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?

 

I only hear disks when they spin down. Otherwise, the case fans are the loudest item(s).

 

The spin down sounds like an audiophile's tone sweep from 1500hz to <20hz. Kind of cool...

i only found out about this thread and unfortunatley i already have a number of these drives, 2 of which seem to be in the faulty firmware range judging from the Synology's compatibility notes posted earlier (both my drives have Z9 in there SN)

 

now both these drives are currently setup in a raid setup so if i update the firmware will it affect this?

 

or should i just take them offline, format them and update the firmware before using them.

 

also 14 pages of this thread and i can't find any simple instructions on how to upgrade the firmware?

 

any help would be appreciated, these drives are the cheapest on the market and if all it requires is a simple firmware upgrade to have them work fine then so be it.

 

EDIT: NVM found the answer, thanks!

 

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.

 

Just got hold of a couple of these drives, have updated the firmware and am planning to use them in a new server build for my off site back ups.

 

I think I know the answer but I am right to Preclear with the -A switch aren't I? Am planning on using 5.0b6a which I have been using for a while without problems on my other server.

 

Also would it be correct to use the MBR 4k aligned option?

 

Cheers

 

Neil

 

Cheers

 

Neil

Both are correct, but if you have already set the 4k mbr aligned option in unRAID, there's no need to use the -A flag on preclear.  Preclear will automatically detect the 4k mbr aligned setting and use the -A option for you.  Before you confirm the preclear, it will tell you that it is using sector 64 (make sure it says that before starting it).

Thanks Raj,

 

Haven't added them to an array yet, just stuck them in some spare slots on my server and run preclear, so haven't yet selected the MBR 4K option.  Good to know I'm on the right path though.

 

Neil

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.

 

 

The drive I just received from NewEgg had a new label design on it and a manufacturing date of 5/11.

 

I think they should surely have fixed it now, but I'm still a little hesitant to use it without flashing it with JP1.  I guess I will check its firmware version first.  Maybe Sammy has an even newer firmware not available for download that they are using now.  At some point in time, JP1 may start making you flash backwards, or start causing problems.

Well the good news is that now they are merging with Seagate so I'm sure that we can expect any future firmware releases to be completely flawless.

Well the good news is that now they are merging with Seagate so I'm sure that we can expect any future firmware releases to be completely flawless.

 

Good one

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.

 

 

The drive I just received from NewEgg had a new label design on it and a manufacturing date of 5/11.

 

I think they should surely have fixed it now, but I'm still a little hesitant to use it without flashing it with JP1.  I guess I will check its firmware version first.  Maybe Sammy has an even newer firmware not available for download that they are using now.  At some point in time, JP1 may start making you flash backwards, or start causing problems.

 

Call me an idiot, a daredevil or whatever you want but I've decided NOT to flash my Samsung F4 manufactured in march 2011. I've done all the testing suggested by those SMART utility devs and I couldn't reproduce this bug so I decided to give it a shot. After nearly two months and 1TB of data later I must say that everything is working OK. I'm using my unRAID for storing large Blu-ray rips and streaming them to XBMC and I've been doing great (no glitches, no unreadable files, etc.). Although I would like to test it in a more scientific manner. I have some original files and I want to compare them to the unRAID copies but don't know how to do that in a way that will reveal this particular firmware problem (if it still exists, of course). Any ideas?

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

 

For some reason I am having a problem creating the bootable usb drive.  I downloaded the USBFormat tool and went to allbootdisks to download a dos version...I tried several versions.  When I downloaded the 15 or so files that were under each version, I was able to save all the files directly from allbootdisks except for the .sys files.  When I clicked on these, they opened the file rather than giving me the option to save the downloaded file.  When the file opened, I copied all the contents into notepad++ and saved (using "all file types") as the same name that it was on allbootdisks.  Then I used the USBFormat program selecting the location where I had saved the downloaded files to create the USB dos startup disk.

 

When trying to reboot off of the usb disk, I got an error stating that it wasn't bootable or something like that.  Can anyone give me any pointers on what I am doing wrong?

 

Also, I have a few additional questions.

1. My samsung drive is an F3 not an F4 drive.  Does this current problem only affect F4's?  I thought I would go ahead and try to flash my F3 with the newest F3 firmware regardless.

2. Do I need all 15 files from the allbootdisk location for each version of dos?  Only three files, COMMAND.com, IO.sys and MSDOS.sys, were copied to the USB drive using USBFormat.

 

thanks,

Murray

This problem only affects the F4 drives, not the F3s.  I would recommend against messing with your drive's firmware unless you are actually having a problem with it.

This problem only affects the F4 drives, not the F3s.  I would recommend against messing with your drive's firmware unless you are actually having a problem with it.

I haven't added it yet, so I don't know if I have problems.  It passed 3 preclears.

is there a way to set the starting sector of the first partition to sector 40 ?

best results as expected for the sector number 40.

http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-848978.html?sid=177624aa76453b5f5af2e5ef9f61745f

is there a way to set the starting sector of the first partition to sector 40 ?

best results as expected for the sector number 40.

http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-848978.html?sid=177624aa76453b5f5af2e5ef9f61745f

 

If the answer is not No (which I believe it is), then it would be difficult to change it.  unRAID is expecting a certain signature and I doubt moving the start of the first partition to sector 40 would remain intact.

^^ Did you use the JP1 firmware? You should have, because it's the only way to know if the firmware was successfully flashed.

 

So we should use the JP1 firmware no matter what drive we have? 

 

I used this patch and it applied fine:

 

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/faqView.do?b2b_bbs_msg_id=386

^^ Did you use the JP1 firmware? You should have, because it's the only way to know if the firmware was successfully flashed.

 

So we should use the JP1 firmware no matter what drive we have? 

 

I used this patch and it applied fine:

 

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/faqView.do?b2b_bbs_msg_id=386

 

The deal with the non-JP1 firmware is after the update was applied, the disk still reported the old firmware version. I used the JP1 and saw the change in firmware version on the disk.

Since Seagate has acquired Samsung drives, the link to the HD204UI/JP firmware is no longer valid http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/faqView.do?b2b_bbs_msg_id=387 and redirects to a Seagate homepage.

 

Coud someone be kind enough to PM the HD204UI/JP firmware?

 

Thanks

Alphazo

Yeah , is the firmware still needed for recent drives ?

 

Since these are the cheapest 2tb drives in europe i'm thinking about picking them.

not sure if right version use with care

http://db.tt/GshVUicx

I have 3 of these drives in my array with no issues. I had to RMA one drive due to a high multi zone error count. All in all a fast drive for being a "green" drive.

I have had five of these in my array since March with no issues.  Dec 2010 mfg date.

glad to hear Havoc , and elkay , did you guys update the firmware tho or ? if so do you happen to have or confirm if the one uploaded by naxland uploaded is the right one ?

 

Cheers , looking forward to use this drives as they seem quite good other than the possible problem reported.

No firmware update for me.  I read at the time over at the synology forums that Dec 2010 onward drives already had the firmware fix.

Thanks for the information , think i'll pick the samsung ones then , cheers.

Great,  I have a 2010 F4 drive.... sooo does anyone have a link to the JP1 firmware since seagate now dont have it available for download?

 

not sure if right version use with care

http://db.tt/GshVUicx

 

^^ Is this confirmed the correct version?