zaraky

Hey guy, I jumped on newegg.ca deal for the HD204Ui and got 5 of them. I knew there was possibility for DOA/Defective drive to happen. Which is why I am on differrents forum to get the best help possible and see if my drive are working correctly and with out problem. I'm a total noob when ti come to hardware and benchmark, so that's another reason lol.

Now to start. I'm on a 3 year old system which has...
MB:Asus P5W64 ws pro
CPU: DualCore Intel Core 2 Duo E6700, 2666 MHz
Memory: Corsair XMS2 CM2X1024-6400
Power Supply = Antec Truepower Trio 650w TP3-650
Windows HD: WDC WD3200KS-00PFB0
GPU: Geforce GTX 8800

I have only formatted 2 drive so far due to not enough plug on my MB. Both drive (SS1) and (SS2) were formatted with Windows 7 Disk management with the default option.

Benchmark before Firmware Flash.

Drive 1: SS1
HDtune benchmark

HDtune Benchmark with AAM set to 128 and disabled

HDtune File Benchmark

CDM Benchmark

Drive 2: SS2
HDtune Benchmark

Hdtune Benchmark with AAM set to 128 and disabled

HDtune File Benchmark

CDM Benchmark


And the weird thing after Firmware flash, SS1 seem to have gotten a problem.

SS1 Benchmark after firmware update

So now I have no idea what is going on and what I should do...

Tipstaff

By firmware flash, do you mean to the drive, or to the bios of the board? If it's the drive, why did you need to flash the firmware? And if so, which version of firmware? Also, specifically which HD204UI do you have?

If it's to the motherboard, make sure to check that the bios has the controller set to AHCI as sometimes after flashing the bios it can get reset. That could be affecting performance if it's set back to IDE/PATA.

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zaraky

Hi, I flashed the firmware of the HD204UI, which one specifically? Not sure. They are Samsungin F4 Spintpoint HD204UI thats about all I know lol.This one

I'm gonna check for AHCi/IDe... I'm not too goo with bios so hope me luck haha :P

Alright, I tried to put them into ACHI but the computer wouldn't boot at all.

mkk

Leave the drive alone for half an hour and run benchmarks again, to see if there wasn't just something else that was working on the drive, slowing it down during two of the four test runs. You could always run Samsungs diagnostics utility on the drive as well. ESwin | Downloads | SAMSUNG Hard Disk Drive

zaraky

Well, I think I foudn the problem. Diskeeper was running int eh service and was defragmenting my disk anyway... so once I disabled it, ym HD started to skyrocket.

Now, I'm just wondering if it normal or not... CDM say my HD has 2/1863GB which eman it has 2GB used on it total space. Is that normal since there is nothing on the drive at all. Is ther possibility to gain back that sued space?

Here is a screenshot of what I'm talking about. Is this normal?

BlueMak

Have you checked for a hidden partition?
While in 99.9%* of the cases a disk capacity is less than the name it goes as, the fact that it says USED space and has 2GB, is a bit weird for me.





*the only modern drive I know which actually has available the same capacity as the name, is the 3TB external Seagate flexgo or something.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Tipstaff

Not sure what the 2/1863GB represents to be honest.

As for the "size", 1.8TB is correct. For more on this read HERE. "Technically" you do have a 2TB drive, but as you can see by the article it's formatted size is based on binary size, and works out to be 1.8TB.

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zaraky

Hmm, I don't know how to check for "hidden" partition. I know that Disk manager just show the drive as full, both are formatted in NTFS and doesn't seem to have any hidden on both drive... I wonder if it cause they are formatted with NTFS,,

Yep form what I get, the formating with NTFS take a portion of the disk to store it data. Guess evreything is going fine then.

Thank for the information.


While at it, would there be more benchmark/test I could do to be sure the drive are 100% correct and are going to last a while? I'm planning to reformat my computer and I need to make some huge back up right now. So it would be a pain if it failed while doing it. I know I'm such scaredy cat when it come to this but I just suck with hardware :P

Tipstaff

Can't really think of anything at the moment. However, as long as SMART monitoring is turned on in your bios for each drive that should do a decent job of warning you about a drive failure (by default it's Auto, with the other options being Enabled or Disabled). Most software use it anyways to determine the condition of a drive.

If you have the controller set to AHCI or RAID you can also install Intels Rapid Storage Technology driver (latest on Intels site it ver.10). Just can't remember if it will work on your board or not. In any case, the application that goes along with it will monitor the drives for you, and tell you the status. Any errors with the drive, and it'll warn you. Just be sure that once you get it installed go into Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Services, and look for Intel Rapid Storage Technology. Change it from "Automatic (Delayed Start)" to "Automatic" as sometimes the app won't work properly unless you click on it. Setting it to Automatic gets that app up and running right away. If you have drives attached to the Marvell controller the same should apply. They have an app that runs with it too which also monitors the drives, but I can't remember to what extent, or whether it does so regardless of how you have the controller setup (PATA/AHCI/RAID).

