Bad sectors on Samsung HM500JI, NEW: 2 weeks only!

[jack0M]

Hi everyone,

not sure I'm posting in the right section, sorry...
I recently bought a Samsung R580 laptop equipped with a HM500JI HDD.
The original OS was Windows 7 32bit, besides I created 2 new partitions (first an ext3 for /boot and then an encrypted one for /) to install Kubuntu Lucid 64bit.
About one and a half months later, I started getting plenty of I/O errors in the Linux partitions and fsck found hundreds of MB with corrupted data (bad sectors), so I had to RMA the laptop.

Now, the laptop was returned with a (hopefully) brand new hard disk of the same model, then I upgraded Windows 7 to 64bit version and reinstalled Kubuntu with the same partition schema (this time it was Maverick Beta 64bit). I also installed a smaller Kubuntu 32bit partition inside the same encrypted LUKS container used for the 64bit version, just to compare performance vs reliability in both cases.

Unfortunately, after 2 (TWO) weeks only, the same problem occurred on the new disk!
A fsck.ext3 scan found out several bad sectors in the 64bit Linux partition, the superblock itself turned out to be corrupted, so that the whole file system got severely damaged. Here follows an extract from the kern.log output:

Code:

Sep 25 14:45:26 T0P kernel: [ 2377.812312] ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x6 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
Sep 25 14:45:26 T0P kernel: [ 2377.812318] ata1.00: irq_stat 0x40000008
Sep 25 14:45:26 T0P kernel: [ 2377.812323] ata1.00: failed command: READ FPDMA QUEUED
Sep 25 14:45:26 T0P kernel: [ 2377.812333] ata1.00: cmd 60/08:08:c8:f3:6b/00:00:2e:00:00/40 tag 1 ncq 4096 in
Sep 25 14:45:26 T0P kernel: [ 2377.812335]          res 41/40:00:c8:f3:6b/00:00:2e:00:00/40 Emask 0x409 (media error) <F>
Sep 25 14:45:26 T0P kernel: [ 2377.812340] ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
Sep 25 14:45:26 T0P kernel: [ 2377.812343] ata1.00: error: { UNC }
Sep 25 14:45:26 T0P kernel: [ 2377.832259] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133
Sep 25 14:45:26 T0P kernel: [ 2377.832276] ata1: EH complete
Sep 25 14:45:28 T0P kernel: [ 2379.863934] ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x3 SErr 0x0 action 0x0
Sep 25 14:45:28 T0P kernel: [ 2379.863940] ata1.00: irq_stat 0x40000008
Sep 25 14:45:28 T0P kernel: [ 2379.863945] ata1.00: failed command: READ FPDMA QUEUED
Sep 25 14:45:28 T0P kernel: [ 2379.863955] ata1.00: cmd 60/08:08:c8:f3:6b/00:00:2e:00:00/40 tag 1 ncq 4096 in
Sep 25 14:45:28 T0P kernel: [ 2379.863957]          res 41/40:00:c8:f3:6b/00:00:2e:00:00/40 Emask 0x409 (media error) <F>
Sep 25 14:45:28 T0P kernel: [ 2379.863962] ata1.00: status: { DRDY ERR }
Sep 25 14:45:28 T0P kernel: [ 2379.863965] ata1.00: error: { UNC }
Sep 25 14:45:28 T0P kernel: [ 2379.883865] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133
Sep 25 14:45:28 T0P kernel: [ 2379.883888] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Unhandled sense code
Sep 25 14:45:28 T0P kernel: [ 2379.883892] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK driverbyte=DRIVER_SENSE
Sep 25 14:45:28 T0P kernel: [ 2379.883898] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Sense Key : Medium Error [current] [descriptor]
Sep 25 14:45:28 T0P kernel: [ 2379.883904] Descriptor sense data with sense descriptors (in hex):
Sep 25 14:45:28 T0P kernel: [ 2379.883908]         72 03 11 04 00 00 00 0c 00 0a 80 00 00 00 00 00
Sep 25 14:45:28 T0P kernel: [ 2379.883920]         2e 6b f3 c8
Sep 25 14:45:28 T0P kernel: [ 2379.883926] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Add. Sense: Unrecovered read error - auto reallocate failed
Sep 25 14:45:28 T0P kernel: [ 2379.883933] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 2e 6b f3 c8 00 00 08 00
Sep 25 14:45:28 T0P kernel: [ 2379.883944] end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 778826696
Sep 25 14:45:28 T0P kernel: [ 2379.883979] ata1: EH complete


