eSATA problem (add'l info)

A few days back I had posted about an eSATA data drive I had been using
with XP not being readable with Vista or Win7


Here is what I did to test where the problem is:


I removed the drive from the enclosure and tried another SATA drive


(both drives are made by Western Digital)


the second drive was removed from a Win2k machine when it started
developing bad clusters

Vista and Win7 could read that with no problem...
so at least I now know the problem is not due to the enclosure itself

Also can conclude that the problem has nothing to do with Win7 not being
able to read older versions of NTFS.
(Reads a win2k drive with no problems)

and for any who had missed the previous post:

Win7 and Vista can run CHKDSK on the drive and read it find
....and find *no* problems

but disc management sees the drive as "RAW"

trying to read the drive from Windows Explorer gives me the error
message that the drive is not formatted or the file system is corrupt

it is neither unformatted or corrupt from CHKDSK!!!!

Is there an update for the WD disk firmware? It seems that the disk
firmware and the enclosure do not work happily together.



On 20/09/2009 11:50, philo wrote:
> A few days back I had posted about an eSATA data drive I had been using
> with XP not being readable with Vista or Win7
>
>
> Here is what I did to test where the problem is:
>
>
> I removed the drive from the enclosure and tried another SATA drive
>
>
> (both drives are made by Western Digital)
>
>
> the second drive was removed from a Win2k machine when it started
> developing bad clusters
>
> Vista and Win7 could read that with no problem...
> so at least I now know the problem is not due to the enclosure itself
>
> Also can conclude that the problem has nothing to do with Win7 not being
> able to read older versions of NTFS.
> (Reads a win2k drive with no problems)
>
> and for any who had missed the previous post:
>
> Win7 and Vista can run CHKDSK on the drive and read it find
> ...and find *no* problems
>
> but disc management sees the drive as "RAW"
>
> trying to read the drive from Windows Explorer gives me the error
> message that the drive is not formatted or the file system is corrupt
>
> it is neither unformatted or corrupt from CHKDSK!!!!

Dominic Payer wrote:
> Is there an update for the WD disk firmware? It seems that the disk
> firmware and the enclosure do not work happily together.
>

Of my two WD drives...since the *older* one is working correctly,
if there was a firmware problem it would mean I'd have to make a
regression, which is not something I'd want to risk doing

>
>
> On 20/09/2009 11:50, philo wrote:
>> A few days back I had posted about an eSATA data drive I had been using
>> with XP not being readable with Vista or Win7
>>
>>
>> Here is what I did to test where the problem is:
>>
>>
>> I removed the drive from the enclosure and tried another SATA drive
>>
>>
>> (both drives are made by Western Digital)
>>
>>
>> the second drive was removed from a Win2k machine when it started
>> developing bad clusters
>>
>> Vista and Win7 could read that with no problem...
>> so at least I now know the problem is not due to the enclosure itself
>>
>> Also can conclude that the problem has nothing to do with Win7 not being
>> able to read older versions of NTFS.
>> (Reads a win2k drive with no problems)
>>
>> and for any who had missed the previous post:
>>
>> Win7 and Vista can run CHKDSK on the drive and read it find
>> ...and find *no* problems
>>
>> but disc management sees the drive as "RAW"
>>
>> trying to read the drive from Windows Explorer gives me the error
>> message that the drive is not formatted or the file system is corrupt
>>
>> it is neither unformatted or corrupt from CHKDSK!!!!

Firmware is drive specific. It is the equivalent of a motherboard BIOS.
There have been several cases where firmware updates for particular
drive models have resolved compatibility issues.

See
http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc....i=&p_topview=1.

Even if there is nothing listed for your drive it would be worth asking
a question of WD since they are the most likely to know of any
unpublished compatibility issues.


On 20/09/2009 14:51, philo wrote:
> Dominic Payer wrote:
>> Is there an update for the WD disk firmware? It seems that the disk
>> firmware and the enclosure do not work happily together.
>>
>
> Of my two WD drives...since the *older* one is working correctly,
> if there was a firmware problem it would mean I'd have to make a
> regression, which is not something I'd want to risk doing
>
>>
>>
>> On 20/09/2009 11:50, philo wrote:
>>> A few days back I had posted about an eSATA data drive I had been using
>>> with XP not being readable with Vista or Win7
>>>
>>>
>>> Here is what I did to test where the problem is:
>>>
>>>
>>> I removed the drive from the enclosure and tried another SATA drive
>>>
>>>
>>> (both drives are made by Western Digital)
>>>
>>>
>>> the second drive was removed from a Win2k machine when it started
>>> developing bad clusters
>>>
>>> Vista and Win7 could read that with no problem...
>>> so at least I now know the problem is not due to the enclosure itself
>>>
>>> Also can conclude that the problem has nothing to do with Win7 not being
>>> able to read older versions of NTFS.
>>> (Reads a win2k drive with no problems)
>>>
>>> and for any who had missed the previous post:
>>>
>>> Win7 and Vista can run CHKDSK on the drive and read it find
>>> ...and find *no* problems
>>>
>>> but disc management sees the drive as "RAW"
>>>
>>> trying to read the drive from Windows Explorer gives me the error
>>> message that the drive is not formatted or the file system is corrupt
>>>
>>> it is neither unformatted or corrupt from CHKDSK!!!!

