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[Glaucus]

Yup, it finally happened. My IBM 60GXP DeskStar 40GB (aka DeathStar) finally bit the dust! Ugh!!! When I bought this I was unaware of this drive's less then spectacular reliability. In fact, the reputation of these drives was so <sarcasim> good </sarcasim> that IBM sold off it's HD manucaturing division to Hitachi (why Hitachi bought it, I don't know, but I'm staying away from Hitachi drives as well). At least that's what I read yesterday from various different articles while searching for recovery tools. I also read that there's a class action lawsuite against IBM because of these crappy drives.

Anyway, lucky for me, the partition that I store all my data and files is mostly intact (and already mostly salvaged onto my new Western Digital 80GB drive). My OS partition is now swiss cheese and I haven't bothered checking the partition where I install my apps (without the registry, what's the point?). So for the next few days I'll be busy re-installing and re-tweaking my setup.

Oh joy of joys... Ugh! Sometimes I just hate computers (and yes, I did have somewhat recent backups, but I might as well just re-install, don't trust the backup software anyway).

- Mike

[Step]

Hmm, IBMs hard drives has almost always been good, there were one series that was less than stellar, and the resent stuff is about faulty harddrives that they knowingly shipped out anyway. My IBM drives have always performed like a charm so i will continue with Hitachi. However one manufacturer that i have had several problems with are Western Digital so i will never buy their crap again.

In the end i guess it is up to personal experiences. too bad about your problems tough.

[todi]

Well, it's a well known fact... search for 'deskstar problem' with your favourite search-engine.

My Deskstar 40GB didn't last for a year, so I won't buy any Deskstar ever again.

But to be fair: I had and have several other IBM HDs (non-Deskstars) running and those are quite perfect!

[Hooligan_DCS]

Four (4!) 40gb Desktars broken, all in about a years time from each other. Latest two weeks ago. Replaced to Samsung .. tired of always getting a new one exactly like the previous.

Hopefully IBM are sentenced in stopping all manufacturing which has even slightest to do with storing media.

[mikeymike]

Yep, I was a DeathStar victim too. 40GB disk. Dead in just over a year.

{bleep}s.

[amigean]

In mid-2001 I bought my self a 20GB IBM deathstar, which lasted for about 9 months.

It took IBM 2 months to send me a replacement. The replacement 'deathstar' had to be replaced too after another 6 months. That replacement (the replacement's replacement) is currently at (what is now) Hitachi's Support centre in the Netherlands, while I am still waiting for a replacement.

At present, I am seriously considering the possibility of not buying another IBM (or Hitachi) hard drive.

I rest my case.

[Karlos]

Most drive manufacturers* have had problems at some point, the "deathstar" is nothing new.

Ive seen dodgy drive models made by

IBM, Western Digital, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Seagate and Maxtor.

Probably the worst offenders I've seen are

IBM Deskstar, Maxtor DiamondMax and Fujisu (cant recall the series)..

* how come I always spell this word incorrectly?

[Vincent]

Karlos wrote:
ern Digital, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Seagate and Maxtor.

I wouldn't touch Connor drives with a 1000foot long barge pole. I had 3, yes that's three, blow up on me within 2 weeks.

Replaced it with a 2.4GB Maxtor (can't remember the full make name) and it's only given me gyp once or twice in 7 years. It's now semi-retired as a backup drive :-)

[Glaucus]

I trust the little computer shop I regularly shop at. I asked them what they recommended and they told me it's a toss up between Seagate and Western Digital. Seagate, they said, was perhaps more reliable while the WD would be a tad faster.

They did however warn me to stay away from Seagate SATA drives as they're about as bad as the DeathStars.

And as for IBM, I too understand that all manufacturers make duds, but the 60GXP was actually a successor to the 75GXP (yeah, it seems backwards, but that's what I read in some article), which had an even worse track record. They should have put more effort into fixing the design flaw before putting out a new product!

- Mike

[Revener]

I have had no problems whatsoever with my IBM drives, both my 40GB (2 years old) and my 120GB (8 months old) works fine.

And Conner drives, well the one in my A1200 is 12 years old now and still kicking.

[Diezman]

The first hard drive I ever had was a 40MB Fujitsu on a GVP controller
on my A500. It worked fine for a while until I got into 3D modeling.
When I tried to render my first "complex" animation I ran the computer
24/7 for a month. I only rendered about 30 frames before I stopped
the renderer. The hard drive didn't work right again.

Since then I stuck with Quantums until I bought a 60GB Seagate that
was on sale when I built my Pegasos. I absolutely love this drive.
It's fast and VERY quiet. The first time I powered up I thought the
drive didn't spin up and was DOA because it was so quiet!

--Aaron Diezman

[Damion]

As far as reliability, I've had good luck with everything IBM
and Seagate, but I did on one occasion acquire a 'DeathStar' second
hand that sounded like it was ready to blow. My Samsung has also
been a great drive "so far", quiet and fast.

I'm surprised to hear about the Seagate SATA drives though...aren't the
actual drive mechanisms similar/identical to the PATA versions?

[Ferry]

I have had serious issues with Seagate PATA drives, having to replace up to three of them in less than 2 years. So no more Seagate drives for me. Now I'm using Western Digital and Samsung with no problems.

Saluditos,

Ferrán.

[ami500]

Yea damn IBM drives.

I had to RMA one of my 15 gig drives. But at least it's still working with the other one in raid stripe in my lan machine.

But I've also got two dead travelstars.

One is a 3.2 gig that was in my sisters laptop and it sort of just developed bad sectors and the click of death.

The other one was a 10gig that was in my laptop. I hadn't used it for about two months only to turn it on one day and the drive was trucked*. Seriously trucked* just from not being used. Now I have an apple/toshiba 10gig in it's place.

* -tr +F

[KennyR]

-D- wrote:
I'm surprised to hear about the Seagate SATA drives though...aren't the
actual drive mechanisms similar/identical to the PATA versions?

As far as I know, Seagate SATA drives are simply ATA/133 drives with a bridge chip.