Potential Samsung F4 issues.


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So, my repair tech wasn't able to flash the firmware either. He said it would begin, but some kind of error would present. So I'm at home trying again.

I took the cd-r he made and was able to boot from it, then type d:, then type dir. I typed f4eg.exe and something happened. See pic 1. But I think he used the North American firmware, because the firmware version did not change. So, I wanted to try again with the Japanese firmware.

 

I do have some new knowledge. Apparently, removable drive is not actually the USB slot. I went into the boot sequence and chose hard disk, this time changing the order of boot to the Kingston disk first, then disabling boot disk 2. Don't mind pics 3 and 4, the 2nd boot device actually is disabled.

 

So all of these steps are probably correct, finally. :D Which leads me to the DOS boot files. I tried v5 and did not succeed, so I'm trying v6.22-5.25.

 

Anything else I might have missed that's apparent from my photos?

 

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SUCCESS!!!  ;D ;D ;D ;D

 

Current date and time: 3/11/2011 7:55:34 PM
Hard Disk Low Level Format Tool 2.36 build 1181; http://hddguru.com
Device details for SAMSUNG HD204UI    1AQ1    [2000.39 Gbytes]

Model: SAMSUNG HD204UI
[b]Firmware Revision: 1AQ10003[/b]
Serial Number: S2H7J1AZAxxxx
Buffer size: 33.55 Mbytes

PHYSICAL PARAMETERS:
LBA mode is supported
LBA-48 mode is supported
Sectors available with LBA commands: 268,435,455
Sectors available with LBA48 commands: 3,907,029,168
Full device capacity: 2,000,398,934,016 bytes

SECURITY:
Security features is supported
The device is currently not locked

FEATURES:
SMART is supported
HPA (Host-protected area) is supported
AAM (Automatic acoustic management) is supported
Streaming feature set is not supported

QUEUING:
Command Queuing is supported by the device
Maximum Queue Depth: 32

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So... What did you do that finally worked? Glad to see you got it flashed.

 

I used an HP USB format tool. Named HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool of all things. :P

 

Formatted using that and DOS v5. Tossed the JP firmware on there, ejected and went back to the PC. Plugged it in, booted and confirmed the boot sequence was correct. It was. The prompt showed up just a couple seconds later. Typed HD240UI~1.EXE and pressed enter. It completed just a couple seconds later.

 

I shut down and brought the drive back to the lappy, connecting it via eSATA, and opening HDDGURU. Version is what you saw there.

 

Not sure why the Hiren boot tool didn't work for me. I read on more than a few pages that not all USB drives are the same, so that's likely what my deal was.

 

Again, much thanks for your patience during this.

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Hi!

 

I have bought several HD204UI. I've read in other forums that the 2011 produced HD204UI (mine are from 2011.02) have the new firm/patch installed by Samsung. Is it true? If it's true I need only to preclear them. Hope someone can confirm this point.

 

Thanks in advance.

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Hi!

 

I have bought several HD204UI. I've read in other forums that the 2011 produced HD204UI (mine are from 2011.02) have the new firm/patch installed by Samsung. Is it true? If it's true I need only to preclear them. Hope someone can confirm this point.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

I installed HDDGURU to determine the firmware version of my Samsung disks. I bet there are other programs that can do the same.

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Hi!

 

I have bought several HD204UI. I've read in other forums that the 2011 produced HD204UI (mine are from 2011.02) have the new firm/patch installed by Samsung. Is it true? If it's true I need only to preclear them. Hope someone can confirm this point.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

I installed HDDGURU to determine the firmware version of my Samsung disks. I bet there are other programs that can do the same.

 

Even still, the patched drives will still show the ...001 firmware since Samsung stupidly left the revision the same. ALL F4 drives should get the JP1 flash to be sure.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hello!

 

I've recently bought Samsung 2TB HD204UI manufactured in 2011 with serial number different than those listed on Synology wiki, so it should be OK. I know that everyone here recommends flashing this drive with Japanese firmware, but I don't believe messing with firmware when it's not necessarily is a good idea. But to be sure I would like to try to reproduce this bug using instructions found on this webpage: http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/smartmontools/wiki/SamsungF4EGBadBlocks. I already have grml 2010.12 Live USB, and don't mind getting my hands dirty with command line, although I have no idea how to check NCQ and disk write cache is enabled on my system - any ideas?

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  • 4 weeks later...

Bought one of these Samsung HD204UI using the Newegg deal manufactured in 2011. On the disc label I found 2011/01 and I interpreted that as the manufacturing date. Nowhere else did I see anything that looked like a manufacturing date nor did unMenu or the Unraid main menu tell me anything about date of manufacturing. This is part of what unMenu reported:

 

SMART status Info for /dev/sdi

smartctl 5.39.1 2010-01-28 r3054 [i486-slackware-linux-gnu] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-10 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model:     SAMSUNG HD204UI
Serial Number:    S2H7J1CB121131
Firmware Version: 1AQ10001
User Capacity:    2,000,398,934,016 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:    Wed May  4 20:56:48 2011 EDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

 

Installed it, unplugged the power from my other 8 drives of which 4 were connected to the mobo & 4 were connected to the Adaptec 1430sa controller. Created a bootable USB key using Hiren's Boot CD and copied the Firm Ware flash to the USB drive. Booted the machine and ran the FW flash. It found the 4 HD203WI drives connected to the Adaptec controller and complained that this patch is not for those drives. It then tried to apply the patch to the HD204UI but came back very quickly with no warning messages or Firm Ware was successfully flashed or any error message. Ran the Firm Ware flash again, same results quick exit from the flash program.

