# Problems with a WD Scorpio Blue 640GB (and maybe 500GB)



## ldphoto (Jul 9, 2009)

Hello,

I a quest for most hard drive space for my Aperture collection, I bought a Western Digital Scorpio Blue 640GB hard drive for my first-gen unibody MBP.

While the drive is somewhat loud, I can live with that since I rarely use the computer in really quiet environments. My biggest issue is that the drive constantly lowers its rotational speed (as evidenced by the drive getting quieter) after a few seconds of inactivity. Whenever the OS tries to read from the drive, it increases its rotational speed again, but in the second or so it takes to get up to speed, the system is unresponsive. This is rather annoying behaviour, to say the least.

I've tried using hdapm to remove power management (this has helped folks with head parking and clicking noise issues), but it has not helped. There have been a few incidences on the Apple forums of people experiencig the same issues, and them some others that have had no problems at all. (See here: Apple - Support - Discussions - Western Digital Scorpio Blue 640 Drive ...)

I've seen some posts that the 500GB Scorpio Blue may have the same problem, but I have not tested one (nor do I intesd to try out another WD drive in my MBP at this point)

I searched WD's site and didn't find a firmware update, and it seems the problem is limited to Apple systems, so I doubt there would be a fix anyways.

If I can't get this fixed soon, I may have to settle for a 500GB drive (probably the Hitachi), since there is no other alternative at 640GB at this time as far as I know.

Thanks,

Luc


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## andreww (Nov 20, 2002)

I'm not 100% certain on this but it sounds like your drive is behaving normally. Don't all drives spin down when not being accessed? Seems like having your HD spinning at full speed 24/7 would represent a huge drain on the battery and the drive itself!


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## ldphoto (Jul 9, 2009)

Typically, hard drives spin down after a few minutes of inactivity because it's safe to assume that if nothing has happened in the last 5 minutes, you've probably not in front of the computer right now. Often, the drive will completely spin down when this occurs.

The problem I'm having is that the drive does this after a few seconds. For example, if I'm looking at a document for 15 seconds without moving the mouse or typing, and the press Cmd-P to print, I'll get a few seconds of beachball and unresponsiveness while the hard drive spins back up to its normal speed (this process is audible), and the the print dialog will open. Sometime it even happens while typing, the system goes unresponsive for a few seconds because the hard drive decided to go into some power save mode.

I think I'll stop at Canada Computers on the way home and buy a Hitachi or Seagate hard drive on the way home to hopefully get rid of this problem. I'm starting a new photo class later this week, and I need my computer working better than this.

Luc


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## Z06jerry (Mar 16, 2005)

I have tried both the 500 and 640 GB WD ScorpioBlue in my MBP and noticed that both where equally noisy and both made very annoying ticking sounds every 10 - 15 seconds or so as the head parked. I can't say that I noticed the slow initial response that you are describing but that may be because I removed them right away. 

I ended up putting in a 500 GB TOSHIBA MK5055GSX. It is very quiet, no whooshing or ticking, and I haven't noticed any response anomalies either.

There is a few threads over at macrumours.com discussing problems with WD Scorpio Blues in uMBPs too.


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## ldphoto (Jul 9, 2009)

I purchased a Seagate 500GB 7200 RPM drive (non-G) at Canada Computers on the way home. Cloned the 640GB to it, booted, fixed permissions and typical Onyx cleanup. runs like a champ. No hiccups, no slowdowns, no clicks or stalls. Too bad I had to sacrifice 140GB, but at least the system works well now, and the extra speed of the 7200 is nice.

I guess the WD Caviar Blue 640 just isn't destined to work with the unibody MBP. Gotta figure out what to do with it now, I don't really need another external HD, and I've had it too long to return it.

Luc


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## Jarooda (Jul 18, 2006)

I have the 500GB WD in my 13" MBP and I do not notice any of the problems you describe. It is just as quiet as the 250GB that was initially included.

Maybe its just the ones you guys are getting.


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## IllusionX (Mar 10, 2009)

To disable the HD spin down...

system preference -> energy saver
uncheck "Put the hard disk(s) to sleep when possible"

i hate to have my HD spin down for no reason. If i wanted it down, i'd close the lid, and in such case, the whole computer goes to sleep.


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## eMacMan (Nov 27, 2006)

Too lazy to do a search at the moment but I vaguely recall that some WD external drives/enclosures have a built-in spin-down feature/bug. 

If this is the case, I am not sure what the solution is, other than moving the drive to a different enclosure.


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## ldphoto (Jul 9, 2009)

eMacMan said:


> If this is the case, I am not sure what the solution is, other than moving the drive to a different enclosure.


I was using the drive internally on my MBP, no enclosure at all.

Luc


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## eMacMan (Nov 27, 2006)

ldphoto said:


> I was using the drive internally on my MBP, no enclosure at all.
> 
> Luc


Sorry misread the original post  so obviously it is not an issue with an external enclosure.


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## joltguy (Apr 15, 2005)

Wow, kinda glad I saw this thread. I've been considering that exact drive due to it being the largest available for my unibody MBP. I've still got about 14GB free on my stock 250GB though so I have a bit of time to see how this plays out. Here's hoping a 1TB drive will be out by the time I *need* to upgrade.


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## Jay_Zizzle (Dec 18, 2008)

I have the 640 GB WD Scorpio in my Unibody Macbook... There was no increase in noise compared to the stock 250GB drive for me either. I have been very happy with this drive since I purchased it.


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## broad (Jun 2, 2009)

> Wow, kinda glad I saw this thread. I've been considering that exact drive due to it being the largest available for my unibody MBP. I've still got about 14GB free on my stock 250GB though so I have a bit of time to see how this plays out. Here's hoping a 1TB drive will be out by the time I *need* to upgrade.


there are 1TB laptop sized drives now...according to most reports they fit in the unibody machines and preunibody 17"s


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## ldphoto (Jul 9, 2009)

broad said:


> there are 1TB laptop sized drives now...according to most reports they fit in the unibody machines and preunibody 17"s


Well they've been released on paper, but I don't think any vendor has even seen one, and they're back-ordered to the point I think the SATA version of the 1TB drive is vapourware.

There is an external version of this drive, but you can't just open it and install the bare drive in a MacBook Pro. The drive inside doesn't have a SATA interface, there is actually a USB controller directly on the hard drive's PCB (boy was I surprised when I was that!).

Luc


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## fishy007 (Feb 10, 2010)

Idphoto,
Thanks for making this thread. I too have had similar performance issues with my 640GB Scorpie Blue. It has been very slow compared to my stock 5400 rpm drive and using Parallels is painful at best. I hate to lose 140GB, but I think I'll try the 500GB Seagate you mentioned. Either that, or I'll get a 320GB WD Black drive. I've had nothing but good experiences with the Black line of drives from WD.

At least now I know I'm not going crazy! I thought it was just something I did wrong when installing or configuring the drive


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