Hi:
I have two Samsungs F1. Both are the same model ,1TB, SATA.
I purchased them in different shops, 1 month appart.

I have scanned both with HDDScan 3.0 (great program). Both in the same conditions,
and OS running in another disk.

The first Samsung has a decent scan. The second one is horrible.
I have contacted the shop that sold me the bad one.
They say Samsung won't replace it because the hard disk is "not defective"!!!
I purchased it just 1 week ago.

Take a look at the scans:


what do you think?
Samsung diagnostics are passed ok.

I think you should try MHDD from a boot disk. In Windows, delays can be caused by Windows accessing the drive, or doing something else. Is the 'bad' drive by chance the boot drive?

no, as I have said, Windows is running from another disk.
PATA MASTER: Seagate, Windows XP.
SATA MASTER; Samsung F1

Also, I left Windows quiet, only running HDDScan.

And, as I have said, the other Samsung, in the exact same conditions, has a good scan.
Both drives are the same model, same capacity, even same manufacturing date (Jun-2008). Only a few differences at the underneath. Purchased 1 month appart, at different shops.
So the problem is nothing else, but the drive.

And I have repeated the test many times, with different Windows instalations.
I can assure you: its the drive who is causing the green blocks.

And these green blocks are not evenly scattered through the disk. Rather, they are concentrated in "bad areas", and these "bad areas" are equally spaced. The "good areas" in between are ok, with no green blocks.

Technically, the drive is fine. All drives have bad blocks, they're just hidden.

I woudl disagree here.

The translator should skip the hidden bads making the surface look as defect free, so there would be no green areas.
I suspect a weak or dirty head from the description.
time to RMA.

pepe

_________________
Adatmentés - Data recovery

These blocks aren't technically bad, at least not yet. I suspect they are not bad enough to be hidden. I'm assuming the SMART is fine. I did look a little closer at the picture, and I think you might be right about the heads.

@rchadwick:
I have 19 hard disks, some are 6 years old, all of them working.
None of them has such amount of green blocks. Not even close.
Just imagine if you purchase a brand new disk and the chassis is all scratched and dirty. Would you accept it? NO! Technically, the drive is fine, but you would not accept such a drive.
In this case, the chassis is clean, but the media is dirty or scratched, or whatever...

edit: yes, the SMART is fine.

@pepe
The green blocks are slow blocks, not error blocks, and thus, they are not cancelled. Only when they get very slow, they will be cancelled.
The head is ok, because, as I have said, the green blocks appear only in certain areas of the disk. Other areas are "clean".

edit: most probably there are "faults" in the media, or scratches. Possibly only 1 platter is bad.

specifically, the "dirty areas" in the scan are:
Area 1: Between 85 Mblocks and 101 Mblocks; 16 green blocks
Area 2: Between 188 Mblocks and 206 Mblocks; 31 green blocks
Area 3: Between 284 Mblocks and 308 Mblocks;57 green blocks
ETC...

As you see, the green blocks are very concentrated in certain spots, and these spots are located at equal intervals.

More details:
the green blocks are relatively concentrated, but not to the point of being consecutive.
I mean, the most I have seen in the scan screen is 4 green blocks at once, and not consecutive.

Example: this is the list of green blocks (just the beginning of the log):

-------------------------------
Executing
Block start at 11584512 time 57ms
Block start at 25823232 time 58ms
Block start at 30070528 time 58ms
Block start at 52468224 time 83ms
Block start at 85767424 time 57ms
Block start at 86042624 time 75ms
Block start at 86147584 time 67ms
Block start at 86239232 time 50ms
Block start at 86396160 time 58ms
Block start at 88278016 time 58ms
Block start at 89038848 time 67ms
Block start at 90413824 time 108ms
Block start at 91637504 time 77ms
Block start at 93554944 time 75ms
Block start at 94127872 time 57ms
Block start at 94711040 time 83ms
Block start at 95316224 time 86ms
Block start at 96019456 time 83ms
Block start at 100549376 time 66ms
Block start at 100880384 time 58ms
Block start at 102702592 time 67ms ; block 21
------------------------------------------------------------

Block start at 163707648 time 83ms
Block start at 188449280 time 75ms
Block start at 188577792 time 58ms
Block start at 189233152 time 52ms
Block start at 191204864 time 92ms
Block start at 191270400 time 65ms
ETC

This small amount is not head related indeed.
Do u have data on this drive?
what if U zerofill the drive? do they remain the same?

pepe

_________________
Adatmentés - Data recovery

@pepe:
no, the disk is very cool, I am very careful with temps.
The disk has no data.
I scanned the disk before and after full format, and no changes.

Now I am running a secure delete program, but of course I expect no improvement.

I think the package of the disk is not the cause, but here it is:

The hard disk was transported in the usual transparent plastic case,
and bubble plastic around it, but it was loose on the cardboard box.
So whenever the transport guy moved the box, the HDD would fly around inside it.

But this situation is very normal here. I always have this problem when buying hard disks, although I have never had such horrible scans.

