Fairly new hard drive apparently dying - what do?!

FosterK · 1 Jun 2011 at 02:37

Windows keeps throwing up errors saying that a new HDD is on its way out, and that I should back things up etc. Sensibly, this I have done.

Having made full disk images of the two partitions on the hard drive, I printed off the relevant RMA forms, and thought I'll just keep using it until it passes away. I bought and installed the hard drive on the 16th of March. There's no WAY it should be failing now, not even three months later!

So today, I've installed and run CrystalDiskInfo:

1 error, threshold of 51? What? If the threshold is 51, and I've got 1 on the hard drive... why's it flagged it up?

And also performed a full error scan with HDTune (taking like 12 hours!), which showed 0% errors.

So I'm baffled really.

If it weren't for me reading the SMART info and Windows shouting at me every 20 minutes saying 'OMG YOUR COMPUTER ARE DYING', I wouldn't be any the wiser... and everything seems to work...

Like I say, everything's backed up. Do I really need to bother losing my PC for a few weeks while I do the RMA, do I keep making daily backups to my other hard drive until such a time as it does fail, or do I just carry on regardless? If the latter, is there any way of resetting the SMART data so Windows doesn't keep throwing messages at my face?

Many thanks!

chippy08 · 1 Jun 2011 at 03:02

When my samsung went the same it took over a month to get a replacement.

AbsenceJam · 1 Jun 2011 at 05:20

Did you do a full scan with HDTune and have you done a full scan with ESTool?

chippy08 said:
When my samsung went the same it took over a month to get a replacement.

Every time I've RMA'd I get a new drive back in 2-3 days after posting. Best RMA service about.

FosterK · 1 Jun 2011 at 08:08

AbsenceJam said:
Did you do a full scan with HDTune and have you done a full scan with ESTool?

Yes, with HDTune, gonna download and run ESTool now. Will post the result once it's done.

AbsenceJam said:
Every time I've RMA'd I get a new drive back in 2-3 days after posting. Best RMA service about.

Well that's reassuring I suppose.If it turns out it needs RMA'ing, and if it lasts until Monday the 13th of June, I'll send it then, as I'm off on holiday til the following Saturday.

FosterK · 1 Jun 2011 at 08:20

Bah, no floppy drive, no CDs and I've lost my flash drive ¬_¬

blueacid · 1 Jun 2011 at 12:51

Hmm.. Soon as you can lay hands on a CD-RW, I'd download the ultimate boot CD. That'll have Samsung's own DOS utility on it, which you could also run to give it a go.

Good call on backing everything up though, well played there

FosterK · 1 Jun 2011 at 15:41

Well I've just looked through my drawer and I found a copy of Ultimate Boot CD, from when I was having PC issues a few months back - so I'll have a bash on that in a bit.

Weazle · 1 Jun 2011 at 15:43

I'd still get it replaced, the errors may not be related to physical disk errors but to a faulty hard drive controller which is a much more severe problem.

blueacid · 1 Jun 2011 at 16:22

FosterK said:
Well I've just looked through my drawer and I found a copy of Ultimate Boot CD, from when I was having PC issues a few months back - so I'll have a bash on that in a bit.

Yeah - to accept the RMA, samsung might (might!) ask that you first run this tool, so it's a good thing to do regardless.

FosterK · 1 Jun 2011 at 16:34

Well running ESTool from Ultimate boot CD didn't get me very far in all honesty! Was hoping for a little more detail than this:

[ NOTICE ] Errors was detected in this test !!!

It's recommended to do ERASE HDD !
(All data will be lost!
You must back-up BEFORE running ERASE HDD)
Then run this test program again.
If errors still happen, please consult to Service Center.
Press any key to continue.

Now, I'd do as it says, but in all honesty, it's a MASSIVE ballache, and I'm in the middle of my 2nd year exams at uni, so I think I'm gonna leave it for now, possibly have a go at that next Thursday, once my exams are more or less over.

Any other ideas, anyone? Also, any interpretation of ESTool's Engrish diagnostic?

AbsenceJam · 1 Jun 2011 at 18:27

I think the newer ESTool versions give a little more details. But it means bad sectors so you should RMA.

Justintime · 1 Jun 2011 at 20:28

I've rma'd to Rexo without any specific codes etc.. just plopped a note in the box with details of the issue, turnaround is quite good with the whole ordeal usually over within a week. I even did a 10 drive one last year as i had accumulated a few 160-300gb ones and never got around to RMA and they were all in warranty, took about 8 days but everything was hitch free

Cyber-Mav · 2 Jun 2011 at 01:20

FosterK said:
1 error, threshold of 51? What? If the threshold is 51, and I've got 1 on the hard drive... why's it flagged it up?!

i dont know where your seeing 1 error, in that screenshot you posted it shows me 33149 errors for the read error rate.

that drive is nackered and its to be expected when it comes from samsung. get warranty replacement done on it quicktime since samsung is going out of making drives now.

Surveyor · 2 Jun 2011 at 01:25

Cyber-Mav said:
that drive is nackered and its to be expected when it comes from samsung

That's a bit of a generalised statement.

I've not seen any evidence that Samsung have a noticeably higher failure rate than other manufacturers.

Cyber-Mav · 4 Jun 2011 at 13:51

Surveyor said:
That's a bit of a generalised statement.

I've not seen any evidence that Samsung have a noticeably higher failure rate than other manufacturers.

quite obviously you dont have much experience with hard drives then.

for the op, did you manage to ret it RMA'd? samgsung doesnt even handle the warranty side themselves they use a company called rexo to handle it.

Surveyor · 4 Jun 2011 at 15:00

Cyber-Mav said:
quite obviously you dont have much experience with hard drives then.

Another meaningless statement.

If you have statistics to show Samsung drives have a higher failure rate than others then produce them.

Cyber-Mav · 4 Jun 2011 at 16:14

Surveyor said:
Another meaningless statement.

If you have statistics to show Samsung drives have a higher failure rate than others then produce them.

if you have statistics showing that samsung drives DONT have a higher failure rate than others then produce them. :rolleyes:

Surveyor · 4 Jun 2011 at 16:39

Cyber-Mav said:
if you have statistics showing that samsung drives DONT have a higher failure rate than others then produce them.

I didn't say Samsung were any better or worse than other makes.

You were the one who made the statement "that drive is nackered and its to be expected when it comes from samsung" [sic].

You obviously can't back up what you say.

Enough said.

spleenharvester · 4 Jun 2011 at 17:09

Different drive makes, different people, different experiences. Nobody has any solid data on return statistics far as I know.

Also OP, you tried a different cable?

AbsenceJam · 4 Jun 2011 at 17:17

Surveyor said:
I didn't say Samsung were any better or worse than other makes.

You were the one who made the statement "that drive is nackered and its to be expected when it comes from samsung" [sic].

You obviously can't back up what you say.

Enough said.

Yeah, guy is an idiot. Coming in making claims without evidence then demanding evidence that he's wrong...