Samsung "SpinPoint F3" freezes my PC

[eXtremer]

Hi all.
About a year ago I bought a new "Samsung "SpinPoint F3 #HD502HJ" 500GB (7200rpm 16MB SATA2) to use as a second HDD for storing files, since then I had only troubles with it, most of the time it is working fine, but sometimes it just freezes my PC, the system became very slow.
Yesterday I've noticed that the HDD (partition D became blank, after a minute or so it appeared again, very very strange, when I want to copy something on the HDD sometimes it is very slow.
I didn't change it for a new HDD because after I bought it I went abroad, after I came back it was already too late.
I really don't think the HDD is damaged or faulty, there must be something else in the middle...
Later today I will test it with Samsung ES Tool (The Drive Diagnostic Utility), but I'm almost sure there will be no errors, till then I will be more than thankful to hear some suggestions or hints what the issue might be, should I change the SATA cable or maybe something else ?

Thank you in advance.

OS: Windows 7
Drivers: Updated
Motherboard ID: 09/19/2007-NF-MCP61-PA101C-00
Motherboard Name: Palit PA101

 

[BadBigBen]

Yes, changing SATA cable would be a start, so would using another SATA port...

if you are lucky, and you have a mainboard that has two different SATA controller, try it on the other controller...

if the drive fails the drive test, then switch cable, retest... fails again, try another port/controller... fails again, get a new drive...

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[goombawaho]

If the middle tests out, blame the end. Middle being controller and cable. End being the drive.

 

[rclarke250]

I don't know what chipset you have or firmware version of the drive but there is a known issue with certain mb chipsets, go here for the new firmware, and check if your system needs the update.

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/faqView.do?b2b_bbs_msg_id=308

 

[goombawaho]

Firmware updates for hard drives is something that is often overlooked and also not easily applied. I recall many server grade hard drive firmware updates from IBM that said "fixes a problem which may reduce drive life span...."

You have to stand up and pay attention when it comes to that. With most desktop drives however, most people never dream of searching out any updates.

 

[kjv1611]

Samsung "SpinPoint F3" freezes my PC

Does it have a cold? Maybe it's catching?

I'd be interested in this one, have a few F3s myself. I might (next week or later) take a shot at looking up my firmware info.

I've not had these issues, but I did notice with the F3 500GB drives, specifically, when plugged into a Dock, if the system wasn't rebooted, it wouldn't' be recognized. Main reason is they are not hot-swappable. I wonder if any power settings on your PC could therefore be affecting it.

 

[rclarke250]

IBM updates are breeze now, I have all updates for all servers in the last 6-7 years, for every card,hard drive,system board(bios & UeFI), and other chips like network chips and such on a 4 GB bootable linux thumb drive. Only works on the 64 bit systems, but that is almost all I see in the field now. Still run into the occasional p3 or p4 based simple server running as a store controller that needs to be updated with floppy or cd, but it's rare.

A

 

[hddlabvn]

You can try with Getdataback, R-studio...software to recovery your data.

 

[eXtremer]

So, think the issue is solved...

I've used the Samsung utility, but before I did that I've changed the old SATA cable for a new one and from the start I saw some good results, when the PC boots the HDD drives are being detected much faster, till yesterday it took about 2-3 seconds before it detected the drives and boot into Windows.
So I booted the from the CD-ROM with the Samsung utility, run the diagnostic thing, passed about 7-8 different tests, all of them where GOOD, it asked me for a more advanced scan but I refused it, didn't want to wait a long time, as I saw that the HDD all right, after that in Windows I made some copy/paste from one HDD to another and no slowness was detected so till now I'm satisfied, I will play with the PC today just to make sure that everything fine, till my sister comes back from holiday.
So, I've changed only the SATA cable, didn't change the SATA port because I have only 2 for both HDD's I have.

Thank you everyone for your replies, if I'll have any other issues with this HDD I'll get back to this thread.
Cheers!

 

[goombawaho]

rclarke250 - I know updates of all kinds are easy on the corporate side of things. You get one of those "update everything" bootable CDs for your server model. I was speaking more toward the consumer side of things as being difficult (for average Joe).

I always got the feeling that drive manufacturers don't really want you messing with firmware for desktop drives unless there is an UTTER FAILURE POTENTIAL.

 

[rclarke250]

I know what you mean, about the private sector, almost like the manufacturers think that firmware updates are a stigma that the product is perceived as being bad.

 

[goombawaho]

Yeah, that and/or they don't want people trying and then screwing up the drive and having customers angry due to "no refund - you screwed it up yourself".

The firmware updates are almost always buried somewhere on the web site, not to be found easily.