I have a few programs that could REALLY benefit from a faster drive, but I don't want to go with an SSD for several reasons. Currently I have a WD drive with 7200 RPM 16 MB cache. How much faster would this drive be?
Newegg.com - Western Digital VelociRaptor WD1500HLFS 150GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Newegg.com - Western Digital VelociRaptor WD1500HLFS 150GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
I would say in real life usage, probably about 10-15% improvement. It will be noticeable, but not night and day.
You might want to consider one of the WD Black drives instead. I've read some reviews that place them on par with the Raptors, yet they offer more capacity for a lower cost.
�� Quote: Originally Posted by DeaconFrost 
You might want to consider one of the WD Black drives instead. I've read some reviews that place them on par with the Raptors, yet they offer more capacity for a lower cost.
One thing I would say is to stay away from the Caviar Black SATA 6 drives (64mb cache) though they are slightly faster than their 32mb cousins, they are considerably louder. See my thread here - SATA 6 WD Caviar Black 1TB
On the other hand I can't imagine the Rapter being any quieter since it runs at 10,000 RPMS!
�� Quote: Originally Posted by sygnus21 On the other hand I can't imagine the Rapter being any quieter since it runs at 10,000 RPMS!
I can say that they are almost silent. It's amazing.
Also, I would recommend getting it from Amazon rather than Newegg... only $89 plus free shipping and no sales tax (Newegg charges tax if you live in CA).
�� Quote: Originally Posted by Windows i7 920 I have a few programs that could REALLY benefit from a faster drive, but I don't want to go with an SSD for several reasons. Currently I have a WD drive with 7200 RPM 16 MB cache. How much faster would this drive be?
Newegg.com - Western Digital VelociRaptor WD1500HLFS 150GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Newegg.com - Western Digital VelociRaptor WD1500HLFS 150GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Compared to drives out now like the WD Black series and the Samsung HD103SJ,
not that much faster.
�� Quote: Originally Posted by dsperber Also, I would recommend getting it from Amazon rather than Newegg... only $89 plus free shipping and no sales tax (Newegg charges tax if you live in CA).
�� Quote: Originally Posted by Windows i7 920 Well it sounds as if this thread is handled, nice work guys.
Fabe
Fabe
�� Quote: Originally Posted by thefabe Well it sounds as if this thread is handled, nice work guys.
Fabe
Fabe
�� Quote: Originally Posted by sygnus21 �� Quote: Originally Posted by DeaconFrost You might want to consider one of the WD Black drives instead. I've read some reviews that place them on par with the Raptors, yet they offer more capacity for a lower cost.
One thing I would say is to stay away from the Caviar Black SATA 6 drives (64mb cache) though they are slightly faster than their 32mb cousins, they are considerably louder. See my thread here - SATA 6 WD Caviar Black 1TB
On the other hand I can't imagine the Rapter being any quieter since it runs at 10,000 RPMS!
yikes! The 3 gb/s Blacks are loud enough when seeking that I took a hit in performance enabling the Auto Acoustics mode in the two I use for data!
�� Quote: Originally Posted by GeneO yikes! The 3 gb/s Blacks are loud enough when seeking that I took a hit in performance enabling the Auto Acoustics mode in the two I use for data!
7,200-RPM terabytes from Hitachi, Samsung, Seagate, and WD face off - The Tech Report - Page 1
Read that great in depth article ^
Read that great in depth article ^
�� Quote: Originally Posted by GeneO yikes! The 3 gb/s Blacks are loud enough when seeking that I took a hit in performance enabling the Auto Acoustics mode in the two I use for data!
I've got the 1st gen raptor and the 2nd gen raptor. Both are quiet. Although I wouldn't hear them anyway since my case fans are louder than those HDD's will ever be. They are definitely worth it for the speed.
�� Quote: Originally Posted by sygnus21 �� Quote: Originally Posted by DeaconFrost You might want to consider one of the WD Black drives instead. I've read some reviews that place them on par with the Raptors, yet they offer more capacity for a lower cost.
