It mean that you need to install SATA drivers depending on the RAID controller in your motherboard . In case which is before Windows Installation, press F6 to install SATA driver before installing Windows else it wouldn't be able to detect the HDD when you set to AHCI or RAID mode.

Initially everything was in IDE mode... when the OS or HDD keep crashed and I need to reinstall the OS... thus I just give AHCI mode a try

What empire23 mentioned is true . I just give AHCI mode a try, but that doesn't mean AHCI mode will be better in term of performance than IDE

Previously I opened a thread titled "AHCI vs IDE" in Technical Support forum. You can read more about it and why NCQ wouldn't benefit unless you are running a file server with more than 100+ queries per second: http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/630605

Else if you still insist wanted to give AHCI mode a try like I did, try this method which I used because I doesn't have FDD with me liao. It kaputed . You can Slipsteam the SATA drivers to your Windows Bootdisc http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/501772

Any vibration have possibility of causing damage to your harddisk... do a ScanDisk to check on your drive for error. If error detected, backup all your important data before the worst happening.

You wouldn't know if the internal is damaged or not. I did drop once from the height of 1.5 metres from the ground and it is still working flawlessly without any error after ScanDisk. However, my unfortunate friend straight away need to send his unit back to factory when dropped at the same height. Still able to work and access doesn't mean the internal didn't receive any damage as well. Best if you can do a throughout disk diagnostic by downloading the utility from the HDD's manufacturer website.

I did mention from its manufacturer website, check your stuff here: http://support.wdc.com/download/

No matter how it fall, how high it fall from and also how it landed... all the measure the same... do a throughout diagnostic on your drive ... unless already broken into pieces or leaked, that's another story (you could have dropped it from few storeys if this happened )

It is me or empire23 mentioned about the hassle? For me, I didn't need to do much except slipsteam the SATA drivers into the Windows bootable installation disc and voila ~ it worked without need to install the SATA driver via FFD. Just proceed like how you install Windows into IDE mode HDD, the SATA drivers already loaded along with the Windows CD . Instruction wise: http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/501772

However, do remember that you will need a fresh installation of Windows if you're migrating from IDE mode to AHCI mode

Anyone here using the Seagate 500GB 7200.11 32MB SATA2 HDD? I been having numerous problem on it and been troubleshooting for the main culprit and no luck so far

Always having disk read error... failed with paging the hdd... iastor error (AHCI & RAID only)... and ntfs error... now I'm reformatting and setting back to SATA IDE mode. Lets see what's next...

Already contacted with my motherboard manufacturer distributor technician and it said that it could be possible with a HDD firmware that doesn't match well with the motherboard BIOS at the moment, that's what said which according to their experience in dealing with this kind of problem. So their advise was try to use the jumper to set the HDD to run max at 1.5Gb/s. If that solve the problem, then they might conclude the problem due to BIOS and HDD firmware incompatibility.

However, I just reformatted my HDD and return to IDE mode state with a different SATA cable. Kinda stable now ... which mean the SATA cable is the main culprit . Anyway, still can't conclude anything yet at this moment.

It is because the HDD couldn't draw enough power from the USB thus another connector is required to provide the enough power. Your USB port some are still 1.1? Anyway, even you are using a USB Hub also, the power still considering draw from one port. It doesn't mean that a USB Hub port will provide the same amount of power as a single native USB port due to power split among the ports in the hub

Yeah, swapped initially when I couldn't reformat and reinstall OS into the C: partition already. Anyway, everything seems to be fine at this moment when I switched back into IDE mode with a different SATA cable

Currently I'm on Seagate's 7200.11 500GB 32MB SATAII HDD. I did swapped for an exchange unit within the first two weeks of usage due to some problem which I couldn't format the HDD anymore. Neither with Windows nor Format Utility with Windows BootDisk also failed . My currently unit work fine and some of the faulty problem may due to my SATA cable. I swapped with another cable thou and it runs pretty fine now.

Frankly speaking, Samsung's HDDs do make me feel quite promising with it. Lower power consumption thus lower operating heat and noise. Some said performance wise only average, but that wouldn't be visible till we see the numbers on benchies I suppose. My 120GB Samsung Spinpoint SATA HDD still serve me very well till today

Currently I have a Seagate 7200.11 500GB and Samsung Spinpoint 120GB in my rig. I need to expand the capacity of storage for my HD movies.

Should I get another Seagate 7200.11 500GB to do RAID or hentam Samsung F1 1TB? Any opinion?

Haha... somehow make sense. I also dislike splitting my stuff into two different harddisks. However, they mentioned by doing RAID the performance is very fast. Just thought of trying it, but in another way doubting with the fault tolerance.

How much you got your Seagate and where you buy it? Hardly see Samsung F1 on LowYat's price list...

Okay, in the end after some consideration and " deep measurement" of my situation, I felt external drive is much suitable for me as I might need to travel often these days. Thus, I get myself the WD My Book Home Edition 1TB

I formatted the drive into NTFS using my PC and it's bloody slow, even copying files will be damn slow. I thought it was the drive's problem, but when I tried it on other PC, it's just at "sweet" speed. Now I'm suspecting something wrong with my internal Seagate 7200.11 32MB 500GB . It is taking almost 2 minutes just to copy a 600MB file from one partition to another partition

Any advice?


P/S: Just found out that I need to update my Seagate's firmware from SD14 to AD14

The size of cache memory of the HDD. Theoretically the higher the number, the better the performance at load. However, the different may be insignificant for you to feel it

Anyway, just hit the larger one since the price doesn't vary much away

LOL... basically I just bought a WD My Book Home Edition 1TB solely to store HDs and sharing as well

Shall we continue here: All About Harddisk Thread V2, Discussion for Good Harddisk