IBM HDDs

Hello all!

I´ve been wondering about the trouble that people have experienced with IBM HDDs. I use a 40GB IBM 60GXP which is 2.5 years old with 6 months remaining on the warranty.

At which age did the drives fail?

Can I feel safe at this point since it has worked well until now?

Thanks for any input,
Christer

 

There’s no way to guess if and when it’ll fail….In theory, the older they get the greater the odds of dying…

Just back up your important files on a regular basis..

 

Steve,
I agree - backup - backup - backup ...... ......

Chiles4,
yes I know that it primarily is the 75GXP series that is affected and I hope that the problems were fixed in the superceeding 60GXP series.

Martin,
I take it as the 40GB IBM was a 75GXP ...... ...... please!

Strange way to boost peoples confidence in a brand to reduce warranty from three to one year ...... ......

I have no SMART motherboard but AIDA32 gives it a clean bill of health.

Daddad,
I´ve just downloaded DFT and will run it soon.

Thanks all,
Christer

 

Hi clydeo22!

Thanks for the link. I´ve downloaded but not yet installed.

Regards,
Christer

 

IBM Drive Fitness Test has just been completed. I started with the Quick Test and then the Advanced Test.

Both returned the same result:

One or more corrupted sectors found.
0x70 - Defective Device
TRC 7000BD38

S.M.A.R.T. returned a good "verdict ".

A few questions for Daddad or anyone else with experience of IBM warranty:

Was Your problem of the same nature as mine?

Is it likely that IBM will accept this result as grounds for replacement without having tried a "sector repair" or "erase disk "?

Thanks in advance,
Christer

 

Hi Daddad!

I hope that they don´t require that I try to fix it.
I mean, first a Sector Repair which might fail to fix the defects and after that an Erase Disk that probably would fail as well if the first attempt failed.

I´ll probably go ahead sometime next week.

Thanks again,
Christer

 

I´ll post the result, whichever it becomes!

Christer

 

While chasing for information on HDD size limitations I more or less accidentally came across this webpage. Scroll down a bit and find an explanation to what happens when a 75GXP dies ...... ...... it sounds plausible to me, or ...... ......

However, no clicking sounds from my 60GXP ...... ...... yet.

Christer

 

I read the Drive Fitness Test manual.

If this error is returned:

"One or more corrupted sectors found.
0x70 - Defective Device
TRC 7000BD38 "

then there are two possibilites. It is either a write error or a physical error on the disk itself. If the corrupted sector is successfully overwritten with zeros, then the sector is repaired. If not, it´s a warranty issue.

If a "Corrupted Sector Repair" is chosen, rather than an "Erase Disk" which overwrites the whole disk with zeros, then there are two advantages.

The first advantage is that it is not a "destructive" repair, no re-installation necessary, IF THE ERROR IS IN A NON CRITICAL SECTOR.

The procedure is that the user has to confirm each sector repair in case a file or part of a file is to be overwritten with zeros. The user has the option to skip in each case and try to recover the file in question. If the file is non-critical he can continue the repair. In unused space the repair will be carried out without any user input.

My logic said that if the error was in a critical sector, then the OS or an application would not function and I have not had any indications of that.

If the error was on my data partition then it was not critical since I hadn´t noticed a corrupted file and I could take notes of which file(s) that would be useless and delete it(them) afterwards.

If the error was on my "Ghost Image" partition, then I know that I once had an Image that didn´t pass the Integrity Check. That Image has been deleted but the space probably not overwritten.

I sort of expected the error to be exactly this and when I went ahead with the "Corrupted Sector Repair" it just did its job in the unused space.

The next Quick Test returned a healthy verdict - 0x00 is the code for that. It´s well past midnight here and I have to get some shut-eye before doing the Advanced Test but I expect the HDD to pass it.

Christer

 

Hi Martin!

We don´t celebrate thanks giving in Sweden but the same to You and everyone else who do, probably belated though!

My drive passed the DFT Advanced Test this morning and I´m quite satisfied.

I didn´t wan´t to send it off to claim warranty without trying the "Corrupted Sector Repair" first. If I had decided not to do that, I would have done an "Erase Disk" in order not to send all my personal data to strangers. Knowing now that this would have fixed the drive, with my history in being lucky, Hitachi would have declined my warranty claim and sent the fully functional drive back. That would probably have meant at least a week out off my computer casing ...... ......

Christer

 

Hi Martin!

Well, I´m probably listening/reading too much. All the rumours on the web with no unbiased source of information made me wonder.
Even on Windows BBS have I heard people tell about IBM drives going south, one after the other and that the affected people wouldn´t touch them again.

I had reached the conclusion that it is the 75GXP drives that are the real problem but also that the succesor, 60GXP, couldn´t be ruled out.

Not until yesterday did I come across an article which provided a plausible cause for the problems. The 75GXP series was identified to have a problem concerning uneven temperature expansion of the platters, then as I understand it, the heads could hit the platters resulting in physical damage to both the heads and the platters. It can also lead to, as mentioned in the article, the mechanism getting worn out.

Coincidentally ...... ...... on someones request, Arie has created a poll on peoples opinion on different harddrives and the result should be an interesting read.

I only hope that Western Digital doesn´t score at the top. I´ve just read that it can happen that they aren´t compatible with nForce-2, VIA KT133A and 686B chipsets.
I found this caveat at a webshop and they continue to say that it seems to be a random incompatibility and they conclude that it´s safer to choose a different brand.

Guess which chipset is soldered to my motherboard ...... ...... VIA KT133A.

Well, I´m not loosing any sleep over it ...... ......

Christer