One thing I would say is to stay away from the Caviar Black SATA 6 drives (64mb cache) though they are slightly faster than their 32mb cousins, they are considerably louder. See my thread here - SATA 6 WD Caviar Black 1TB
On the other hand I can't imagine the Rapter being any quieter since it runs at 10,000 RPMS!
�� Quote: Originally Posted by pparks1 �� Quote: Originally Posted by GeneO yikes! The 3 gb/s Blacks are loud enough when seeking that I took a hit in performance enabling the Auto Acoustics mode in the two I use for data!
I even have soundproofing material in my case. My system drive is a WD 6Gb/s blue single platter 320 GB drive and it is silent, though not as performant as the black. Seeking on my crappy old Seagate 750 GB 7200.11 is also quiet compared to the blacks. I got the blacks mainly for the 5yr warranty. �� Quote: Originally Posted by seekermeister I wish that I had seen that thread sooner, because I bought another hard drive just to have a place to store data that is on one of my FAEX drives. I had posted a thread about the noise that they make, and the responses that I got made me think that they were defective and needed to be RMAed. I even spoke to one WDC rep before that, asking whether they are naturally noisy, and he said that they weren't. I would have been quite disturbed had I got a replacement that acted the same way. I guess now that I will just let them clatter away.
Anyways I love the blacks but I the the SATA 6gig ones are too loud.
Man where were you guys when I was asking this question here - SATA 6 WD Caviar Black 1TB
I had some of the first gen raptors (4 of them in fact)
I never really noticed a huge difference if they weren't raided on a dedicated talon raid card made specially for them. Even then it was maybe... maybe 20% increase.
I never really noticed a huge difference if they weren't raided on a dedicated talon raid card made specially for them. Even then it was maybe... maybe 20% increase.
�� Quote: Originally Posted by sygnus21 Yeah I actually called WD's tech supprt and was told that If I wanted an quieter drive I should have gotten a "Blue"
Anyways I love the blacks but I the the SATA 6gig ones are too loud.
Man where were you guys when I was asking this question here - SATA 6 WD Caviar Black 1TB
Anyways I love the blacks but I the the SATA 6gig ones are too loud.
Man where were you guys when I was asking this question here - SATA 6 WD Caviar Black 1TB
I absolutely hate mines. Thankfully I've relegated it to a hot-swap drive when I went SSD. I love WD drives but knowing what I know now, I'm running the other way when I see one of those. Give me the old Caviar Blacks and I'm a happy camper.
Incidentally I don't see the FEAX's around too often - perhaps WD heard the complaints and dropped/limited them? They are loud... despite what WD says.
Incidentally I don't see the FEAX's around too often - perhaps WD heard the complaints and dropped/limited them? They are loud... despite what WD says.
No, they are still around, maybe you have mentally blocked them out, so your eyes turn the other way.
�� Quote: Originally Posted by seekermeister �� Quote: Originally Posted by sygnus21 Yeah I actually called WD's tech supprt and was told that If I wanted an quieter drive I should have gotten a "Blue"
Anyways I love the blacks but I the the SATA 6gig ones are too loud.
Man where were you guys when I was asking this question here - SATA 6 WD Caviar Black 1TB
Anyways I love the blacks but I the the SATA 6gig ones are too loud.
Man where were you guys when I was asking this question here - SATA 6 WD Caviar Black 1TB
Blue - Quiet, good performance
Black - High performance
�� Quote: Originally Posted by seekermeister �� Quote: Originally Posted by sygnus21 Yeah I actually called WD's tech supprt and was told that If I wanted an quieter drive I should have gotten a "Blue"
Anyways I love the blacks but I the the SATA 6gig ones are too loud.
Man where were you guys when I was asking this question here - SATA 6 WD Caviar Black 1TB
Anyways I love the blacks but I the the SATA 6gig ones are too loud.
Man where were you guys when I was asking this question here - SATA 6 WD Caviar Black 1TB
�� Quote: Originally Posted by seekermeister No, they are still around, maybe you have mentally blocked them out, so your eyes turn the other way.
That's probably it If you don't mind me asking, what is your concern about ssd's? I made the switch last summer and I hate to think of going back.
