Hard Drive Errors - Samsung SP2504C

[aeroguy]

I have a Samsung Spinpoint SP2504C (250 GB) drive that's about 1.5 years old. Symptoms are below. It's under warranty, but is there anything else I should do before sending it back? I've pretty much given up on getting the data back. Data wasn't critical, but it sucks none the less.

Hard Drive spins up fine and the BIOS detects it, but I get an error when cycling through the BIOS -- 3rd Master: SAMSUNG SP2504C VT100-33 Ultra DMA Mode-6, S.M.A.R.T. capable and Status BAD. Then I get a break -- 3rd Master Hard Disk: S.M.A.R.T. Status BAD, Backup and Replace. Press F1 to resume.

Computer will not boot at all with SP2504C installed (even though it is not the boot drive). Computer hung during the windows splash screen for an hour or more before I reset. Tried in a different computer with no luck. Will not boot in safe mode either. Once removed computers boot fine.

Ran Samsung Hard Drive Diagnostic Utility (HUTIL). Got many errors.
Check S.M.A.R.T.
Error : S.M.A.R.T. Theshold Exceeded
Simple Surface Scan
Error : Ecc error
Write Verify
Error : Undefined error
Ramdom Surface Scan
Error : LBA 736671
Error : Ecc error

Tried to do a low level format from HUTIL --
Low level format : Testing...
Error : LBA 13500 (over and over again for 15 minutes), stuck at [Progress : 0.003%]

 

[cprince]

yeah, the hard drive is pretty dead. I don't think that there's any thing else you can do except returning it.

 

[dealmaster00]

yup, send that puppy back. make sure you don't have any sensitive data on there, though.

 

[orbiter]

I had similar problems to yours not so long ago with at least 5.. 'Yes five' Samsung SP2014N hard drives. I ordered my first two drives and within a week they had failed. I sent them back and two more were returned to me (different serial no's I checked ) I was getting SMART status 'BAD' warnings just like before and wasn't able to format the drives properly using the HUTILS tool. I was starting to worry that this maybe another problem with my system as all the Samsung drives I tried were failing. I decided to try a couple more but with nothing but trouble!! All the drives were returned and I opted to pay a little extra for a couple of 320GB Seagate drives instead which have never triggered any issues and are working perfectly. Its probably narrow minded but I don't think I'd buy any Samsung equipment in the near future after the experience.