And this is the output of smartctl, after both long and short tests were performed:

Code:

~$ sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda
smartctl 5.40 2010-03-16 r3077 [x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-10 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model:     SAMSUNG HM500JI
Serial Number:    *************
Firmware Version: 2AC101C4
User Capacity:    500,107,862,016 bytes
Device is:        Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is:   8
ATA Standard is:  ATA-8-ACS revision 6
Local Time is:    Mon Sep 27 17:29:45 2010 CEST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x02) Offline data collection activity
                                        was completed without error.
                                        Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status:      ( 118) The previous self-test completed having
                                        the read element of the test failed.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection:                 (8640) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:                    (0x5b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
                                        Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
                                        Suspend Offline collection upon new
                                        command.
                                        Offline surface scan supported.
                                        Self-test supported.
                                        No Conveyance Self-test supported.
                                        Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
                                        power-saving mode.
                                        Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01) Error logging supported.
                                        General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:        ( 144) minutes.
SCT capabilities:              (0x003f) SCT Status supported.
                                        SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
                                        SCT Feature Control supported.
                                        SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x002f   100   100   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       702
  2 Throughput_Performance  0x0026   252   252   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0023   091   091   025    Pre-fail  Always       -       2950
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       288
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   252   252   010    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x002e   252   252   051    Old_age   Always       -       0
  8 Seek_Time_Performance   0x0024   252   252   015    Old_age   Offline      -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       118
10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0032   252   252   051    Old_age   Always       -       0
11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   252   252   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       44
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate      0x0022   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       29
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0022   252   252   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0002   063   052   000    Old_age   Always       -       37 (Lifetime Min/Max 21/48)
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered  0x003a   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   252   252   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   099   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       47
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   099   099   000    Old_age   Offline      -       31
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0036   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x002a   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       4
223 Load_Retry_Count        0x0032   252   252   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
225 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       1849

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Extended offline    Completed: read failure       60%       111         539423140
# 2  Extended offline    Aborted by host               90%       103         -
# 3  Short offline       Completed: read failure       90%       103         539423119

Note: selective self-test log revision number (0) not 1 implies that no selective self-test has ever been run
SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 0
Note: revision number not 1 implies that no selective self-test has ever been run
SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Completed_read_failure [60% left] (0-65535)
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.


Now, as I don't consider acceptable that a HDD starts to break down in just a couple of weeks, the first obvious question is: does the test result indicate the drive is going to die shortly, or can the partial failure be neglected?
I am about to call the Samsung Support to ask again for RMA, assuming the damage is caused by some hw defect in the disk itself rather than in the controller. Anyway, as I am quite a newbie, I wish to ask the experts if there might be any other reason for those failures, to prevent it happen again on the next disk... I'm pretty sure I can exclude shocks, as I use to handle my laptop with kid gloves The AC adapter doesn't show any evidence of electrical damage, either.

I actually noticed the HDD was damaged in both cases within the Linux 64bit partition only, though I should take into account that was the partition I've been using for most of the time. So, for example, do you have knowledge of any bugs in the Linux 64bit (current kernel version is 2.6.35) sata drivers that could eventually ruin a disk? (maybe related to encryption?)
Any advice would be highly appreciated!

[ppumkin]

Its these damned Samsung HDD's

We had 5 drives in stock- 1TB 3.5 and one cleint bought it. we had to repalce it 4 times because smart error came up after 2 weeks.. The last one sold with no problem too.
But even that- i had the portable S2 500GB personally i had to replace it 3 times within 2 weeks!
And at the IT center Samsung drives are binned daily.

So - yes it is the HDD itself failing. There seems to be an issue with the new Samsung Drives.. RMA it and demand a Hitachi !

Good Luck

[BlackST]

Well, it's fixable in any case. Have bought many of these "failing" but new drives, fixed and are still at work. T166, Mx, Trinity etc. - at least I didn't see HEAD problems and the internal logs after recertification were "normal" . Maybe shipment ?

[guru]

Do you handle your laptop with care? Seems bad luck otherwise

[ppumkin]

Its these samsung drives.. they just stop detecting randomly and without notice.. I know how how to handle HDD's and i had those fail on me.. and i only used them every other day...

[jack0M]

Its these samsung drives.. they just stop detecting randomly and without notice.. I know how how to handle HDD's and i had those fail on me.. and i only used them every other day...

Well, that's the kind of confirmation I was expecting: I will RMA the laptop and hope the next HDD will be a decent one...
Thank you for sharing your experience!

@BlackST: I'm not questioning it's fixable, but after all the laptop is still covered by warranty