Re: Samsung SP1604N - making strange noise but passes diagnostic (hutil) test.

Previously jboriii@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
I have two Samsung SP1604N hard drives. One master with the OS (C) on
it and the other used just for files (D).

I started to hear a whining sound from on of them. When this happened
the computer would freeze for a few seconds. PC started to slow down a
lot also. I presumed the problem was with the C drive.

So, I burned some DVD's and deleted some files so the D drive was
empty. I then did a clean install of the OS on D and formatted C and
made it the slave, drive D. And, all is fine now - no more noise or
freezes.

I decided to run the Samsung diagnostic program - hutil
(http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/hutil.htm) on
drive D,orginally C !

The drive passed all tests.

I presume this happened because the drive was just starting to go bad.
I had intended to send it back to Samsung which obviously I can't do
now.

Anyone got any suggestions? Is there any way I could could put drive D
through it's paces so it will die a quick death?
Or should I just put it in the bin?

Actually it does not need to have gone bad. It might just have had a
defect sector it could not read anymore. This can happen to good drives
as well. For example a power spike or vibration may cause this.

I would just run a long SMART self test (don't know what the
Samsung utility calls them, but it is the longest test and would
run somehwere between 30 Minutes and 2 hours or so) every week for
a month or two. If no more problems are found, the disk should be
fine. If problems are found you need to find out what caused them.
It is not much use throwing away the disk, if the real cause is
your PSU (e.g.).

Arno

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Random Lockup / Freezes for 4 months now... help!
    ... My system has started to ?freeze? ... working and sound stops. ... Hard drives stop responding and network ... The funny thing is that video ...
    (alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt)
  • Re: Random Lockup / Freezes for 4 months now... help!
    ... was going to use this problem as my excuse to build a Duo Core 2 PC, ... My system has started to ?freeze? ... Hard drives stop responding and network ...
    (alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt)
  • Random Lockup / Freezes for 4 months now... help!
    ... My system has started to ?freeze? ... Hard drives stop responding and network ... excuse to build a nice Core 2 Duo PC, but I'd rather not spend the ...
    (alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt)
  • Re: Random Lockup / Freezes for 4 months now... help!
    ... It does indeed sound like a component on your motherboard is failing. ... believe replacing the motherboard would solve the problem. ... My system has started to ?freeze? ... Hard drives stop responding and network ...
    (alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt)
  • Automated System Recovery run causes boot problems
    ... communicating with the HDD or the Operating System cannot be found, ... I was able to use System Restore to go back, but the next freeze disabused ... I've found not having access to my NTFS drives through DOS a problem; ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain)