Help with SATA terabyte drive

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Rifty - 06 Jun 2008 06:40 GMT

I'm trying to save myself the trouble of contacting the online place I
bought this drive hoping that someone can help. (But this group has been
comatose lately so I don't know if anyone's listening! :))

It's a Western Digital 1000 gig SATA-2 3.5" internal drive I just got
today. I have bought various Samsung and other smaller SATA drives (750
gig, 500 gig, 320 gig etc) and have simply put them firstly into a USB
SATA HDD docking unit, reformatted them for Mac using Disk Utility, and
when they seemed to be working fine, installed some of them into the
spare internal bays of my MacPro.

So I didn't anticipate any problem with this one. I put it into the
docking unit and the message that it was unreadable and needed to be
formatted came up, so I opened Disk Utility and went through the normal
process of formatting for Mac. The Mac can see the drive in Disk Utility
but when it tried to format it, it said "Disk Erase failed with the
error: Input/Output error".

So I thought maybe it needed to have extra power or something and not
the USB docking unit, so I installed it in the MacPro (Leopard, latest)
box and rebooted. After a very long time the reboot kicked in and gave
the same message as before about formatting the drive, and to cut a long
story short, the result was precisely the same.

So, I connected the docking unit to a Vista PC and tried there, thinking
that this might be a compatability issue with Mac. It said it found the
hardware and automatically installed a driver, but once again, it did
not appear on the 'My Computer' area of the Vista PC. So it seems it
gets so far and no further.

The only two things different about this drive (except for the fact that
it is Western Digital and not Hitachi or Samsung) are its terabyte size,
and one other thing. It has what seems to be a sticky rectangular label
neatly inserted in a precise spot on the side of the drive - none of the
others I have installed before have this. You can see an image of it
here:

http://www.rifty.net/WD1000_sticker.jpg

Does anyone know if that has any significance for formatting? Frankly I
don't think so, but I am grabbing at straws. I don't want to peel it off
in case there's a warranty issue.

If anyone has had a similar experience with a SATA drive, please help if
you can.

Rifty

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Andy - 06 Jun 2008 12:31 GMT

> I'm trying to save myself the trouble of contacting the online place I
> bought this drive hoping that someone can help. (But this group has been
[quoted text clipped - 43 lines]
>
> Rifty

Sorry mate, my only advice is to return the drive for a
replacement/refund :-(

If it won't even _format_, I'd be willing to bet that the drive itself
is already toast.

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Andy - 06 Jun 2008 12:32 GMT

> Sorry mate, my only advice is to return the drive for a
> replacement/refund :-(
>
> If it won't even _format_, I'd be willing to bet that the drive itself
> is already toast.

And further to that - WD don't exactly have a stellar reputation at the
moment.

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Emma Grey - 06 Jun 2008 14:46 GMT

> > Sorry mate, my only advice is to return the drive for a
> > replacement/refund :-(
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> And further to that - WD don't exactly have a stellar reputation at the
> moment.

Ahem, yes - it took Western Digital 5 (yes FIVE) months to replace a
drive of mine that went down during warranty.

Sorry, Rifty, not to be awoken from comatosis in a more optimistic
frame of mind, but I reckon Andy's right on the button here. No
nonsense and a quick refund before they can claim you've monkeyed with
it.

Good luck

Emma

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Andy - 06 Jun 2008 14:59 GMT

> > > Sorry mate, my only advice is to return the drive for a
> > > replacement/refund :-(
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
> Sorry, Rifty, not to be awoken from comatosis in a more optimistic
> frame of mind,

LOL!

> but I reckon Andy's right on the button here. No nonsense and a quick
> refund before they can claim you've monkeyed with it.
>
> Good luck
>
> Emma

And...if you could let us know how you get on with the vendor in
question (and tell us who they are), it'd be muchly appreciated. The
(limited) shops around here only sell things at grossly inflated prices,
so I have to take the gamble and purchase online from interstate when I
want computer hardware.

I'm hoping they offer good service in this instance, as judging by your
account they've shipped you a product which is completely DOA.

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Rifty - 06 Jun 2008 23:42 GMT

> > > > Sorry mate, my only advice is to return the drive for a
> > > > replacement/refund :-(
[quoted text clipped - 28 lines]
> I'm hoping they offer good service in this instance, as judging by your
> account they've shipped you a product which is completely DOA.

