Results 1 to 7 of 7

Thread: Samsung HDD Concerns

  1. #1
    Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    London
    Posts
    195
    Thanks
    4
    Thanked
    19 times in 12 posts

    Samsung HDD Concerns

    Hi all,

    I’d just like a few thoughts on this please. I have a Samsung F3 HDD. I uploaded some photos from my camera last weekend and I’ve been sorting through them - categorising and labelling them etc. When opening one photo, it was crashing the program I was using (Faststone Image Viewer). Except for one occasion, I could end the task and restart the computer. The third time this happened, I ran ESTool – Samsung’s HDD Diagnostic program. The result:





    It also recommended erasing the HDD. That was fine as I was intending to wipe the drive and send it back for replacement anyway. This was the result of a Low Level Format:





    Now, since I wasn’t convinced that the drive was properly erased following the above procedure, I started WinPE and ran Diskpart and used the ‘Clean all’ command. The two partitions were removed during this process (not during the Low Level Format incidentally). With Seagate taking over the RMA’s for Samsung I had to run SeaTools and list the error code. The result: Pass. Strange huh? So I ran ESTool again and the result this time:





    What the hell is going on? Has Diskpart resolved the problem? Would you be concerned about using the HDD again? The last thing I want to do is start using it and a) lose data and b) be unable to wipe the drive if it actually dies next time. Could a corrupted file cause ESTools to flag up bad sectors? (Personally I doubt it since it doesn't know what data should be there, just whether it's readable) To me, since they occur so soon into the test, it’s almost as though it's being flagged up due to the partition. It seems a coincidence that as soon as it’s removed, it’s ok again...

  2. #2
    The late but legendary peterb - Onward and Upward peterb's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    Looking down & checking on swearing
    Posts
    19,378
    Thanks
    2,892
    Thanked
    3,403 times in 2,693 posts

    Re: Samsung HDD Concerns

    Odd - normally if a sector fails, the physical sector is marked as bad and a replacement sector (from a pool of 'spares') is mapped in to take its place with the same LBA number.

    What does the SMART data contain?

    A low level format may not be the same as wiping the drive, although it may make the data very difficult to recover. It depends on the mfr's definition of low level format and if it only involves writing sector data to the sector headers, the user data area may be unaltered.
    (\__/)
    (='.'=)
    (")_(")

    Been helped or just 'Like' a post? Use the Thanks button!
    My broadband speed - 750 Meganibbles/minute

  3. #3
    Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    London
    Posts
    195
    Thanks
    4
    Thanked
    19 times in 12 posts

    Re: Samsung HDD Concerns

    OK, in terms of SMART data we have the following:

    The 'suspect' HDD:




    A comparative HDD




    Both of the drives above are the same make and model so they should be a direct comparison. The only differences I can see is that the 'suspect' drive has a value of 375 next to the 'Raw Read Error Rate' (which I don't like the look of) and only 100 (compared to 252) under 'Worst' for 'Current Pending Sector'.

    However, despite this, it still reports the Health Status as 'OK' and passes the Seagate Diagnostics Test...??? If these drives were still £35, I'd just buy a new one...

  4. #4
    The late but legendary peterb - Onward and Upward peterb's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    Looking down & checking on swearing
    Posts
    19,378
    Thanks
    2,892
    Thanked
    3,403 times in 2,693 posts

    Re: Samsung HDD Concerns

    An interesting discussion on a similar problem here:

    http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum...attribute.html

    Trouble with hard drives is that once you lose confidence in them, you are always looking for problems! In reality, the drive will continue to give satidsfactory service, burt as a mechanical device, it will fail at some point (as will any other drive you own)

    Whether it is worth replacing depends on the replacement cost (and liklihood of success if it is RMA'd as faulty) set against the cost of recreating the data from scratch or from backup in the event of a failure.

    I guess (hope!) you regularly back up, or keep multiple copies of, important data, so it omes down to a risk evaluation - and your peace of mind.
    (\__/)
    (='.'=)
    (")_(")

    Been helped or just 'Like' a post? Use the Thanks button!
    My broadband speed - 750 Meganibbles/minute

  5. Received thanks from:

    silentvoice (21-03-2012)

  6. #5
    Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    London
    Posts
    195
    Thanks
    4
    Thanked
    19 times in 12 posts

    Re: Samsung HDD Concerns

    Peter,

    Thanks for posting that link. The most interesting part was the last post - about the SATA data and power cables potentially interfering with each other. The reason being is that I recently upgraded my video card and had to unplug these cables to give me more room to manoeuvre. I'll try reseating these cables and positioning them away from each other. If this is the culprit then I don't mind keeping the drive; otherwise I'll bin it as quite frankly it's not worth the hassle if it does give up. I'd prefer to take a preventative measure and replace it now (if necessary) rather than a reactive measure and wait for it to die (if there is good reason to assume it will do in the short term). It might even tempt me in getting a SSD. Are there any SSD competitions running at the moment lol... Thinking about it I entered the Corsair one the other week. Fingers crossed they haven't drawn that one yet.

  7. #6
    The late but legendary peterb - Onward and Upward peterb's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2005
    Location
    Looking down & checking on swearing
    Posts
    19,378
    Thanks
    2,892
    Thanked
    3,403 times in 2,693 posts

    Re: Samsung HDD Concerns

    I thought you'd find that interesting!

    I've had problems with SATA connection in the past - they can crk along the narrow edge - thelook OK when they are unplugged, but make a poor connection if they are plugged in and under lateral stress. Can't remember if it should any SMART data errors though - It was in a RAID array and the SMART data wasn't readable through the controller card (IIRC).

    Be interesting to know how you get on by re-arranging the cables.
    (\__/)
    (='.'=)
    (")_(")

    Been helped or just 'Like' a post? Use the Thanks button!
    My broadband speed - 750 Meganibbles/minute

  8. #7
    OilSheikh
    Guest

    Re: Samsung HDD Concerns

    Have you tried running a Full checkdisk ? What does Checkdisk say ?

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •