Suspect problematic hard drive

[yannisg]

I have been having intermittent problems with WIN 7 freezes in both 32 and 64 bit. Two to four minute freezes and then it recovers. This happens in various programs and browsers. Also "cold start" was too long 3-4 minutes whether in safe mode or not. Primary HD is WD Velociraptor 150GB,SATA 10K rpm. Formatted and re-installed WIN several times. Problem continued even when no other S/W or devices were installed. WIN diagnostic/operation test showed long boot time from cold start. Then installed WIN 7 64 bit on another HD and all the problems vanished. I took the problematic HD to the representative who tested the HD with WD diagnostics since it was still under warranty, but all of there tests were successfull. Their conclusion is that there is nothing wrong with the HD.

Any thoughts or recommendations on this situation?

Any help is appreciated.
YannisG

 

[SNGX1275]

Try SeaTools and the Long DST, that may not be able to run because it isn't a Seagate drive. If that is the case try Long Generic.

Also, and this is just a shot in the dark, does the drive have a jumper on it that you can force legacy SATA mode? If so, it might be worth flipping it over to legacy and see if the problems persist.

Thirdly, are your chipset drivers current?

 

[yannisg]

Thanks for the response.
After the HD supplier told me that the suspected HD passed all the diagnostic tests, and since nothing showed up the HD could not be replaced. I decided to bring in my PC for a test with the suspected HD.
After a couple of days the supplier told me the MB controller is suspect. However, further tests showed that the suspect HD produced the same problems on one of their own test computers, and so finally they accepted that the HD had a problem and would be replaced. I received the new HD after a week, installed everything, and its works well.
Finally after about 4 months I am back to where my PC works problem free.
YannisG

 

[SNGX1275]

Thats good news. Thanks for the follow-up.