Problem with samsung HDD.

[RabidDeathGnome]

I recently ordered a 640GB samsung F1 HDD and when it arrived I noticed the box looked as if it had been stood on, the plastic outer had been crushed slightly on the top right hand corner but I thought nothing of it and continued.

After installation it's emiting a large clicking noise and only half the time will it register. The other half it doesn't. I had some trouble getting my system to boot so I went into bios and had to auto detect my IDE HDD and it booted but won't recognise the SATA one. I'm trying to get both recognised so I can use acronis true image and copy the IDE one so I can remove it.

Should I RMA it? Especialy with the really loud/annoying clicking noise. It's also not getting detected in my computer, only in device manager :S. Are there drivers for HDDs to install? Also when booted up in device manager it's also only reading as 596 free space :O. I know you lose some space but 44gigs? WTF?

[Koolpc]

RMA time.

[RabidDeathGnome]

Damn it, was afraid of that. I'm going to have to order a new one then to use while I wait for the RMA proccess. Since I only have 2GBs on this HDD. /Sigh, anyone know where to go to start an RMA, never done one before. How do I go about postage ect?

[Koolpc]

http://web6.scan.co.uk/aspnet/Suppor...px?QueryType=R

[RabidDeathGnome]

With the RMA can I ask for a refund and just order a new one? I can't afford to wait around for the process.

Or will I only be offered replacement?

[sleepyhead]

I believe it is....

If its within 28 days of original purchase you can ask for either refund or replacement. After that it is replacement.

If it is definitely knackered and within 28 days, then I'd buy another and RMA for refund.

[RabidDeathGnome]

Well I'm pretty sure it's buggered. Every about 10 minutes or so it makes this strange like click,click...clickclick noise. And this one time it made a kind of scratching noise.

It's starting to make the noise less and less, made it the most the first few boot ups.

[Saracen]

With the RMA can I ask for a refund and just order a new one? I can't afford to wait around for the process.

Or will I only be offered replacement?

As I understand it, the situation is this :-

1) You obviously have your statutory rights.

2) In addition, there's a voluntary code which you can rely on if you wish.

If you rely on that code, and IF goods were faulty when delivered to you, then for the first 28 days, you get a refund. After that, you will be offered either a credit or replacement.

However, the question is whether goods were faulty at the point they were delivered or not? Clearly, there will be times when people just want to return goods, perhaps because they;re incompatible, or perhaps because they decided they want something else, or just couldn't actually afford them. There's no automatic right to a refund in that situation.

So, if you return goods as faulty, they'll be tested to see if Scan agree that they are faulty, and were on delivery (i.e. presumably, were damaged by something you did). If they were faulty, then it's the situation I referred to above, i.e. refund within 28 days, and replacement/credit after that.

But if they weren't faulty, then :-

- there's a £10 charge to cover the cost of testing
- goods might be taken back into stock, but there might be a restocking fee, or they might be returned to you


In other words, until they're received, examined and tested, it's hard to be sure what will be offered, because it depends on whether they're faulty, and if they are, what the assessment is of how they got that way.

Scan do say they will attempt to work with the customer ...

In any case where it is established that there was no defect in the goods at the point of delivery to you

* we will nonetheless try to assist you in resolving the problem
* depending upon the age and condition of the goods, we may be prepared to accept the return of the goods subject to a restocking charge and refund or credit the balance of the costs of the goods.
* insofar as the age or condition of the goods is such that we are unable to accept their return, we will redeliver the goods to you. You agree to pay to us the reasonable cost of re-delivering the goods to you.

.... but it's impossible to predict the outcome in a given situation.

Obviously, I don't speak for Scan, but that appears to be how their T&C's work.

[GoNz0]

scan are quite good with this, if its 100% borked and you order a replacement they will refund you as your buying a new one to get round the gap in RMA

other option, and almost as fast as buying a new one is to special delivery to samsungs RMA center after doing the online RMA, you get an email within the hour with return details, get it sent monday by special delivery and they get it tuesday, they dispatch tuesday and you get it wednesday.

they have a very fast turn around http://www.rexo.co.uk/warranty.php

[RabidDeathGnome]

I'm a little worried they won't find it faulty though. Since the clicking noises and the slight like scratching only happens every hour or so, so will they test it that long?

However I just tried to format it again and install a partition and pastway through it made a sound kinda like star trek, like a low pitched power down. And now I can't find the drive in device manager either.

[Blaineoliver]

Have you tried initialising it in administrator tools?

[RabidDeathGnome]

Have you tried initialising it in administrator tools?

I'm on XP.

Well for some reason I booted up today and it's there in my computer but still making the clicking noises every now and then. I clickedo n it in my comp and it said I need to format it, so it's formatting atm.

But I still beleive it's broken from these signs:
The fact it powered down while formatting
The clicking noise
It's only being recognised every now and then

Is there any kind of definate check/software I can use to scan the HDD to find if it it's 100 borked?

[mayhem]

if your after fast rma ,send back to samsung with max 2 day turn arround mate.

[RabidDeathGnome]

Well that format it failed to format and has dissapared from my computer. Would you say it'd be better to send it to samsung then before SCAN?

[GoNz0]

if you want it back faster

[rabbid]

have you run the samsung diags on it?
if it fails that there will be no question of it being accepted as faulty.

if it doesn't fail that I am not sure what the procedure is, and if that noise is normal or acceptable for a samsung drive? It sounds a lot like the Hitachis (maybe Samsung use the IBM controller as well now?)

The samsung tool will offer an option to low level format. So if it passes the diags try a LLF (backup any data first) which sometimes helps.