Samsung Spinpoint F4EG HD204UI 2TB compatibility?

[schoolsofthought]

Hello

So I just got the 2TB HDD for storage after seeing it on sale and had a single problem with it. Oh and I updated the firmware as soon as I got it.

When I try to listen to music or access files in general that are stored on the drive, it takes a bit of time for it to get up to speed and open up. This usually happens when I haven't been accessing on the drive for a while. That's expected, I guess, considering it's a "green" drive.

The problem comes up when I watch movies stored on that drive. Everything will go smoothly for a while (not sure how long, 15 min maybe?), until the movie stops/lags and I can hear the F4 spin up. Anyone else have this problem and have a solution?

I feel like this is an issue with a setting somewhere as opposed to a defective product.

[fordperf]

Hello

So I just got the 2TB HDD for storage after seeing it on sale and had a single problem with it. Oh and I updated the firmware as soon as I got it.

When I try to listen to music or access files in general that are stored on the drive, it takes a bit of time for it to get up to speed and open up. This usually happens when I haven't been accessing on the drive for a while. That's expected, I guess, considering it's a "green" drive.

The problem comes up when I watch movies stored on that drive. Everything will go smoothly for a while (not sure how long, 15 min maybe?), until the movie stops/lags and I can hear the F4 spin up. Anyone else have this problem and have a solution?

I feel like this is an issue with a setting somewhere as opposed to a defective product.

I've experienced the spin-up lag when first accessing the drive, but not 15 minutes in. If you really don't care about saving $0.15 a month on power, turn off the hibernation and just let the drives spin all the time.

[snielsen]

I followed the directions from multiple people here and got the boot in DOS to work fine as well as being able to access the firmware patch tool. So far so good, but then absolutely NOTHING happens when running the darn program?! It dumps a screen of options for the SFLASH program (probably what F4EG.EXE was originally called). ESTOOLS can see the Samsung HD204UI drive just fine and lists it as Primary Master (only drive in the box), and the F4EG.EXE can also find it when using the "/detect" option.

I feel really stupid here - what am I doing wrong?? Shouldn't it be enough to simply type 'F4EG' (in my case after booting from the CDROM and having the tool on a USB drive I actually do "C:\F4EG"), and then the drive should be detected and every thing go its course?

[mh76]

this question can most probably be answered by the synology team only.

I am looking into buying a DS411j with 4x2tb of these drives, but in spite of the fix that was released by samsung i do not see the disk re-entering the compatibility list of the DS411j nor of the DS409 that i currently own.

Why is that? are the disks still being considered as problematic (incompatible) by synology?

thanks in advance

[Pustul]

@ mh76:
You still need a patch from Synology to have them work properly (to avoid spin_up_time failure). I think they will include the patch in the next release of DSM and then these drives will probably re-enter the compatibility list.

[mh76]

@ mh76:
You still need a patch from Synology to have them work properly (to avoid spin_up_time failure). I think they will include the patch in the next release of DSM and then these drives will probably re-enter the compatibility list.

Thanks for the info.

Any idea if the spin_up time failure can be avoided if i disable disk hibernation? is this related?
also any estimate on when the new dsm version with the patch will come out?
or can the patch be applied over an existing dsm installation as done in other occasions?

[Pustul]

I don't know for a release date. But you can ask for the patch by sending a form (take a look at this topic: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=31364&start=75)
Yes you have to apply the patch on an existing installation of DSM. The spin-up time failure happen only by turning on the NAS so you'd better to apply the patch before installing the hard drives if you don't want them to be labeled "abnormal" (someone gave a full explanation of how he dealt with 2 brand new HD204UI in the above topic).

[xcopy]

I followed the directions from multiple people here and got the boot in DOS to work fine as well as being able to access the firmware patch tool. So far so good, but then absolutely NOTHING happens when running the darn program?! It dumps a screen of options for the SFLASH program (probably what F4EG.EXE was originally called). ESTOOLS can see the Samsung HD204UI drive just fine and lists it as Primary Master (only drive in the box), and the F4EG.EXE can also find it when using the "/detect" option.