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BlueMak

You will need to open Computer Management and then Disk Management under Storage section.
You will see the drive(s) you have and partitions there.

What's the manufacturing date on your F4? From what I have read, drives before November 2010 need the firmware upgrade while later drives don't.
I am not saying that this is 100% accurate, just what I have read.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

zaraky

They are Rev. A 2010.12. I flashed the firmware anyway.

I have set up the drive as AHCI yesterday, was a pain to do so since the driver wouldn't install and had BSOD when booting with AHCI. Everything's fixed to so everything is working.

I was just wondering fi there is intensive workout I can do to check through the drive to be sure it will last. If there' nothing to do... i'll just keep finger crossed and hope they last haha.

@tipstaff, yesterday the driver didn't want to install saying i didn't have the minimum required to do so... somehow after the AHCI fix from microsoft, it seem it working... I'm surprised haha..

Edit: Just wondering as well.. Is it nor mal for the HD to write at 30-40MB/s? Aren't they susposed to be more faster then that? Or it really depend on the type of file/size of the file and number of file? As well as format of the drive and alot of other stuff lol?

I just put all my Desktop folder/file into one folder and began xfering it.. 8k file and 70gb worth of stuff, it's been xfering at ~35-40 and is taking "about 30min". Guess that's the normal and everythin is going fine.

BlueMak

10GB of small files takes far longer to write than 10GB of large files.

Apart from any tool a manufactured releases to test the drive and SMART, there is not much you can do to predict if it is going to be a good drive or not. It's a lottery. The drive might fail on day 1, or a few months later. I wouldn't erase any files that you have elsewhere for at least 3 months.
Having said that, it's best to keep backup files all the time. I do mean on other disks or even on optical discs.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Tipstaff

To add, given that you've got a bunch of drives you could make multiple copies of your data onto more than one drive, and then proceed to format the old one. That, or just keep your data on your current drive, and use one of the new ones for the reinstall. I would suggest this anyways as the Spinpoint drives blow that old WD Cavier SE16 drive out of the water in performance/speed, so Windows (among other things) would run much better on them.

Then once you're confident the new drive is fine you can either transfer the data over and erase the old one, or just leave things as is, and have that old drive as a backup (if you don't need it disconnect it, and put it somewhere safe, or leave it disconnected within the computer).

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OldBuzzard

First, welcome to HH!

Here's a bit of advice for the future.

If it ain't broke, don't try to fix it.


That's especially true with BIOS and Firmware flashes.

BIOS/Firmware updates should only be done if it's absolutely necessary.

I've noticed over the years that the people that have the most problems with computers are the ones that are always 'tinkering', trying to 'make things better', and ending up making it worse.

Since you are a self-proclaimed noob (and we all were at one time), until you get a good handle on what you are doing, try asking here on the forum BEFORE you start poking around in your system.

Those of us that hang out here pretty regularly have already made just about every 'dumb a**' mistake that can be made and our advice can help you avoid most of the ones that we have made

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When looking for a reason as to why things go wrong, never rule out sheer STUPIDITY

BlueMak

The difference is that the F4 had an error in the firmware and Samsung itself asked for customers to update their drives ASAP.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Judas

yeah personally when it comes to hardrive/rom drives.. i typically leave them alone until they start having issues OR the manufacturer insist it be updated... i've had plenty of drives fail DUE to trying to update.. but then again usually when i do that.. it was already on it's way out or causing greif...

As for bios updates.... i ALWAYS keep motherboard bioses at the latest (NOT beta) and only if it's been out for a few months at least.

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zaraky

If I get what you're saying... I should reformat my computer on one of the HD204UI instead of the HD I have windows on right now?

OldBuzzard

I know. But even then, not ALL of the HDDs needed updating.

Seagate had a problem with some early 7200.12 HDDs and there was an update for them as well, but it wasn't for ALL of them. In their case there was an app that you could use to determine if you needed the update or not.

I had one of the drives affected, but mine already had the updated firmware, so I didn't need to run the update.

In any case like that you need to make SURE you need to update before you do so, as it could brick your hardware.

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When looking for a reason as to why things go wrong, never rule out sheer STUPIDITY

Tipstaff

That's one option. It all depends on what you had planned.

If you planned to use your old drive for the reinstall then I would suggest copying the data from the drive (or cloning it even) to more than one of your new drives. The likelihood of more than one drive failing while you do the reinstall is minimal, at worst. At that point you can leave the data on the new drives, or copy it back to the old one.

However, since your new drives are not only newer (your old drive is probably 3-5 years old), but also much faster, so overall Windows would perform much better on the newer drives. Once that's done you just copy the data you want, even all of it from the old drive to the new one, and just shuffle the old drive somewhere safe, or leave it in the machine, but disconnected. This affords you the ability to leave all the data AS IS on your old drive as a backup. IF the drives ever fail it won't hit you are hard. 'Course, you could even get yourself an external box, and through the old drive in there making it an external drive, and use it to make periodical backups of data of high value.

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