Potential Samsung F4 issues.


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The next disk to add to my array is a Samsung HD204UI, so I read this thread a few times.

 

I've got my bootable USB drive with the Samsung software on it. I'm tempted to try to flash using an eSATA dock and my laptop, but it might be easier on my workstation. Should be able to try this weekend.

 

I just flashed my drive a few days ago. Make sure you only have the F4 drive plugged in when you boot the flashing drive. Once you run the EXE file it'll do everyhting automatically. I had to power cycle the PC a few times for it to recognize the drive again. It freaked me out at first.

 

grr. argh.

 

I think I fuxored my C: drive trying to confirm the bootable usb stick was properly setup.

 

First, I shutdown and disconnected all the drives except for the Samsung. Rebooted, changed boot sequence to "Removable Disk", then F10 and there was simply nothing on the screen. I assumed the bootable thing I installed was done incorrectly. I followed steps found here somewhere. I rebooted back to Windows and inserted the USB stick. Everything but the mouse stopped responding. Oh shit.

 

Rebooted again and got an ntldr.exe error. Oops. I didn't like that Samsung 2tb as an OS drive anyway. Back to my 36gb Raptor...

 

Now, is the DATA on the drive hosed, or is just Windows? I guess I'll find out in about 75 minutes after Windows is done installing.

 

Lesson learned.

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Just flashed the JP1 FW with no issue. Is it the general consensus that the FW really fixes the issue? Is it still recommended to disable write caching, or is it fine to leave it. How much of a performance hit do you see with write caching disabled? FYI, I am going to be deploying this as parity, e entually. Sorry for the multiple questions, just a little unclear on the status of things.

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Just flashed the JP1 FW with no issue. Is it the general consensus that the FW really fixes the issue? Is it still recommended to disable write caching, or is it fine to leave it. How much of a performance hit do you see with write caching disabled? FYI, I am going to be deploying this as parity, e entually. Sorry for the multiple questions, just a little unclear on the status of things.

 

I tried to reproduce the errors by copying a large file with Teracopy and doing multiple SMART queries to the drive, but the CRC check passed. I did this before and after the flash, both times I saw no difference. I didn't notice any slowdown with caching disabled, but this was on XP so who knows if it actually disabled caching. Also, I looked in the BIOS and AHCI is disabled for drives for some reason.

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I just flashed my drive a few days ago. Make sure you only have the F4 drive plugged in when you boot the flashing drive. Once you run the EXE file it'll do everyhting automatically. I had to power cycle the PC a few times for it to recognize the drive again. It freaked me out at first.

 

Would you be so kind as to list the steps (as best you recall them) you went through to update the firmware?

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I just flashed my drive a few days ago. Make sure you only have the F4 drive plugged in when you boot the flashing drive. Once you run the EXE file it'll do everyhting automatically. I had to power cycle the PC a few times for it to recognize the drive again. It freaked me out at first.

 

Would you be so kind as to list the steps (as best you recall them) you went through to update the firmware?

 

Sure. Do you need help creating the bootable disk too?

 

1) Power down PC.

2) Open the case and unplug all but the F4 drives.

3) Insert bootable media and start PC.

4) Since it''ll boot up in DOS, use the DIR command to get the file name.

5) Type that exact file name (including any special characters and the .exe)

6) Let it do its thing.

7) Remove bootable media and reboot. (I had to reboot twice for the drive to be recognized.

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Would you be so kind as to list the steps (as best you recall them) you went through to update the firmware?

 

Sure. Do you need help creating the bootable disk too?

 

1) Power down PC.

2) Open the case and unplug all but the F4 drives.

3) Insert bootable media and start PC.

4) Since it''ll boot up in DOS, use the DIR command to get the file name.

5) Type that exact file name (including any special characters and the .exe)

6) Let it do its thing.

7) Remove bootable media and reboot. (I had to reboot twice for the drive to be recognized.

 

If you could post those steps too, yes please. I think the one I tried is correct, but I'll try again.

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If you could post those steps too, yes please. I think the one I tried is correct, but I'll try again.

 

First, download this program.

http://www.hiren.info/download/freeware-tools/USBFormat.zip

 

Then, you'll need the DOS startup files from here. I think all of them will work. Just move the Samsung flashing utility onto the disk in the root folder.

http://www.allbootdisks.com/disk_contents/download/dos.html

 

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If you could post those steps too, yes please. I think the one I tried is correct, but I'll try again.

