ubuysa
The BSOD Doctor
No. The performance monitor only checked the dirty bit. The chkdsk command just scans the file system and Windows only sees the logical file system in any case. None of them use the SMART data.
Performance Monitor giving bad readings
- Thread starter mike_d99
- Start date
ubuysa
The BSOD Doctor
This could be something as simple as a partition table glitch on the drive. If you have backups of this data I would suggest using diiskpart to clean the drive and then create a new partition on there. I can provide help with diiskpart if you need it.
Thanks Ubuysa. I'll look into that.
But what is happening here exactly? Where have the files gone? They've been locked and completely inaccessible since Friday, and this was still the case last thing last night. Now they've vanished completely. I don't think I've ever encountered anything like this before.
Would you trust this drive in the future? Given what's happened, and the fact it's making constant grinding and tapping noises. It must be faulty, surely?
But what is happening here exactly? Where have the files gone? They've been locked and completely inaccessible since Friday, and this was still the case last thing last night. Now they've vanished completely. I don't think I've ever encountered anything like this before.
Would you trust this drive in the future? Given what's happened, and the fact it's making constant grinding and tapping noises. It must be faulty, surely?
ubuysa
The BSOD Doctor
The noises don't sound good, though some drives are noisy.
Your data is likely still there its just the pointers to it that have been lost. As long as you have backups, try a free data recovery tool and see whether that can locate the data.
If that doesn't help I'd clean it with diskpart and create (and format) a new partition and see how the drive performed then.
It might be worth running a malware scan. It's not impossible this is malicious malware at work.
I've removed all the data as it's being returned to WD, so there's nothing to recover and no issue with formatting the drive 
I've fired up diskpart but I'm not sure how to identify the correct drive from this list:
It's 10TB, so it must be disk 1 or disk 3 but I don't know how to tell. Also, 1024kb free?
I've fired up diskpart but I'm not sure how to identify the correct drive from this list:
It's 10TB, so it must be disk 1 or disk 3 but I don't know how to tell. Also, 1024kb free?
ubuysa
The BSOD Doctor
Use the list volume command, that will show you the drive letters. BE CERTAIN to select the correct volume (sel vol) before you run the clean command, it's irreversible! After the sel vol run another list volume, the currently selected volume (on which the clean command will operate) will be indicated by a splat (*).
After the clean run the create part primary command and then the format fs=ntfs quick command. That will give you a completely clean drive.
Thanks, that did the job. The drive is now cleaned and formatted.
I'm not quite sure where to go from here. I've got an active RMA on the drive but the WD return process is a bit of a faff. Is there any way the drive is not faulty, given the issues I've just experienced? It would be hard to trust this drive with data in the future given all the folder and file corrupted messages I've received.
Just to muddy the waters further, I'm copying some data to it now and it's as quiet as a mouse. No tapping or grinding noises at all.
I'm not quite sure where to go from here. I've got an active RMA on the drive but the WD return process is a bit of a faff. Is there any way the drive is not faulty, given the issues I've just experienced? It would be hard to trust this drive with data in the future given all the folder and file corrupted messages I've received.
Just to muddy the waters further, I'm copying some data to it now and it's as quiet as a mouse. No tapping or grinding noises at all.
ubuysa
The BSOD Doctor
Hammer the drive as much as you can. Create several folders and copy the same data into each, just to have some data to store on the drive. Fill it as full as you can. The lack of noise is encouraging, it sounds like you were hearing excessive seeking. Just push the drive as hard as you can, if it keeps performing well then it's likely just as fine as the SMART data says it is.
ubuysa
The BSOD Doctor
You're more than welcome. Fingers crossed that it was just some sort of partition table glitch.Currently copied 2.5 TB of data over and it's still running quietly. I'll see how it fares when it's full.
Appreciate your advice with this, thanks a lot
Well, I pretty much filled the entire disk as suggested:
All the files I copied were verified at the point of copying and they were all fine. The disk stayed quiet as a church mouse throughout, even when I left it copying overnight for 15 hours straight. But right at the end, when I copied the last 175MB over it suddenly got noisy and the copying process paused for a minute or so as if it were unable to progress. But then it continued past that point, and the copy was verified successfully.
SMART data seems good still:
All the files I copied were verified at the point of copying and they were all fine. The disk stayed quiet as a church mouse throughout, even when I left it copying overnight for 15 hours straight. But right at the end, when I copied the last 175MB over it suddenly got noisy and the copying process paused for a minute or so as if it were unable to progress. But then it continued past that point, and the copy was verified successfully.
SMART data seems good still:
Attachments
ubuysa
The BSOD Doctor
Oh, that's interesting. When the disk becomes that full the remaining files have to be heavily fragmented to fit in the remaining free space, that causes a great deal of seeking (head movement) and that suggests that the noises you've been hearing are just the disk seeking.
I think you've shown that the disk is actually fine.
ubuysa
The BSOD Doctor
I think the drive is fine.That's good to know - I was worrying that maybe it had found the 'faulty' area. Obviously I wouldn't normally fill a drive quite as full as this
I think I'm safe to cancel the RMA for now then. Really appreciate your advice throughout this.
I just went to cancel the RMA, which neccessitated speaking to someone at WD. The person I spoke to said that the drive was definitely faulty and he strongly recommended I return it as planned. I said about the SMART data and so on, and he said rather than it being a bad sector the drive is almost certainly physically damaged, in that something has broken inside and is moving around inside the casing and causing the drive to fail intermittently. He said although it might be fine now, it's a matter of time before it fails again and it will definitely break permanently sooner or later.
So looks like I'm sending it back in after all, it's not worth risking it in the light of what he said.
So looks like I'm sending it back in after all, it's not worth risking it in the light of what he said.
Martinr36
MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Well if someone from WD is saying that then yeah it's the best idea
ubuysa
The BSOD Doctor
If they're happy to exchange it then fine. But how someone can diagnose a drive as faulty with that level of detail without having seen the drive in operation is rather ambitious IMO. It makes me wonder whether they know that there's a batch of bad drives out there since they seem so keen to get it back.
Everything you have done points to the drive being good but given thir keenes to get it back then that's going to be your best option.
Martinr36
MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Yeah sounds as though they know they have some dodgy drives out there
I bought a second one two months later. Hope that doesn't go the same way!