Help/Advice on Samsung HDD acting up lately...

[ezsurf3r]

Hi, I installed and have been using a 1.5Tb Samsung HDD in my Samsung Sky HD box for almost a year; I used Copy+ and it has been working properly until recently and I am a bit worried it could be related to the famous Darwin that came up about 3 months ago.
I'm going to describe the problems and maybe someone could tell what if they are related to the changes in Sky HD software or that my hard drive is just dying...
First of all, I never got to fill it fully, the maximum it got with recording was about 70 %, I always kept deleting stuff I didn't want to keep and others have been kept since the first month of using it. About 2 or 3 months ago I noticed that most of recordings I was doing those days (October - November and early December) were getting choppy and freezing the images at the same time as the blue circle in the box was working and showing on the screen the minutes were being counted... Also some of those recordings were showing fragments of other programs I recorded almost a month later I tried forwarding and rewinding and all those recordings couldn't be watched at all; they would only play for a few minutes and then the same would happen and I had to delete lots of recordings with the problem. I tried many times rebuilding the planner and didn't help. From mid-December on, the recordings have been more stable and I noticed the software update Sky did recently, about 4 weeks ago. I kept rebuilding the planner a few times as well. I noticed the recordings from mid-December have been playing properly and only two recordings from last week showed the same problem again...
I wanted to know if anyone thinks this is caused by the Darwin update or it is just a hard drive failing. If it is related to Darwin I want to know if I should do a system reset or just use the newer version of Copy+ and if that way it will solve the problem. Also wanted to know if I could back up the recordings I have before the problems started or pre-Darwin update...

EDIT:
Reading the official thread for this problem made me realize I should have posted there... Maybe an admin could move it there.
I also wanted to add that my hard drive is a SAMSUNG HD103SJ Spinpoint F3, so it is 1TB only, but I also have the same problems and the version of Copy+ I used was 1.2.0.5. Should I use the fix tool or is my disk destined to die?

[pcbbc]

Hi,
Yes, sorry these are the classic signs of Darwin corruption on a disk over 1TB formatted with Copy+ prior to the current release.
I assume you have only recently received Darwin?
Suggest running the alignment fix tool as soon as possible, which will prevent any further corruption and also confirm if the alignment issue is the cause (certainly sounds like it).

[ezsurf3r]

Thanks, will try this early in the morning. I think I received Darwin around November, when the issues started.
I wanted to know if the disk can be used again with the box if I wipe it completely and use the latest version of Copy+ ...

[pcbbc]

Thanks, will try this early in the morning. I think I received Darwin around November, when the issues started.
I wanted to know if the disk can be used again with the box if I wipe it completely and use the latest version of Copy+ ...

No, you can not use Copy+ unless you have a pre-Darwin disk or image to copy from.

[ezsurf3r]

Does that mean I will need a brand new disk if I want to use Copy+ again in the future?

[pcbbc]

Does that mean I will need a brand new disk if I want to use Copy+ again in the future?

No. Copy+ simply can't copy FROM a disk that has been converted to Darwin.

It can copy TO one if you delete everything off it in the first place by deleting the partition (which has always been a pre-requisite of using Copy+ anyway).
In that respect the state of the destination disk, and what it has or has not been used for in the past, is and always has been completely irrelevant.

[ezsurf3r]

Sorry, I didn't ask properly. I wanted to know if I delete or wipe the disk and use the latest Copy+ - without copying anything, just for formatting or to make use of the full capacity again, could I use it then?

[pcbbc]

Copy+ can not format a disk from scratch.
It must always have a source donor disk to copy from with the correct pre-prepared Sky system databases on it.
That source disk (or XTV image thereof) must come from a HD system which has NOT received Darwin.

[ezsurf3r]

I understand now. So I will need to copy from the original disk I had been using over a year ago previous to the upgrade to 1TB. I assume then that with the latest version of Copy+ I won't get all the errors in the future on the same disk.

[ezsurf3r]

I just tried the Alignment Fixer and it says I don't have any pre-Darwin bad recordings! Does this mean it won't fix the corrupted ones I have?

[Fish]

I've just installed an HD103SJ, and cant get the thing working in my HD box. Should I try blasting an old image on it?

Thanks
Fish

[ezsurf3r]

I just tried the Alignment Fixer and it says I don't have any pre-Darwin bad recordings! Does this mean it won't fix the corrupted ones I have?

[ezsurf3r]

bump