samsung 80gb hard drives

[ratdude747]

Re: samsung 80gb hard drives

i think i found the problem

switching to a 160gb wd green seemed to fix it... i guess the spinpoint is a spinout failure

btw, it is compaq presario 7000, with a VIA chipset and firewire. full ATX s well.

i also did somehting i said i would NEVER do a long time ago- i undervolted the cpu fan. it was a large superrad jet engine... moved too much air and was noisy as hell. I took a pigtail from a dead fan and soldered it to a fan jack from a dead board... with a 22 or 33 ohm resistor (was it red or orange? i will have to look again). moves enough air now and no noise..

[c_hegge]

Re: samsung 80gb hard drives

I usually add a temperature controller if the fan is too noisy (set at 50*C). That way, you don't risk overheating the CPU.

[ratdude747]

Re: samsung 80gb hard drives

well, it is a PIII cumine 1ghz... i ran it undervolted during an install, which was showing 100% cpu a good amount of the time. the cooler didn't even get warm.

[ratdude747]

Re: samsung 80gb hard drives

uhh... it might be the cable. cd tested good, but 2 bootloader install errors. the disc was good an smart last i checked (cannot check now- xubuntu doesn't have disc utility by default).

i will have to try a different cable. if it is the cable, then maybe the sammy is not RIP.

[ratdude747]

Re: samsung 80gb hard drives

fixed. different cable... or was it the fact i did not have install updates as part of the install... i might have to give the sammy another go sometime...

[momaka]

Re: samsung 80gb hard drives

If possible, take a screenshot of the SMART data and post it here.

I have boxes of failed everything, you're never safe.

quoted for truth

Funny how most people get a lemon from brand X and call the rest of their products shit. Buying a few drives from brand X is not enough to prove anything, let alone just buying a few particular models. Sometimes you just get lucky and other times, not so much. I, for example, have YET to have a drive fail.

The best you can do is check the SMART data every now and then, and hope that the drive gives you an early warning and not crap out at once. I usually read the SMART data one my drives once or twice a week. Takes a few seconds at the most.

[dood]

Re: samsung 80gb hard drives

I have NEVER trusted a samsung hard drive. Nor do I trust Hitachi/IBM.

I used to trust Seagate after having a 540mb drive in my first PC last for 15 years (and probably would still be going today if I hadn't scrapped it)... but now I've seen too many failures from Seagate to trust.

I'm a WD guy these days... And if they do fail, their RMA process is painless.

This has been brought up before on these forums.... everyone has their favorites... but I figure as long as you have valid reasons to support your brand, there's no reason you shouldn't use and advocate what you like.

[dood]

Re: samsung 80gb hard drives

momaka - Keep in mind that SMART data is not the final word on drive health. It does usually give a good overview; but every once and a while, you'll get a drive failed with no SMART codes set.

[ratdude747]

Re: samsung 80gb hard drives

well, i fi had smart data, i would give it to you.

my disc i was using was XUBUNTU. xubuntu does not have disc utility. ubuntu does but is too heavy for the system.

i can give smart data on the 160gb wd, since i instalkled disk utility. it says everything is in order...

i will plug in the 80gb sammy as slave and see what i get.

[ratdude747]

Re: samsung 80gb hard drives

ok, done.

the sammy has 8 bad sectors.

screenshot attached.

[dood]

Re: samsung 80gb hard drives

Some people would still use that drive, as all drives have built in "spare sectors". But, I never re-use a drive with bad sectors, unless it's for something stupid like my truck MP3 drive or something, where loss of data would cause me no harm or time lost. But with the performance issues you're already having, I'd just chuck it in the bin.

[yyonline]

Re: samsung 80gb hard drives

ok, done.

the sammy has 8 bad sectors.

screenshot attached.

My recommendation... I'd do a full surface scan of the drive. There may be other sectors that have yet to be mapped out. If you do a full scan, and it finds more, replace the drive. If the full scan doesn't show any more bad sectors, keep a close eye on it. These sectors will show up in the SMART data for the drive. They won't show up as bad sectors in the file system unless the drive runs out of spare sectors (256 spares, usually), or it fails to remap a sector completely because the data is that far gone. If it's a mission critical drive, I'd replace it anyway.

[momaka]

Re: samsung 80gb hard drives

momaka - Keep in mind that SMART data is not the final word on drive health. It does usually give a good overview; but every once and a while, you'll get a drive failed with no SMART codes set.

Yes, I know. Like I said in my above post, the SMART data may give you an early warning, but it may not either. Better to check it than not to.

RD: What are the other attributs reading, such as Raw Read Error Rate, Reallocated Event Count (if present), Current Pending Sector, Offline Scan Incorrect (if present), UltraATA CRC Error Count, and Write Error Count?
8 bad sectors isn't at all that bad, as long as that number doesn't continue increasing. Do a surface scan as yyonline suggested. Also do some heavy writing (single large file and a large folder with multiple small files). If the Bad Sector count doesn't increase, drive should be okay to use. Probably better to use for non-critical stuff only or perhaps as a secondary drive, though.