Hey, there are actually people out there after all, and far from
comatose! Great! And people I regard as Mac friends, ever ready with
helpful advice. Thanks for responding. (And Pete! I'll reply to you by
email...)

Well, it's a very strange thing. I left the WD1000 drive in the USB dock
after taking it off the Vista PC and plugged it back into the MacPro,
tried once more, and not surprisingly, it failed again. (You know how
you do these things... you just... have another go and sometimes things
work!) So I gave up but left it in the USB dock and went off to film a
night's performance. Came back home round 12 and idly decided to turn on
the USB dock and see what happened. When Disk Utility came up, I asked
it to reformat and guess what? It did so no problem. Bear in mind this
had already been inserted into a USB dock several times and straight
into an available internal bay on the MacPro. So I tested it by putting
on a few files, then took it off the USB docking unit and installed it
into the innards of the MacPro again. It's working no problem. Excellent
data transfer rate - necessary when an hour's filming is 30 gigs or so.
I can only assume something was not making contact when it should have,
and leaving it upright in the docking unit somehow solved that problem.

Now I know your next piece of advice... don't rely on a drive that has
been acting funny. Very good advice and I will bear it in mind. I won't
entrust anything to it that I can't afford to lose or isn't backed up.
Not until that drive and I develop some sense of mutual trust over weeks
and months anyway.

So at this stage I won't be contacting the manufacturer (is WD so wonky,
really? I thought they were reliable and had a good reputation, but
then I'm not experienced in this matter.) The Hitachi and Samsung SATA
drives I have seem good, especially the Hitachi. But when filming an
entire run of one show is over a terabyte of data and I want a backup,
that takes a fair chunk out of my data storage, so I need *heaps* of
drive space.

If it starts acting up, then I will let you know and how I get on with
my supplier and the manufacturer (yuk! I *hate* dealing with them over
such matters.... they love to sell you such items, but aren't ever keen
on looking at them if they have problems. This has a 2 year warranty,
but I hope I never get to find out whether that means anything.)

Cheers to all. I am assuming that the slumber in this group has been the
bliss of running Macs that are either trouble free (or more likely) you
are all smart enough to know how to solve the problems that arise.

Rifty

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Emma Grey - 07 Jun 2008 15:21 GMT

> > > > > Sorry mate, my only advice is to return the drive for a
> > > > > replacement/refund :-(
[quoted text clipped - 75 lines]
>
> Rifty

Excellent news Rifty. I too believed what I was told about WD. Remind
you of WmDs?

Emma

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Rifty - 09 Jun 2008 06:48 GMT

> Excellent news Rifty. I too believed what I was told about WD. Remind
> you of WmDs?
>
> Emma

A little too much! :) Hi Emma.

But this could turn out to be a WMD if I rely on it as well, because on
two of my major clips, when viewing them, I have detected a fatal disk
error for each file, which has frozen the whole computer and forced a
hit-the-button restart - everything else like Force Quit... *everything*
was frozen, and I had to then run Onyx to be sure that all was OK with
the computer.

So it looks like it will be going back to the manufacturer after all,
and I am now without a terabyte of disk storage. I'll let you know how I
fare with them.

Incidentally, that reminds me. It seems that the wonderful
keep-your-computer-in-order program, Applejack, does not have a Leopard
version. That's very sad. Maybe the creator of Applejack has gone
commercial (not surprising if he did - he would have been a
multi-millionaire now if he had charged for Applejack over the years).
So it's Onyx or Cocktail for housekeeping. Onyx is free.

Rifty

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Andy - 09 Jun 2008 08:01 GMT

> > Excellent news Rifty. I too believed what I was told about WD. Remind
> > you of WmDs?
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> was frozen, and I had to then run Onyx to be sure that all was OK with
> the computer.

Ouch. Better now than in say 6 months time I guess.

> So it looks like it will be going back to the manufacturer after all,
> and I am now without a terabyte of disk storage. I'll let you know how I
> fare with them.

Please do. I was of the (perhaps misguided) assumption that the vendor
should take care of this, as they've sold you an item which isn't fit
for purpose (faulty out of the box)

Standard fare should be either a replacement drive or full refund as far
as I'm concerned. YOU shouldn't have to fight with the manufacturer
directly.