�� Quote: Originally Posted by nitroman84 If you don't mind me asking, what is your concern about ssd's? I made the switch last summer and I hate to think of going back.
�� Quote: Originally Posted by sygnus21 �� Quote: Originally Posted by nitroman84 If you don't mind me asking, what is your concern about ssd's? I made the switch last summer and I hate to think of going back.
"I have a few programs that could REALLY benefit from a faster drive, but I don't want to go with an SSD for several reasons."
I'm just curious of those reasons.
Only he knows, but I can guess finances can play a role. Not everyone wants to spend money on an SSD drive, especially when you factor dollar per gigabyte.
Even though SSD prices are dropping they're still expensive compared to spinner drives with their massive storage space.
I know I waited till prices dropped enough for me before I got one. And for me it had to be at least a 120gig or I didn't want it. That's me.
Anyway I can understand why one would hold off.
Even though SSD prices are dropping they're still expensive compared to spinner drives with their massive storage space.
I know I waited till prices dropped enough for me before I got one. And for me it had to be at least a 120gig or I didn't want it. That's me.
Anyway I can understand why one would hold off.
I have three WD Black drives in two towers, including the one in my Sys Specs, and they aren't loud at all.
�� Quote: Originally Posted by GeneO Perhaps your noise tolerance is lower than mine I even have soundproofing material in my case.
I even have soundproofing material in my case.. I'm very much for quiet machines. 2 of my builds at home use the Antec Sonata II case, known for it's silent performance. My primary machine that runs the WD Caviar Black, has an 80GB SSD (which is obviously silent), and I'm considering replacing my slightly older Nvidia 9800GTX+ with a Radeon 5850 mostly because it's much quieter. Perhaps I just don't hear the Caviar Black as it's near the bottom on my case and only sitting about 6 inches off the floor. I think that some of these drives are just noisier than others. I have heard some Caviar Blacks that are noticeably louder that mine.I use caviar blue's at work. I have 7 of the 500GB's and 2 of the 1TB's. And I'd say they give me 98% of the performance on the black series. I opted for the black at home just for the longer warranty. Performance wise, it's pretty much a toss up.
�� Quote: Originally Posted by Windows i7 920 I have a few programs that could REALLY benefit from a faster drive, but I don't want to go with an SSD for several reasons. Currently I have a WD drive with 7200 RPM 16 MB cache. How much faster would this drive be?
Newegg.com - Western Digital VelociRaptor WD1500HLFS 150GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Newegg.com - Western Digital VelociRaptor WD1500HLFS 150GB 10000 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Performance would depend on your application. The VelociRaptor would have less latency. A 10,000 RPM drive has a 3 ms average rotational latency. For 7200 RPM, it's 4.17 ms. (It's the time for the platter to make 1/2 turn.) The Velociraptor has a quicker mechanism to position its heads, so its seek time would be lower.
On the other hand, the Caviar Black drives have a much higher data density on their platters, so their sustained data read (or write) rates may be better than the Raptor. I suggest the 1.5TB Caviar Black:
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD1501FASS 1.5TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
It's $10 cheaper at Newegg than the 150GB Raptor. I have one. I don't find it noisy.
Maybe you'd get some insight by checking the data base at www.storageview.com. A quick glance suggests that you'd be giving up little performance with a Caviar Black as compared to a VelociRaptor.
The WDC 10kRPM drives seem to be a unique technology, but SSDs seem to be what the world is moving to. There's a vast range in data rates (especially write rates) with them, but their 100 microsecond latencies make it hard for traditional drives to compete.
�� Quote: Originally Posted by bobkn On the other hand, the Caviar Black drives have a much higher data density on their platters, so their sustained data read (or write) rates may be better than the Raptor. I suggest the 1.5TB Caviar Black
But for an OS C-drive application, I doubt that these "sustained data read/write" conditions occur very often. Use the drive as a \Recorded TV folder for WMC and the Ceton 4-tuner card supporting multiple extenders and HDTV's around the house, and I would vote for the drive with the largest cache and highest data rates. The Velociraptor only has 16MB cache.
