Samsung HDD failing?

[zeek543]

Hey everyone,

I've got a Samsumg Spinpoint HD501LJ that appears to be dieing. It had lost some data of mine. I ran HD Tune's disk scanner and it found bad sectors. So, I did Win7's checkdisk and repair, it found errors and "repaired" them.

But, when I download and run Samsung's EStools diagnostic utility, it found no errors at all with the HDD, not even SMART problems.

The drive seems to be working fine after running the Win7 checkdisk. HD Tune nor Win7 checkdisk show any errors on the drive anymore.

Still, HD Tune shows "red" status for the "raw read error rate", with current of 100, worst of 25, threshold of 51, and data of 893 (this varies greatly). Also, "yellow" status for "Reallocated Sector Count", with 94,94,10,59 (constant). Also, the read test shows a sharp drop at near the beginning of the test but looks fine otherwise. After making sure my data is backed up, I copy the drive nearly full and it appears to be working fine.

Should/Can I RMA the drive? Why does HD Tune show that bad SMART status, while Samsung's EStools does not?


Thanks in advance for any help.

[HotDamn!]

It may just keep getting worse. Don't know too much about this but if its not too much trouble to you just try to RMA. Based on the fact that you've lost data I'm sure you would be able to. Let them know that you lost data and your still getting errors with the HDD scans.

[budz]

I would trust the Samsung utility tool but if you're still able to RMA the drive that would be best. Just my 2 cents!

[hech54]

I've got two of those drives in this computer. Never a problem.....so far.

[zeek543]

Thanks for the response!

I actually have 4 of these drives. The one in question gets the most use by far. Its about 2.5 yrs old now. I am going to try to RMA. I've had a Western Digital drive (portable external), Seagate (different computer), and now a Samsung fail in the last year! I don't know who to trust with my data anymore! Any suggestions? Or is just.... BACKUP YOUR DATA!

PS - I lost data on the drive, but the data was backed up. So no worries there.

[HotDamn!]

Thanks for the response!

I actually have 4 of these drives. The one in question gets the most use by far. Its about 2.5 yrs old now. I am going to try to RMA. I've had a Western Digital drive (portable external), Seagate (different computer), and now a Samsung fail in the last year! I don't know who to trust with my data anymore! Any suggestions? Or is just.... BACKUP YOUR DATA!

PS - I lost data on the drive, but the data was backed up. So no worries there.

I've had my Samsung for over 3 years now and no problems. I would go with Western Digital or Samsung with the experience I've had. A good warranty is also a plus

Always backup your data no matter what drive you use! Depending on what your doing with your drive will tell you how long the drive may last. Use and abuse your gonna blow a fuse