New WD 1 TB Caviar Black - RMA? EDIT: Poll

[reallyscrued]

I just bought a 1 TB Caviar Black off NewEgg and I had an unusual problem with it. Wanted some advice on how to approach this.

When I first got the drive, I did a long format for NTFS from inside another OS. Then I installed XP on the Caviar
and coped about 400 gigs of data before I realized it was a Dell XP Home CD I had and not Pro, so it wanted me to activate,
which obviously it will fail. Apparently Dell CDs don't ask for the CD Key during installation if it's a Dell computer. Cool stuff, but bit me in the ass. I needed to reinstall XP Pro on the so my plan was:

1. Use partition magic, make a copy of 400 gig partition C into a clone 400 gig partition D
2. Install XP Pro on the C partition, leaving D untouched
3. Copy the stuff from D back to C and merge both partitions. Defragment. Celebrate.

So I installed partition magic, outlined the batch program, then the computer rebooted
because it performs the operations before windows can boot
in this blue-backscreen screen. About halfway through
copying the data, Partition Magic spit a "Bad sector - Aborting No Changes were made" at me.

What I eventually ended up doing was splitting C, copying all the data over to an empty D: manually, then reinstalling XP on C.

My question is, is that bad sector message grounds to RMA or send back to Newegg?

It's running without a problem so far, all the data transfers went over fine. I've filled up about 550 gigs now.
Anyone else with a WD 1TB Caviar Black with bad experiences?

Cliffs:

Bought new TB HDD from Newegg
Used Partition Magic to split partitions/copy some data
Gave me a bad sector message
Now the drive works fine.

Should I RMA?

 

[Rifter]

im sure WD has a diagnostic utility free for download i suggest downloading and running it and see what happens. I know seagate has a program called seatools that you can DL and burn to a bootable CD and run.

 

[Rifter]

look here

http://support.wdc.com/product...sp?groupid=613&lang=en

 

[reallyscrued]

I appreciate the help, but I guess my post was kind of convoluted because that wasn't the dilemma I'm faced with. I'm well aware of WD Data Life Guard tools, I also know chkdsk /f.

However my understanding is that bad sectors only grow and your drive worsens.

What I wanted to know was whether or not you guys, personally, would send the drive back to Newegg?

Now with poll.

 

[PUN]

Originally posted by: reallyscrued
I appreciate the help, but I guess my post was kind of convoluted because that wasn't the dilemma I'm faced with. I'm well aware of WD Data Life Guard tools, I also know chkdsk /f.

However my understanding is that bad sectors only grow and your drive worsens.

What I wanted to know was whether or not you guys, personally, would send the drive back to Newegg?

Now with poll.

you are certainly confusing.
Run the WD utility. If you have a bad sector, RMA it. If not, keep it.

 

[n7]

Originally posted by: PUN
Run the WD utility.

Agreed.

One bad sector can be reallocated; there's nothing to panic over one.

One of my current HDDs had two pending sectors for over a year before i got around to fully formatting to get it reallocated, & it hasn't developed any more, & is now a few years old.

So in short, one bad sector isn't the end of the world.

That all said, it's not ideal having one with a new HDD, so if the WD utility passes but you're concerned about it, get it replaced.

 

[reallyscrued]

Ok, WD Utility seems like the popular choice. Thanks everyone who replied.

 

[Elixer]

Originally posted by: reallyscrued
Ok, WD Utility seems like the popular choice. Thanks everyone who replied.

Or in other words, don't depend on partition magic alone, you need to verify it has bad sectors with the HD makers utils, then, and only then should you RMA it.

I think WD also requires this for a RMA... I know Seagate requires you to run seatools before a RMA. (At least they did)