I still love them for my OS drive.
Had an interesting incident over the weekend. One machine began to malfunction severely, freezing, locking up, even several BSOD (which I have NEVER seen in my 15 months experience with Win7 on two separate machines). Couldn't boot reliably, with indications that the 150GB boot SATA drive (i.e. this one that we're talking about) was failing... either that or maybe the particular SATA port on the motherboard was flaking out, or who knows what.
After hours of playing and coaxing, and even "rebuild MBR on the drive" (using my standalone Partition Wizard boot disk) which didn't fix anything, I was able to get it to come up long enough for me to actually copy the one crucial data partition on the drive to another drive where I had sufficient capacity to shrink one partition enough (making it "unallocated") so that I could use Partition Wizard to copy the crucial partition on the presumably failing boot drive to the "backup" copy location.
Having accomplished that, I was now able to delete everything on the maybe-failing drive, and then attempt a Win7 recovery from the system-image I'd last taken (which wasn't so long ago, and was perfectly fine as a starting point if I had to re-do recent work). Well this didn't go so well, with lots of failures again seemingly tied to hardware failing.
I even tried to reinstall Win7 on the drive, but the installation failed as well.. claiming it couldn't copy (or find?) all needed files. That couldn't be coming from the CD, so it must have been more hardware failures.
Anyway, eventually I managed to get the system image to recover successfully. In fact the drive now seemed to be working properly again. Just because I thought it was the drive itself that was failing, I placed my own new order for another one (on Amazon, as I recommended earlier, for $89). The order was placed Sunday night, confirmed and shipped Monday morning (regular USPS, expected 3-5 day arrival), and arrived this morning TUESDAY!!!
However yesterday, on Monday morning, I got another BSOD out of the blue! It was seemingly doing nothing, just sitting there, and all of a sudden DEATH! Again, more suggestion of a tempermental intermittent failure, with true fatal death soon to arrive.
I then decided just to look inside the case, not expecting to find anything unusual. After all, these parts just sit there screwed into cages and connected with power/data cables. They don't actually move around.
Nevertheless, I unplugged both the power and data cables, and then re-attached them, pushing them on firmly (just as they were originally). I also pushed down the other end of the cables into the SATA connector on the MOBO and the extension cable coming from the power supply. Just to be sure.
Then I re-booted.
Amazingly, it has been 100% perfect since Monday morning!!! I honestly don't think either of the cable connections was loose, but perhaps one may have been. How it got that way after so long of perfect operation, I have no idea. All I know is that ever since I removed and re-seated those two cable connections to the drive, it's been like a new drive. Perfect, once again. Not a hiccup since Monday.
So naturally, I now have a "spare" Velociraptor still in the unopened carton, which arrived just this morning from Amazon. I think I'll just keep it. The price is too good to have passed up anyway, even for just having it as a true "spare" (or maybe again the boot drive in some third new machine which might get created some day).
Very interesting. Would never have dreamed that either cable could possibly have worked its way loose just the tiniest amount, in order to result in the completely unpredictable and erratic behavior of the drive that I saw all weekend. From my perspective the cables are now re-attached exactly as they were before... but obviously not.
A review from Silent PC reviews of the WDC Caviar Black 1TB 3Gb/s drive.
On the last page are sound clips of it, the raptor, and the blue. With and without Auto Acoustic Management set to silent.
Just about what I hear on the Black and Blue.
Caviar Black: WD's Performance 1TB HDD | silentpcreview.com
On the last page are sound clips of it, the raptor, and the blue. With and without Auto Acoustic Management set to silent.
Just about what I hear on the Black and Blue.
Caviar Black: WD's Performance 1TB HDD | silentpcreview.com
�� Quote: Originally Posted by dsperber So naturally, I now have a "spare" Velociraptor still in the unopened carton, which arrived just this morning from Amazon. I think I'll just keep it.
Very interesting. Would never have dreamed that either cable could possibly have worked its way loose just the tiniest amount, in order to result in the completely unpredictable and erratic behavior of the drive that I saw all weekend. From my perspective the cables are now re-attached exactly as they were before... but obviously not.
