Samsung Spinpoint F4EG HD204UI 2TB compatibility?

[compet_pl]

There is a beginning of the REAL PROBLEM for Synology and 2TB Samsung HDD users on the European market right now.
The older HD203WI (it's at Synology list as compatible) is starting to be not available now. I think it's just the rest of the Samsung stock.
The only Samsung 2TB drive available is HD204UI right now.
So, If any Synology user wants to add or change any Samsung 2TB disk, he has no compatible (means tested by Synology) disk to buy.
So... Synology! Pls be hurry with your test!

I sent a few e-mails to Synology with a question about compatibility test of HD204UI last month.

I get the info today as following:

"After consulting our ADM depart, this disk is really hot. We tried to order it in Taiwan or European (UK) but failed. Now we are asking USA Synology's help now. So we are really in a hurry and I believe you will see it in the list soon.
--
Sincerely,
Adair Hsu"

[bobdoc]

Have a DS410 with 4 HD204UI drives running RAID 5. 85 hours and almost 1TB xferred using DATA REPLICATOR 3 (immediate backup and then SYNC), DSM 3.0-1340. So far so good. Have to update the router to better xfer speeds. Not going to do more than SYNC until we get the go ahead.

[jeprira]

I installed today a pair of HD204UI in my 209+II DSM 3.0

I had a pair of HD103UJ in RAID1, so I took one out, repaired, took the other out, repaired and all was well.

Not all, because I noticed the HD204UI were very slow... so I read a bit and found out about the 4K and telnet and fdkisk -lu confirmed:


NAS> fdisk -lu

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.3 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 63 4980149 2490043+ fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda2 4980150 6024374 522112+ fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sda3 6281415 3907024064 1950371325 fd Linux raid autodetect

Disk /dev/sdb: 2000.3 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 63 4980149 2490043+ fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sdb2 4980150 6024374 522112+ fd Linux raid autodetect
/dev/sdb3 6281415 3907024064 1950371325 fd Linux raid autodetect
NAS>

The question is... how do I fix this? How to change to a 4K per sector?

I'm a beginner with Synology, so all help will be greatly appreciated.

btw: they seem to run a little hotter than the F3?? I'll have to wait a bit since they've been rebuilding all day... I'll post again about temps

[HarryPotter]

As you can see in my signature, I have this HD in my DS109+ (running 24/7) and my DS110+.
No problems detected so far.

[Vic Vega]

My 210+ w HD204UI has now been running for 2 weeks, 24/7.
All SMART info/test is normal and no issues to report.

[compet_pl]

There is a beginning of the REAL PROBLEM for Synology and 2TB Samsung HDD users on the European market right now.
The older HD203WI (it's at Synology list as compatible) is starting to be not available now. I think it's just the rest of the Samsung stock.
The only Samsung 2TB drive available is HD204UI right now.
So, If any Synology user wants to add or change any Samsung 2TB disk, he has no compatible (means tested by Synology) disk to buy.
So... Synology! Pls be hurry with your test!

I sent a few e-mails to Synology with a question about compatibility test of HD204UI last month.

I get the info today as following:

"After consulting our ADM depart, this disk is really hot. We tried to order it in Taiwan or European (UK) but failed. Now we are asking USA Synology's help now. So we are really in a hurry and I believe you will see it in the list soon.
--
Sincerely,
Adair Hsu"

I get the next info from Synology today:

"It should arrive in two weeks and the testing team will require at least two weeks to finish the testing if everything is expected. However, it's a rough estimation not a promise."


It means, we have to wait arround one month to get campatibility confirmation from Synology.

Regards

[Ghostlink]

As you can see in my signature, I have this HD in my DS109+ (running 24/7) and my DS110+.
No problems detected so far.

Do you think that DSM 3.0 1342 would fix my read speed problems? I'm running 1337...
I just cant figure out whats wrong.

[cooa99]

Hi,

Please can someone let me know average time it takes to set this drive up (i.e. partitioning..).

I am going to be having a scheduled power cut in 9 hrs times so would not want a power shortage while its doing its bits

cheers

cooa99

[FastCat]

Question to owners of Samsung Spinpoint F4EG HD204UI 2TB ..., this HDD work properly with the DS409 + (DSM 3.0-1337) ?
And one more question ...
These HDD are economical series. They do not need to adjust the values of registers ?
As it was with the HDD WD20EARS and the value of the timer wdidle3.

[AxelS]

Jumped the certification delay and installed three HD204UI in a new 1010+ as RAID5.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6822152245
2TB on three platters at 5400RPM was just too much of a temptation at $94 last week.

I did a full SMART check on all three drives and they reported fine. I don't know how long time that took but it said 255 minutes. They could be checked in parallel. Initializing the RAID5 didn't take that long, maybe an hour or two. I could watch the tenth of % increase every half minute or so.

Copying 3TB of data from my old CS407e is taking a bit longer at about 20MBytes/sec. I haven't checked to see if they hibernate properly yet since they've been busy the last day copying. I used Miscrosoft's SyncToy to handle possible copy interruptions. I'm too lazy to learn rsync.

I did build my last CS407e with four 1TB WD enterprise drives in RAID5. I chose Enterprise Class because of the TDLR but it looks like Synology, being a software RAID, is not using this feature so I went with Desktop Class drives this time. 2TB Enterprise is $260+ vs. $94. Rebuilding using a new drive will still be cheaper. I just takes a long time... I may go RAID6 for this reason but I think I'll backup the critical data on my old CS407e instead.

BTW, I did have some trouble with my CS407e at the start but after Synology sent me some replacement SATA cables, it has been flawless. This is why I bought the 1010+.

I'll SSH in and do a check to make sure the drives are initialized on 4k boundaries but reading on the forum I'm not too worried. I'll let you know how things go in a few days. Let me know if you want me to test anything.