It's not a problem and the drive is fine. The larger the drive, the more "greens". Full format , if bads come out then think about a RMA.

You really need to scan this drive in dos. Any process, even windows system files or virus/firewall programs will skew the results, even if it is not the boot drive. Windows based scanning programs are not 100% accurate. Download a copy of MHDD and then scan your drive.

_________________
Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

I humbly disagree with Blacky and rchadwik. It's something not digestable.

First, as thatdellguy said- test it in a pure dos environment with mhdd. If the result is same,then this is obviously something, not to be accepted.If I get even a couple of green blocks in an old U6, I personally do not trust on that drive to hold any precious data. And, this drive belongs to the latest generation, where every block has to be <5 ms. When it's greens on a month old 1 TB drive, it's obviously something not good with platters/head..even though it could be little.

Now, What you can do is (as you don't have any data on it) first do a WIPE. Either do it by MHDD, Victoria or the HDDSCAN (which you have in hand) by performing the ERASE command from LBA 0 to the end. I doubt, any other type of Format, Full format or Secure delete program will do the job. So, it's best to go with the programs I told.

If even after complete wiping the greens are still there, you can proceed to the next step. Try forcing the Samsung guys to consider it for the warranty claim..and if everything fail, you can proceed to the last option left for you-

Grab a copy of MHDD or Victoria for Windows and run the makebad/bader command on some LBA's. By doing this, you will make the CRC errors on the sectors specified and the drive will be PROVEN bad, so you can then claim easily for the RMA and get the warranty!
DO IT AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!! THE DISK WILL BE SCREWED AFTER DOING THIS!! (But who cares? Afterall, our ultimate goal is to make the drive bad )

_________________
I just hate spammers...It was a Spammer, who ruined my life!

@BlackST:
As I have said, the other Samsung is also 1 Terabyte, and only has 13 green blocks.
I also have 2 Samsungs, 500GB each, and these have zero green blocks (sometimes 1).
So, however you look at it, it is not normal, to have 700 green blocks.

@thatdellguy:
Now I am doing a "Secure Erase". When I finish, I will scan it in DOS with MHDD, but as I said, these bad results I am getting, are not due to Windows load, because if this was the case, then both Samsungs
would be affected. Besides, the only Windows load that I have is the HDDScan running. I have a pretty clean installation.

@HardDiskBug:
Hey, a bug chatting with a gorilla, in a HD forum, thats cool.

This drive, the bad one, is just 1 week old. The result was already bad from day 1. The other one, the good one, is 1 month old.

Sorry, I said "Secure Delete". But it is a "Secure Erase" what I am doing:
http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml

is this enough?
I used the 1st option, "Secure Erase", (not enhanced), and spared the "special diagnostic areas" HPA and DCO.
Oh, it has just finished (3 hours).
Now I am going to scan it in Windows a bit (HDDScan), and then, in DOS with mhdd, as you guys are suggesting.

And the best part of your post is the last one, HEHEHE.
In another forum, a guy is suggesting to shortcircuit the drive, changing the power wires on the molex connector.
Very violent, but my previous idea was to hit the drive hard, and pretend it was damaged in transport.
Your idea is oviously the best one, and without doubt, I will do it if this affair cannot be solved using reason.
Of course I will try diplomacy first

thanks all for your input, specially to HardDiskBug

oh_oh_oh... something has gone wrong with the Secure Erase...

Now when I run HDDScan, all the blocks apear as BAD!! (except a few at the
beginning).
The disk is not yet partitioned nor formatted, but this should not be an issue for HDDScan.

okay, now the Samsung diagnostic fails, it says "Bad Sector".
and it reports size=31MB

It offers me to "Erase the disk".
Suppossedly thats what I have done.

Taken from another post:

1) Secure Erase Unit: the ATA internal drive Secure Erase command.
The highest level of Secure Erase.
Can take 10-60 minutes depending on drive capacity and rpm.
Progran reports estimated time to secure erase is reported.
Program reports whether Secure Erase successfully completes


If Secure Erase command execution is interrupted before completion, drive will be left in locked state.
Run program again after reboot to successfully execute Security Erase and unlock the drive for a new use.
After Fast Erase, HDDErase.exe can be run to Secure Erase drive and leave it unlocked and empty.
Computer BIOS should be set to boot from floppy A: (some BIOS chips prohibit option 1 and 3)
Program creates a log file of important events.
The Windows Disk Management system program can be used to partition and format an erased disk for reuse.
Secure Erase wipes entire drive - otherwise user data could be left on O/S page files and in slack (not in use) space.
Maximum drive capacity for multi-pass overwrites is 2 Terabytes.

_________________
Buy your friends Toshiba\Hitachi and your enemies Seagate.

@thatdellguy:
no, I don't think the disk is locked. I think it is dead.
The secure erase was completed successfully according to the program I used. It took 3 hours.

I have used the Samsung utility to "Erase". Well, I have erased the MBR, I have done Full format, but very quickly because now the size of the drive is almost zero.


oh oh oh ...