COrrupt Hard Drive?

[BenW]

Think i may have corrupted my 160GB Samsung Spinpoint

Got a new motherboard today so i backed up the essentials onto CD and also onto 'my documents and downloads' partition

Installed the new motherboard and cpu, started it up and it was VERY slow. Got to windows setup, formatted D:\ (My original partition became C:\) and it coppied files, rebooted and then the same again

I realised my hard drive jumper was set to cable select so i put it on master instead. Now the speed issue was resolved, went through the same process of format, copying files, reboot but this time i get 'disk read error, please reboot'. This went over and over

I followed some suggestions i found through google including 'chkdsk /r', 'fixmbr' and 'fixboot'.

The result is a hard drive that i can't even install windows on.

Anyone got any ideas? Not sure how much warrent is left on the hard drive if worst comes to the worst

Forgot to say, i've tried replacing the cable with no luck and the mobo is an asrock 939DUAL SATA2 (99% sure its nothing to do with either after my googling)

On a more possitive note the warrenty expires March 2008

[KW1816]

Have you got a second drive you can mount as the master ? Install an OS onto that, install the dodgy drive as a second and run some diagnostics on it. Might even be able to do it from a floppy.

[latrosicarius]

1.) Take out the jumper completely
2.) Plug the HDD into the END of the IDE ribbon cable (not the middle)
3.) There are two IDE ribbon cable slots on your motherboard. Use the BLUE one for the HDD
4.) Go into your BIOS and make sure:
(a) The BOOT PRIORITY is set to (1) Removable Disks (Floppy), (2) CD-ROM, (3) Hard Drives, (4) Disabled; and
(b) The HARD DRIVES section is set to (1) Your Master 160GB drive (C first

[BenW]

KW1816, i have got a second drive but its at my dads place so i'll have to get it tomorrow.

latrosicarius, thanks but i've already checked all that

I've been looking on samsungs website and come across a few utilities, downloaded one which lets you do a 'low level format'. From what i gather this restores it to factory condition. Its running at the moment but its gonna take some time. The utility also lets you view s.m.a.r.t info and has a diagnosis so i'll try them if the low-level format doesn't work

[BenW]

Right, i'm on my old hard drisk now

The hard drive IS broken, ran the samsung diagnostics and its error after error after error and nothing seem to be able to fix it

How is Samsung RMA?

[scrandman]

Out of interest, were you running it in SATA2 mode, or SATA1? I believe that the SATA2 on this (and other boards) is a bit flaky. You might want to try setting the jumper on the drive to SATA1 mode, and running it from another SATA port just to make sure before you RMA it.

[BenW]

Its an IDE Drive

Looking at the Samsung FAQ, their answer to half the questions is RMA it!

[scrandman]

OK, sounds like you got a bad un.

If it's a brand new drive, I'd try returning it to where you bought it from as opposed to RMAing it to Samsung.

[BenW]

Its about 13/14 months old and has a 3 month warrenty. Think you have to contact samsung if you've moved house since purchase (which i have)

[BenW]

For anyone reading this thread in the future all samsungs rma claims for HHD/CD drives are handled by www.rexo.co.uk

Simply register, enter your serial number and you get an instant RMA number!

[latrosicarius]

Is it a SATA or IDE? Also, I take it that it WAS working at one time... was it a master with an OS on it, or just a slave?

[latrosicarius]

You probably need to do an F-Disk on it....

http://home.pacbell.net/dbk4297/fdiskformat.html

If that doesn't work, run boot & nuke on it before you turn it in, so people can't recover your stuff. Formatting.. even Low-Level formatting is NOT enough.

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

[BenW]

Its IDE, was on CS then i tried master and still didn't work. It had OS on it but i immediately tried formatting for a fresh install

It's already gone back so i can't try f-disk or boot&nuke. Didn't have anything anyone would want on it though

[BenW]

Well, and A+ to rexo!

Posted the drive about 2pm yesterday, got an email from them today at 11:33 saying they had received my faulty hard drive and they've sent a new one which should be with me in less than a week

[nvening]

nice, another reason to buy samsung drives