Western Digital Drive and Win2000 issues?

[awwall]

Has anyone encountered any problems with Western Digital drives and Windows 2000? I recently purchased a WD400BB (40gig), its on its way now. I then run across articles on compatability problems with this drive and Win2000.

I typically use IBM drives, but got a terrific buy on this drive.

thanks for any input

aw

[NDC]

I'm using several WD on 3 systems with win2K and they've all perform flawlessy to this day. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[daveleau]

Same here, no problems. If you are using a RAID, then you will have problems with Win2000. There is a fix, if you need it let me know.
Dave

[socalgal]

I have a WD 20G IDE here, using it as a backup drive on W2K (FAT32) and have had no negative issues. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

I'd be interested to see those articles if you have a link for them.

[daveleau]

Mntsnow clued me into it. You have to copy the i386 folder to the hdd and install from it after changing the ultra66.sy_ to fasttrak66.sys and then rename it to ultra66.sys. Not avery good explanation but here is the link to his thread before.
http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/Forum2/HTML/005847.html

Actually, I just clicked on the links in his thread and they are dead. Promise has no fix anymore online for this. I have the entire proces written down luckily so if you need it I can post it.

Dave

[awwall]

Here are some posts from WD's message board, link to board is below.

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Re: Windows 2000
WD Caviar Hard Drives
Dan Rizzo
11/21/00 10:25:00

This seems to be the answer. I've read many message forums that WD has a problem with Win 2000. I have win 2000 adv server and it had a problem with the WD drive only. The install kept saying that the drive was corrupt - well the drive is fine. The more I read the more it pointed to WD drives and the Ultra DMA settings to enabled in the BIOS setup. As soon as I turned this off - like magic it installed and I have not had any problems ever since. The technical support at WD is real stupid or holding up a front - because when I asked them about a problem with Win 2000 Adv Server and the WD dirve with Ultra DMA settings to enabled - they thought it was not a problem. They are full of it and their technology really blows. Now I am stuck with a drive that is not cabable of Ultra DMA settings to enabled while running Win 2000 Adv Server.

WD get a clue and fix this problem - or at the least give your customers some support on this issue. You have no help on your site regarding this problem - WHY!!!!


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Re: Windows 2000
WD Caviar Hard Drives
Charles-edouard Ruault
11/21/00 12:30:49

Just to confirm the behaviour :
I've got an EPOX EP-51-MVP3E-M motherboard with a VIA chipset, upgraded to the latest BIOS version ( 11/04/00). I've tried everything i could think of:
forcing the drive to UDMA-33 with WD's UDMA tools
writing zeros to the drive
pre-formatting the hard drive using WD's tools
nothing works win2k setup fails miserably while Linux and Win98 can access the drive fine ....
After reading the posts in this forum it looks like the problem is on Western Digital's side... if i don't get an answer/solution from them i'll return the drive and get another brand. That's too bad since until now i've bought a bunch a WD Hard drives, it might be the last one !

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Re: Windows 2000
WD Caviar Hard Drives
Christian Buhmann
11/24/00 01:32:01

On this page WERE tons of postings regarding our problem, but WD is deleting them temporarly. There a many users with our problem. Wait some days and these posting will be also deleted.
Theres just one thing you can do. DO NOT BUY A WD DRIVE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Re: Windows 2000
WD Caviar Hard Drives
Charles-edouard Ruault
11/22/00 16:52:11

FYI : i disabled DMA and managed to install win2k on my
WD drive ( i have an epox motherboard with VIA chipset ).
But even after install if i try to re-enable UDMA at the BIOS level for this drive, the system does not start ( i'm getting a blue screen with the "boot device not available" from win2k).
Same behaviour after installing the latest drivers from VIA.
That basically means i can't take advantage of the UDMA feature of my HD so i'm going to return it and buy another brand ... too bad !



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Re: Windows 2000
WD Caviar Hard Drives
Timothy
11/25/00 08:35:55


Hi Charles,

I would like to aplogize for the frustration. There are dma problems within 2000 and the via chipset, it is not the drive that is not able to perform in 66 and causing the lock issue but the chipset on the motherboard. I would suggest contacting either ov these vendors as well.

Thanks,
Tim
WD Tech Support


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Re: Windows 2000
WD Caviar Hard Drives
Michelle
11/18/00 13:10:43

Hi Dirk,

The issue you are having with Windows 2000 is the way it is addressing the capability of the drive to run in DMA (UDMA) mode. (ATA66 and UDMA mode 4 are the same thing.) If you disable ATA66 off the drive, it will still run in ATA33 (UDMA mode 2)and the 2000 issue will still be there. You will need to disable the DMA mode in the BIOS so the O/S does not detect the drive's ability to use it. Once 2000 is loaded to the drive, you can go back into the Bios and re-enable UDMA.

Hope this helps! Thank you for using Western Digital. We appreciate your business.

Shelly
Support Technician

http://service.wdc.com/mb/user/main.html