Verbatim USB 3.0 external 2 TB HD with Samsung F4EG HD204UI - several problems.

[drf]

Verbatim USB 3.0 Desktop Hard Drive 2TB has Samsung HD204UI (reported by operating system).

1. That hard drive needs a firmware update, otherwise data might be lost according to Samsung.

However, it is not possible to apply Samsung firmware fix, because Samsung software (patch tool) does not recognize the drive, when it is in Verbatim USB enclosure.

I tried it even with USBASPI V2.20 MS-DOS Driver, to no avail.

It is not possible to remove the hard drive from the enclosure in order to apply the fix, without loosing warranty, as there is "Warranty void if broken" sticker.

Is there any software, which would allow to update the firmware of the Samsung HD204UI hard drive without removing it from the enclosure?

Because of USB enclosure it is also not possible to use any tool for testing the hard drive surface (and SMART status), including Samsung's diagnostic software: ESTOOL v. 3.01 and MHDD (with ASPI driver it can detect it, but says 'drive not ready')

Any idea how to get around this?

2. Verbatim in their Quick Start Guide says (in capital bold letters):
"Verbatim will not be liable for data loss or any incidental, consequential or special damages, however caused, for breach of warranties or otherwise."

However, I believe that Verbatim cannot deny its liability for data loss in this case, because Verbatim is selling a faulty product (with a known fault, which can be fixed only by firmware update or hard drive exchange to a newer revision), and Verbatim, so far, has not provided any solution.

3. Samsung HD204UI hard drive, as most of other 2 TB hard drives is built in Advanced Format.

This means that it needs to have partitions properly aligned, otherwise it might work considerably slower and cause other problems.
This is so because with the emulation of 512B sectors, there is the risk that a partition could be misaligned compared to the 4K physical sectors - where it would be unwittingly started in the middle of such a sector. As a result, the clusters of a file system on that partition would end up straddling 4K sectors, which would cause performance problems.

Verbatim is providing the drive pre-formatted to FAT 32. But have they aligned it properly?
I think they should warn their customers about that aligning problem (particularly if someone would like to change formatting for example to NTFS).
Partitioning the hard drive under Windows 7 should align it properly. But Verbatim could provide their customers with a special tool from Acronis and/or Paragon to align the partitions (like WD did).

4. Last but not least: why is warranty for Verbatim product lasting only 2 years in the European Union (and in most of other places in the world), while in USA warranty lasts 7 years?

Why do they discriminate Europeans regarding warranty so grossly?

[drf]

I received replies from Australian and European Verbatim. What do you think about them?

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Sorry for the delayed response. Our office here in Victoria had been affected by floods over the weekend and we've been busy cleaning up the office.

I have read through your query. You have made some valid points and here are a couple answers to help you clarify your situation.

The problem you described with the firmware update only affects NCQ (en wikipedia org /wiki/NCQ) which is applicable using a SATA or eSATA connection. It is not used when connected via a USB enclosure and therefore no risk of data loss is present.

We cannot provide testing softwares for legal reasons. If there is a problem with your drive, you will have to send it in to us where we complete testing in our lab. Using a drive via USB interface does not allow all the access that a SATA connection would allow with softwares such as "ESTOOL v 3.01". This is a constraint that all external USB drives will have.

Verbatim warranty doesn't cover data loss. You may read our policy on our website here: www verbatim com au /en_AU/support/knowledge-base/view/451

All our drives are partitioned and aligned correctly from the factory. The drives are formatted as FAT32 because this is the most compatible format. We do not provide additional formatting software.

Regarding the warranty issue, the product sold in the US is not the same as ours. We sell the same product as they do in Europe and offer the same warranty as them - 2 years. This warranty time limit is given to us from our manufacturers.

I hope this has clarified your situation.

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Thank you for your comments. This message has been passed onto our product managers and will be looked upon.

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide the service and support that you've requested. Our current products and services have been addressed by our product managers to determine the best possible way to provide the best service for our customers.

There are countless reasons why we have restrictions to our warranty policies. If any of them are to be rid, there most certainly will be loopholes that certain customers may take advantage of, thereby possibly causing further issues that may hinder us from providing the best customer service response we can.

If you're unhappy with our product, you may return it for a refund and purchase a separate product that may include the requested softwares and doesn't void the warranty if opened.

Regarding the differences between the US product and the warranty questions, we don't have details of their specific differences, but we only offer for sale the product that carries the 2 year warranty - as detailed by our manufacturers.
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[drf]

Dear Customer,

Thank you for this e-mail. Your reference number is **********.
Please quote this reference on all future correspondence with us.

Please note that we are technical support/repair centre and we do provide technical support, do the troubleshooting with the customers and test non working devices here.

There can be any of the following hard disks inside Verbatim enclosure:
Hitachi, Seagate, Samsung, Toshiba, WD.

Please provide us with the following information:
- the model no. of the drive, located at the back of the drive and starting with 475xx/476xx/53xxx
- its serial number, located on the same label as the model no.
- its date and place of purchase/a copy of proof of purchase
- the version of operating system you are using
- a detailed description of the fault
- any error message
- if the drive works with a different connection cable
- if the drive works on a different PC
- if the drive works with any of the USB port
- if the light is on

Verbatim is not responsible for loss of data
and we do not provide Data Recovery service.

Please note that if they have to open the drive physically, its warranty will be cancelled.

The Verbatim external hard drives are pre-formatted to FAT32.
Each customer can re-format the hard drive.


Best Regards,
Verbatim Euro Support
Dutec Limited
Company Registered in Ireland No: 307480

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Dear Customer,

Please provide us with the following information:
- a screen shots of any error message
- if the external hard drive works with your computer
- if the external hard drive works with a different computer


Best Regards,
Verbatim Euro Support
Dutec Limited
Company Registered in Ireland No: 307480
=======================================================

I have an impression that the European support did not read carefully my message at all.

[drf]

There have been tested 5 hard drives using different tests (mainly surface access times tests):

1. Samsung HD204UI in Verbatim 2 TB 3.0 USB enclosure.
2. Samsung SP1614N
3. WDC WD6400AAKS
4. WDC WD1600BEVS
5. Seagate ST320410A

The tests results are in 149 files of the screenshots of these tests, available to download in this thread:
http://forum.hddguru.com/surface-test-hdds-t18575.html

1. Generally Samsung drives (even the new 2TB Samsung HD204UI) seem to have considerably poorer quality of the surface comparing to the 3 years old (or so) Western Digital WDC WD6400AAKS.

2. I would like to see similar tests, in particular of other brands and models of 2 TB hard drives. Please upload your tests results in that thread (click the link above).

3. I wonder why in some hard drives slower access times can bee seen aligning in some diagonal patterns (in HD204UI) and why in some other drives (in WDC WD1600BEVS) a checkered pattern appears (only from the second half of the scan) which "shape" changes regularly depending on the part of the disk surface scanned, while in some other drives no such regular patterns are present?

4. Why is there such a difference in SMART status health notification between various software for Samsung SP1614N (it is red for most of the tests in HDD Health and everything OK in HD Tune)? There is also a significant difference in MHDD scan result and HDDScan result for SP1614N.

5. BTW, it took ca. 31 h to test Samsung HD204UI in Verbatim 2 TB 3.0 USB enclosure on USB 2.0 port.