WD2500BEVE corrupted geometry
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From: Peter Lu on 1 Apr 2008 03:03 I bought a WD2500BEVE drive (Western Digital 250GB 2.5" IDE) to upgrade my Dell laptop and somehow in the process of partitioning, formatting and Windows OS migration, its geometry got corrupted and instead of being a 250GB drive, it is now a 78GB drive. The corruption is on the drive itself, as the 78GB shows in PC BIOS, with Knoppix Linux, when the drive is put in a USB enclosure, and in WD's Data Lifeguard Diagnostics. Other people have successfully installed this drive on the model of my laptop, so IDE controller features such as 48-bit addressing should not be any issue. WD DLG Diagnostics shows the CHS as 152139/16/63 when the drive should be about 484402/16/63. I contacted WD support and the rep says it can't be fixed via software and must be RMA'ed. The WD DLG tools don't have any abilities to change/correct the CHS configuration. Does anyone know of any utilities that could do some low-level geometry fixing on these WD drives? Can anyone explain how a 250GB drive could have been corrupted into a 78GB drive via software and not be able to be reverted via software? I saw somewhere that these drives have many layers of fancy geometry translations and it's likely the same hardware could be programmed to be different devices (drive sizes, features, etc.), which would make sense that WD does not release the software to do hardware "configuration." My drive will get replaced, so hopefully the corruption won't occur again. Perhaps the drive I have is indeed defective or arrears on firmware. But my curiosity is aroused, and I'd really like to understand what's under the covers. Thanks for any help. -- Keep it brief: http://www2.paypc.com/mailrules/
From: Rod Speed on 1 Apr 2008 04:59 Peter Lu <swift(a)TheWorld.com> wrote: > I bought a WD2500BEVE drive (Western Digital 250GB 2.5" > IDE) to upgrade my Dell laptop and somehow in the process > of partitioning, formatting and Windows OS migration, its > geometry got corrupted and instead of being a 250GB drive, > it is now a 78GB drive. The corruption is on the drive > itself, as the 78GB shows in PC BIOS, with Knoppix Linux, > when the drive is put in a USB enclosure, and in WD's > Data Lifeguard Diagnostics. Other people have > successfully installed this drive on the model of my > laptop, so IDE controller features such as 48-bit > addressing should not be any issue. > WD DLG Diagnostics shows the CHS as 152139/16/63 > when the drive should be about 484402/16/63. I contacted > WD support and the rep says it can't be fixed via software > and must be RMA'ed. The WD DLG tools don't have any > abilities to change/correct the CHS configuration. > Does anyone know of any utilities that could do some > low-level geometry fixing on these WD drives? Try wiping the drive with clearhdd http://files.filefront.com/ClearHDDrar/;5300442;/fileinfo.html If that doesnt work, try Hitachi's Drive Feature Tool. > Can anyone explain how a 250GB drive could have been corrupted into > a 78GB drive via software and not be able to be reverted via software? That last isnt likely. > I saw somewhere that these drives have many layers of fancy geometry translations Nope, just one. > and it's likely the same hardware could be programmed > to be different devices (drive sizes, features, etc.), Yes. Drives can be short stroked, appear to be smaller than they actually are. > which would make sense that WD does not release > the software to do hardware "configuration." Nope, Hitachi does. > My drive will get replaced, so hopefully the > corruption won't occur again. Perhaps the drive I > have is indeed defective or arrears on firmware. Possible, but unlikely. > But my curiosity is aroused, and I'd really like > to understand what's under the covers. Either its just got the geometry in the MBR in which case clearhdd will fix that since it wipes the MBR, or its been short stroked, in which case FT will fix it.
