Samsung HDDs

[Shocker]

Do you love them or hate them?

[ratdude747]

Re: Samsung HDDs

from my experience, they suck. samsung in general hasn't impressed me as being very robust.

[Topcat]

Re: Samsung HDDs

The couple I had never gave me any trouble, but I didn't have them long....while I don't hate them, I don't love them either.

If its for my stuff, WD Black/RE or Fujitsu for the win.....Fujitsu was the glory of indestructible SCSI HDD's....

[shovenose]

Re: Samsung HDDs

I don't like anything that doesn't have the [WD] Logo on it,
so HATE!

[c_hegge]

Re: Samsung HDDs

The only good drives are Seagate and WD. Samsung and Hitachi Deathstars are rubbish.

[mariushm]

Re: Samsung HDDs

The general consensus in this country is that they're good. No particular problems with them dying suddenly or stuff like that.
Anyway, it will soon not matter at all - the old style hard drive division was bought by Seagate - Samsung will only make SSD drives in the future.

[larrymoencurly]

Re: Samsung HDDs

I've never had one fail, but Samsung is the only brand I've returned for excessive vibration, one a 250GB in a Buffalo enclosure (the WD 250GB in the replacement enclosure was fine), the other a 750GB internal. Also MHDD found a few slow sectors in Samsung HD240UI 2TB internals, each needing between 150-500ms to read (13-45 tries). MHDD found the same with Hitachi 2TB 5400 RPM drives and a 1TB Seagate 7200.12, while none of the WD drives I've checked ever showed anything sector lower than 50ms.

OTOH Samsung tech support has been gawd awful, staffed by the least informed people on Earth.

[lauren]

Re: Samsung HDDs

I've never had one in my machines before, but I have seen a lot of them die while I am testing them at work.

[Scenic]

Re: Samsung HDDs

Since their most recent f*ckup with the Spinpoint F1 series (dying like flies out of the blue), I try to avoid them or only use them for non-critial stuff.

Due to the Thailand stuff, I pretty much have no choice at the moment though. (Lucky to get any HDD at a halfway reasonable price)
Their quality certainly seems to be all over the place. Some series are indestructable, some are hit and miss and some are just plain BS.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Samsung HDDs

I hate them. Then again, i have been given a 500GB (465GB real capacity) for free that i can use 430GB out of (bad sectors in the first 35GB, partitioned after the last of them), so i don't hate them that much, but still.

They're also pretty sensitive to heat, a lot more than other brands. Avoid.

[yyonline]

Re: Samsung HDDs

In my experience, they're no better and no worse than any other manufacturer. I prefer Western Digital myself because they have the easiest RMA process by far. I see quite a few Samsungs in newer big box computers and haven't noticed anything abnormal as far as failure rates go. I have a 1TB Spinpoint F1 in my workbench computer because I got it on sale for $49. So far, so good.

[kc8adu]

Re: Samsung HDDs

neither love nor hate.
have seen a few dead ones just like any other brand.
had a 1tb f1 here someone sent to me that suddenly would not boot.had their professional photo's like from weddings and such on it.smart looked like hell.
it clanked and squeeked about 8 hours doing a logical recovery.
got everything back.thought i was going to have to do a headstack.
he now listens when i tell him to back it up!the fact that it hung in there when any other drive would have at least needed a headstack says something.

[Shocker]

Re: Samsung HDDs

I hate them. Then again, i have been given a 500GB (465GB real capacity) for free that i can use 430GB out of (bad sectors in the first 35GB, partitioned after the last of them), so i don't hate them that much, but still.

They're also pretty sensitive to heat, a lot more than other brands. Avoid.

Heat sensitivity = . I was actually thinking it might have been the problem with them. Anyway I'm not brave enough to use a drive with a whole 1GB of bad sectors, let alone 35GB. At least not for anything more important than .

The only hard drive I have that really got hot is an ST380011A from an old PC of mine. That PC had no case fans in the first place, and a PSU fan failure didn't help. But the drive still works fine after 7+ years of heavy use - in fact, I'm still using it now. I only got an ST31000528AS last year because I ran right out of space.

I do pay more attention to cooling now, and my current PC at least has an 80mm case fan. It is a Dynaeon sleeve bearing cheapo, but it's better than nothing. I should probably get some decent ball bearing fans later though.

In case you're wondering, I never owned a Samsung drive. And observing the poll results, I probably shouldn't have.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Samsung HDDs

Heat sensitivity = . I was actually thinking it might have been the problem with them. Anyway I'm not brave enough to use a drive with a whole 1GB of bad sectors, let alone 35GB. At least not for anything more important than .

Area of bad sectors was around 1.5GB IIRC from 32GB on up, but i decided to just forget all about the first 35GB and not just partition around it - i have enough partitions as it is.

Btw, music and movies is exactly what it holds.

[Shocker]

Re: Samsung HDDs

Area of bad sectors was around 1.5GB IIRC from 32GB on up, but i decided to just forget all about the first 35GB and not just partition around it - i have enough partitions as it is.

Btw, music and movies is exactly what it holds.

OK, fine, then, but even so I would only use such a damaged drive if it was the last drive on the planet.

Sooner or later someone with a failed Samsung HDD will go like this:

[aidynphoenix]

Re: Samsung HDDs

i have had more Seagate deaths than WD so i prefer WD drives for regular desktop use.
however when it comes to enterprise class drives, Fujitsu and Seagate are good.
i havent used any WD drives that were scsi or enterprise class so i cant comment on them.

i dont like samsung or maxtor drives though, all there drives seem to be slow, and die just as quickly as seagates drives.

[Ami Sapphire]

Re: Samsung HDDs

i dont like samsung or maxtor drives though, all there drives seem to be slow, and die just as quickly as seagates drives.

My Dad's Maxtor 5.3GB hard drive (from an old Acer Aspire 2856 midtower) still works well after heavy use. 13.5 years! It's loud, but still...

My server's RAID 0+1 setup is loaded with Maxtor drives. Although only installed for a few months (four for the two SATA drives, and two for the two PATA drives), I've no issues with them.

---

Haven't really tried Samsung HDDs, but have heard of people having issues with them, so I stay away from them.

[Shocker]

Re: Samsung HDDs

I only got an ST31000528AS last year because I ran right out of space.

Oops, I forgot it's 2012.

[Scenic]

Re: Samsung HDDs

i dont like [...] maxtor drives though, all there drives seem to be slow, and die just as quickly as seagates drives.

That's because all current Maxtor branded drives are just Seagates with a different sticker on them. Perhaps just "not good enough" drives for the Seagate label?!

Simple example:

- Maxtor DiamondMax 22 500GB, 7200rpm, 32MB Cache (STM3500320AS)

just remove the "M" out of the model number.. what do you get?

- Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB, 7200rpm, 32MB Cache (ST3500320AS)