Hard Disk Repair | DataRecoveryUnion.com

What is Samsung Format Utility?

The Samsung Format utility is a program specifically designed for formating Samsung External Hard Disk drives. It can be used to format the hard drive using either the FATS32 or NTFS file system.

How to use Samsung Format Utility?

1. Download the Samsung Format Utility program to you main system drive.

2. Run the executable to extract the utility to a location on your main system drive (not the external drive).

3. Ensure the Samsung External Disk Drive is attached to your system. Double click on the executable file, and follow the prompts.

You can refer to the Samsung Format Utility Manual for full instructions

Samsung_Format_Utility_V1.4
Samsung_Format_Utility_Manual

Caution

The Samsung Format Utility will erase all data on the external disk drive. Ensure you have backup copies of all data from the External Disk Drive before running this utility.

Hard Disk Repair

What is Samsung Auto Backup?

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM14 years ago4 years ago01 mins

Samsung Auto Backup is Bundled software that performs a backup of the PC data to Samsung External Hard Drive. Through the Real-Time Backup or Scheduled Backup, the data can be backed up safely to Samsung External Hard Drive.

When the backed up data are damaged due to a system error or user’s mistake, they can be checked/recovered through the Integrity Check. Also the original data
that was stored in the PC can be conveniently recovered when damaged or lost.

※ Caution : The Samsung Auto Backup program operates only with a Samsung External Hard Drive.

Hard Disk Repair

Glossary of Western Digital Hard Disk Drive (Letter R)

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM14 years ago12 years ago06 mins

radial path
A straight-line path from the center of a disk to the outer edge.

RAFF™
Rotary Acceleration Feed Forward. WD technology that maintains the highest possible data transfer performance in the high rotational vibration environments commonly found in servers and storage arrays.

RAID
Redundant array of independent disks. A grouping of hard drives in a single system to provide greater performance and data integrity.

RAID 0
RAID protocol in which data is striped across multiple hard drives, enabling the accelerated reading and recording of data by combining the work of two or more drives to increase performance. See also striping.

RAID 1
RAID protocol in which two copies of the data are instantaneously recorded – each on separate hard drives. RAID 1 ensures the protection of users’ data because in the event that one of the hard drives fails, the other hard drive(s) will continue to read and write data until the faulty hard drive is replaced and rebuilt to once again safely mirror the data. See also mirroring.

RAID 5
For systems with three or more drives, RAID 5 offers fast performance by striping data across all drives; data protection by dedicating a quarter of each drive to fault tolerance leaving three quarters of the system capacity available for data storage.

RAM
Random access memory. Memory that allows any storage location to be accessed randomly.

Ramp Load/Unload (LUL)
Ramp load parks the recording head off the media when the drive is idle and on spin up, maximizing available disk space and minimizing power usage, which results in lower heat and long-term drive reliability.

RE
RAID edition. A WD drive engineered to thrive in a high-intensity RAID system while still offering traditional desktop value.

read channel
The channel that performs data encoding and conversion that a drive requires to write computer generated information onto a magnetic medium and read back that information with a high degree of accuracy.

read verify
A data accuracy check performed by having a disk read data from a controller, which in turn checks for errors but does not pass data to the system.

read/write head
See head.

recoverable error
A read error that can be corrected by ECC or by re-reading data.

RLL
Run length limited. An encoding scheme used during write operations to facilitate reading that data.

RoHS
Restriction of Hazardous Substances. This compliance Directive 2002/95/EC of the European Parliament, which is effective in the EU beginning July 1, 2006, aims to protect human health and the environment by restricting the use of certain hazardous substances such as lead, mercury, hexavalent chromium, cadmium, polybrominated biphenyl flame retardants, and polybrominated diphenyl ether flame retardants in new equipment.

ROM
Read-only memory. An integrated circuit memory chip containing programs and data that the computer or host can read but cannot modify. A computer can read instructions from ROM but cannot store data in ROM.

rotational latency
The amount of delay in obtaining information from a disk due to disk rotation. For a disk rotating at 5400 RPM, the average rotational latency is 5.5 milliseconds. See also mechanical latency.

