Samsung Spinpoint F4EG HD204UI 2TB compatibility?

[Domdom]

Quick questions, I know its a desktop class, but has anyone tried RAID5 safely and is there any precautions to reduce any possible errors.
I am sure Entreprise class is safer but too expensive for me.
Will SMART errors be handled correctly? better than with WD20EARS?
thanks!

[gdtrfb55]

Refusing to stand on formality, I bit the bullet and applied the firmware upgrade to the four HD204UIs in my DS410j. I used a Linux box (Ubuntu 10.04 LTS i386) to do it, and, if you ignore the hassle of removing the drives from the NAS and connecting them to a PC, the procedure was uneventful.

I basically followed the method outlined here.

The latest version of ISO Master is available in the Lucid Lynx repositories.

Step-by-step:

1. Install ISO Master.

2. Download the FreeDOS full CD ISO from here.

3. Download the Samsung firmware patch from here.

4. Open the FreeDOS ISO in ISO Master and add the firmware patch to its root (top-level) directory.

5. Save the augmented FreeDOS ISO under a new file name.

6. Burn the augmented ISO to a CD. I used the Burn Image function in Brasero and it worked just fine.

7. Shut down the NAS.

8. Shut down and move the computer you will use for the patch to a location where its SATA drive bays and cables are accessible and easy to work with.

9. Disassemble the case of the NAS and remove one of the Samsung drives. (NOTE: I did the patch one drive at a time. The firmware installer appears smart enough to recognize multiple Samsung drives. Hence, it may be possible to patch more than one drive at a time. YMMV, and I have no idea whatsoever whether this actually works).

10. Disconnect the power and data cables from a SATA drive in your computer, then connect those cables to the Samsung drive. I put my Samsungs on a small cardboard (non-conductive/non-static) box next to my computer. The Synology drive trays kept the bottoms of the drives from coming into contact with anything.

11. Boot your computer with the augmented FreeDOS CD. At the boot prompt, enter "1" to boot from the CD. At the next prompt, enter "5" (or select the fifth menu option) to boot the FreeDOS Live CD.

12. At the A:\ prompt in FreeDOS, enter "x:" (without quotation marks). This will change directories to the X: pseudo-drive, where the copy of the Samsung patch will be.

13. At the X:\ prompt, enter "dir" to get a directory listing. If you didn't change the name of the patch when you added it to FreeDOS, it will be truncated to an 8.3 filename in the directory listing: "181550HD.EXE".

14. At the X:\ prompt, enter the filename (and extension) for the Samsung patch, e.g., "181550HD.EXE". That will launch the firmware installer.

15. The installer will search through the drives on the computer looking for an affected Samsung model. It will ignore all other drives.

16. When it finds the affected Samsung, it will automatically apply the patch, telling you to wait until the update is completed. A message will be given when the update is finished, and you will be returned to the X:\ prompt. The update took less than 30 seconds when I did it. YMMV.

17. Power down (turn off) your computer, connect the next Samsung drive, and repeat steps 11 through 17 for each drive.

On the PITA scale, this task was somewhere between an annoying inconvenience and a hassle. Once you get the patching computer set up and the NAS disassembled, things go pretty quickly. It took me 30-45 minutes to complete the task for four drives.

Hope this helps!

[dv8ed]

Now since the firmware is out Synology please test it.

I just ordered a DS410 from Amazon and 4 2TB WD EARS drives, I plan on returning the WD drives for this particular Samsung model.

I'm going to have a DS410 with empty drives for Christmas.

[maxxfi]

Refusing to stand on formality, I bit the bullet and applied the firmware upgrade to the four HD204UIs in my DS410j. I used a Linux box (Ubuntu 10.04 LTS i386) to do it...

Too bad that you didn't check the firmware version before and after the upgrade.
With Linux/Ubuntu is as simple as typing "cat /proc/scsi/scsi"

[gdtrfb55]

Too bad that you didn't check the firmware version before and after the upgrade.
With Linux/Ubuntu is as simple as typing "cat /proc/scsi/scsi"

I don't quite understand your point.

