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Backstory:
About a month and a half ago, I purchased a three month old 750GB Samsung F1 HDD from a well respected member. Once received, I plugged it in and was having trouble in the POST screen where it displays connected HDDs and whatnot. It would show only part of the name of the drive and would not boot into Windows (just hanged). I found to fix this I had to reset the computer until it properly displayed the name.
Once into Windows, I couldn't get it formatted. Windows would always give me an error message when doing a full format and when I did a quick format it would keep the drive on RAW and not NTFS.
So, the seller recommended that I use Samsung's HDD utility. I did and it worked like a charm. I also ran a quick Samsung HDD test after the format and no errors came up.
This all was on Windows Vista. However, a few days later I decided to go back to Windows XP and this was when the main issue surfaced. On Vista, I did not know how to check the SMART status of drives, but this was one of the first things I did when I converted back to XP and saw that the spinup time was 11 (thres is also 11, norm is ~70). This was when I decided to try Samsung's RMA service.
RMA Service:
I went to Samsung's site and filled out the electronic XRA form. I waited a week and received no reply so I emailed their tech support. The tech support reply had nothing to do with my question (copy/paste remark). Since I did not have the time to call Samsung to do the RMA, I faxed their XRA form to them on a Sunday 5PM PST. The following day they faxed me the RMA number at 7AM PST and emailed me a printable label for the box. I also emailed the tech support of the RMA company (TTS) and received an actual reply within two hours.
I shipped it to them via UPS and once it arrived (took 5 days since I used Ground and they are in NJ) they sent an email informing me of the situation. Two days pass and they email me again with a progress report and that my new HDD will be shipping out soon. This was on Friday (Aug. 1st). I just recieved the package today since they used 2 day UPS air. The drive itself is in like-new condition and all SMART values are great (spinup time is 76).
To sum it all up (all IMO), Samsung's online support is horrible, but the RMA company they use is fantastic. Hope this helps whoever is in need of a Samsung RMA.
About a month and a half ago, I purchased a three month old 750GB Samsung F1 HDD from a well respected member. Once received, I plugged it in and was having trouble in the POST screen where it displays connected HDDs and whatnot. It would show only part of the name of the drive and would not boot into Windows (just hanged). I found to fix this I had to reset the computer until it properly displayed the name.
Once into Windows, I couldn't get it formatted. Windows would always give me an error message when doing a full format and when I did a quick format it would keep the drive on RAW and not NTFS.
So, the seller recommended that I use Samsung's HDD utility. I did and it worked like a charm. I also ran a quick Samsung HDD test after the format and no errors came up.
This all was on Windows Vista. However, a few days later I decided to go back to Windows XP and this was when the main issue surfaced. On Vista, I did not know how to check the SMART status of drives, but this was one of the first things I did when I converted back to XP and saw that the spinup time was 11 (thres is also 11, norm is ~70). This was when I decided to try Samsung's RMA service.
RMA Service:
I went to Samsung's site and filled out the electronic XRA form. I waited a week and received no reply so I emailed their tech support. The tech support reply had nothing to do with my question (copy/paste remark). Since I did not have the time to call Samsung to do the RMA, I faxed their XRA form to them on a Sunday 5PM PST. The following day they faxed me the RMA number at 7AM PST and emailed me a printable label for the box. I also emailed the tech support of the RMA company (TTS) and received an actual reply within two hours.
I shipped it to them via UPS and once it arrived (took 5 days since I used Ground and they are in NJ) they sent an email informing me of the situation. Two days pass and they email me again with a progress report and that my new HDD will be shipping out soon. This was on Friday (Aug. 1st). I just recieved the package today since they used 2 day UPS air. The drive itself is in like-new condition and all SMART values are great (spinup time is 76).
To sum it all up (all IMO), Samsung's online support is horrible, but the RMA company they use is fantastic. Hope this helps whoever is in need of a Samsung RMA.