Harddrive in Need of RMA ?

[muddyfox470]

Go directly to the second post for the direct problem - below is just some background info

Well my computer has been slowing, and making noises for some time, after some worrying HD Tune results I decided it was time to change.

I bought 2 Samsung HD501LJ's almost as soon as they came out (March 2008 I think), bought them as a pair and possibly they both could have got damaged?

Anyway the first one (which was used as storage and base for my games) was pretty much dead, it made nasty clicking noises, upon bootup (although it wasn't the boot drive), access, and when playing videos from the drive (i.e. video would stop for a couple of seconds *click* then continue).

HDtune revealed the drive was pulling a steady 10.4mb/s

I've now replaced this with a (cheap) replacement - Hitachi 7K1000.b and it is soooooo much faster (even faster than the other 501LJ... coming onto that...) - even with its 8mb cache - its 750gb and cost a nice 6p per gb - game loading and random folder searching is much much quicker. Reason for purchasing was so I could RMA the other drive without losing my data.


- note it starts on 117mb/s

NOW onto the problem...

[muddyfox470]

Ok well the drive now in question is my Samsung HD501LJ that I have used as my primary (boot) drive since purchase (Mar 2008).

- note it starts at 84mb/s but drops to around 13mb/s frequently

Now understandably there is going to be some troughs because of how the reading of the drive works, but dipping that low is crazy, surely. I know it is the boot drive, and where the OS is nestled on.

Anyway the other drive that was paired with it is definitely b0rked, loud clicking noises and a max read speed of 10mb/s (see above - will get a HD Tune run shortly)

So is the above harddrive (Samsung boot drive) in need of help, it isn't making any of the noises the other is, but the troughs seem slightly worrying, but they are at regular intervals... any help of shedding of light would be kindly appreciated

Thanks!

[Edit forgot to say, both runs of HD Tune were run when there was no other harddrive activity, no programs accessing the HD's and certainly no virus checking etc]
- this is what someone else gets on the HD501LJ from a quick google search, http://www.hdtune.com/results/Samsung_HD501LJ.gif - now would think that this is means for an RMA, considering how sensitive harddrives are, and that the other one has had a slow and painful death...

AND HERE: http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...ml#post1220956 << hexus

[WhiteGiant]

http://www.samsung.com/global/busine...s/ES_Tool.html

Give that a whirl.

*edit - As the webpage says, remember to backup any vital data.

[muddyfox470]

http://www.samsung.com/global/busine...s/ES_Tool.html

Give that a whirl.

*edit - As the webpage says, remember to backup any vital data.

Forgot to say tests to look at clusters and bad sectors throw up no errors. Thanks for the diagnostics tool, will give it a check later on - though will need to create one of those bootable CDs... damn SFF.

Will report back, but thanks for your quick reply and direct link

[muddyfox470]

Just before I run HDTune again:

Quick diagnostics on the main HD501LJ seem fine - it passes each stage [the other one will have to wait until I can be bothered to take apart my pc again].
But one thing to note is that on HDtune, for the Hitachi 7k1000.b power on time is stated as only 49 but for the Samsung it is 4717 - listed in the health section, although all the other parameters are listed as "Ok". Will post a picture of the new HDTune test in this post shortly...

It's got worse, now down to 9mb/s


Surely there shouldn't be so much variation.

You may ask, why have I only picked up on it now: lots of PC intense uni work (final year etc) and the slow demise of this other one where it became unbearable, transferring and moving files became a painful experience, I can't believe that I was playing my games off it!

I think I have done well to balance out the harddrive usage by having one as my boot drive along with another partition for music, and the other one for all my games installs and my movies/home videos etc. Because of the sensitive data, and need for some reassurance I thought i better ensure most of my data was safe, and with the impending easter holidays it meant I can do some RMA's.

[EDIT: I ran that with no internet connection, no antivirus, and no unnecessary applications - I think that might explain the 1.5&#37; drop in CPU usage]

Onto my next question, how easy is it to clone an entire harddrive, i.e. copy all the data, partitions etc piece for piece, exactly the same so I can literally swap the drives. Will Partition magic do that [as i know it can "copy partitions" ] - Thanks once again

[WhiteGiant]

http://www.directron.com/ghosting.html

Instructions on how to clone a drive using Partition Magic.