RPM
Rotations per minute. Also known as spindle speed. Rotational speed of a medium (disk). Hard drives typically spin at a constant speed. The lower the RPM, the higher the mechanical latency. Disk RPM is a critical component of drive performance, as it directly affects rotational latency.

RPS™
Reduced power spinup. The WD-optimized spinup feature specifically designed for the external hard drive and consumer electronics markets.

Hard Disk Repair

Glossary of Western Digital Hard Disk Drive (Letter O,P,Q)

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM14 years ago4 years ago06 mins

OEM
Original equipment manufacturer. In the case of WD, OEM customers are companies such as Dell and HP.

operating system
Software that allows users and programs installed on your system to communicate with computer hardware such as a hard drive.

partition
A logical division on a hard drive that the operating system treats as a separate hard drive. Each partition is assigned a unique drive letter.

passive termination
A termination architecture that matches impedance at the end of the SCSI bus by using a voltage divider network of passive resistors.

PATA
Parallel Advanced Technology Attachment. A technology in which interface controller electronics are incorporated into the design of the hard drive rather than into a separate controller. Also known as IDE.

PC
Personal computer.

PIO
Programmed I/O. In a hard drive with an AT interface, data transfers between a drive and a host using programmed I/O (PIO). A host uses PIO to write to command block registers (CBRs) when transmitting control information, such as the location of a read command.

platform
A basic design from which a series of products is engineered and produced.

platter
A metal (or other rigid material) disk mounted inside a fixed-disk drive. Many drives consist of multiple platters mounted on the spindle to provide more data storage surfaces. A platter may use one or both surfaces to store data.

PMR
Perpendicular Magnetic Recording. Hard drive recording method in which the magnetization of each data bit is aligned vertically to the spinning disk. PMR provides the ability to store more data on a given disk than the longitudinal recording method, enabling the manufacture of hard drives with higher capacities.

port
A specialized outlet on a device for connecting to other devices using a cable or a plug. Ethernet ports, power ports, and USB ports are examples. Also a connection or socket on the motherboard or controller card. A motherboard may have one or two ports (primary and secondary).

Preemptive Wear Leveling (PWL)
Mechanical feature in which the drive arm frequently sweeps across the disk to reduce uneven wear on the drive surface common to audio video streaming applications.

pre-fetch
The process of loading instructions into a queue when the processor’s external bus is otherwise idle.

primary partition
The partition where operating system files are stored. To start your operating system from a hard disk, it must have a primary partition and the primary partition must be active.

PRML
Partial response maximum likelihood. A read channel that uses sampled data, active equalization, and Viterbi detection to retrieve user data accurately from disk.

programmed I/O
In a hard drive with an AT interface, data transfers between a drive and a host using programmed I/O (PIO). A host uses PIO to write to command block registers (CBRs) when transmitting control information, such as the location of a read command.

protocol
A convention of data transmission that defines timing, control format, and data representation.

proximity recording
A technology that increases recording density by allowing a read/write head to come into close proximity to a disk surface.

PUIS
Power-up in Standby. Feature set that allows devices to be powered-up into the Standby power management state to minimize inrush current at power-up and to allow the host to sequence the spin-up of devices.

PVR
Personal video recorder.

PWL
Preemptive wear leveling. Mechanical feature in which the drive arm frequently sweeps across the disk to reduce uneven wear on the drive surface common to audio video streaming applications.

queue
A first-in-first-out (FIFO) data structure to sequence multiple demands for a resource such as a printer, processor, or communication channel. A host appends objects to the end of a queue and removes them from the front.

quota
Maximum storage capacity assigned by the administrator to each user on a computer network.

Hard Disk Repair

Hard Drive PCB Replacement

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM14 years ago7 years ago03 mins

Recovery data from dead hard drives which do note that disassembling a hard drive is not recommended and can result to permanent data loss and further damage to your drive. If your data is business critical, please seek professional help.

The green board on the bottom of the hard drive is known as Hard Drive Printed Circuit Board (HDD PCB). The main function of the PCB is to supply power to the hard drive, maintain speed and rotation of the spindle, and control all internal operations through its firmware. Essentially, PCB is the brains of the hard drive that all components are heavily dependent upon. Hard drives that do not spin up after the power has been supplied can be diagnosed as PCB failure.