> Incidentally, that reminds me. It seems that the wonderful
> keep-your-computer-in-order program, Applejack, does not have a Leopard
> version. That's very sad. Maybe the creator of Applejack has gone
> commercial (not surprising if he did - he would have been a
> multi-millionaire now if he had charged for Applejack over the years).
> So it's Onyx or Cocktail for housekeeping. Onyx is free.

Yes, I was quite disappointed that there's no Leopard compatible version
of Applejack. Having said that, I understand that changes to certain
parts of Leopard mean that it's a fairly extensive project to get
Applejack compatible with the new OS.

This from the horse's mouth on the Applejack website:

> Date: 2008-02-06 09:52
> Sender: kwidholmProject Admin
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
> With about 20 lines of documentation, I could probably make all the
> necessary changes in 30 minutes flat.

Hell, I'd happily give the guy $50 for his software. It saved me major
headaches when my old eMac went tits up and I had no external drive.
Here's hoping a .5 compatible version is available in the near future.

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David Morrison - 10 Jun 2008 02:43 GMT

> > So it looks like it will be going back to the manufacturer after all,
> > and I am now without a terabyte of disk storage. I'll let you know how I
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> as I'm concerned. YOU shouldn't have to fight with the manufacturer
> directly.

In NSW at least, the contract is between you and the retailer. If the
goods do not do what they were supposed to do, or are faulty, you go
back to the retailer and they deal with any issues. Foisting buyers off
onto the manufacturer is just dodging their own responsibility.

If they don't respond favourably and in a timely manner, talk to your
local consumer affairs department. A phone call from them to the
retailer usually generates a prompt response to your problem from the
retailer.

BTW, freight costs on warranty issues are usually split. You pay to send
it back, they pay to ship a replacement to you. Sometimes it is useful
to be coy, and suggest that they reimburse you for the cost of sending
it back.

Good luck.

David

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Emma Grey - 09 Jun 2008 15:17 GMT

> > Excellent news Rifty. I too believed what I was told about WD. Remind
> > you of WmDs?
[quoted text clipped - 22 lines]
>
> Rifty

Hi Rifty, I can see how relinquishing terabyte of space would create a
gaping hole! The computer world has amongst other wonders
introduced the concept of a facility shifting at light speed from
exceptional to essential in the space of a few days.

But better to face its temporary loss now than later with that much
vital data occupying the space.

I'm still with Tiger and I'm sticking with it for the moment. In fact I
recently grabbed a copy of Tiger-for-Intel, so that I can retain that
option. Thanks for the tip regarding Applejack, upon which I am quite
dependant. I agree with Andy, I'd certainly PAY for its continuance.

And incidentally how human to be reminded that Mr Applejack also
has to redecorate his apartment! Such are the demands on Genuine
Intelligence, and not the Artificial sort! Vive la différance!

All the best with the drive and wrestling with commercial demons, and
thanks to Andy for that anecdote.

Emma

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Disproportionate Rabbit - 10 Jun 2008 10:30 GMT

> > keep-your-computer-in-order program, Applejack, does not have a Leopard
> > version. That's very sad. Maybe the creator of Applejack has gone
> > commercial (not surprising if he did - he would have been a
> > multi-millionaire now if he had charged for Applejack over the years).

Applejack doesn't have a Leopard version due to changes in the OS which
prevent it working, and at this stage there are no simple workarounds:

***
RE: Is Applejack Leopard-ready?
By: Kristofer Widholm (kwidholm) - 2007-11-03 16:28
It is not ready. Apple has removed the `id` utility from being able to
execute in single user mode (of course with absolutely no documentation
as to why). As far as I know, they might not even know it doesn't work
any more.
Also, Apple has removed the /etc/rc file, which in one way is great
progress, but on the other hand, since there's no documentation, there
is no telling where Apple is now setting up its virtual memory etc.
As usual, Apple has seen fit to leave its developers in the dark. Every
attempt at information is greeted with the message "This is not a
supported scenario".
***

Check the Applejack area on sourceforge.net for current stauts as a
couple of people are working on a Leopard only version.

Dave.

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Mac Forum / Country Specific / Australian Mac Group / June 2008

Help with SATA terabyte drive