Hi,

I replaced my laptop hdd 4-5 months ago with a new one because the older hdd was dying.
The new one is a Samsung HM121HC, 2.5 PATA, 5,400RPM with 120GB.
link to specs

Drive was working ok, very silent compared to my old Hitachi Travelstar 4,200RPM and
all of a sudden, it started to make some very loud clicking noises (repeated, like 2,3 or 4 clicks at once)
the noises were not often but it rapidly become so.

I used some Win tools to check SMART attributes and all was and still is ok.
Not happy with it, I used the HUTIL from Samsung and it presented me with 6 ECC errors.

After this I backed up all my data and went searching about ECC errors meaning.
I then found MHDD and ran it, did a scan with default options and got 3 UNC errors
located @

6310375
6311167
12510159

Now from what I've read here, in the search I did about UNC, better thing to do is replacing it for a new one,
since the drive is still in warranty, I'm I correct?

What could it be the reason for this premature failure?
Is Samsung a reliable brand for reliable hdd's?
Final question, can someone explain w/o being too technical, why the repeated clicking in this case?

Thanks for any input and thanks Dmitri for MHDD, it's a great tool.

HDD fail; thats what they do. Even when they are manuactured they have defective areas on the disk that are reallocated out before shipment. Some fail quicker then others, but it really isn't brand specific (unless there is a special case of a bad batch of drives). Never trust a single HDD with your valuable data. Back it up on at least 2 drives at any given time (That are not in the same location/computer).


In your case as you said, send it in for RMA and stick the new drive into your system when you get it; the chances of two of those drives failing so quickly is very low (but not impossible) As long as you back up your data there is no worries!

Backup data, use MHDD and ERASE the disk. Power off then on, rescan drive.
If the drive has still bads, it needs to be serviced. I can fix it completely, but as it is under warranty, RMA it.

Thank you both for the quick replies. Appreciated!

@Russwinters
Well, it seems mine was one of those with defective areas.
It's my first! Guess there's always a first time to everything
I'm doing backups to an external disk, since the other hdd went down hill.
That's why I'm not so worried now. I'm annoyed because I need to reinstall
again and only 5 months passed since the last one.

@BlackST
I already backed up all data, only Windows installed with few apps.
I will try what you suggest later, can you or any one recommend a good free
cloning tool? I'm not in the mood of reinstalling xp again.
Or is not advised in these cases to use the same image?

Ghost and DriveIMAGE. Not for free but at very reasonable price if you want to buy... Or option B like borrowing...

Time to update:

@BlackST thanks for the cloning suggestions, I went the other way and reinstalled the system.
As for the drive, here's the details:

After following your advice procedure, MHDD showed 0 errors in the scan test,
however it took 6h to do the ERASE.
MHDD displayed a Note saying that the ERASE would run only in PIO mode and if I wanted to go quicker, I should set DMA mode in BIOS.
Problem is, my BIOS hasn't any settings for drives, when I'm in Windows, checking Device Manager, it shows UDMA as being used as seen in the screenshot below, so I had no way to tell MHDD to run it in DMA.
My laptop is 6 years old and I flashed the BIOS to the latest available version, which is still old, and no options for drives either.
After realizing that I couldn't do nothing about it (within my knowledge) I've ran it trough the night.

Drive now is working ok and my question now is, can I trust it?
Of course that all data is currently backed up but even so, is it a normal drive again or is it prone to problems?

Thanks.

This Samsung drive is quite reliable. If you make backup of your data, you can live with it. If you were near, I could have fixed it in a more reliable way (factory new-like), but however, if you treat it right, could be sufficient.

BlackST, I'm near...I'm only 1000+ kilometers near
but anyway, thanks for the willing in fixing the drive factory new.

I'll keep my eyes on it and see how it goes.
Thanks.

Hi guys,

just wanted to give an update of drive health, since you've helped me to "fix it".

Drive has been working fine all this time and very silent too.
Thanks one more time.

To clone use Clonezilla it's free.

_________________
data recovery Poland

@laptokowiec...

the thread was more than 1 year ago. The OP just posted again to confirm everything was fine year later and thank for the solution I suggested about 1 year and 2 months ago...