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Are IBM drives reliable?

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Anonymous   12-18-2001 at 06:11:08 PM

A salesman at a computer store steered me away from IBM drives, saying that they were unreliable. Other things said: The 70 gig Deskstars had a high failure rate and IBM was in the process of being sued. He pushed me towards Maxtors for IDE and Seagates for SCSI.

Does anyone have any info about this? I was leaning towards IBM drives for my new system.

Thanks, Thomas

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camieabz   12-18-2001 at 07:15:54 PM
- 0 +

I use 60GXPs with no probs. Fast, cool and reliable...just like me! :smile:

<b><font color=blue>~scribble~</font color=blue></b> :wink: <A HREF="http://www.ud.com/home.htm" target="_new">Help cure cancer.</A>

Reply to camieabz
Toejam31   12-18-2001 at 08:46:22 PM
- 0 +

As long as you avoid the 75GXP series, you should be fine. The reliability of this series of drive is the basis of the lawsuit. The 60GXP series doesn't seem to be plagued by the same kind of problems.

And of course, just for camie ... a few links. ;-)

<A HREF="http://www.theinquirer.net/28030104.htm" target="_new">http://www.theinquirer.net/28030104.htm</A>

<A HREF="http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,59943,00.asp" target="_new">http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,59943,00.asp</A>

<A HREF="http://www.tech-report.com/news_reply.x/2799/" target="_new">http://www.tech-report.com/news_reply.x/2799/</A>

However, if I was making the purchase for a new system, the ATA/133 Maxtor DiamondMax Plus D740X drives would certainly be given some due consideration. Especially the drives with the Fluid Dynamic Bearing Motors, which can be identified by an "L" accompanied by a number at the end of the model number.

The only difficulty with buying a Maxtor drive with the FDB Motors is locating one ... most places are sold out. But you can find a "J" series drive at many places, and some even come with the ATA/133 card. They are pretty nice, too.

Even without the card, they will run at ATA/100, in case you were wondering. You could always pick up the card at a later date, if you wished.

If you are building a home desktop system, it's my opinion that in most cases, SCSI is overkill. It's still more expensive than IDE, and unless you intend to work with some very large files, or are building a CAD workstation, IDE is usually sufficient. IDE RAID can be an even better solution, especially if you are on a budget, and want a fast write speed. That can be nice for gaming, although it takes slightly longer to read from a striped disk set.

Toejam31

<font color=red>My Rig:</font color=red> <A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?rigid=6847</A>
______________________________________________________________

<font color=purple>"Procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part."</font color=purple>

Reply to Toejam31
camieabz   12-18-2001 at 11:59:23 PM
- 0 +

LoL. Touche

<b><font color=blue>~scribble~</font color=blue></b> :wink: <A HREF="http://www.ud.com/home.htm" target="_new">Help cure cancer.</A>

Reply to camieabz
OldBear   12-19-2001 at 05:58:33 AM
- 0 +

I have a IBM 60GXP 60gig as my master in its 5th month. No problems, quiet, fast and cool.

<font color=blue>Remember.... You get what you pay for. :smile: All advice here is free.</font color=blue> :wink:

Reply to OldBear
btvillarin   12-19-2001 at 06:55:51 AM
- 0 +

Luckily, my 30GB 75GXP hasn't died on me yet. It's been running for almost 10 months. I'm ready in case it dies. I bought a WD600AB (60GB) in case it blows up. :smile:

Go with the 60GXPs...

<A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/btvillarin" target="_new">My Website</A> - updated basically everyday.

Reply to btvillarin
wkadviser   12-19-2001 at 05:20:29 PM
- 0 +

No problem with the 60GXP. IBM drives are very reliable, fast, quiet. Definitely worth the extra $$.

Reply to wkadviser
upec   12-19-2001 at 11:20:42 PM
- 0 +

I agree. My 60GXP work great.

Reply to upec
Jake75   12-20-2001 at 09:37:31 AM
- 0 +

Well, I don´t agree.

My computer has crashed on me a couple of times now, lots of corrupted data on my drive.

Honestly, I don´t know if it is my mobo or my harddisk that goes berserk, might be a defective controller on the mobo? I have no clue...
hopefully I will find out tomorrow when my new computer arrives.


I LOVE YOU BRITNEY SPEARS!

Reply to Jake75
Galvin   12-21-2001 at 07:07:26 AM
- 0 +

When the IBM drives go they go perminatley, they won't work again. That's what the lawsuit is all about. if you're crashing and stuff, it's not a drive crashing. You can always boot in save mode and do a checkdsk /f.
If you're using NT/2K/XP you should check your invent logs in computer management.

