Good evening - seeking input on aberrant behavior of WDC Data LifeguardDiagnostics

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jack
  • Start date Start date
J

Jack

Good evening... I am on my fifth or sixth clean install in two days of
XP Home with all updates. Needless to say, I am flirting with zombie mode.

Actually, at this point, things are not going too bad. I have
surrendered in some regards to Microsoft's higher power and vastly
superior knowledge... but not completely.

So the problem is this. I have five WDC IDE drives hooked up to my
system, three of them through a PCI controller card and WDC Data
Lifeguard Diagnostics sees the three on the controller as all the same,
but, in fact, they are all different:

1. WDC1600JB-00REA0 - no jumper - alone on its IDE channel
2. WDC800JB-00CRA1 - jumpered as master
3. WDC1600JB-00DAA0 - jumpered as slave

WDC Data Lifeguard Diagnostics reports them all as WDC1600JB-00REA0,
which is jumpered as a single drive (no jumper) in a dual IDE channel.
The other two are jumpered as master and slave on the other dual IDE channel

The mobo is Intel D915PBL with one two-channel IDE connector, system
drive and one other drive connected to it.
Addon PCI RAID controller card is Medley A680 based with three drives
connected to it. I don't use the RAID function.

Device manager identifies the drives correctly as far as model numbers
go, but reports them as SCSI, which is due to the controller card.

Now let me say that the drives function as they should, no problems
there. And if I disconnect one drive and remove its ghost image in
device manager, Data Lifeguard Diagnostics reports both drives as
WDC800JB-00CRA1, the one jumpered as master.

So it is possible to use Data Lifeguard Diagnostics to evaluate the
WDC1600JB-00REA0, then disconnect that drive, remove its ghost image in
device manager, throw in couple of reboots when needed, and then have
Data Lifeguard Diagnostics evaluate the WDC800JB-00CRA1 and so on with
the last drive.

At this point, it is obvious to me that I came here mainly to piss and
moan... and then get back to work.

I like reading what others are going through, maybe someone will enjoy
reading this.

Jack
 
Jack said:
Good evening... I am on my fifth or sixth clean install in two
days of XP Home with all updates. Needless to say, I am flirting
with zombie mode.

Actually, at this point, things are not going too bad. I have
surrendered in some regards to Microsoft's higher power and
vastly superior knowledge... but not completely.
Click to expand...

Try to be concise when asking for technical help.

Good luck and have fun.
 
Good evening... I am on my fifth or sixth clean install in two days of
XP Home with all updates.

So the problem is this. I have five WDC IDE drives hooked up to my
system, three of them through a PCI controller card and WDC Data
Lifeguard Diagnostics sees the three on the controller as all the same,
but, in fact, they are all different:

1. WDC1600JB-00REA0 - no jumper - alone on its IDE channel
2. WDC800JB-00CRA1 - jumpered as master
3. WDC1600JB-00DAA0 - jumpered as slave

WDC Data Lifeguard Diagnostics reports them all as WDC1600JB-00REA0,
which is jumpered as a single drive (no jumper) in a dual IDE channel.
The other two are jumpered as master and slave on the other dual IDE channel

The mobo is Intel D915PBL with one two-channel IDE connector, system
drive and one other drive connected to it.
Addon PCI RAID controller card is Medley A680 based with three drives
connected to it. I don't use the RAID function.

Device manager identifies the drives correctly as far as model numbers
go, but reports them as SCSI, which is due to the controller card.

Now let me say that the drives function as they should, no problems
there. And if I disconnect one drive and remove its ghost image in
device manager, Data Lifeguard Diagnostics reports both drives as
WDC800JB-00CRA1, the one jumpered as master.
Click to expand...

I'm betting that Windows XP assigns the same LUN to all drives.

Here is my workaround for an external USB drive on a Win98SE box:
http://markmail.org/thread/jmsb4jigslebc7b7

- Franc Zabkar
 
Good evening... I am on my fifth or sixth clean install in two days of
XP Home with all updates. Needless to say, I am flirting with zombie mode.

Actually, at this point, things are not going too bad. I have
surrendered in some regards to Microsoft's higher power and vastly
superior knowledge... but not completely.

So the problem is this. I have five WDC IDE drives hooked up to my
system, three of them through a PCI controller card and WDC Data
Lifeguard Diagnostics sees the three on the controller as all the same,
but, in fact, they are all different:

1. WDC1600JB-00REA0 - no jumper - alone on its IDE channel
2. WDC800JB-00CRA1 - jumpered as master
3. WDC1600JB-00DAA0 - jumpered as slave

WDC Data Lifeguard Diagnostics reports them all as WDC1600JB-00REA0,
which is jumpered as a single drive (no jumper) in a dual IDE channel.
The other two are jumpered as master and slave on the other dual IDE channel

The mobo is Intel D915PBL with one two-channel IDE connector, system
drive and one other drive connected to it.
Addon PCI RAID controller card is Medley A680 based with three drives
connected to it. I don't use the RAID function.

Device manager identifies the drives correctly as far as model numbers
go, but reports them as SCSI, which is due to the controller card.

Now let me say that the drives function as they should, no problems
there. And if I disconnect one drive and remove its ghost image in
device manager, Data Lifeguard Diagnostics reports both drives as
WDC800JB-00CRA1, the one jumpered as master.

So it is possible to use Data Lifeguard Diagnostics to evaluate the
WDC1600JB-00REA0, then disconnect that drive, remove its ghost image in
device manager, throw in couple of reboots when needed, and then have
Data Lifeguard Diagnostics evaluate the WDC800JB-00CRA1 and so on with
the last drive.

At this point, it is obvious to me that I came here mainly to piss and
moan... and then get back to work.

I like reading what others are going through, maybe someone will enjoy
reading this.
Click to expand...

Hm...looks like the interaction between WD DLDiags software isn't
reading the controller past its first P0 channel. Pulled, it's doing
the same thing on secondary P1 channel with the first drive device,
replicating it. Try jumpering the drives for CS - Cable Select. The
Slave/Master thing, apart, is pretty old for something that had closet
tendencies to go wacky on standards between one drive manufacturer and
the next. CS, if had to, would for me be the *prefered* way to go. A
look at the BIOS for drive model IDs should be a given in matching
XP's Dev Manager, so it's subsequent to those two and one of WD's
software issue thingies.

Of course, another controller could exhibit an entirely different
ballpark. Think I've SYBA here, that and Promise, slotted, plus a
super-duper endowed controller MB with another three drive-support
SATA chipsets. So old, I think it maxes itself out around 700G. I
simply do my all my big formating and related plays through a USB
dock's chipset support.

So...what's WD got -- besides not being able to convincingly get past
WD's customer service, that is without it, say, should you be trying
to tell them one of their drives is dead or dying? Tell them bold-
faced lies, that's what I do, if that's what it takes to make them as
sure as I am, if I want, or just run their diags in case I'm not. To
do the latter you'll have to run the drives singularly in your present
predicament. For the most, I never look at drive-specific software,
anyway. Have my own for the most, and don't like being in situations
where software is that critical to what should have first been
engineered and followed through within industry standards. My driver
support is bad enough, kludging drivers through different *and* same-
name chipsets for PCI cards and the MB.
 
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