 

I interpreted that as Firm Ware was patched and up to date. I didn't want to go through the hassle and actually test the drive with the condition that causes the silent corruption and thus proceeded with the preclear, hope this will not come back and bite me in the you know what. It took almost 26 hours and this is what preClear reported:

 

================================================================== 1.9
=                unRAID server Pre-Clear disk /dev/sdi
=               cycle 1 of 1, partition start on sector 63
= Disk Pre-Clear-Read completed                                 DONE
= Step 1 of 10 - Copying zeros to first 2048k bytes             DONE
= Step 2 of 10 - Copying zeros to remainder of disk to clear it DONE
= Step 3 of 10 - Disk is now cleared from MBR onward.           DONE
= Step 4 of 10 - Clearing MBR bytes for partition 2,3 & 4       DONE
= Step 5 of 10 - Clearing MBR code area                         DONE
= Step 6 of 10 - Setting MBR signature bytes                    DONE
= Step 7 of 10 - Setting partition 1 to precleared state        DONE
= Step 8 of 10 - Notifying kernel we changed the partitioning   DONE
= Step 9 of 10 - Creating the /dev/disk/by* entries             DONE
= Step 10 of 10 - Verifying if the MBR is cleared.              DONE
= Disk Post-Clear-Read completed                                DONE
Disk Temperature: 28C, Elapsed Time:  25:45:21
========================================================================1.9
==  SAMSUNG HD204UI    S2H7J1CB121131
== Disk /dev/sdi has been successfully precleared
== with a starting sector of 63
============================================================================
** Changed attributes in files: /tmp/smart_start_sdi  /tmp/smart_finish_sdi
               ATTRIBUTE   NEW_VAL OLD_VAL FAILURE_THRESHOLD STATUS      RAW_VALUE
     Raw_Read_Error_Rate =   100     252           51        ok          0
  Hardware_ECC_Recovered =   100     252            0        ok          0
   Multi_Zone_Error_Rate =   100     252            0        ok          0
No SMART attributes are FAILING_NOW

0 sectors were pending re-allocation before the start of the preclear.
0 sectors were pending re-allocation after pre-read in cycle 1 of 1.
0 sectors were pending re-allocation after zero of disk in cycle 1 of 1.
0 sectors are pending re-allocation at the end of the preclear,
   the number of sectors pending re-allocation did not change.
0 sectors had been re-allocated before the start of the preclear.
0 sectors are re-allocated at the end of the preclear,
   the number of sectors re-allocated did not change.
root@Tower:/boot/Scripts#

 

Followed the instructions on page 1 for preClear to add the drive to the array. So far so good and all seems well in the land of UnRaid with a Samsung F4 drive.

 

One final word, a big thanks to Joe & Tom for making working with this product a delight, especially for those who are Linux noobs like me.

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I did not use the JP firmware. Afteer reading through this thread I endorse some of the opinions expressed such as:

It is not for our drives (it is supposedly for the drives sent to Japanese market, hence /JP in the model number). I agree that Samsung is irresponsible regarding that issue (and other issues).

 

I emailed Samsung again and this time got a better response (don't know how much i trust it though after seeing my previous reply):

 

"The firmware patch for HD204UI/JP1 is for Japan made models. However it still fixes the problem on every other model as well. Your drives should be fine you need not to worry."

 

Double ouch...

 

So they released a patch that applies itself to drives other than intended?  Isn't that comforting?  Or is it on purpose? to allow them to skirt release agreements with US vendors?

 

Joe L.

It just doesn't sound correct to issue two different flash programs for different drives distributed in different localities and then Samsung is telling me it doesn't matter. Someone is having their thumbs where should not be. But I guess that this is history since the Samsung HDD division is no more and has been sold. I take my chances with using the drive as is and keep a closer look on it. When 3 TB drives are supported the drive is history anyhow.

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I did not use the JP firmware. It just doesn't sound correct to issue two different flash programs for different drives distributed in different localities and then Samsung is telling me it doesn't matter. Someone is having their thumbs where should not be. But I guess that this will be history since the Samsung HDD division is no more and has been sold. I take my chances with using the drive as is and keep a closer look on it. When 3 TB drives are supported the drive is history anyhow.

 

The drives are the same, the designation is just representing the market the drive is sold under.

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I know this has been hammered a 1000 times at this point but I never really saw a response to the question.

 

At what Manufacturing date do I need to not worry about flashing?? I have 1 i got 3 weeks ago and 2 others coming from newegg.

 

I dont have a problem doing it but I dont want to waste my time if they have already started flashing them at the factory.

 

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I know this has been hammered a 1000 times at this point but I never really saw a response to the question.

 

At what Manufacturing date do I need to not worry about flashing?? I have 1 i got 3 weeks ago and 2 others coming from newegg.

 

I dont have a problem doing it but I dont want to waste my time if they have already started flashing them at the factory.

 

 

You need to flash any and all F4 2TB drives whether they say you have the new FW or not. Since the new FW is the same revision as the old one, there's no way to be sure it's actually got the new FW unless you use the JP1 FW which has a different revision number. I've been using my JP1 F4 drive for several months now.

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These Samsung F4 drives are currently the cheapest in the UK on offer and are actually faster than some of the more expensive ones. How are they for noise and can people confirm that the firmware update DOES INDEED FIX THE ISSUE?

 

It has been confirmed here that the FW update does fix the issue. They are pretty quiet, but if they're in the server you'll probably hear the fans before you hear the disks. I can't hear any of the disks in my server, and I have two Hitachi 2TB and two Samsung 2TB. All green drives.

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