Vista - SATA HDD only works with SATA to eSATA cable?

I have a 750 GB sata 3.0 HDD which i'm trying to connect to a sata RAID card or motherboard. I've connected my hard drive using an sata cable to both my motherboard and my raid card. When i try either this prevents windows froms starting. The motherboard sata is 3.0gb/s, the raid card is 1.5gb/s. I've tried all jumper settings and made sure all cables are working. I have another sata drive that works with everything. The hdd that works is a samsung, the hdd that doesn't is a western digital recertified.

I have an sata enclosure which has its own powersupply and a sata to esata cable. My hdd above only works when i put the hdd in the enclosure and connect the sata to esata to the motherboard. The enclosure does not work with the raid card.

Any ideas?

I suspect the problem is with the "certificated drive" since all that
normally means is that the drive passed some basic acceptance tests and the
company never found out why the drive was returned as an RMA in the first
place. It is also important to note that some WD drives are designed only
for large RAID 5 configurations and may not work properly in non Raid or
small raid configurations since they spin down to save power after short
periods of time.

"dbacs" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:5e796aad1d9625ca36487ecc687e7d4c@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

Ok thanks.

For the large RAID configs what are we talking about there, specifically? How many drives?

My RAID card can support 4, 1.5 TB drives at SATA 1.5gb/s. I have 3 hdd's attached already for RAID config. 2 160gb's and 1 450gb, all SATA 1.5's.

I think its the "recertified" also, but that wouldn't solve the fact that it runs fine on an eSata to Sata cable and enclosure. Unless the drive is underpowered from the mother board, and plugging it into the externally powered enclosure gives it more juice?

A large Raid 5 configuration to me means a 5 or 6 drive Raid 5
configuration which is common in business data centers.

"dbacs" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:b2923ab821959a10275554b9f6f5a562@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

The only jumper's that *maybe* on a sata drive are to force sata 1.5
'recertified' sounds to me like the drive has been returned under warranty &
no fault was found, I've never seen that from the actuall HD manufacturer,
more likely a suppliers designation.

"dbacs" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:b2923ab821959a10275554b9f6f5a562@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

Yes i was hoping the jumper set to 1.5 would have helped, as my RAID card is 1.5 sata, but it did not.

Interestingly enough the western digital website has a fast and handy RMA page. They even allow you to get the new drive in advance, before you actually return the faulty drive. Seems to me they must use this alot!

This is actually my second WD HDD 750 gb sata drive. I've already RMA'd one. I will probably end up RMA'ing this one and selling it to someone who has XP, because it worked fine in XP (which makes no sense to me at all).

What's the best setup for a 4 drive RAID with smallest drive being 160gb?

Thanks.