First, we should find the matching PCB:

Western Digital – same board number which is etched on the PCB, begin with 2060-
Seagate – same board number which is etched on the PCB, begin with 100…; If you can’t find the number on the PCB(Old Models), you should find the same Main Controller IC
Maxtor – same Main Controller IC
Hitachi – same information on the small white label.
Samsung – same board number which is etched on the PCB, begin with BF41-

Remove the PCB from both hard drives with star screwdriver. Replace the fautly PCB with replacement one. If you HDD spins up, but can’t be recognized, you should also exchange the BIOS on the PCB.

You should know the hard drive failures are not always caused by PCB failure. Swap PCB can not guaranteed to fix your hard drive.

Article by HDDZone.com – Second hand hard disk drive PCB supplier!

Hard Disk Repair

5 Tips for Choosing an External Hard Drive

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM14 years ago4 years ago07 mins

External hard drives are great way to back up your favourite photos, videos, music and work documents – especially as they can be stored separately, ensuring your important files remain safe should anything happen to your laptop or computer. If you’ve never bought an external hard drive before then there’s a few pointers here that may help to have on your shopping list before you go and make that final purchase.

1. Buy A Brand
Do yourself a huge favor and buy a brand name that you easily recognize. Sure these may cost a little more than brand but with computer accessories like this you really do get what you pay for. If a Western Digital 1TB external hard drive costs $90 and another brand ITB hard drive costs $70 why do you think that is? Because the company likes you? Because they like making smaller profits? No it’s because it’s a cheaper drive made with inferior parts that’s going to break a lot sooner than you might expect.

The other aspect of sticking with a brand is your warranty. For example Maxtor, Western Digital and Iomega are all reliable companies and well known for their external hard disks. If something goes wrong with your drive you can have it fixed. With brand you’ll probably not even be able to find an email address that you can contact the parent company on. Is saving a few dollars worth that risk?

2. Google It
Whatever brand or model you decide on make sure you do some research before purchasing. Always, always Google the exact brand and model of the drive you’re considering buying. Look for reviews and especially any feedback on how reliable a drive is. You’ll be very surprised to find that some companies have particularly bad reputations in terms of equipment reliability and what’s known as the “click of death” in the external hard drive industry. Spend time in Google checking out your prospective purchase. You’ll be glad that you did.

3. Connectivity
When it comes to external hard drives you’ll need to choose carefully when selecting your connection types. Your external hard drive will support either USB or Firewire. Firewire is the fastest option available at the moment but your computer may not support this. The vast majority of modern computers will, however, feature a USB port.

The next question now is what type of USB port do you have – USB 1.0 or 2.0? If your computer only has a USB 1.0 port then your external hard drive is going to transfer data VERY slowly. USB 2.0 is the minimum you should consider as connection options for both your computer and your external hard drive. If you don’t have a USB 2.0 port (also called HiSpeed USB) on your computer you may need to get a USB 2.0 card fitted.

4. Speed
Now of course we need to talk about speed. The faster your hard drive operates the faster data will get transferred to your computer and vice versa. Without boggling you with computer jargon there’s a couple of technical things you need to include on your shopping list.

Seek time – this needs to be 10ms (milliseconds) or less.
Buffer size – more is better. Get a drive with at least a 4MB buffer.
RPM – higher is better. 5400 RPM as a minimum. 7200 RPM being preferred.
Stick to the above basic pointers and you’ll do just fine.

5. Capacity
This is the simple part of the whole “buying an external hard drive” equation. Buy as much as you can afford. If you can afford 100GB then get it. However if you can afford 200GB then get it. Then again if you scraped together a few dollars more you could afford 300GB then do it.

This isn’t a sales pitch. Far from it. There is simply no such thing as having too much data storage space. The 160GB drive that I have here was filled up in a little under a month. Currently 1TB external hard drive sounds good for my future needs.

Always add 50% to your data storage requirements. Honestly. You’ll thanks yourself within the first 90 days of buying your external drive.

Hopefully now you’ll be better prepared for purchasing your new external hard drive. It’s one of the best purchases you’ll ever make.