Very interesting. Would never have dreamed that either cable could possibly have worked its way loose just the tiniest amount, in order to result in the completely unpredictable and erratic behavior of the drive that I saw all weekend. From my perspective the cables are now re-attached exactly as they were before... but obviously not.
I'm now of the opinion that it really wasn't the cable or connector. I'm now of the opinion that my drive was truly dying a slow death. I gave it a shot of adrenaline with the cable re-seating, but really the drive was doomed.
Yesterday it started acting up again, just as it had before. I decided enough was enough, and broke out the "spare" drive I'd purchased some weeks back but never installed at that time.
Fortunately, I had right-up-to-the minute "system image" backup, along with similar 100% current backups of the other partitions on that physical drive. I was able to swap the bum drive out in 30 minutes for the new replacement, re-boot and restore the "system image" in about 15 minutes, restore the other partitions in about 10 minutes, and inside of an hour total I was running rock-solid perfect again with a new WDC150 Velociraptor.
This drive is simply unbelievably quiet (at least in my Acousticase, which has two other hard drives in it along with super-silent front and rear 120mm case fans, a very large and silent Zalman cooler on the CPU, super-silent Nesteq power supply, and a fanless ATI HD4670 video card).
Love it (and Win7's "system image" functionality).
Id go with 2 1tb spinpoint f3's in raid0, costs less than that one WD velociraptor and has almost 7x the capacity! Here are my hddtune results, theyre faster than my 1st gen vertex 2:
I suspect the real issue here is IDE vs. RAID.
On my ASUS P5Q3 board, I have my SATA configuration as IDE. Each of SATA my drives is thus limited by UDMA5, aka ATA100. I get the same performance on my Supermicro C2SBX board.
No matter what the SATA drives are theoretically rated at speed-wise, if you run them as IDE drives then they're limited to ATA100 performance.
On my ASUS P5Q3 board, I have my SATA configuration as IDE. Each of SATA my drives is thus limited by UDMA5, aka ATA100. I get the same performance on my Supermicro C2SBX board.
No matter what the SATA drives are theoretically rated at speed-wise, if you run them as IDE drives then they're limited to ATA100 performance.
�� Quote: Originally Posted by dsperber Post post script...
I'm now of the opinion that it really wasn't the cable or connector. I'm now of the opinion that my drive was truly dying a slow death. I gave it a shot of adrenaline with the cable re-seating, but really the drive was doomed.
Yesterday it started acting up again, just as it had before. I decided enough was enough, and broke out the "spare" drive I'd purchased some weeks back but never installed at that time.
I'm now of the opinion that it really wasn't the cable or connector. I'm now of the opinion that my drive was truly dying a slow death. I gave it a shot of adrenaline with the cable re-seating, but really the drive was doomed.
Yesterday it started acting up again, just as it had before. I decided enough was enough, and broke out the "spare" drive I'd purchased some weeks back but never installed at that time.
Tonight it acted up again, exactly as it had before! This is the brand new drive, installed just last week.
Same symptom... SATA port 4 (to which that drive is connected) suddenly disappeared from BIOS sensing. And none of my usual "coaxing" methods could bring it back.
I decided to move the cable to another SATA port (#2, which is right next to #4), just in case it really was a failing SATA connector on the motherboard.
Once I did that, sure enough the drive was now sensed again and I was back in business. Fingers crossed this is the final and permanent solution.
So, looks like I threw out what probably was a perfectly good Velociraptor last week, if it was the SATA port 4 connector all along that was the flaky component.
Oh well. Alls well that ends well. Fingers crossed.
all I can say is I had 5 first gen raptors in a raid, they were nothing but trouble. 2 died within days of each other just on the wrong side of the warranty.
So far they're lifespan and failure rate have not impressed me. The speed difference wasn't super noticeable then I don't know if they've fixed that yet or not. I quit buying them.
So far they're lifespan and failure rate have not impressed me. The speed difference wasn't super noticeable then I don't know if they've fixed that yet or not. I quit buying them.
