Samsung HD103UJ 1TB repair question

[fedupwithjunk]

I am trying to repair my drive using MHDD and have a few questions.

I have just installed W7 on the drive and the W7 format did not discover any errors but it is now reporting disk errors. Chkdsk gets to stage 4 with no error but then says The disk does not have enough space to replace bad clusters detected in file 58187 of name . ( the disk has 900 GB free?)
I'd like to save the 2 days it has taken to do my W7 install, apps and updates.

Some posts on this forum say MHDD does not work with Samsung drives - is this true?
I have tried to run MHDD and turned remap on - its been running 24 hrs and I thought it was going to finish a few minutes ago but seems to have restarted - did it do a scan and is now remapping?

These are the results shown
x=233
!=173
s=174
a=
0=173
*=173

After the second pass finishes what should I do? ( it is going much quicker 50% after 80 minutes)

[BlackST]

Your drive is failing and no remap neither MHDD can fix it, from what it seems.
You are only making things worse and the drive will be unusable or will have other problems after the.... "treatment".

MHDD works fine with that drive as long as it is recognised correctly by your system / PORT.

Last chance is professional refurbishing (nothing YOU can do) , with much probability about drive needing downgrading i.e. from 1 TB it will become 750GB.
I can help but it's not worth the money to send back and forth a drive that is in the 60-90£ range.

[Vulcan]

@fedupwithjunk: Potentially, this sounds like a sick disk...

What is the history of this disk?

Why are you installing Win7 - did you have prevous problems when using this disk? If so, please explain.

Exactly which type of Win7 format "did not discover any errors"?

Can you please supply a screen photo of the SMART data from this disk (collected using MHDD)?

Can you try this drive in a different PC, just to confirm that the problems are not related to power or interface problems in that PC?

[fedupwithjunk]

Hi
Thanks for the quick replies.
The disk was in my media centre for 3 years and then about a month after its warranty ran out the disk crashed. I was thinking of upgrading anyway so put a 2Tb disk in and thought I'd see what can be done with this one. I suspected a faulty head and the disk was going to be unusable.

I wanted to try Windows 7 but didn't want to be left with out my media centre if the 5 year PC couldn't cope with W7. So tried installing on the old disk and ran through the default install. Thinking about it the format was too quick to be a proper format which is why no errors were found I guess. W7 installed and everything seemed fine until I started giving the disk some work to do - copying over 200 Gb, then it started failing.

I have a attached a photo of the Mhdd Smart screen

Attachments

[Vulcan]

Thanks for the info.

Since the disk had a problem in the media centre, it should be no surprise that you're having a problem with the disk elsewhere. As always, don't try to troubleshoot just the situation now, look at the history too

A quick format on Win7 does minimal testing, so yes, that's why I was asking and so it's also no surprise that no errors were detected at that stage.

Although I would have expected a couple more SMART attributes to be shown after you pressed a key, that screenshot contains SMART attribute 5 which shows 886 reallocated sectors - so the disk is clearly faulty.

See the earlier comment from BlackST about professional refurbishing, or just buy a new disk.

[BlackST]

Problem : disk prices are skyrocketed so a new disk will be expensive.... Anyway THIS disk can be saved. Damn , I am too far :S

[Vulcan]

@BlackST: Just a thought - can you recommend somewhere closer to the UK (where the OP is), where they do similar Samsung professional refurbishment as you would do?

[BlackST]

Probably yes, I have to ask if they can handle a single end-user drive (think yes, but need to be sure).

[Vulcan]

OK, thanks - I guess the OP might be interested in that option, based on your comments about the price of new disks.

[laptokowiec]

If the bads are in the same area, you can create partition/partitions to skip/bypass damaged area.

[BlackST]

If the bads are in the same area, you can create partition/partitions to skip/bypass damaged area.

This is not a solution and works ONLY if the bads are at the beginning or at the end. AND it is difficult to do.

[laptokowiec]

It's not difficult at all and it works if bads are in the middle of it.
You can create 3 partitions:
first - from the beginning to first bad lba minus 1000 sectors (for example),
second - from first bad lba minus 1000 sectors to last bad plus 1000 lba
third - from last bad plus 1000 lba to the end.
Then delete the middle (second) partition and you'll have two working partitions.

[BlackST]

Yes, but this is a COSMETIC solution, like putting wax on a black eye.
If there is degradation at some level (surface, head/s) this will make things worse and drive performance WILL be affected in any case.

What if bads are at the beginning ?

[seed.helper]

try not to use the drive until you do some backup

[laptokowiec]

Yes, but this is a COSMETIC solution, like putting wax on a black eye.
If there is degradation at some level (surface, head/s) this will make things worse and drive performance WILL be affected in any case.

What if bads are at the beginning ?

No one says its brilliant method, but it works.
Playing with damaged drive means higher risk.
If i has problems with identyfying itself I wouldn't recommend it.

[fzabkar]

Problem : disk prices are skyrocketed so a new disk will be expensive.... Anyway THIS disk can be saved. Damn , I am too far :S

Nobody in his right mind should even consider a refurbished drive that has a history of 886 bad sectors.

There is NO ECONOMICAL WAY to make a good drive out of this junker. Period. The best the OP can do is to isolate the bad area to a single partition, if at all possible, and then watch the SMART report on a regular basis.

[BlackST]

886 bad sectors out of about 2'000'000'000 are a problem JUST FOR WHO DON'T HAVE THE SOLUTION. These drives, out of the factory, have thousands and thousands of defects already isolated, but they don't tell you, neither you will know most of the times if you bought a refurbished drive right from the start .
The ECONONOMICAL way is to give the drive to who can fix it the professional way, then the OP doesn't have to watch the SMART at all. PERIOD.

[fzabkar]

There is a BIG difference between GROWN defects and PRIMARY defects. The latter are due to imperfections in the manufacturing process, whereas grown defects are the result of degradation or head slaps.

[BlackST]

You don't know what you are talking about. the majority of what you call GROWN defects that CAN be temporary and can be eliminated (NOT added to other list !) , "head slaps" occur at anytime and so other problems. And Samsung work much differently from the others (luckily).

What is strange is that you always have something against the DR professionals, now that there is a solution that cost few EUR / £ but applicable only by a professional, the solution is to put the dust under the carpet with the "partitioning" or waste £££ on a new drive.

So all the people who have a car accident and the car is perfectly repairable are not on their right mind when they don't throw away the car and have it fixed?