My Samsung 1TB Spinpoint F1 speed is limited, need help plea

[duonglv]

I have two 1TB samsung HD103UJ, which are printed "not for sale" in the label. They are product of Korea and the date is 12/2007. They seem to work fine, except the fact that Read speed and Write speed is limited to 13MB/s. And if I plug them in my PC, it takes a very long time to recognize those hdds, therefore it takes nearly five minutes just to boot the machine T_T

I will be very appriciate if someone have a solution for my problem. Thanks !!!!

[BlackST]

Where did you get them?

[duonglv]

I get them from a man selling over internet (with lower price than regular), I think they are for testing purpose or for displaying at the exhibition. After purchasing, I scan the HDD and they are in nearly perfect condition with no Bad sectors. I think that the factory change the setting so that the hdd should works at that speed only, maybe a firmware update would reset all this ? If yes, how can I change the firmware? thank you

[BlackST]

You can't do nothing, HDDs are not cell phones and there's no firmware update. You can poke (at your own risk) with MHDD and similar tools - and only if the drive accepts - with some parameters but in these conditions I doubt it will work.
To access the fw (recorded ON THE DISK) you need special HW tools and knowledge. You got the drives "as is" , you're yet lucky they actually start. Yes, maybe they were production samples or exhibition units. Or maybe they are defective drives with something repaired in order to get it work decently... who knows ? I have to see the drives to tell you what limits are set. Maybe a pro near you with the right tools can change the status or analyze it... but only you can tell if all this is worth.
Rgds.

[rameez]

How much did u get it for ?

[mediaman]

i wouldn't put any valuable info on them, maybe only backups of backups.. disks are cheap, information not.

[BlackST]

UPDATE : can you read the configuration data in order to see at what level the drive is fixed ? (I.e. fixet at PIO mode 0 or 1 instead of 4... UDMA not set etc.) and the FIRMWARE REVISION of the drive, plus the exact model and ALL the dtaa on the label ? (maybe a pic.) ?

[duonglv]

@rameez: I bought them for about 140USD each

@mediaman: yes you're right, so I want to find out what is wrong with my Hdds, if they can't be fixed, maybe I will sell them and save money to buy others

@BlackST: I tried HDtach and HDtunes, but none of them can read any information from those hdds, would you please tell me what I should do. I left those hard drives at my friend's place, I will take some detail pictures as soon as a get them back, and please check out for me. Thx !!!!

[BlackST]

Mhdd gives some detail, supported/not etc. Any other?

[duonglv]

Sorry for the long wait, these are my HDD pics

[BlackST]

They are different from the SAMSUNG we have here.

[wiseleo]

I just bought a couple of brand new Samsung 1TB drives for this price ($134 in Acomdata Puredrive enclosure)...

Sorry that you got so ripped off.

[BlackST]

Strange P/V (the characters after the P/N on the upper label. All the samsung I buy here are black with flat top and they clearly state on the label : "This product is not intended for sale in Korea. A/S in Korea must be paid for." so maybe this kind of drives (this shape, material etc.) are for sale in Korea / Asian market.

The "not for sale" probably means they are intended for OEM use only (like embedding on other equipment like STB or enclosures etc. or factory test or whatsoever....

And anyway Samsungs here have a very low failure rate but higher price. Maybe thy make / select drives according to quality for different markets or have 1st/2nd/3rd choice....

[duonglv]

Yes this kind of drives are for sales in Asian market, i think so, because all Samsung HDDs here are in this shape.
I took my HDD to a pro and he said that the cache is closed(?) and can not use buffer (sorry for my English), so it is extremely slow (but it is safer in some way), and he also can do nothing.
Maybe I just have to accept it, and it is some kind of problems that cannot just take advice over the internet (...I know almost nothing about hdd )
Thank you for all your help, especially BlackST, I really appreciate it ^^

[BlackST]

At this point I want them to get fixed, FORCEFULLY : can you identify the FIRMWARE VERSION ?
You can do easily with Dmitry's free MHDD software. It needs a plain DOS starting. Then just connect the drive, start MHDD, issue PORT command and select the port number where the drive is connected (you see brand and model). At this point you should have the drive RDY and DSC. Issue the IDFY command (identify) and write down the few lines that MHDD will show.
Then post. Just to see what kind of FW they have inside.
I should need some more detail, but don't worry, if I can figure out what could actually be the problem I'll PM you and tell how to get these details out.
If you are not comfortable with MHDD, try everything on a non-system machine in order to avoid messing up other drives connected. MHDD is safe but Murphy's Law is on the loose

[duonglv]

this is what I got using HDDscan for win XP

Drive testing
Model : SATA SAMSUNG HD103UJ
Firmware : 1AA01088
Serial : 462111FPA10970
LBA : 1953525168
Start LBA : 0
End LBA : 1953525168
Block size : 256

tell me if you need more information ^^