Western Digital Caviar EIDE 5400 RPM Hard Disks May Be Defective (245911)

SYMPTOMS

When you try to use one of the following Western Digital 5400 RPM Caviar EIDE hard disks, you may experience odd or unpredictable behavior:

WD64AA-XXAAAX (6.4 GB)
WD68AA (6.8 GB)
WD84AA-XXAAAX (8.4 GB)
WD100AA (10.0 GB)
WD102AA-XXAAAX (10.2 GB)
WD135AA (13.5 GB)
WD136AA (13.6 GB)
WD170AA (17.0 GB)
WD172AA (17.2 GB)
WD200AA (20.0 GB)
WD205AA (20.5 GB)
WD68AARTL (6.8 GB)
10100RTL (10.1 GB)
13000RTL (13.0 GB)
20400RTL (20.4 GB)

The odd or unpredictable behavior may include one or more of the following symptoms:

Possible data loss.
An inability to properly start your computer.
An inability to finish installing an operating system.
An inability to run the FDISK tool.

CAUSE

This issue can occur if you are using a Western Digital 5400 RPM Caviar EIDE hard disk made between August 27, 1999 and September 24, 1999. Some of these hard disks have a hardware issue, and may exhibit the behavior noted earlier in this article.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, contact Western Digital to determine if you have one of the affected hard disks and to inquire about the availability of a fix for this issue.

To work around this issue, use a hard disk that is not on the list in the SYMPTOM section.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about this issue, please see the following Western Digital Web site:

http://www.westerndigital.com/fitness/drive-alert.html

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