From: Arno Wagner on 1 Apr 2008 08:05 Previously Peter Lu <swift(a)theworld.com> wrote: > I bought a WD2500BEVE drive (Western Digital 250GB 2.5" > IDE) to upgrade my Dell laptop and somehow in the process > of partitioning, formatting and Windows OS migration, its > geometry got corrupted and instead of being a 250GB drive, > it is now a 78GB drive. The corruption is on the drive > itself, as the 78GB shows in PC BIOS, with Knoppix Linux, > when the drive is put in a USB enclosure, and in WD's > Data Lifeguard Diagnostics. Other people have > successfully installed this drive on the model of my > laptop, so IDE controller features such as 48-bit > addressing should not be any issue. > WD DLG Diagnostics shows the CHS as 152139/16/63 when the > drive should be about 484402/16/63. I contacted WD > support and the rep says it can't be fixed via software > and must be RMA'ed. The WD DLG tools don't have any > abilities to change/correct the CHS configuration. > Does anyone know of any utilities that could do some > low-level geometry fixing on these WD drives? Can > anyone explain how a 250GB drive could have been > corrupted into a 78GB drive via software and not be > able to be reverted via software? I saw somewhere > that these drives have many layers of fancy geometry > translations and it's likely the same hardware > could be programmed to be different devices (drive > sizes, features, etc.), which would make sense that > WD does not release the software to do hardware > "configuration." > My drive will get replaced, so hopefully the > corruption won't occur again. Perhaps the drive I > have is indeed defective or arrears on firmware. > But my curiosity is aroused, and I'd really like > to understand what's under the covers. > Thanks for any help. It is likely not corruption. Some manufacturers (all?) include the possibility to down-configure drive capacities. This is done for business reasons, e.g. when manufacturing a separate 40GB drive configuration is more expensive than manufacuring all 80GB and just selling some a 40GB and others as 80GB. The reason is that even selling the same drive at a lower price can still turn a profit and gets the customer to buy your product, instead the cheaper 40GB drive form somebody else. Just dropping the price of the 80GB model down to the one of the 40GB model is also not an option, since then you decrease the profit on the 80GB model by too much. One of the ugly sides of capitalism, that sometimes degrading the quality of a product at additional cost (implementing the limiter-feature costs money....) makes business sense. Of course the drive manufacturers doe emphatically not want people to be able to reverse the limiting process. One question: Are you sure this drive came to you with full capacity? You should not be able to modify the limit yourself, unless it is very shoddily implemented, which would be a reason to stay away from WD. After all if repartitioning can cause you to need professional data recovery, the product clearly is a health hazard... Arno
From: Peter Lu on 2 Apr 2008 10:38 In article <65ebrmF2f5b09U1(a)mid.individual.net>, Rod Speed <rod.speed.aaa(a)gmail.com> wrote: >Try wiping the drive with clearhdd >http://files.filefront.com/ClearHDDrar/;5300442;/fileinfo.html >If that doesnt work, try Hitachi's Drive Feature Tool. Hi, thanks so much for the advice. I tried clearhdd and it did nothing. However, Feature Tool managed to fix the drive, so indeed it was short-stroked. But, while trying to set up for re-imaging my drive (from the old drive), it got short-stroked again, probably by Windows boot-up software. So, I'm very concerned that a drive would be corrupted so easily. While I wait for the replacement drive, I'm trying to install Windows, etc., on the "defective" drive just to characterize its failing behavior. >Yes. Drives can be short stroked, appear to be smaller than they actually are. How and why is this done? Is the short-stroking intentional? >Nope, Hitachi does. Odd that the WD rep didn't know anything about short-stroking or software to fix this. >> My drive will get replaced, so hopefully the >> corruption won't occur again. Perhaps the drive I >> have is indeed defective or arrears on firmware. > >Possible, but unlikely. When I get the new drive, the first thing I will check is its firmware level. I'm curious if the "bad" drive I have has vulnerability in being easily and unintentionally re-configured. >Either its just got the geometry in the MBR in which case clearhdd will fix that >since it wipes the MBR, or its been short stroked, in which case FT will >fix it. The drive is being short-stroked way too easily. Thanks for the help. -- Keep it brief: http://www2.paypc.com/mailrules/
From: Peter Lu on 2 Apr 2008 10:46 In article <65emnqF2f3o5dU2(a)mid.individual.net>, Arno Wagner <me(a)privacy.net> wrote: >It is likely not corruption. Some manufacturers (all?) >include the possibility to down-configure drive capacities. >This is done for business reasons, e.g. when manufacturing >a separate 40GB drive configuration is more expensive >than manufacuring all 80GB and just selling some a 40GB >and others as 80GB. The reason is that even selling the >same drive at a lower price can still turn a profit >and gets the customer to buy your product, instead the >cheaper 40GB drive form somebody else. Just dropping the >price of the 80GB model down to the one of the 40GB >model is also not an option, since then you decrease >the profit on the 80GB model by too much. Yes, I realize this happens. With configurable mapping, it's also possible that they qualify a given drive to be a certain size depending on how much media defect it has. They do this grading for CPU and memory (speed) as well. >One of the ugly sides of capitalism, that sometimes >degrading the quality of a product at additional >cost (implementing the limiter-feature costs money....) >makes business sense. > >Of course the drive manufacturers doe emphatically not >want people to be able to reverse the limiting process. Yup. >One question: Are you sure this drive came to you with >full capacity? You should not be able to modify >the limit yourself, unless it is very shoddily >implemented, which would be a reason to stay away from WD. >After all if repartitioning can cause you to need >professional data recovery, the product clearly is a >health hazard... The drive was 250GB when I got it. It's getting short-stroked extremely easily, via some Windows boot-up software I believe. I totally agree with your assessment of its being a health hazard. Perhaps the replacement drive would have newer firmware that's more robust. Perhaps the WD rep knows about this short-stroking vulnerability (via some internal product advisory), and hence agreed to the RMA without much hassle. Thanks. -- Keep it brief: http://www2.paypc.com/mailrules/
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