I feel really stupid here - what am I doing wrong?? Shouldn't it be enough to simply type 'F4EG' (in my case after booting from the CDROM and having the tool on a USB drive I actually do "C:\F4EG"), and then the drive should be detected and every thing go its course?

I think the best procedure is to follow what gdtrfb55 said in post #2, on page 10. It should work as I just did it a few minutes ago, though with a couple of updates ( read past his post so you'll be sure to select the right options when FeeDOS boots).

I downloaded the patch from Samsumg on 12/10/10 (US date) and then downloaded it again today. The exe file name may have changed, but it looks like the same patch.

In step 14 when he says to run "181550HD.EXE", you will run "F4EG.exe" instead if you have recently downloaded the patch, otherwise, do as he suggests.

[xcopy]

The most difficult part of this update is creating the bootable image (I assembled my own, but someone has provided a complete ISO image a few pages back).

The one caveat I'd make to anyone doing this with ISOmaster is either buy the program (the developer deserves it and will love it) or if possible, create a system restore point before the install. I may be paranoid, but I don't think this will be the last of the updates we see for this drive. ISOmaster will self destruct in 15 days and your option of creating another disk may be gone, at least with this program, so a little caution might be warranted.

[cbrust]

How long should the patch take to execute?

Drive is physically installed (only hard drive in the system at the moment)
BIOS shows the drive as present.

Booting from a USB drive is successful....I get the DOS prompt.
DIR shows that F4EG is there.
I type in F4EG.exe.
Then, nothing...just a blinking cursor forever..waited nearly and hour. That is simply too long.

Does the drive have to be plugged into a specific SATA port? (Have only tried one ones that my system was already using).

Any ideas?

[bodhikun]

Hi, I'm new to NAS technology and I read some goods and bads about the Samsung HD204UI HDDs.

But mine are up and running and still quite ok I believe.

I'm not sure if my LCC values are OK? How do I have to read them? Are these 59 cycles per hour?

[cread]

I had no issue with the Patch (F4EG or HD204UI_JP) the first from FAQ Q37 the second from Q38. Both patches seem to scan the whole computer for HD204UI (or other patchable drives) and applies the patch to all. I have another 1T Samsung on the system and Got a Cannot patch this drive as it is not applicable error. The Q38 one up revs the drive to version *003. That drive works OK. My DS211 shows the second with the spin up error in SMART and an amber light flashing on status. (I assume this will be fixed in the next version/with the patch I will get from TS) I have not done anything yet other than to install the OS.

ALSO, I used a flash card/USB stick to do the DOS thing. I had a 256Meg laying around and used that. I Googled for ways of booting DOS on flash, but none worked. So I tried the forums that addressed my MOBO (From Gigabyte) here and I got it to work. (Scroll down to the section on creating a DOS boot disk and ignore the sections on BIOS Flashing. There are links to the tools and procedures you will need.)
I also downloaded the ESTOOL from the Samsung site and that was quite helpful, ESP with the Q38 patch that upreved the drive FW Version.
Hope this helps

[tmad]

How long should the patch take to execute?

Drive is physically installed (only hard drive in the system at the moment)
BIOS shows the drive as present.

Booting from a USB drive is successful....I get the DOS prompt.
DIR shows that F4EG is there.
I type in F4EG.exe.
Then, nothing...just a blinking cursor forever..waited nearly and hour. That is simply too long.

Does the drive have to be plugged into a specific SATA port? (Have only tried one ones that my system was already using).

Any ideas?

I made the update with the iso from HarryPotter, and it worked just fine, the updated takes about 10 sec. I think the harddrive should be placed in the first port (master).

[podel]

I made the update with the iso from HarryPotter, and it worked just fine, the updated takes about 10 sec. I think the harddrive should be placed in the first port (master).

I also updated with that iso. No, the HD doesn't need any particular place for the update to be possible. At least not with my computer.

[mraerosmith]

I dont suppose anyone has been issued a fix for this for the DS210J?? As im running these drives in it, but with the samsung patch, and 1 reports perfectly no issues, the others smart status reports as abnormal, I have pulled the abnormal 1 and run full diag tests, and found no issue outside of smart reporting the abnormal spinup