 

First, download this program.

http://www.hiren.info/download/freeware-tools/USBFormat.zip

 

Then, you'll need the DOS startup files from here. I think all of them will work.

http://www.allbootdisks.com/disk_contents/download/dos.html

 

When you run the USBformat program, select FAT (or FAT32 if FAT isn't there) and check Create DOS disk. Browse to the folder that has the DOS files you just downloaded. After it's done, move the Samsung file to the root folder.

 

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Alright. FAT32 was not compatible, so I went with FAT and DOS 5.0. I'll try later today.

 

I just realized the steps to add the Samsung software were not listed. Are those just loaded into the root of the USB stick?

 

Yes. Look at the last sentence in the post I wrote just above yours ;)

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I have two Samsung F4's running in my array, one is a parity drive and the other is a data disk. I flashed both drives with the new firmware from Samsung's site, and had them pre cleared using the -A option. I also have unraid set for the 4k mbr. I have no complaint with the drives and no data errors. I have streamed hd movies to my HTPC with no problems. So far the drives have been solid for me. Thats my 2 cents.

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I tried again following the steps above and was not able to boot from the USB drive. Eff it.

 

I took the disk down to my favorite local repair guy. He's gonna take care of it for me. I promised him another disk if he can get this updated.

 

He already has my laptop for an intermittent (repair tech's FAVORITE type of issue) loss of right speaker.

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I tried again following the steps above and was not able to boot from the USB drive. Eff it.

 

I took the disk down to my favorite local repair guy. He's gonna take care of it for me. I promised him another disk if he can get this updated.

 

He already has my laptop for an intermittent (repair tech's FAVORITE type of issue) loss of right speaker.

 

I forgot to mention that you'll need to go into the BIOS and find some way to set the USB drive as the 1st boot device. On my Gigabyte, it's listed under the hard drives and not removable media. Sorry for not explaining this earlier.  :-[ (That's supposed to be the embarrassed smiley)

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I forgot to mention that you'll need to go into the BIOS and find some way to set the USB drive as the 1st boot device. On my Gigabyte, it's listed under the hard drives and not removable media. Sorry for not explaining this earlier.  :-[ (That's supposed to be the embarrassed smiley)

 

That step I managed to figure out on my own. But there was nothing. Just the ntldr is missing error.

 

I sincerely appreciate your help, though. I've got two of these disks and want to use them.

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Here's a message where I list how to create a USB-based FreeDos boot disk: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=7451.msg104045#msg104045

 

To create the FreeDOS USB boot device I downloaded this bootstick file then followed these directions which are very similar to unRAID USB Flash prep.

 

Make sure you're working as administator and assume X: is the usb sticks drive letter

  • Format your USB flash drive using FAT32
  • From a Administrator Dos Prompt invoke syslinux\syslinux.exe -fma X:
  • copy the files underneath "usb-root\" to the root of "X:"

 

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That step I managed to figure out on my own. But there was nothing. Just the ntldr is missing error.

 

I sincerely appreciate your help, though. I've got two of these disks and want to use them.

 

Which DOS startup files did you download?

 

I chose the DOS 5.0 files from http://www.allbootdisks.com/disk_contents/download/dos.html.

 

Hmm, that should have worked. Does your PC boot from other USB drives and just not this one?

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That step I managed to figure out on my own. But there was nothing. Just the ntldr is missing error.

 

I sincerely appreciate your help, though. I've got two of these disks and want to use them.

 

Which DOS startup files did you download?

 

I chose the DOS 5.0 files from http://www.allbootdisks.com/disk_contents/download/dos.html.

 

Hmm, that should have worked. Does your PC boot from other USB drives and just not this one?

 

Possibly. I have a Ubuntu install on USB around here. Let me try that.

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Have y'all considered using memdisk to boot a DOS floppy image directly from your unRAID USB key?

 

http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/MEMDISK

 

You should be able to find a suitable DOS image from http://www.bootdisk.com/

Adding "memdisk" to your USB drive, along with an appropriate ISO image, would then let you append a few lines like these to the bottom of your

/boor/syslinux.cfg

file.

 

label Seatools for DOS

  kernel memdisk

  append iso initrd=seatool.iso

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