Cheers,
Mattias

[AxelS]

I'll SSH in and do a check to make sure the drives are initialized on 4k boundaries but reading on the forum I'm not too worried. I'll let you know how things go in a few days. Let me know if you want me to test anything.

Here ya go. Start = 256 = good I think.
I just wonder why it complains about the cylinder boundary end... At least the main raid, partition three, starts at 9,437,184 and sits clean on lots of boundaries: 8, and even 256 or 4096.

Code: Select all

BusyBox v1.16.1 (2010-09-21 15:13:11 CST) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

Station> fdisk -lu

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.3 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

  Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1             256     4980735     2490240  fd Linux raid autodetect
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary
/dev/sda2         4980736     9175039     2097152  fd Linux raid autodetect
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary
/dev/sda3         9437184  3907024064  1948793440+ fd Linux raid autodetect

Disk /dev/sdb: 2000.3 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

  Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sdb1             256     4980735     2490240  fd Linux raid autodetect
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary
/dev/sdb2         4980736     9175039     2097152  fd Linux raid autodetect
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary
/dev/sdb3         9437184  3907024064  1948793440+ fd Linux raid autodetect

Disk /dev/sdc: 2000.3 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

  Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/sdc1             256     4980735     2490240  fd Linux raid autodetect
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary
/dev/sdc2         4980736     9175039     2097152  fd Linux raid autodetect
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary
/dev/sdc3         9437184  3907024064  1948793440+ fd Linux raid autodetect

Disk /dev/synoboot: 128 MB, 128450560 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 15 cylinders, total 250880 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

       Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/synoboot1   *          63       32129       16033+ 83 Linux
/dev/synoboot2           32130      224909       96390  83 Linux


[janvanuytven]

I just bought a ds110j with the 2TB HD204UI HDD.
I know that it isn't supported yet by synology but this one was cheaper, faster and more silent then the previous one.

I read some reports that users didn't have any problems, so i took the risk.
But i was curious about the 4k sector problem? What is this exactly? Is it also a problem for the samsung HD or only the WD disks?
How can I know that there is a problem and how can i solve it?

Do I need to format the new HD before I use it the first time? This is my first NAS so I don't know that this is necessary?

[AxelS]

But i was curious about the 4k sector problem? What is this exactly? Is it also a problem for the samsung HD or only the WD disks?
How can I know that there is a problem and how can i solve it?

Do I need to format the new HD before I use it the first time? This is my first NAS so I don't know that this is necessary?

You should be fine if you use the latest installer software according to this post and many more:
viewtopic.php?f=26&t=24227#p109904

[janvanuytven]

But i was curious about the 4k sector problem? What is this exactly? Is it also a problem for the samsung HD or only the WD disks?
How can I know that there is a problem and how can i solve it?

Do I need to format the new HD before I use it the first time? This is my first NAS so I don't know that this is necessary?

You should be fine if you use the latest installer software according to this post and many more:
viewtopic.php?f=26&t=24227#p109904

thanks for the response.

I installed my first NAS yesterday evening. I think that is working ok with the Samsung Spinpoint F4EG HD204UI 2TB. I used the latest firmware from the synology download center.

[synjunkie]

HI,
Newby here. Spent some time searching this board and others re Samsung HD204UI. Wanted to contribute my 1cents worth to help the world be a better place. Installed on Monday Oct 18, 2010, 2 Samsung HD204UI, firmware 1AQ10001 as Raid 1 in DS209 and 1 Samsung HD204UI, firmware 1AQ10001 in DS109.

After installation I used Telnet and login as root, with password for admin into both servers and have the following. From what I have read, this is good because the start block is 256?? Also the sdb info is attached via esata connection on the DS109. It's a EXT3 format on Fantom Drive GreenDrive Pro External HD 2 TB which ironically also has a Samsung HD204UI firmware 1AQ10001 under the hood.

DS109
/volumeSATA/satashare$ fdisk -lu

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.3 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 256 4980735 2490240 83 Linux
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary
/dev/sda2 4980736 9175039 2097152 82 Linux swap
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary
/dev/sda3 9437184 3907024064 1948793440+ 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 2000.3 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 256 3907024064 1953511904+ 83 Linux


DS209 Raid 1
/root$ fdisk -lu

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.3 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 256 4980735 2490240 fd Linux raid autodetect
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary
/dev/sda2 4980736 9175039 2097152 fd Linux raid autodetect
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary
/dev/sda3 9437184 3907024064 1948793440+ fd Linux raid autodetect

Disk /dev/sdb: 2000.3 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 256 4980735 2490240 fd Linux raid autodetect
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary
/dev/sdb2 4980736 9175039 2097152 fd Linux raid autodetect
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary
/dev/sdb3 9437184 3907024064 1948793440+ fd Linux raid autodetect

Transfer information via esata backup drive from DS109
esata drive formatted EXT3 for FD 2 TB with Samsung HD204UI firmware 1AQ10001
31 GB in 17 min.
36 gb in 20 min
avg 105 gb in 1 hr

Smart Information for esata FD and DS209 and DS109:
SMART test, quick and exteded NORMAL\
SMART INFO all ok.
Disks hibernate in 109 and FD, not sure about DS209 (I believe the Raid 1 does hibernate because I hear the drives spin up after not in use for awhile).

As of Oct 22, all servers have remained on 24hrs/day.
DS109 shows 2 days 15 hrs 44 min
DS209 shows 3 days 1 hr

All drives sound good so far. Have moved at least 700 GB of information on and off drives. Zipped files using file manager.

Since i'm new here, is there any other tests I could run? Or does this seem sufficient? Hope this helps those looking for good drives.