Dominic Payer wrote:
> Firmware is drive specific. It is the equivalent of a motherboard BIOS.
> There have been several cases where firmware updates for particular
> drive models have resolved compatibility issues.
>
> See
> http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc....i=&p_topview=1.
>
>
> Even if there is nothing listed for your drive it would be worth asking
> a question of WD since they are the most likely to know of any
> unpublished compatibility issues.
>
>
> On 20/09/2009 14:51, philo wrote:
>> Dominic Payer wrote:
>>> Is there an update for the WD disk firmware? It seems that the disk
>>> firmware and the enclosure do not work happily together.
>>>
>>
>> Of my two WD drives...since the *older* one is working correctly,
>> if there was a firmware problem it would mean I'd have to make a
>> regression, which is not something I'd want to risk doing
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On 20/09/2009 11:50, philo wrote:
>>>> A few days back I had posted about an eSATA data drive I had been using
>>>> with XP not being readable with Vista or Win7
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Here is what I did to test where the problem is:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I removed the drive from the enclosure and tried another SATA drive
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> (both drives are made by Western Digital)
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> the second drive was removed from a Win2k machine when it started
>>>> developing bad clusters
>>>>
>>>> Vista and Win7 could read that with no problem...
>>>> so at least I now know the problem is not due to the enclosure itself
>>>>
>>>> Also can conclude that the problem has nothing to do with Win7 not
>>>> being
>>>> able to read older versions of NTFS.
>>>> (Reads a win2k drive with no problems)
>>>>
>>>> and for any who had missed the previous post:
>>>>
>>>> Win7 and Vista can run CHKDSK on the drive and read it find
>>>> ...and find *no* problems
>>>>
>>>> but disc management sees the drive as "RAW"
>>>>
>>>> trying to read the drive from Windows Explorer gives me the error
>>>> message that the drive is not formatted or the file system is corrupt
>>>>
>>>> it is neither unformatted or corrupt from CHKDSK!!!!



Thanks for the info

there were no firmware updates for my particular drive

Andy Huang wrote:
> WesternDigital in my experience is a bad manufacturer.
> I never thought in my life I'd have to throw out a piece of electronics
> in America, but GE VCR remote control in 1994 and Western Digital drive
> in 2008 were 2 such items.
> I normally preferred IBM until the time they spun off their storage
> division to Hitachi, so I use Hitachi which is incidentally sitting in
> enclosures branded by such reliable makers as:
> Iomega, SimpleTechnologies (Blueberry),
> I am also fond of Seagate, ANYTHING but not these 2:
> a) Memorex (utter junk, from Korea/Indonesia or EVEN Taiwan?)
> b) WesternDigital.
>
> Any other drives have been excellent as long as I've been living here
> since 1992.



I build a *lot* of machines for people

and have had a number of drives fail.

I have not seen that WD is any better or worse than any other mfg.


The drive in question here is *not* in a failure mode.

As my posts have said: XP and Linux can read it fine

there is some anomaly with Win7 and Vista in that they can run CHKDSK on
the drive and find no problem (while in the console mode)
yet from the OS they cannot read it

How can an OS run CHKDSK on a drive and find no problem
but from disc management list it as "RAW" ?



I do have a WD drive that's a lot older and it does have some failing
sectors...but Win 7 and Vista can read that one fine.

WesternDigital in my experience is a bad manufacturer.
I never thought in my life I'd have to throw out a piece of electronics in
America, but GE VCR remote control in 1994 and Western Digital drive in 2008
were 2 such items.
I normally preferred IBM until the time they spun off their storage division
to Hitachi, so I use Hitachi which is incidentally sitting in enclosures
branded by such reliable makers as:
Iomega, SimpleTechnologies (Blueberry),
I am also fond of Seagate, ANYTHING but not these 2:
a) Memorex (utter junk, from Korea/Indonesia or EVEN Taiwan?)
b) WesternDigital.

Any other drives have been excellent as long as I've been living here since
1992.

On Sun, 20 Sep 2009 05:50:22 -0500, philo <philo@privacy.invalid>
wrote:

>A few days back I had posted about an eSATA data drive I had been using
>with XP not being readable with Vista or Win7
>
>
>Here is what I did to test where the problem is:
>
>
>I removed the drive from the enclosure and tried another SATA drive
>
>
>(both drives are made by Western Digital)
>
>
>the second drive was removed from a Win2k machine when it started
>developing bad clusters
>
>Vista and Win7 could read that with no problem...
>so at least I now know the problem is not due to the enclosure itself
>
>Also can conclude that the problem has nothing to do with Win7 not being
>able to read older versions of NTFS.
>(Reads a win2k drive with no problems)
>
>and for any who had missed the previous post:
>
>Win7 and Vista can run CHKDSK on the drive and read it find
>...and find *no* problems
>
>but disc management sees the drive as "RAW"
>
>trying to read the drive from Windows Explorer gives me the error
>message that the drive is not formatted or the file system is corrupt
>
>it is neither unformatted or corrupt from CHKDSK!!!!
The additional information I'm interested in seeing for your drive is
like the following:
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6000]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

F:\Windows\system32>chkdsk g:
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is Data (WD).

