[blindlemon]

Is there a Samsung utility to scan the disc and find out which one has failed?

http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/hutil.htm

Has anyone had experience of dealing direct with Samsung? Am I right in expecting the worst from a call centre? Can I get an advance replacement so I can clone the old disc onto a new one?

www.rexo.co.uk deal with Samsung RMAs in the UK and are normally very efficient (3-4 days).

However, they don't do 'advance' RMAs AFAIK (no need to, unlike Maxtor) so your best bet is to get a replacement from somewhere else, clone your drive to that then RMA the broken drive and sell the RMA replacement as 'sealed, with manufacturer's warranty' on eBay.

 

[blindlemon]

TiVo eats all drives - the only difference is whether it has them for breakfast, lunch or tea

IMHO Samsung and Seagate drives are still the best choice for TiVo use. Samsung are quieter but Seagate have the 5 year warranty. Both are normally very reliable - although as with any product you will always get a small percentage that fail early.

Unfortunately, as you've guessed, your problem could be just a single dodgy sector - and while this would not be a problem in a PC, the TiVo has no code to force the drive to reallocate bad sectors, so it's bad news in a TiVo.

However, if you're up for a bit of down-n-dirty drive hacking, this howto appears to have the lowdown on forcing a sector reallocation. NB. I have not tried this method myself so cannot vouch for it. If you want to give it a go then you should obtain a working backup before starting

 

[blindlemon]

Ian, I think we've had this discussion before.

Like last time, I wasn't suggesting that he should sell it as having a full 3 year warranty - rather that it should be described accurately as sealed (which it will be) and with a manufacturer's warranty (which it will have) to whenever that warranty expires - eg. September 2008.

The failed drive is only a few months old, so the RMA warranty should extend at least two years, possibly longer. If he wants to describe the drive as a 'sealed manufacturer's replacement' (as I would) rather than just 'sealed' then that would clarify the matter even further, but in either case I don't think anybody could accuse him of misrepresenting the item.

I agree, there's not much point buying bare hard drives on eBay when prices at eBuyer etc. are hardly any higher, but some people like to think they're picking up a bargain by doing so, and who am I to deny them their little bit of pleasure?

 

[blindlemon]

your post suggested otherwise

How so?

sell the RMA replacement as 'sealed, with manufacturer's warranty'

OK, I didn't spell it out as I did when replying to your post, but I don't see how you can infer from the above that I'm suggesting anything one way or the other in relation to the length of warranty on offer.

Unless you buy from a wholesaler with large turnover, you are always in danger of buying old stock

I know they're not a wholesaler but, at last, there's a reason (apart from price) to buy from eBuyer