Just one more [hopefully] final postscript to this story.
Remarkably, the very same symptom started up again! Just spontaneously, having been running for several months with no problem!
At first, I tried to avoid HIBERNATE since I had previously seemed to have more success if I just let the machine run 24/7 (although I didn't want to), and didn't recycle the power supply. Unfortunately, this now trick seemed to be having no luck in overcoming the now constant problem.
Also, as usual, I went through the same assorted "kick the tires" tricks I'd been having succes with, such as moving the SATA cable to yet another motherboard connector (although I'd now run through all 5 which were theoretically available, since the sixth was already happily and successfully use for another SATA drive, and I didn't want to disturb it), pulling the power and SATA cable from the drive end, even changing to yet another SATA cable. Powering the machine down, powering it up, getting into the BIOS, getting out of the BIOS, etc. Everything I could think of to "wake up the drive", which was I was still convinced was perfectly fine.
But for some reason, with this particular episode I just couldn't coax it back to life. But I was not about to replace this drive again, as I'd rushed-to-judgement the last time and replaced my prior drive with this one.
Then, quite by accident, I was inside the case pulling some neighboring cables aside, to see if I could get access to the hardest-to-see #6 SATA connector on the mobo to try it out. And amazingly, as I was pulling the cables away, the OTHER END OF THE POWER ADAPTER CABLE simply swung free!
I am using a short maybe 3" MOLEX(M)-to-SATA(M) power adapter cable, to plug the MOLEX end into a spare MOLEX(F) connector on a cable coming out of my power supply and then connect the SATA end onto the drive. Well, apparently the MOLEX(F) connector and MOLEX(M) end were not a perfect fit. In fact, they were kind of loose. Normally these two connectors will "snap" together when you push them together firmly, to hold them locked securely. In this case not only were they not "snapping" coupled, but there didn't seem to be enough friction on the 4-pins to keep them really snuggly together, in order to make sure that all 4 pins were conducting properly.
Anyway, I kicked myself for not thinking of that all these past months of having the same problem. So this time I very carefully re-attached the two MOLEX connectors firmly and securely, re-routing it so that it was no longer located where it was, and in fact was buried nicely in a nest of other cables for physical support. I probably should have gone out and bought another adapter, but I was convinced this minor adjustment would do the trick.
Close everything up, re-boot... and VOILA!!! Perfect! Drive is now back to life!
What a dummy I am. I was only looking at the cable connectors going into the drive, and onto the motherboard, and not ever thinking about the other end of the power adapter cable that connected to the main MOLEX power supply cable.
Oh well. I truly hope this case is now closed permanently! And I still feel the Velociraptor is an excellent and almost silent drive, that I'm very happy with.
Remarkably, the very same symptom started up again! Just spontaneously, having been running for several months with no problem!
At first, I tried to avoid HIBERNATE since I had previously seemed to have more success if I just let the machine run 24/7 (although I didn't want to), and didn't recycle the power supply. Unfortunately, this now trick seemed to be having no luck in overcoming the now constant problem.
Also, as usual, I went through the same assorted "kick the tires" tricks I'd been having succes with, such as moving the SATA cable to yet another motherboard connector (although I'd now run through all 5 which were theoretically available, since the sixth was already happily and successfully use for another SATA drive, and I didn't want to disturb it), pulling the power and SATA cable from the drive end, even changing to yet another SATA cable. Powering the machine down, powering it up, getting into the BIOS, getting out of the BIOS, etc. Everything I could think of to "wake up the drive", which was I was still convinced was perfectly fine.
But for some reason, with this particular episode I just couldn't coax it back to life. But I was not about to replace this drive again, as I'd rushed-to-judgement the last time and replaced my prior drive with this one.
Then, quite by accident, I was inside the case pulling some neighboring cables aside, to see if I could get access to the hardest-to-see #6 SATA connector on the mobo to try it out. And amazingly, as I was pulling the cables away, the OTHER END OF THE POWER ADAPTER CABLE simply swung free!