Reply to Galvin
OldBear   12-21-2001 at 07:14:40 AM
- 0 +

Which model is messing up?

<font color=blue>Remember.... You get what you pay for. :smile: All advice here is free.</font color=blue> :wink:

Reply to OldBear
HonestJhon   12-21-2001 at 08:15:45 AM
- 0 +

75GXP
do any retialers still carry that P.O.S.??


-DAvid

-Live, Learn, then build your own computer!-

Reply to HonestJhon
Owl   12-21-2001 at 09:42:18 AM
- 0 +

Please go with ATA/133 Maxtor or ATA/100 Maxtor...
IBM and Western Digital are not the way to go.....
IBM 9 drives under 1 year old sent back/ wait 18 days
WD 16 drives under 1 year old sent back/ wait 29 days
Maxtor 1 - 84 days out of warinty 2 days BEST SERVICE

Intel inside
Moron outside

Reply to Owl
ejsmith2   12-21-2001 at 01:39:42 PM
- 0 +

I still use a 75gxp 45gig drive as my main system drive. I wish I could tell you I've had a problem with the drive.

I'm starting to sweat it now, because *EVERYONE* (not just a few people) are cussing these drives...

Reply to ejsmith2
btvillarin   12-21-2001 at 05:54:56 PM
- 0 +

Dude, same here...I'm kinda glad I haven't had a problem, but I'm scared that it'll come any minute. At least I have a backup drive just in case.

BTW, check out <A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=14&manufactory=1302&DEPA=1" target="_new">Newegg</A> - they still carry 75GB 75GXPs. Ouch!

<A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/btvillarin" target="_new">My Website</A> - updated basically everyday.

Reply to btvillarin
OldBear   12-22-2001 at 02:07:03 AM
- 0 +

Wasn't the problem isolated to the ones built in a certain location?

<font color=blue>Remember.... You get what you pay for. :smile: All advice here is free.</font color=blue> :wink:

Reply to OldBear
OldBear   12-22-2001 at 02:09:17 AM
- 0 +

I can't believe they are still selling them. Hard Drive roulette.

<font color=blue>Remember.... You get what you pay for. :smile: All advice here is free.</font color=blue> :wink:

Reply to OldBear
HonestJhon   12-22-2001 at 02:23:38 AM
- 0 +

instead of "CLICK, spin, CLICK, spin, KABLAM!!"
it would sound like this...
"CLICK, spin, CLICK, spin, CLICK, CLICK, CLICK, CHUGGA CHUGGA, click, spin, SILENCE.....system crash...
something along those lines.

-DAvid

-Live, Learn, then build your own computer!-

Reply to HonestJhon
OldBear   12-22-2001 at 02:29:21 AM
- 0 +

Well, I like it! Does that make us corny again? :smile:

<font color=blue>Remember.... You get what you pay for. :smile: All advice here is free.</font color=blue> :wink:

Reply to OldBear
ejsmith2   12-22-2001 at 03:11:16 AM
- 0 +

I think mine goes into thermal recal. more often than normal, but I've physically checked the case with a comp-u-nurse and my hand. My case fans keep it warm (~50C), but not 75C.

I've retired my Kenwood 72x (*sob*, *sob*), but I'm not ready to retire my Ibm'er yet. I read in one of the articles that most of the bad drives were comming from Hungary. So I'm guessing most of the faulty posts were from Europe, and not the States...

Reply to ejsmith2
Mnx4   12-22-2001 at 07:18:31 PM
- 0 +

Is the problem with all 75GXPs? or is it just the ones that have high density? Do they crash because of high temps or what?

Putting the laughter back in to Slaughter.

Reply to Mnx4
Anonymous   12-23-2001 at 03:27:27 AM
- 0 +

hi all,

...just to add my complain here as well, I've bought a 75GB Deskstar 75GXP drive (with Ultra ATA/100 interface) and after about 2-3 months it failed. It took IBM 1 month to ship another drive from Hungary (I guess), and yes, I was really pissed off bec. of this. Second drive's been working fine now for the past 1 month (although, to make sure, I've put the SmartDefender Monitor program that IBM makes). Even better, my laptop (Dell Inspiron 8000) harddrive (32 gb IBM harddrive) has started failing, after 10 months of use, I believe there's something wrong with the spindle as I get really strange sounds. Dell is replacing it as we speak. This is really uncalled for and will never purchase IBM products again. Is there any info to log a complaint or join litigation!? I'm giving IBM another try with the replacement harddrives (the laptop and the desktop's), if the replacements will fail too, I will definitely join a lawsuit, if not, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

thanks much,

Cosmin

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