller did with these drives.