Hard Disk Repair

Glossary of Western Digital Hard Disk Drive (Letter N)

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM14 years ago12 years ago02 mins

NAS
Network attached storage. Hard disk storage that is set up with its own network address rather than being attached to the computer that is serving network workstation users.

NAT
Network Address Translation. Used in gateway devices that form the boundary between the public Internet and the private LAN. As IP packets from the private LAN traverse the gateway, NAT translates a private IP address and port number to a public IP address and port number, tracking those translations to keep individual sessions intact.

NCQ
Native command queuing. A command protocol implemented only on native SATA hard drives. It allows multiple commands to be outstanding within a drive at the same time. Drives that support NCQ have an internal queue where outstanding commands can be rescheduled and re-ordered dynamically, along with necessary tracking mechanisms for outstanding and completed parts of the workload. NCQ also has a mechanism that allows the host to issue additional commands to the drive while the drive is seeking data for another command.

NetCenter™
Trade name for WD’s first generation external network hard drive.

network computer
A computer with limited data storage capacity that communicates with a central data storage facility such as a server or RAID system.

NFS
NT file system. A file system, designed for Windows® NT, that supports long filenames, security access control, recovery, and other features.

NTFS
NT file system. A file system, designed for Windows® NT, that supports long filenames, security access control, recovery, and other features.

Hard Disk Repair

Glossary of Western Digital Hard Disk Drive (Letter M)

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM14 years ago4 years ago05 mins

Magnetic flux
A pattern of magnetic pole directions of bits written on a disk.

Master
The primary drive in a dual-drive configuration. A Master drive by itself (with no Slave) is called a single drive.

MB
Megabyte. WD defines a megabyte as 1,000,000 (one million) bytes.

mechanical latency
A time period, including both seek time and rotational latency. Mechanical latencies are the main hindrance to higher performance in hard drives and are one hundred times greater than electronic (non-mechanical) latencies associated with data transfers. See also rotational latency and seek time.

media
In hard drives, the disks and their magnetic coatings. Sometimes refers only to the coating material.

memory
A device or system capable of storing and retrieving data.

MFM
Multiple frequency modulation. A method of encoding analog signals into magnetic pulses or bits.

MioNet®
WD’s remote computer access service. Adding MioNet to your home or work computer provides secure and instant access from any PC in the world back to your computer. You can use your applications and access and share files on your computer or storage device from anywhere.

mirroring
The process of generating an exact copy of saved data from one drive to another drive within a RAID 1 system. Each drive can be accessed and read separately. A mirrored drive can be removed from a system while the other drive(s) are still active. See also RAID 1.

MP3
MPEG-audio layer 3. A digital audio coding scheme for distributing music over the Internet.

MR head
Magnetoresistive head. MR heads were developed to increase areal density and improve drive performance. These heads use an inductive element for writing data and a separate magnetoresistive element for reading data, rather than traditional inductive thin-film, read/write heads. The read element has a magnetically sensitive material that detects data recorded on the magnetic disk surface. MR head construction results in a stronger signal than that produced by inductive thin-film, read/write heads, which allows reading higher areal density data.

MTBF
Mean time between failures. The average time (expressed in hours) that a component works without failure. This time is calculated by dividing the total number of operating hours observed by the total number of failures. Also, the length of time a user may reasonably expect a device or system to work before an incapacitating fault occurs.

MTTR
Mean time to repair. The average time it takes to repair a drive in the field. Only major subassemblies (the PCB, sealed housing, etc.) are changed in the field; component level repairs are not performed in the field.

multimedia
A simultaneous presentation of data in more than one form, such as by means of both video and audio.

multi-user
A system in information technology that enables more than one user to access data at the same time.

My Book 3.0
Trade name for WD’s initial line of USB 3.0 external hard drives.

My Book®
Trade name for WD external hard drives with a book-shaped enclosure.

My DVR Expander™ eSATA Edition™
WD external device that adds additional storage capacity to a DVR with an enabled eSATA port.

My DVR Expander™ USB Edition™
WD external device that adds additional storage capacity to a DVR with an enabled USB port.