As the link in my previous post stated, the firmware revision number was not changed by the patch, even though the patch fixed a major problem in the firmware. Before and after the patch, the revision number was "1AQ10001". And, like I said before, it's impossible to tell from the revision number whether a particular drive has the defective firmware or not.

[maxxfi]

Sorry, I did not understand that you verified yourself that f/w version was in both cases "1AQ10001".

[fordperf]

Refusing to stand on formality, I bit the bullet and applied the firmware upgrade to the four HD204UIs in my DS410j. I used a Linux box (Ubuntu 10.04 LTS i386) to do it, and, if you ignore the hassle of removing the drives from the NAS and connecting them to a PC, the procedure was uneventful.

I basically followed the method outlined here.

The latest version of ISO Master is available in the Lucid Lynx repositories.

Step-by-step:

1. Install ISO Master.

2. Download the FreeDOS full CD ISO from here.

3. Download the Samsung firmware patch from here.

4. Open the FreeDOS ISO in ISO Master and add the firmware patch to its root (top-level) directory.

5. Save the augmented FreeDOS ISO under a new file name.

6. Burn the augmented ISO to a CD. I used the Burn Image function in Brasero and it worked just fine.

7. Shut down the NAS.

8. Shut down and move the computer you will use for the patch to a location where its SATA drive bays and cables are accessible and easy to work with.

9. Disassemble the case of the NAS and remove one of the Samsung drives. (NOTE: I did the patch one drive at a time. The firmware installer appears smart enough to recognize multiple Samsung drives. Hence, it may be possible to patch more than one drive at a time. YMMV, and I have no idea whatsoever whether this actually works).

10. Disconnect the power and data cables from a SATA drive in your computer, then connect those cables to the Samsung drive. I put my Samsungs on a small cardboard (non-conductive/non-static) box next to my computer. The Synology drive trays kept the bottoms of the drives from coming into contact with anything.

11. Boot your computer with the augmented FreeDOS CD. At the boot prompt, enter "1" to boot from the CD. At the next prompt, enter "5" (or select the fifth menu option) to boot the FreeDOS Live CD.

12. At the A:\ prompt in FreeDOS, enter "x:" (without quotation marks). This will change directories to the X: pseudo-drive, where the copy of the Samsung patch will be.

13. At the X:\ prompt, enter "dir" to get a directory listing. If you didn't change the name of the patch when you added it to FreeDOS, it will be truncated to an 8.3 filename in the directory listing: "181550HD.EXE".

14. At the X:\ prompt enter the filename (and extension) for the Samsung patch, e.g., "181550HD.EXE". That will launch the firmware installer.

15. The installer will search through the drives on the computer looking for an affected Samsung model. It will ignore all other drives.

16. When it finds the affected Samsung, it will automatically apply the patch, telling you to wait until the update is completed. A message will be given when the update is finished, and you will be returned to the X:\ prompt. The update took less than 30 seconds when I did it. YMMV.

17. Power down (turn off) your computer, connect the next Samsung drive, and repeat steps 11 through 17 for each drive.

On the PITA scale, this task was somewhere between an annoying inconvenience and a hassle. Once you get the patching computer set up and the NAS disassembled, things go pretty quickly. It took me 30-45 minutes to complete the task for four drives.

Hope this helps!

Awesome, thorough post man. FYI anyone who was thinking about it, this does NOT work using a bootable USB thumbdrive; looks like it's cd only

[dv8ed]

Can TLER be turned off/on on these drives?

[lefty]

An addendum to gdtrfb55's how-to, I had to enter the system BIOS and run the SATA CD-Rom in 'Legacy' IDE mode in order for FreeDOS to mount the X: drive and access the firmware. Otherwise I was receiving a "there is no cd-rom" message upon booting FreeDOS.

If your X: drive is not available, check for a similar setting in your BIOS. FWIW, this was on a GigaByte MB.

[Zakkieboy]

Not that i'd suggest my route, but...

My attempts via usb to sata were a waste of time....

