Windows 7 killed 2 raptors???

C

Corporal79

Gawd
Joined
Oct 28, 2004
Messages
889
I downloaded Windows 7 RC last week and got home excited to install it and during the installation problem after rebooting it's in the "Completing Installation" and it just sits there for 10 minutes and then reboots. After this reboot the BIOS no longer recognizes the Raptor drive at all. I thought the drive died so I RMA'd it to WD. The new drive shows up here today and I go through the same process and it did the same thing at the completing installation screen, drive is no longer recognized. WTF

I tried to reinstall on the raptor, BIOS won't see the drive and booting from the Win7 media goes through fine until I need to choose a drive and I've got nothing.

First install was from DVD, second was from a USB drive. The media is good as I successfully installed Win7 on a WD 250gb drive I had laying around using the same machine.

gparted doesn't recognize the drive either, any ideas?
 
Doesn't sound plausible.. maybe WD sent you another bad drive. Have you tried WD's diagnostic tools to see if they pick up the drive?

I know other folks have installed W7 on their raptors and haven't had any issues.
 
I will run the data lifeguard tools tonight. Weird that it worked on the 250gb fine but not two different raptors
 
LOL it's the software that killed the hardware, not the motherboard or psu attached to the hardware :eek: Next he'll try to install Vista and whatever 'bug' 7 has is going to obviously infect Vista as well!


oh noez!
 
Maybe the drive type is being set wrong in the BIOS, the BIOS is corrupt or you need a BIOS update.
Try the latest BIOS or at least a reset of the CMOS.

The drive type (LBA, LARGE, CHS ...) determines how the drives space is mapped.
It should be automatically set correctly but if you have already formatted a drive with the wrong drive type before, it will then use that again.
The drive type can also restrict the maximum addressable space (partition / drive size).
Maybe with the wrong drive type, the end of the drive map was reached (the system thinking it was bigger) and the Windows 7 installer wrapped around to the start of the drive, destroying vital system data, or some other mad issue due to wrong drive type.
In theory, it shouldnt cause a problem but these are old settings that probably arent tested much with new hardware as they are not meant to use anything other than LBA.
 
there is lots of reports of ubuntu a certain version killing hard drivers with an issue with how it spins up the disk up and down extra times causes internal drive issues. if you look google it you can find 100's of cases.
 
gesicht said:
there is lots of reports of ubuntu a certain version killing hard drivers with an issue with how it spins up the disk up and down extra times causes internal drive issues. if you look google it you can find 100's of cases.
Click to expand...

Seriously... I've never heard of that before. But can a HDD spinning up and down kill the HDD, or just cause it to fail earlier on??
 
Bleh, that thread title is just so wrong it's not even funny. WIth the PR that effectively destroyed Vista out of the gate, we don't need this kind of stuff floating around... it's misleading and just wrong.
 
Joe Average said:
Bleh, that thread title is just so wrong it's not even funny.
Click to expand...
Yep. I read a thread on another forum about a user claiming Vista nearly killed his laptop; he didn't shut it down properly and stuffed it into his bag to overheat.
 
Joe Average said:
Bleh, that thread title is just so wrong it's not even funny. WIth the PR that effectively destroyed Vista out of the gate, we don't need this kind of stuff floating around... it's misleading and just wrong.
Click to expand...

Well said Joe-not-so-Average. :D
 
Corporal79 said:
I thought the drive died so I RMA'd it to WD. The new drive shows up here today and I go through the same process and it did the same thing at the completing installation screen, drive is no longer recognized. WTF
Click to expand...

I've had them send me two bad drives in a row as well. My situation was almost exactly like yours.
 
First drive, I'd suspect the drive. Second drive, "new," but the same mobo/controller, I'd suspect the drive but start thinking "Ok, maybe..." towards the mobo. Third drive, "new," but the same mobo/controller, and each of the three drives apparently has the exact same issue?

"It might not be the drives... <hint, hint>"

What's that saying...

"When you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains - however improbable - must be the truth."

Or words to that effect.
 
I've had HDD's go bad that were only a few weeks old before. The cause?? O/C too much :)

Is your system oc'd at all??
 
easy fellas, there was supposed to be a question mark at the end of the thread title.

I set the BIOS back to defaults and the drive is now recognized again but it's still hanging at the completing installation screen. The hard drive goes silent after a few minutes into this step and that's all she wrote. I've tried loading the sata controller drivers during the install and still a no go.

No overclocking on my machine at all either, BIOS is up to date as well. Like I mentioned earlier this worked with no issue on a SATA 250gb. Thoughts?
 
I have it on an array of 150GB Raptors (2 in RAID 0) and no issues; try getting that SMART status from the drives, that may reveal something; try it on another motherboard. Try changing the SATA port is on, etc.
 
That was one very important question mark you missed in the subject title :)
 
Corporal79 said:
I set the BIOS back to defaults and the drive is now recognized again but it's still hanging at the completing installation screen. The hard drive goes silent after a few minutes into this step and that's all she wrote.
Click to expand...

What does that mean? How long does it "hang"? For my install, it was taking a while and showed no progress so I left and went to the gas station. Came back 30 minutes alter and it was installed. Built my dad a PC last friday/saturday and it appeared to be hung as well. I almost rebooted to see if that changed anythign. Ended up stalling by showing him my PC with win7 on it and sure enough, at least 10 minutes later, it started installing.
 
