WD Blue 1TB maybe DOA?

WD Internal Drives Desktop & Mobile Drives
1

Hi all,

I have just installed a WD Blue WD10EZEX 1TB 7200rpm and am unable to format it in Windows. Debugging steps,

  1. The disk is well seated and all connections look solid
  2. The disk is visible in the BIOS with the correct (WD10EZEX) product number.
  3. The disk is not visible in Windows Device Manager
  4. The disk is not visible in WD Dashboard
  5. The disk is not detected by Disk Management

I am not aware of any other debugging steps since the device is just not recognized.

What is the next step? Return to Amazon? RMA? I think Amazon might be less hassle. I did check the warranty on WD and it expires in 2024, so it isn’t OEM or anything.

I have installed several SSD over the years and have always had success, this was a particularly large HDD for my wife who is running out of space due to producing content, so I might just shell out for a similarly sized SSD. Let me know the best course.

Thanks,
-Alex

2

How are you connecting it? Some USB adapters can keep it from being seen properly.

3

Sorry, I should have mentioned I’m not doing anything clever, just using the standard SATA cables I use everywhere else, and like I said everything is well seated. It’s a SATA connection directly to the motherboard.

4

I know this may sound stupid but Disk manager sometimes needs to be scrolled to see the entire list of drives connected. When it first opens it will only have a window size large enough to show 2 drives. So you either need to use the scroll bar or click/drag the window to a larger size.

I miss this a lot of times I guess because I’m old a senile. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

DM1
DM1768×569 96.3 KB

DM2
DM2764×561 55.4 KB

5

OK. For anyone looking for a solution, I found it on like the fifth or sixth thread if you search various terms in Google.

If this happens, you can open Device Manager (devmgmt.msc), then expand IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers, then right click Standard SATA AHCI Controller, and uninstall. This will prompt a reset. On reset, you can enter Disk management and it should work.

I know it sounds a little shady but, it fixed the issue for me. This was on my wife’s PC, mine has two SATA controllers, I’m not sure which one you would have to reinstall, I guess try different ones until it works if it doesn’t the first time.