Re: [gentoo-user] Re: Hard drive RPMs and data speed.

[Volker Armin Hemmann <volkerarmin@googlemail.com>]

Am Donnerstag 27 Oktober 2011, 15:17:45 schrieb Michael Mol:
> On Thu, Oct 27, 2011 at 2:52 PM, Volker Armin Hemmann
> 
> <volkerarmin@googlemail.com> wrote:
> > Am Donnerstag 27 Oktober 2011, 13:51:47 schrieb Michael Mol:
> >> Just don't buy a SAMSUNG drive. I know, I know, everyone has their pet
> >> "Don't Buy Hard Drives Made By $x" experience.
> >> 
> >> Here's mine.
> >> 
> >> I bought a 1TB SAMSUNG drive for cheap from Newegg at a Black Friday
> >> sale a couple years ago. It failed on me. Around the same time, I
> >> identified some flaws in the firmware which I considered severe[2].
> >> 
> >> I RMA'd the drive, including a full report on the failure and the bugs
> >> I'd found in the firmware. I received the new drive in the mail. Same
> >> exact model. Same exact firmware revision.[1] It failed on me within
> >> three months. I attempted another RMA, the drive's serial number was
> >> rejected by their system, and I never heard back.
> >> 
> >> So, I recommend not buying SAMSUNG drives for a combination of:
> >> 1) Historical evidence of poor firmware design. (reference smartctl's
> >> man page; SAMSUNG is the only manufacturer I know of to get two
> >> user-selectable workarounds in smartctl.)
> >> 2) I received a failed drive, which was RMA'd, the subsequent drive
> >> failed shortly thereafter, and couldn't be RMA'd using normal
> >> channels.
> >> 3) No acknowledgement (or even denial) of the firmware issue.
> >> 
> >> [1] Ok, sure, there's no way they'd be able to whip out a new firmware
> >> revision in time for an RMA. That wouldn't make sense. But they might
> >> have sent me a drive with a different firmware revision. Or a
> >> different model. As it stood, they sent me back a device I'd already
> >> identified as systemically defective.
> >> [2] It claimed to support logging, but any failed test didn't get
> >> appended to the log, but erased and replaced it. I can probably dig up
> >> nearly all the details, but not quickly, since I'm at work. However,
> >> since you're on the cusp of making a purchase, I thought I'd give you
> >> fair warning...
> > 
> > /dev/sda:
> > 
> >  Model=SAMSUNG MMCRE64G5MXP-0VB, FwRev=VBM1901Q, SerialNo=S0FDNEAZ600013
> > 
> > /dev/sdb:
> > 
> >  Model=SAMSUNG HD502IJ, FwRev=1AA01109, SerialNo=S13TJDWQ346413
> > 
> > /dev/sdc:
> > 
> >  Model=SAMSUNG HD753LJ, FwRev=1AA01113, SerialNo=S13UJ1CQB07158
> > 
> > /dev/sdd:
> > 
> >  Model=SAMSUNG HD502HJ, FwRev=1AJ100E5, SerialNo=S20BJDWS913888
> > 
> > /dev/sde:
> > 
> >  Model=SAMSUNG HD103SJ, FwRev=1AJ10001, SerialNo=S246JD1Z910209
> > 
> > /dev/sdf:
> > 
> >  Model=SAMSUNG HD103SJ, FwRev=1AJ100E5, SerialNo=S246JDWSA20722
> > 
> > the 2tb drive is not connected at the moment - but, hey it's a Samsung -
> > ans so quiet, that I sometimes forget to turn it off.
> > 
> > Oh, yeah it was THAT 2tb drive with the smart bug.
> > 
> > Which was solved with an easy to do firmware update.
> 
> I checked at the time. There was no firmware update, and, to my
> knowledge, there never was for the drive model that failed on me.
> Shortly after my second drive failed, Newegg discontinued selling
> model. (The most I remember about the model number can be expressed as
> a regex: HD10.*UI. I don't remember the firmware revision.
> 
> It was the combination of historical problems, personal incidental
> experience and terrible customer service that led me to swear off
> SAMSUNG drives. Take away any one of those issues from my experiences
> at the time, and I'd consider buying another drive from them.
> 
> You've got six working drives of various sizes, models and firmware
> revisions. Good for you. I've got a still-functional 40GB IBM
> DeathStar. (It's not powered up right now, but it never failed on me
> after five years of use.)

and I had 5 death stars failing on me.

... 


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