Hard Disk Repair

Glossary of Western Digital Hard Disk Drive (Letter J,K,L)

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM14 years ago12 years ago04 mins

jumper
An electrically-conductive component placed over pairs of pins extending from the circuit board on the hard drive jumper block to connect them electronically. Jumper placement is one method of designating a hard drive as Master or Slave.

KB
Kilobyte. Usually, this is a unit of 1000 bytes. In computer memory, which is partitioned into sizes that are a power of 2, a kilobyte is equal to 2¹⁰ or 1024 bytes.

LAN
Local area network. A system in which computer users in the same company or organization are linked to each other and often to centrally-stored collections of data in LAN servers.

landing zone
A location on the inner part of a disk to which heads move when commanded or when powered off. User data is not stored in the landing zone.

laser textured media
A treatment that minimizes friction and wear on a hard drive. The precision and consistency of this process contributes to the robustness of WD drives.

latency
The period of time that read/write heads wait for a disk to rotate to the correct position for accessing requested data. For a disk rotating at 5200 RPM, average latency is 5.8 milliseconds (one-half the revolution period).

LBA
Logical block addressing. A method of addressing sectors on a drive as a single group of logical block numbers rather than cylinder, head, and sector addressing (CHS). LBA allows accessing larger drives than is normally possible with CHS addressing.

LED
Light Emitting Diode. An electronic device that lights up when electricity is passed through it.

logical address
A storage address, which may not describe the physical location, for requesting data retrieval. A controller converts a request from a logical to a physical address and is able to retrieve data.

logical drive
A section of a hard disk that appears to be a separate drive in a directory structure. Up to 23 logical drives can be created on an extended partition of a hard disk, using letters A-Z with three reserved: A and B for diskette drives, and C for the first primary DOS partition. Logical drives are commonly used for group directories and files.

low-level formatting
A process, also called initialization, that prepares a hard drive to store data. Low-level formatting sets up the locations of sectors so that user data can be stored in them. Low-level formatting is performed at the WD factory; users need not perform low-level formatting on a WD drive.

LUL
See Ramp Load/Unload

Hard Disk Repair

Glossary of Western Digital Hard Disk Drive (Letter I)

DATARECOVERYUNION.COM14 years ago12 years ago04 mins

I/O
Input/Output. An operation, program, or device that that transfers data to or from a computer or other device.

IcePack™
3.5-inch mounting frame with a built-in heat sink that keeps the 2.5-inch WD VelociRaptor extra cool when installed in a 3.5-inch drive bay.

IDE
Integrated drive electronics. A technology in which interface controller electronics are incorporated into the design of the hard drive rather than into a separate controller. See also PATA.

index pulse signal
A digital pulse signal indicating the beginning of a disk revolution. An embedded servo pattern or other prerecorded information is present on the disk following the index.

initialization
See low-level formatting.

initiator
A device in control of a SCSI bus that sends commands to a target. Most SCSI devices have a fixed role as either initiator or target; however, some devices can assume both roles.

input
Incoming data that a computer processes, such as user-issued commands.

IntelliPark™
Delivers lower power consumption by automatically unloading the heads during idle to reduce aerodynamic drag.

IntelliPower™
A fine-tuned balance of spin speed, transfer rate, and caching algorithms designed to deliver both significant power savings and solid performance.

IntelliSeek™
WD AV feature that optimizes seek speeds to lower power consumption, noise, and vibration.

interface
A hardware or software protocol to manage the exchange of data between a device and a computer; the most common ones are PATA (also known as EIDE), SATA, and SCSI.

interface controller
A chip or circuit that translates computer data and commands into a form usable by a hard drive and that controls data transfers between buffer and host. See also disk controller and disk drive controller.

interleave
The arrangement of sectors on a track.

interrupt
A signal sent by a subsystem to the CPU when a process either was completed or could not be completed.

IP
Internet Protocol. A system that controls how data messages are separated into packets, routed from the sender, and reassembled at the destination.

IP address
A 32-bit, binary number that uniquely identifies a computer connected to the Internet.

ISA
Industry Standard Architecture. The standard 16-bit AT bus for the PC/AT system. ISA was the only industry standard bus for PCs until the recent release of Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI).