Samsung NP350V5C-A02UK has upped and died on me - Help needed

Hi there

This is my first post here and I'm looking for some help, advice and guidance if you don't mind.
I have a 2 year old Samsung NP350V5C-A02UK, and for no apparent reason the hard drive has just died on me ("click of death"). Thankfully nothing of importance or value on laptop other than the OS, and this is where it starts to get a bit of a maze for me. If it was desktop PC I'd know EXACTLY what to do as I would have built it, I just don't know where I stand with a laptop. It was purchased with Windows 7 and included a
promo upgrade to Win 8, which I eventually upgraded to 8.1 which is where it is/was now.

I have been spoken to Samsung Customer Support today and am somewhat disappointed to discover that a HDD failure is a double whammy as the license is tied to the HDD, not to the laptop. Therefore theoretically I will not only have to buy a new HDD but also a new Windows 7 image with Samsung Recovery Solution 5, or possibly a Windows 8 image with Samsung Recovery Solution 6.

With all the PC's I have I have I never run backups, I think I might now !!

So my questions are:
1) I do have the original DVD with the System Recovery Media on it, can this be used to reinstall Windows 7 (on a new HDD) or will it require data on the now dead hdd ? Most of the MS CoA code has been rubbed away anyway & I believe I did have an iso of the Win 8 upgrade but this has gone west with the HDD so this route is really a bit academic.
2) Should I follow the official line and send the laptop away for Samsung to deal with it ?
3) I have a full OEM System Builder copy of Windows 7 Home (still sealed), can I use this if I replace the dead 500 Gb HDD with say a 256Gb SSD or would I need to buy a retail copy of Win 8.1 ?
4) If I go down the SSD route any suggestions on which would be the best is this situation and can this laptop make good effect of one ?

I have no great desire to go to 8.1 btw as am perfectly happy with 7 on all my other PC's. I'll no doubt have loads of questions as to how I should install all the above but think I better stop there.

Thanks for reading and I hope to hear from someone soon.

 

Ignore what Samsung support said. The Samsung Windows 7 recovery media should be fine. It should automatic detect the Samsung notebook and install without needing the CoA. Just get a replacement HDD or, better still, an SSD and a USB optical drive for the installation (if none built into your notebook). Before starting the installation I recommend you get the drivers for your notebook (link here) and put on a flash drive so you don't need to connect to the internet until you've got the hardware set up. If, for some reason, the Samsung recovery media won't install then I can't think of a reason why the OEM version wouldn't work using the CoA in the box.

If buying an SSD get at least 256GB because it is good practice to leave at least 10% unpartitioned because it helps the SSD to maintain performance. The SSD will make the computer feel more responsive as well as booting noticeably faster.

John

 

This looks very hopeful and encouraging. Exactly the type of advice I was hoping for. I was hoping to replace the optical drive with a standard HDD and replacing the original HDD with an SSD. Looking at either a 256 gb Crucial M550 or Samsung 850 EVO. Any suggestions ? Would the Samsung be better "received" by the laptop being a Samsung ?
Thanks again.
Dave

 

Either SSD should work and there is debate in the SSD forum about the merits of both. In my experience the Samsung SSDs have lower idle power consumption than the Crucial SSDs but this may not be one of your key considerations. The M550 may be on the way out - Crucial had a sale a few weeks back (I grabbed a 512GB mSATA M550 for £130 ). There is the Crucial MX100 and a couple of new produccts were announced at CES. Or there's the 840 EVO (I've had an 840 EVO mSATA for just over a year) but if you get it also apply the Performance Restoration Tool. As you've noted, there is some advantage in putting a Samsung SSD into a Samsung notebook should you encounter any incompatibility issue.

John

 

Thanks John. Wondering now whether to set sights a little lower and get a 128Gb 850 Pro (cheaper) and have a WD 750 GB 2.5-inch SATA WD7500BPVX BLUE (only £37) in the Optical Bay. Might even stretch to a 256Gb 850 Pro as only £30 more than the similar sized EVO and only£50 more than the smaller 850 Pro.

Will let you know how I get on. for now.

 

Bitten the bullet, splashed the cash and have bought a 256 Gb Samsung 850 Pro with a WD 750 GB Black as a secondary drive. I am in no hurry as delivery might be a few days so in the meantime will collect any ďrivers as needed on a USA stick.

 

Let us know how you get on, but I don't expect any problem.

I assume you have an adapter to put the HDD into the optical bay.

John

 

That's on its way with SSD, just hope it'll be the right one.

 

This thread should be relevant although your notebook might have a 12.7mm bay.

If you haven't got the right part coming then it's something like this.

John

 

Thanks for the links. This is what I've ordered which looks same. Only a couple of quid more and I won't have to wait for it to come from Hong Kong which is where most of those on eBay seem to come from. Mind I think Amazon don't have HDD in stock anyway.

 

That caddy looks fine and, as you say, shouldn't need to travel far since it is in an Amazon warehouse. It probably lacks a bezel / fascia in which case you can carefully unclip the one on the optical drive you are removing from the computer. They are held on by some hooked clips which you need to remove, starting at one end. There are some good instructions here.

However, while on the topic of the sources, I find it more difficult to figure out the foreign based sellers on Amazon Marketplace than on ebay. The latter has a "despatched from" entry which can give a clue although some sellers bulk ship (air freight / courier) from their base to Europe where the goods are put in the post and they show the posting location as where the goods are sent from.

John

 

Thanks for yet another useful link, squirrelled that one away. I know OT but I wholeheartedly agree with you regarding sources as a load of Amazon Marketplace dealers are now no more than a front for Far Eastern traders hiding behind UK addresses. Amazon seem loath to do anything about it so I usually try to get a "fulfilled by Amazon", at least they can take the rap when things go t*ts up. Seem to recall problems with fake Samsung micro SD cards (and others I'm sure) but Amazon hasn't acted.

Mind I have a presence on both myself just not for this type of stuff.

 

YAY We seem to be working. Missing some drivers so cannot connect to the internet yet, but don't see that as a problem as I can get them from Samsung site itself. No prompts yet for code so keeping fingers crossed on that one.

Once again John, thanks for all your help.

btw the DVD drive came to pieces exactly as needed and the WD Black fitted in caddy and the fascia clipped on so easily & so well I can't ever see that coming off in a hurry.

 

Well you'll pleased to read (I hope) that I am writing this from my recovered laptop complete with new (and extremely fast) SSD installed using the recovery media supplied. Left it running overnight to do all the Windows Updates and seems to be running fine. Seems a bit strange running the lappy on Win 7 and now realise how used to Win 8.1 I was; very weird. There are only 2 questions I have left:
1) As reported in a somewhat similar post here Samsung Recovery System wouldn't install using SW Update complaining that there wasn't sufficient space (I think) as it's looking for another partition which I didn't create. Will it install if I shrink disk to create one and how much room should I create ?
2) Following the above I am tempted to run Win 10 Tech Preview and wonder if I could then shrink again and create dual boot. Have folks run Win 10 on a Series 3 with any success ?

 

Thanks for the update. I'm glad to hear that things are working.

1. If you haven't got all the latest drivers from Samsung then you can get SWupdate from here. Note that while it should automatically locate the latest drivers and Samsung software listed for your notebook you can also use the Find Model function to trawl through the database and see if there is anything newer offered for a more recent member of the family.
2. I'm not an expert on Samsung Recovery Solution but you may need to use the Admin Tool to create its partition. There is some discussion about SRS in this thread.

John

 

That error message is misleading. The Samsung Recovery Solution (SRS) that SW Update attempts to install is just a Windows app that relies on the actual SRS system being present with a factory image on the Recovery partition (two partitions if this is a Win8.x model). If that Recovery partition isn't present (because it was deleted or because it's a new disk) the Windows app won't install -- and would be useless anyway.

 

@John Ratsey: Yup I downloaded all the drivers etc off the support site then discovered all I really needed was the WiFi driver so I could get online and the SW Update did it all for me bar the Recovery Solution. Have better understanding of it now .

@Dannemand: Thanks for that, I now realise that it is the SRS partition it was looking for which hadn't been created, I had assumed it woulld be as it was Samsung's recovery media I was using but reading around I can see that this not the case.

When I fit the secondary HDD I'll do a proper (non SRS) backup on that. Thank you both for your extremely fast and knowledgeable replies.