Hard disk slow out of the box, but passes all tests - could it still be damaged?
I bought a 1TB WD Caviar Green SATA hard disk from Amazon nearly a month ago. I already had another 1TB SATA drive, and I wanted to put them both in a Dell 8300 I had lying around and install Windows Home Server (WHS).
I installed WHS on the new Caviar HDD, and despite the Dell being above the 'recommended spec' for WHS, it took roughly double the indicated install time. When it finally booted, WHS ran extremely slowly (even though I was using a monitor directly connected to the server machine, it was as if I was viewing the desktop remotely through a super slow connection).
I then tried installing WHS on the old SATA hdd instead, and it installed in roughly the indicated time, and now runs infinitely faster. I started to suspect the Caviar was somehow damaged, but all diagnostic tests I ran (WD Digital Lifeguard) showed the drive was healthy.
The drive was pretty poorly packaged from Amazon. Is it possible that a few knocks during transit may have somehow damaged the drive but that this damage would not present itself through Western Digital's own diagnostic software?
Are there some better drive diagnostic tools/techniques you could recommend to help determine whether the drive is functioning normally?
I installed WHS on the new Caviar HDD, and despite the Dell being above the 'recommended spec' for WHS, it took roughly double the indicated install time. When it finally booted, WHS ran extremely slowly (even though I was using a monitor directly connected to the server machine, it was as if I was viewing the desktop remotely through a super slow connection).
I then tried installing WHS on the old SATA hdd instead, and it installed in roughly the indicated time, and now runs infinitely faster. I started to suspect the Caviar was somehow damaged, but all diagnostic tests I ran (WD Digital Lifeguard) showed the drive was healthy.
The drive was pretty poorly packaged from Amazon. Is it possible that a few knocks during transit may have somehow damaged the drive but that this damage would not present itself through Western Digital's own diagnostic software?
Are there some better drive diagnostic tools/techniques you could recommend to help determine whether the drive is functioning normally?
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Check if the drive still has the jumper on limiting the transfer speed. Also check the logs on the server to see if there are any hard drive related errors.
SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
A couple of comments on the drives here: http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Caviar-Green-Internal/dp/B0013FVZWI
This may be the reason for your experiencing the slowness compared to your other drive.