IBM Deathstar: they KNEW!

[Wombat]

http://techreport.com/onearticle.x/6292

he report is based on IBM e-mails and documents made available recently by a California court in connection with the class-action suit. The Maximum PC folks have dug up some sensational info in these documents, including internal IBM discussions revealing failure rates 10 times as high as competing products from other manufacturers, an apparent determination to address the problem through marketing denials rather than manufacturing changes, and a decision to sell a batch of faulty drives into distribution (and thus to consumers) after its rejection by a larger customer due to high failure rates.

[Helevitia]

I read that yesterday and thought...I hope my two 40GB IBM drives don't die on me :/ I have had these two for almost two years now(crosses fingers)

[The PIT]

Disgusting. I wonder if Fujitsu did the same sort of thing.

[Technoid]

had 2 IBM's die on me, but that was not IBM's fault, no hdd survives the assault of a 10 year old

Still got 4 other ibm gxp's still running

[tonny]

I had 6 drives from the 60GXP series and all died out on me. I had them replaced and the new ones dies as well. I eventually got them replaced with others brands. I didn't have very important info on them except on the first one that crashed . I didn't give up on IBM drives though, just those from the 2 series.

[Indiana]

3 out of my four IBM Deathstars are dead now. The third died just a few weeks ago and I'm sure the fourth will follow sooner or later...

[tonny]

firmware update

For those of you that still have a 60GXP hard drive, there is a firmware update from IBM that you could try. I have no ideea about it's usefulness because I no longer have drives from that series.
There is a utility at the following address that tells you if there is a firmware update available for you model and where you can get it:

http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=0&uid=psg1MIGR-44195&loc=en_US

You can use that utility even if you don't have a 60GXP drive since it does not modify anything and it checks for update for some other series as well. However, if you find that there is an update available I encourage you to backup all your data before installing it (if you have a 60 or 75GXP you should backup often anyway).

[The PIT]

Four deathstars all died eventually. My own advise is bin them or give them to someone you really hate.

[Chrono_Wanderer]

LOL@ the PIT

anyways, i dun see any reason why one should get IBM HDDs....

[tonny]

Originally posted by Chrono_Wanderer
LOL@ the PIT

anyways, i dun see any reason why one should get IBM HDDs....

All my drives are still IBMs

[bsdgeek]

and a decision to sell a batch of faulty drives into distribution (and thus to consumers)

Sounds like this other company I know, IBM should have just said it was "normal behavior".

[Wombat]

Originally posted by bsdgeek
Sounds like this other company I know, IBM should have just said it was "normal behavior".

Yeah, they could even change the web page from "total data integrity" to "total data integrity +/- 10%"

[Indiana]

Originally posted by Wombat
Yeah, they could even change the web page from "total data integrity" to "total data integrity +/- 10%"

ROFLMAO...

[Admiral]

Only one 45GB IBM here (made in Thailand) and it's been going strong for more than three years now.

[Marshmallowman]

Still got 2x60gxp's, one has already been replaced. I no longer use them as a striped set as I just don't trust them.

But I would have thought IBM selling their HDD divison was a dead give away that something stunk