I have quite a few drives with "some" bad sectors. One of them, a 30 GB Deskstar (305030) is in my secondary computer, which i got from a dumpster. The HD has 20 bad sectors, and 22k hours on the clock right now. Was 19 bad sectors when I found it a year and a half ago. I've put 600 hours on the drive since then. Not exactly bad. And with the help of the SMART data, I figured that the drive only doesn't like it when I give it folders with lots of small files to write.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: samsung 80gb hard drives

on a scale of 1-10, 10=best 1=worst

1. seagate/maxtor
2. samsung
3.
4. ibm/hitachi
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10. wd

Oh cool! - An opinion op!

1. Samsung DT&LT, IBM/Hitachi Deathstars DT
2. Maxtor DT&LT
3. WD LT
4. Seagate DT w/1yr or over 500GB
5. WD DT w/1yr or over 500GB
6. Fujitsu LT
7. Seagate & WD DT w/<5yr and <500GB
8. Toshiba LT, IBM/Hitachi LT
9. Seagate LT, Seagate DT w/5yr & <500GB
10. WD DT w/5yr & <500GB

LT = Laptop 2.5"
DT = Desktop 3.5"
yr = Years of Warranty

[dood]

Re: samsung 80gb hard drives

PCBonez- As far as I know, all Western Digital drives carry a minimum of 3 years of warranty. The Black series all carry 5 years.

I'd also disagree with your opinion of putting WD LT drives at #3. I've deployed at least 50 of them in the 4 years I've been working here, and only had to return one or two. And, they carry the same 3/5 year warranty that the desktop drives do.

I've also had no issues with WD desktop drives larger than 500gb using perpendicular recording.

But again, it's all just opinions and my own experiences. Everyone's can and usually will be different.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: samsung 80gb hard drives

PCBonez- As far as I know, all Western Digital drives carry a minimum of 3 years of warranty. The Black series all carry 5 years.

Might be.
I don't even look at DT drives w/o a 5yr anymore.

I'd also disagree with your opinion of putting WD LT drives at #3. I've deployed at least 50 of them in the 4 years I've been working here, and only had to return one or two. And, they carry the same 3/5 year warranty that the desktop drives do.

WD is relatively new in the 2.5" drive market and when they wandered into it their warranties were 1yr and they had heat issues. [Ran hot.]
I refurbished laptops for a few years [ending about 7 years ago] as one of my 'main home-based $$ activities' and I still work primarily with older laptops that use IDE drives when I take a laptop on. [Don't do laptops often anymore but I just took in 6x CF-51 Toughbooks for refurb.].
So far as IDE drives go any review sites that do quantitative [good vs bad vs # reviewed] reviews show a ~5x higher complaint rate for WD than they do for Seagate.
And since 1998 [my first laptop rebuild] I haven't had a single Seagate laptop IDE drive fail.
I have had to replace dead WD LT drives in carriers for customers.
I do have a slew of Seagate SATA LT drives around that I use for moving files [portable drives] or testing mobos [space savers] and thus far none have failed me but light use like that doesn't prove much.
- IOW: 12 years of no problems w/established brand trumps a newbie and I don't feel a need to experiment.

I've also had no issues with WD desktop drives larger than 500gb using perpendicular recording.

Neither have I because I refuse to buy them based on reading [analyzing] the complaints about them. They suffer from 'stealth' data loss without the drive actually failing. Meaning corrupt/missing files but the tests good. OS nearly always gets blamed when the OS is not the problem. - You don't see complaints like "my xxxx file is missing or corrupt" with non-perpendicular drives short of: virus attack, loading bad drivers, moron client deleting something, or a drive that tests bad. Perpendicular drives will just do it out of the blue with no underlying cause and the drive tests good.
- If the OS was the cause 'stealth' data loss would show up as often with non-perpendicular drives with no underlying causes too, and it simply doesn't, it's rare.

But again, it's all just opinions and my own experiences. Everyone's can and usually will be different.

Yup.
.

[shovenose]

Re: samsung 80gb hard drives

super f disk is a great tool. it makes a bootable disc (and its free), which can do a very in-dept h usrface scan, and it can do complicated partitining. the free version of hdtune is nice too

[ratdude747]

Re: samsung 80gb hard drives

i think i will keep it as an emergency spare... i forgot i had the spare 160gb

[seanc]

Re: samsung 80gb hard drives

While we're on the subject: http://www.hddstatus.com/hdrepshowre...ation=8EA7A35A

Still being used, user refuses to spend the money replacing it.
I don't think I can get a clone.

It started with a few bad sectors and has was steadily growing, now rapidly, over 8 months.

[RJARRRPCGP]

Re: samsung 80gb hard drives

make sure it's running in at least udma33 (ultradma 2) mode and not some pio mode.

qft.