Potential Samsung F4 issues.


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Ouch, you're right  :(

 

My drives are working fine and found one guy who did the same as i did and emailed Samsung about it. They said it was ok but i've emailed them as well to make sure.

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.

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Their support is not to helpful either  :-\

 

Sent them the following question:

"By mistake i have installed firmware for HD204UI/JP (http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/faqView.do?b2b_bbs_msg_id=387) on my HD204UI.

 

Will this cause any problem for my drives (i have 4 and all were updated) as i now have the wrong firmware?"

 

Got the following response:

"Dear Customer,

 

The site that you have download is only a patch tool to resolve data loss. It will not affect your unit and the firmware.

 

Thank you for choosing Samsung."

 

 

Then they have a link for adding more information/questions to the ticket and this link doesn't work.

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The site that you have download is only a patch tool to resolve data loss. It will not affect your unit and the firmware.

 

So they now claim that their patch won't change your firmware?  LOL, wait to fail, Samsung.  Easy to poke more fun at them in that response, but it is hard to tell what might be due to the language barrier instead of general ineptitude.

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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."

 

 

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1 sector pending reallocation is no big deal at all.  Modern drives tend to have thousands of spare sectors.  No need to worry unless you see that number increasing rapidly on subsequent tests.

 

I had done a SMART test a few weeks ago and it was fine, so it had to have happened recently. It is 1 pending sector, not 1 sector pending reallocation (or are these the same thing?). There are no reallocated sectors though, which is weird because I'd figure it wouldn't take long to reallocate the pending sector, but it's been like this since I checked hours ago.

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I'm pretty sure those are the same thing.  The sector won't be reallocated until it is written to again.  The drive will wait until a write asks for that sector specifically, then reroute the write to the spare sector.  At least that's how I understand it to work.

 

I've been working with a few 2 TB WD EARS drives for a client build, using them to test each and every drive bay in a server.  So each drive gets precleared at least 5-8 times.  I noticed on one drive that had already passed 3 or 4 preclears without issue that all of a sudden it had 2 pending sectors.  Again, nothing to worry about, just an illustration that a drive can be perfect for a while and then develop minor issues over time.

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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."

 

 

 

so this is the final stand?

install the latest firmware, no matter what it says (JP1 or not) and you are fine?

my F4 is filled at 99% and i havent had any problems till now (1 year now)

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I'm pretty sure those are the same thing.  The sector won't be reallocated until it is written to again.  The drive will wait until a write asks for that sector specifically, then reroute the write to the spare sector.  At least that's how I understand it to work.

 

I've been working with a few 2 TB WD EARS drives for a client build, using them to test each and every drive bay in a server.  So each drive gets precleared at least 5-8 times.  I noticed on one drive that had already passed 3 or 4 preclears without issue that all of a sudden it had 2 pending sectors.  Again, nothing to worry about, just an illustration that a drive can be perfect for a while and then develop minor issues over time.

 

Well that's good to know. Reading up on it I saw that I needed to do a full disk write, or I could just wait till there's a write to the affected sector which is what I'll do since I'm almost out of space on all my drives. That's why I've been looking into a NAS recently.

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hi there.. complete noob here.. was looking to build my first unraid server..

 

i was streaming media with my htpc before...

i have 2 samsung f4's (2tb) and 1 wd eads 1.5 drive...was looking to add more later but right now this thread has scared me... should i even consider using the samsungs??

 

i was hoping to use one as a parity too... or should i just flash the firmware and it'll be good?

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hi there.. complete noob here.. was looking to build my first unraid server..

 

i was streaming media with my htpc before...

i have 2 samsung f4's (2tb) and 1 wd eads 1.5 drive...was looking to add more later but right now this thread has scared me... should i even consider using the samsungs??

 

i was hoping to use one as a parity too... or should i just flash the firmware and it'll be good?