WARNING! F parameter not specified.
Running CHKDSK in read-only mode.

CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...
128 file records processed.
File verification completed.
0 large file records processed.
0 bad file records processed.
0 EA records processed.
0 reparse records processed.
CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...
360 index entries processed.
Index verification completed.
5 unindexed files processed.
CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...
128 security descriptors processed.
Security descriptor verification completed.
10 data files processed.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

488375968 KB total disk space.
470514880 KB in 36 files.
320 KB in 12 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
67360 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
17793408 KB available on disk.

65536 bytes in each allocation unit.
7630874 total allocation units on disk.
278022 allocation units available on disk.

Then show the directory:

F:\Windows\system32>dir g:
Volume in drive G is Data (WD)
Volume Serial Number is 84DE-E19E

Directory of G:\

02/13/2009 02:37 AM 17,873,584,128 Late(Late)Show090212-Thu-Chris
Russo, Jon
as Brothers - Lewis Black, Shirley Manson.tp
02/14/2009 02:37 AM 17,881,862,144 Late(Late)Show090213-Fri-Martha
Stewart,
Jake Johannsen - Tom Selleck, Glen Campbell.tp
02/17/2009 02:37 AM 17,468,346,368 Late(Late)Show090216-Mon-Ellen
Pompeo, Ma
tt Kenseth - David Boreanaz, Philip Johnson.tp
..
..
..
03/17/2009 12:43 AM 10,108,805,120 Leno090316-Mon-Julia
Louis-Dreyfus, Jim N
orton.tp
28 File(s) 480,840,687,616 bytes
0 Dir(s) 19,159,973,888 bytes free

F:\Windows\system32>

Yes this is a *** problem. maybe in OS mode it adds some overhead and fails
to read...
The worst thing, is while I dont care for Vista anymore, is tha tit fails
even in Win7.
Just another proof WinXP was the best OS ever.

andy wrote:
> On Sun, 20 Sep 2009 05:50:22 -0500, philo <philo@privacy.invalid>
> wrote:
>
>> A few days back I had posted about an eSATA data drive I had been using
>> with XP not being readable with Vista or Win7
>>
>>
>> Here is what I did to test where the problem is:
>>
>>
>> I removed the drive from the enclosure and tried another SATA drive
>>
>>
>> (both drives are made by Western Digital)
>>
>>
>> the second drive was removed from a Win2k machine when it started
>> developing bad clusters
>>
>> Vista and Win7 could read that with no problem...
>> so at least I now know the problem is not due to the enclosure itself
>>
>> Also can conclude that the problem has nothing to do with Win7 not being
>> able to read older versions of NTFS.
>> (Reads a win2k drive with no problems)
>>
>> and for any who had missed the previous post:
>>
>> Win7 and Vista can run CHKDSK on the drive and read it find
>> ...and find *no* problems
>>
>> but disc management sees the drive as "RAW"
>>
>> trying to read the drive from Windows Explorer gives me the error
>> message that the drive is not formatted or the file system is corrupt
>>
>> it is neither unformatted or corrupt from CHKDSK!!!!
> The additional information I'm interested in seeing for your drive is
> like the following:
> Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6000]
> Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
>
> F:\Windows\system32>chkdsk g:
> The type of the file system is NTFS.
> Volume label is Data (WD).
>
> WARNING! F parameter not specified.
> Running CHKDSK in read-only mode.
>
> CHKDSK is verifying files (stage 1 of 3)...
> 128 file records processed.
> File verification completed.
> 0 large file records processed.
> 0 bad file records processed.
> 0 EA records processed.
> 0 reparse records processed.
> CHKDSK is verifying indexes (stage 2 of 3)...
> 360 index entries processed.
> Index verification completed.
> 5 unindexed files processed.
> CHKDSK is verifying security descriptors (stage 3 of 3)...
> 128 security descriptors processed.
> Security descriptor verification completed.
> 10 data files processed.
> Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.
>
> 488375968 KB total disk space.
> 470514880 KB in 36 files.
> 320 KB in 12 indexes.
> 0 KB in bad sectors.
> 67360 KB in use by the system.
> 65536 KB occupied by the log file.
> 17793408 KB available on disk.
>
> 65536 bytes in each allocation unit.
> 7630874 total allocation units on disk.
> 278022 allocation units available on disk.
>




Other than the actual size of the drive and the warning about /f not
being specified, the chkdsk report is as you have listed above

> Then show the directory:
>
> F:\Windows\system32>dir g:
> Volume in drive G is Data (WD)
> Volume Serial Number is 84DE-E19E
>



Of course I cannot do that as Vista or Win7 see the drive as "RAW"