I eventually used the HP bootable usb tool and windows 98 io.sys, command.com etc etc

Booted the machine, ran the exe - awaited the success message then simplly plugged in the next drive and pressed F3 - Could be bothered to reboot, and as the drives were all on same firmware a reboot seemed pointless and my beer was getting warm!

[markglh]

if you're struggling to get the cdroms to work in freedos you can just put the update on a usb pen and access that from freedos (after booting from cd), mine showed up as C:

[dan2112]

Ok so it appears the patch has fixed the issue, but w/o updating the firmware version.
I literally had 5 of these drives in my "shopping cart" for a 1010+, but now have backed off until we have closure.

Has anybody heard from Synology if this effectively lifts the "moratorium" on support of these drives?

- Dan

[finger]

Refusing to stand on formality, I bit the bullet and applied the firmware upgrade to the four HD204UIs in my DS410j. I used a Linux box (Ubuntu 10.04 LTS i386) to do it, and, if you ignore the hassle of removing the drives from the NAS and connecting them to a PC, the procedure was uneventful.

I basically followed the method outlined here.

The latest version of ISO Master is available in the Lucid Lynx repositories.

Step-by-step:

1. Install ISO Master.

2. Download the FreeDOS full CD ISO from here.

3. Download the Samsung firmware patch from here.

4. Open the FreeDOS ISO in ISO Master and add the firmware patch to its root (top-level) directory.

5. Save the augmented FreeDOS ISO under a new file name.

6. Burn the augmented ISO to a CD. I used the Burn Image function in Brasero and it worked just fine.

7. Shut down the NAS.

8. Shut down and move the computer you will use for the patch to a location where its SATA drive bays and cables are accessible and easy to work with.

9. Disassemble the case of the NAS and remove one of the Samsung drives. (NOTE: I did the patch one drive at a time. The firmware installer appears smart enough to recognize multiple Samsung drives. Hence, it may be possible to patch more than one drive at a time. YMMV, and I have no idea whatsoever whether this actually works).

10. Disconnect the power and data cables from a SATA drive in your computer, then connect those cables to the Samsung drive. I put my Samsungs on a small cardboard (non-conductive/non-static) box next to my computer. The Synology drive trays kept the bottoms of the drives from coming into contact with anything.

11. Boot your computer with the augmented FreeDOS CD. At the boot prompt, enter "1" to boot from the CD. At the next prompt, enter "5" (or select the fifth menu option) to boot the FreeDOS Live CD.

12. At the A:\ prompt in FreeDOS, enter "x:" (without quotation marks). This will change directories to the X: pseudo-drive, where the copy of the Samsung patch will be.

13. At the X:\ prompt, enter "dir" to get a directory listing. If you didn't change the name of the patch when you added it to FreeDOS, it will be truncated to an 8.3 filename in the directory listing: "181550HD.EXE".

14. At the X:\ prompt, enter the filename (and extension) for the Samsung patch, e.g., "181550HD.EXE". That will launch the firmware installer.

15. The installer will search through the drives on the computer looking for an affected Samsung model. It will ignore all other drives.

16. When it finds the affected Samsung, it will automatically apply the patch, telling you to wait until the update is completed. A message will be given when the update is finished, and you will be returned to the X:\ prompt. The update took less than 30 seconds when I did it. YMMV.

17. Power down (turn off) your computer, connect the next Samsung drive, and repeat steps 11 through 17 for each drive.

On the PITA scale, this task was somewhere between an annoying inconvenience and a hassle. Once you get the patching computer set up and the NAS disassembled, things go pretty quickly. It took me 30-45 minutes to complete the task for four drives.

Hope this helps!

Thank you gdtrfb55 for the detailed procedure. I followed it and worked like a charm in a brand new HD204UI/Z4 drive.

[fordperf]

UPDATE: for booting from a USB stick, you choose options 1 and then 5 like the previous post, except you change drives to c: NOT x:. Viola, the file is there

Also, newegg just dropped the price of the drives -$20 down to $79.99...

[tipsen]

I had a problem with the link for the patch but found this instead: Samsung Patch for HD204UI
Is it possible to flash the drives with the new firmware without loosing the data on the drives?