[mythtv-users] A warning about Samsung HDDs

[Todd]

I am sure this is going to sound like I am some type of employee...but oh 
well, I am not...

I have always used Seagate drives and had extremely good luck.  I started 
using them because they were the first IDE drives to run 7200rpm at 
2-3bels...dead silent in comparison to the other drives 5 years ago.  I 
believe they last longer than most because:
1.  I still haven't had a Seagate die on me (I am sure there is a bunch luck 
in there)...and I have, over the years had serious issues with WD, IBM. 
Maxtor, Fujitsu and others.
2.  Seagate has consistently had LONGER warrantee periods.  I think they 
others are now matching Seagate, but even when it was in vogue to leave your 
customers high and dry with 1 year _from_time_of_build_ warrantees, Seagate 
had 3 year from purchase.  I assume they are trusting their drives to live 
that long because the design them to.

...ok, now start the long threads of "I was screwed by Seagate."  :-)

Todd

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dewey Smolka" <dsmolka at gmail.com>
To: <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 30, 2005 4:22 PM
Subject: [mythtv-users] A warning about Samsung HDDs


> Hey all.
>
> I just wanted to post a very unpleasant experience as a warning to
> anyone looking for storage.
>
> I just had a Samsung HDD (my MBE's boot disk/recordings volume) come
> to a literal screeching halt less than 30 days after I purchased it.
> The part # is SP2514N (250GB, 7200rpm, 8M, PATA), and I bought it at
> Microcenter -- it's an OEM drive, so it came without any packaging.
> And I do mean it came to a screeching halt -- while I was watching the
> football game, the unit started making some really unnerving sounds
> and froze the system. When I tried to reboot, it wouldn't even get to
> GRUB.
>
> I still have no idea what happened, but can rule out a couple things.
> It wasn't a heat issue as I had been regularly monitoring drive temps
> since setting up my new rig. It generally ran at between 35 and 38 C,
> and maxed out about 42 C.
>
> The PSU is also new, and at 450 W shouldn't have any problem driving
> my P4 2.5 with 3 HDDs.
>
> I had thought Samsung drives were fairly solid, but this is the third
> HDD of theirs that I've had fail on me in the last four months or so.
> The oldest (an 80 GB ATA drive) was less than two years, the next
> oldest (60 GB notebook drive) was barely a year although I blame that
> one on overheating because the notebook's vid card was right next to
> the HDD.
>
> There was no indication from SMART that anything was amiss.
>
> The bright side is that I didn't lose much, and nothing that's not
> easily replacable or that I don't mind losing. I am also fortunate
> that I saved the 20 GB HDD from my old MBE, and was able to swap it
> into the new machine to access my music and video storage, which are
> on Maxstor drives.
>
> I know I can get the Samsung replaced, but it will still take me the
> better part of a day to reinstall everything and redo the menus etc
> how I had them before. This is not what I wanted to do this week.
>
> If you're looking for an HDD, I'd have to recommend you avoid Samsung.
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