Samsung 2TB HD204UI HD Firmware

[ronbo613]

I have two of these Samsung EcoGreen F4 HD204UI 2TB hard drives that I bought earlier in the year. I flashed both of them with the F4EG firmware patch to avoid problems, but doing the update and running ESTOOL to check the drive for errors before using is a hassle and takes a lot of time. According to Samsung, all the HD204UI drives manufactured after December 2010 have the firmware patch applied. The firmware version number is the same whether the firmware patch is installed or not, so it's hard to tell. The patch no longer appears on the Samsung HDD website either(or it's well hidden).
Samsung support isn't much help, does anyone know if recent drives are OK without the firmware patch?

 

[stargazr]

Samsung support isn't much help, does anyone know if recent drives are OK without the firmware patch?

Not sure, but I hope so. I just ordered one on sale. According to Newegg reviews the latest drives are already updated. Here's an older thread -

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2181378&highlight=samsung+2tb+hd204ui+firmware

The issue about the firmware version not updating is bullshit, they have to fix that.

 

[ronbo613]

I just got off the phone with Samsung support, they don't have a clue.
You would think after more than six months with this issue, they would have fixed it by now. Newegg alone must have sold thousands of these drives. I got my drives at newegg.com as well, $70 shipped is a good deal for a 2TB hard drive.

 

[stargazr]

I just got off the phone with Samsung support, they don't have a clue.
You would think after more than six months with this issue, they would have fixed it by now. Newegg alone must have sold thousands of these drives. I got my drives at newegg.com as well, $70 shipped is a good deal for a 2TB hard drive.

dammit

 

[bryanl]

I just got off the phone with Samsung support, they don't have a clue.

That's evidence you did indeed speak with Samsung and not another HD manufacturer.

The only way to change the firmware number is by installing the Japanese version, which works for both Japanese and non-Japanese HD204UI drives:

http://www.samsung.com/global/busine...bbs_msg_id=387

 

[86waterpumper]

LOL I feel for you...I dealt with this same exact issue a couple months back. No matter what you do whether you flash or not, the firmware revision number stays the same. How stupid is that? I love samsung drives, they are nice and quiet and fast but whoever is doing their firmware has their head stuck up their tail. The very fact that you have to try to do it in a dos environment is bad enough. Anyway I tried and tried with both the jap. firmware and the english one and never could get it to take on my drive. The flash failed every time, so I never knew whether to take that as a good sign that mine had the newer firmware from the factory or not.
Mine was racking up raw write errors there for awhile till it got to 68 and then stopped. I put the drive in ide mode and turned off write cache which is what causes the issue anyway. So far I have had no other issues, time will tell. We won't have to worry about this issue much longer since samsung is or already has stopped making drives? So no 4tb drives from them I guess.

 

[MarkLuvsCS]

I ran into problems trying to flash my drives. I purchased 1 then 2 more like a week later (damn newegg sales XD). some odd SATA couldn't pass command or something error came up. Couldn't find any resolutions for it because most suggested switching to IDE mode and such but no luck =/.

 

[86waterpumper]

Same exact error I got...in ide mode, ahci mode, trying to flash from various boot discs and usb sticks...The firmware would find the drive, but then give the pass error. I even put the drive on two other systems to eliminate that, switched sata cables etc etc. One time it didn't even give the pass error, just hung without any message at all. I guess we will just have to hope the firmware is up to par eh?

 

[ronbo613]

I've got my system in AHCI mode to accommodate my SSD boot drive, it's a real hassle changing everything and disconnecting all the system drives to flash one drive's firmware.
I'll be using it as a backup drive to store media files anyway, think I'll just hope for the best and keep an eye on it. Maybe I'll use it as an external drive for awhile to make sure everything is working.

That's evidence you did indeed speak with Samsung and not another HD manufacturer.

Wonder when Seagate takes over?

 

[ViviTheMage]

why flash them? my 5 have been rock solid.

 

[bryanl]

Could your computers be too modern for Samsung's flashing software? It wouldn't surprise me if Samsung tested the software for installing the new firmware as thoroughly as they tested the original firmware.

I used fairly old hardware, Dell Optiplex GX270s (Intel 865G chipset) and a homebuilt containing a motherboard based on Nvidia's MCP 410 chipset. I don't remember the IDE/AHCI setting for any of them. I updated the Samsung HDDs with a bootable USB flash drive formatted by HP's USB boot utility and with a floppy disk containing either MS-DOS 6.22 or Windows 98 DOS.

why flash them? my 5 have been rock solid.

As Samsung says, to prevent the possibility of loss of written data when more than one command is in the queue.

 

[86waterpumper]

There is also a issue where there can be a problem if you send smart commands to the drive like requesting the drive's info with a program such as crystal disk info etc while data is being written to it. Flashing would be more for peace of mind than anything else, I mean sure the drive is still warrantied but I doubt anyone wants to lose their data if a flash is all it takes to avoid it. Personally I woudln't have had that much peace of mind anyway since the stupid firmware number doesn't even update. Of course with all this being said, the f4 is running better than my 300 dollar owc sandforce 2281 drive, and it has been properly flashed so there you go :biggrin:

 

[ronbo613]

Could your computers be too modern for Samsung's flashing software?

Yes, it's a little more of a hassle with Windows 7, but I've already done it twice. Disconnecting the eight hard drives in the computer to flash one drive also takes a bit of time.

Of course with all this being said, the f4 is running better than my 300 dollar owc sandforce 2281 drive, and it has been properly flashed so there you go

The two F4 drives(3 and 6 months old) I have have been working just fine, they have been flashed.