 

I'd say flash it with the JP1 firmware so you can tell if it successfully flashed as the regular FW has the same revision as a non-patched drive (that's just bad juju on Samsung's part). I've had an F4 running great since last summer, although not in unRAID. There are a number of people here running them though.

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The key words in your post are "that I know of". The drive issues can occur regardless of OS. It's as much an issue on Windows or MacOSX or BSD as it is in unRAID. The only difference is in unRAID you're looking for and thus aware of data corruption through parity checks.

 

As Superorb suggests, flash it with the JP1 firmware so you know it's updated and include MD5 or SHA1 checksums with your critical data as well as backing up the really critical data offsite.

 

With that said if I needed new drives today I'd opt for the new Hitachi SpinCool/Green drives followed by the Seagate 5900rpm Green drive then followed by the WD EARs, but that's just my preferences based from experiences.

 

 

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Having three of these drives (2 in-use before finding out about the issue), I've followed it closely, and in response to another thread, I've just finished flashing my unused drive with the latest firmware (supposedly meant for the Japanese model but compatible with the US version).  This update does alter the firmware rev info. 

 

Downloaded flash file from here:  http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/faqView.do?b2b_bbs_msg_id=387

 

Copied it to a bootable USB key.

 

(Booted to USB in an isolated machine w/ only the Samsung drive installed)

 

Ran flash utility.  It reported drive firmware as 1AQ10001 and updated it automatically.

Ran flash utility.  It simply exited this time.

 

HDDScan for Windows v3.1 reports drive firmware as 1AQ10003

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Having three of these drives (2 in-use before finding out about the issue), I've followed it closely, and in response to another thread, I've just finished flashing my unused drive with the latest firmware (supposedly meant for the Japanese model but compatible with the US version).  This update does alter the firmware rev info. 

 

Downloaded flash file from here:  http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/faqView.do?b2b_bbs_msg_id=387

 

Copied it to a bootable USB key.

 

(Booted to USB in an isolated machine w/ only the Samsung drive installed)

 

Ran flash utility.  It reported drive firmware as 1AQ10001 and updated it automatically.

Ran flash utility.  It simply exited this time.

 

HDDScan for Windows v3.1 reports drive firmware as 1AQ10003

 

Are there known problems, when other drives are installed in the same system?

I thought it only checks for the drive name and starts flashing, if they are F4.

 

 

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None that I'm specifically aware of.  But I wasn't going to trust fate....especially to the same people that wrote the software that needs the patch to-begin-with.  And I certainly wasn't about to try it out on my drives that are almost full (and in the array).  This is the first time I've ever had to patch hard drive firmware- not a confidence-inspiring change of events.  A drive is supposed to be install and forget...never to be thought of again until hardware failure sets-in.  Guess I'm old [fashioned]

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Update:  This evening, I pulled the first of my F4's, updated its firmware and reinstalled it into the array.  UnRaid started normally.  I've not yet re-enabled write caching for the drive.  I've transferred a few Gb from the drive w/ nothing unusual to note.

 

Was there pre-existing data on the drive you flashed?

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Yes.  It's 50% filled.  I chose it, figuring if things went haywire, I could always remove it and replace it with my remaining F4 (which is empty) and let the array rebuild.  As a further update, I've since re-enabled write caching for the drive and repeated the transfer, while invoking SmartHistory.  (Have NO idea if that would have caused a problem in the earlier firmware, but I figured it was worth a shot).  The file passed CRC check.  And for what it's worth, I didn't see a negligible improvement as a result of turning write caching on.  Before anyone asks, I was copying directly to the disk- not via share/cache drive, but the file I was copying WAS a few Gb in size, so YMMV.

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Just preclearing 2 brand new EARS (just came back from RMA), now with "-A" parameter. They are a lot quicker than my older EARS with installed jumper and "-a" parameter. Any one can confirm that? Speeds were 94 to 96 MB/s with the older ones, the new ones are 111 to 116 MB/s (same system, clearing two disks at once).

 

 

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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.

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