Is my Western Digital drive a piece of Junk?

I have a new Western Digital Special Edition 80 GB hard drive, and am encountering problems. I have tried to install an OS onto it, but when all is finished installing, the computer says something about an error loading the operating sytem. I have tried this with Windows XP Pro, Windows XP Home, and Windows 2000 Pro, but still to no avail. I have also switched ram chips, and removed the video card, but the problem persists? Is my brand new Hard Drive a piece of junk?

 

check to see jumper settings and the IDE/SATA slot. If its the only hard drive on your system make sure its set to master, or try cable select.

 

i have made sure that the jumpers are set correctly to master, and I know that the system recognizes is as Master

Is there any special way I should connect the IDE ribbon cable? The blue part usually goes on the mobo, then i guess the other two don't have to be connected to specific devices. The blue end of this ribbon cable wouldn't fit on the motherboard, so i Used the black end. The blue end is on the HDD and the middle one is on the CD-ROM Drive. Is this wrong?

 

return it and get a newer one of the same model

try partition the drive and formating then isntall the os and make sure u got a good cd reader

 

The blue end goes on the mobo, the black to the device set to Master on the cable, and the gray to the device set to Slave. If both devices are set to Cable Select, it shouldn't matter what's connected where. Not saying it's the problem you're experiencing, but there should be no reason the blue end should not fit in the mobo connector-- I would try it again.

 

I looked carefully and compared that ribbon cable with another. the blue end and black end have different grooves on them. on other ribbon cables, the grooves on the blue dovetail with the plug on the mobo. In this case, the black end had the grooves in the same place as with the blue on the others.

 

I've had this thing for about 2 or 3 months, but haven't used it much before now. Im not sure the warranty is still valid. When i try to set up the OS, it automatically creates and formats a partition before it installs.

 

See if Western Digital has a utility on their site to check the drive.

As far as the ribbon cable, the blue end goes into the motherboard. Try running the hard drive on it's own as Master without any other devices. (eg CD Rom)

 

WD does have Utility at thier Web, It is also avaible here at MG:
"Western Digital Data LifeGuard Tools"
http://majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=2855
I also believe for Warranty to be honnored by WD You have to run the Utility first anyhow.
( I could be wrong but but I think if the utility find's the drive too be bad it will provide a number that is needed for return to WD)
Should have atleast 1yr warranty, some have 3yr
WD does make good HDD's, But like anything sometimes ya find a lemmon, many times peoples misdiagnos thier hardware, run the utility.
The utility can also be used for formating/partitioning/data transfer & misc