I am using a short maybe 3" MOLEX(M)-to-SATA(M) power adapter cable, to plug the MOLEX end into a spare MOLEX(F) connector on a cable coming out of my power supply and then connect the SATA end onto the drive. Well, apparently the MOLEX(F) connector and MOLEX(M) end were not a perfect fit. In fact, they were kind of loose. Normally these two connectors will "snap" together when you push them together firmly, to hold them locked securely. In this case not only were they not "snapping" coupled, but there didn't seem to be enough friction on the 4-pins to keep them really snuggly together, in order to make sure that all 4 pins were conducting properly.
Anyway, I kicked myself for not thinking of that all these past months of having the same problem. So this time I very carefully re-attached the two MOLEX connectors firmly and securely, re-routing it so that it was no longer located where it was, and in fact was buried nicely in a nest of other cables for physical support. I probably should have gone out and bought another adapter, but I was convinced this minor adjustment would do the trick.
Close everything up, re-boot... and VOILA!!! Perfect! Drive is now back to life!
What a dummy I am. I was only looking at the cable connectors going into the drive, and onto the motherboard, and not ever thinking about the other end of the power adapter cable that connected to the main MOLEX power supply cable.
Oh well. I truly hope this case is now closed permanently! And I still feel the Velociraptor is an excellent and almost silent drive, that I'm very happy with.
I had some first generation raptors and this is why i quit using them. They were nothing but problematic for me. Yes WD replaced 3 of the 4 of them but they just kept dying on me. It also seemed that a large portion of the file reads it was doing wasn't even larger enough for it to actually spin up to speed. After a fiasco with a raid card supposedly made specifically for them actually reducing their performance I finally just quit.
�� Quote: Originally Posted by dsperber �� Quote: Originally Posted by dsperber Post post script...
I'm now of the opinion that it really wasn't the cable or connector. I'm now of the opinion that my drive was truly dying a slow death. I gave it a shot of adrenaline with the cable re-seating, but really the drive was doomed.
Yesterday it started acting up again, just as it had before. I decided enough was enough, and broke out the "spare" drive I'd purchased some weeks back but never installed at that time.
I'm now of the opinion that it really wasn't the cable or connector. I'm now of the opinion that my drive was truly dying a slow death. I gave it a shot of adrenaline with the cable re-seating, but really the drive was doomed.
Yesterday it started acting up again, just as it had before. I decided enough was enough, and broke out the "spare" drive I'd purchased some weeks back but never installed at that time.
Tonight it acted up again, exactly as it had before! This is the brand new drive, installed just last week.
Same symptom... SATA port 4 (to which that drive is connected) suddenly disappeared from BIOS sensing. And none of my usual "coaxing" methods could bring it back.
I decided to move the cable to another SATA port (#2, which is right next to #4), just in case it really was a failing SATA connector on the motherboard.
Once I did that, sure enough the drive was now sensed again and I was back in business. Fingers crossed this is the final and permanent solution.
So, looks like I threw out what probably was a perfectly good Velociraptor last week, if it was the SATA port 4 connector all along that was the flaky component.
Oh well. Alls well that ends well. Fingers crossed.
�� Quote: Originally Posted by metalmania31 Did you consider your motherboard as a potential source of the issue?
I especially thought it was the board when I moved the SATA cable to another connector and it worked. But then after a while, that flaked as well.
As my earlier posts explain, I assumed all of the likely culprits as at fault, from the board, to the chipset, to the cable, to the drive. Swapped everything I could (including buying a new Velociraptor drive, under the assumption that it was the old one which was probably the guilty party after all else failed).
Never occurred to me it might be the power cable/adapter itself... until this most recent event when the 3" MOLEX-to-SATA power adapter cable fell off its MOLEX-end in my hand.
So now I do NOT believe anything else was at fault. It must have been this flaky power connection all along, and only an accidental physical "jostle" to have it make full contact again (while I was inside the case playing with everything else) was really the "solution".
I'm certain now that there's nothing wrong with my PSU, mobo, SATA cables, or any of the SATA connectors. It was just the power source to the drive, with a sloppy MOLEX connection.
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