I installed on a VelociRaptor, no issues.

Corporal79 said:
I downloaded Windows 7 RC last week and got home excited to install it and during the installation problem after rebooting it's in the "Completing Installation" and it just sits there for 10 minutes and then reboots. After this reboot the BIOS no longer recognizes the Raptor drive at all. I thought the drive died so I RMA'd it to WD. The new drive shows up here today and I go through the same process and it did the same thing at the completing installation screen, drive is no longer recognized. WTF

I tried to reinstall on the raptor, BIOS won't see the drive and booting from the Win7 media goes through fine until I need to choose a drive and I've got nothing.

First install was from DVD, second was from a USB drive. The media is good as I successfully installed Win7 on a WD 250gb drive I had laying around using the same machine.

gparted doesn't recognize the drive either, any ideas?
Click to expand...
 
Corporal79 said:
easy fellas, there was supposed to be a question mark at the end of the thread title.

I set the BIOS back to defaults and the drive is now recognized again but it's still hanging at the completing installation screen. The hard drive goes silent after a few minutes into this step and that's all she wrote. I've tried loading the sata controller drivers during the install and still a no go.

No overclocking on my machine at all either, BIOS is up to date as well. Like I mentioned earlier this worked with no issue on a SATA 250gb. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Reset the BIOS, if needed, and then pull all USB devices from the system except Mouse/KB.

I have had Vista and Win7 hang on me during the "Completing Installation" screen before because of a USB device.
 
Go to your BIOS. Under InIntegrated Peripherals, select OnChip SATA Device and press enter. Make sure both Bus Master and OnChip SATA Controller are enabled. Set OnChip SATA Mode to AHCI. Save and restart the system. Go back to the BIOS and make sure it now sees it under Standard CMOS Features.

Go back to the main BIOS screen and select Advanced BIOS Features, select Hard Disk Boot Priority and press enter. Set your CD/DVD/Bluray to boot first and your hard drive to boot second.

Save, restart, and install Windows 7 normally.
 
Joe Average said:
Bleh, that thread title is just so wrong it's not even funny. WIth the PR that effectively destroyed Vista out of the gate, we don't need this kind of stuff floating around... it's misleading and just wrong.
Click to expand...

Amen. "Oh man I was microwaving some food while using Windows 7 and my dog died. WIndows 7 FTL!!"
 
guys relax, I certainly wasn't bashing Windows 7, I have been looking forward to the release candidate so I surely wasn't looking for an issue with it so I could run to the hard forums and post what kind of garbage I thought Win7 was.

Anyway, I got it working. Not sure what the thing that made it work was but I reset the BIOS, took out my X-Fi Extreme Music, unplugged all USB devices (mouse, printer), unplugged the SATA DVD drive and network cable. The only thing plugged in was my PS2 keyboard and the OCZ USB drive I was installing from. Running like a dream right now, wish I could have known specifically what was causing the issue though.

Thanks for the help.
 
I also have it installed on a 300gb raptor drive, I did notice one time after installign that in the post mesage it said that no HD were found

But after I did a cold boot it seems fine and now find it each and every time, with no issues
 
Good to see you got it working. I had trouble installing the RC on a 74gb raptor, blue screens, incomplete installs but the drive never went missing. I did pretty much the same thing, disconnected all the extra stuff and the install worked.
 
Keep an eye on the event logs in windows now that you got it installed. Look for controller errors etc.

I had my Velociraptor paired with an Asus P5k Premium P35 which comes with the Intel ICH9 SATA controller. Nothing but problems with this combo and I could not even get an OS installed. If you do some googling, you will find others with similar issues. I wouldn't be surprised if this is what you are experiencing.

I grabbed a cheap PCI express 1x SATA controller to hold me off for a bit but ultimately when I made the jump to windows 7 x64 (no x64 drivers for my SATA card), I grabbed an Asus P5Q Pro Turbo P45 chipset with Intel Ich10 sata controller and everything has been smooth as silk.

I'm glad you got it working but I just wanted to share since I did have similar issues with my Velociraptor.
 
It's a known fact (there was even an article on Tom's Hardware back in the day) that the older Raptors (36GB and 74GB) have random odd problems when installing Vista. Apparently this extends to Windows 7. I eventually gave up on my 74GB Raptor and went with a regular old 250 gig drive. It's a little slower, but at least I don't have to deal with all the bullshit trying to get Vista/7 installed.
 
I have it installed on a velociraptor no problem. Never heard about vista install issues?
 
Raptors are one type of drive, VelociRaptors are another type. As the OP never stated (at least not that I can tell) whether he had/has Raptors or VelociRaptors specifically - he just said "Raptors," and given that the issues noted in various places online were with Raptors - the original 10K drives - that's what I'd suspect he actually has: original Raptors and not the newer updated VelociRaptors.
 
ferrisnox said:
I have it installed on a velociraptor no problem. Never heard about vista install issues?
Click to expand...

Velociraptor is a newer model, read my post again. I said the old 36GB and 74GB versions have problems. And even those don't always have problems, but a lot of times they do.

edit: Oops, looks like Joe already cleared that up.
 
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