4 out of 6 IBM drives where crap!

[mikeinfwa]

over the past 2 years i have purchased about 20 hard drives. Western Dig, seagate, maxtor and IBM. The only ones i have had problems with were IBM! 2 arrived dead. the other 2 died within 3 months while 2 are still alive.

Either i'm really unlucky with ibm or there Quality Assurance sucks.

anyone having this much troulbe with IBM drives? (i wont be buying anymore IBM drives)


mike

 

[Jeff H]

Mike, I've used WD, Seagate, Maxtor and IBM. The only drive I've ever had go toes up on me was a 22GXP 13.5G IBM drive. It exhibited a whirr-click behavior that toward the end resulted in multiple lock ups. The drive was replaced by my VAR w/ and identical drive and every so often this drive does the same thing, except for locking up. Needless to say I'm doing a lot of backups these days.

The drive I've been the most impressed w/ was the Maxtor 6.8G. I'll definitely consider Maxtor for my next drive.

 

[Mem]

My IBM is 2 years old & going strong I would say you have been unlucky,btw my previous harddrives were Quantum,WD,Fujitsu & I had no problems with them at all, so does that make me lucky.

 

[403Forbidden]

hmm...I've bought 4 IBM 75GXP's in the past few months. All of them have been running fine.

 

[thorin]

If you've bought Quantum you might (might!) have returned 1 in the 20 you ordered.

All my friends, relatives, and associates who work in comp stores swear by Quantum.

Thorin

 

[medic]

Jeff H
If that drive made that Whirr..click noise once I would RMA it. Why risk your data?

 

[thorin]

CRV
Fix yer sig dude.....wtf is with that huge long string.

Thorin

 

[Spook]

I had that whirr-click problem on a couple of drives a couple of years ago, it didn't like the O/Cing I was doing... Difference was, that they were maxtor drives...

 

[medic]

.

 

[KingHam]

I've purchased about 30 IBM drives and I have never had a single problem with any of them. So IMO you have had some awful luck.

KingHam

 

[cjchaps]

Back in the day when 1 gig drives were big, I had two 1.6 WD caviars die on me. Before that I had a 650 meg seagate die as well. I think one the heads crashed on the 1.6 caviars.

 

[Modus]

mikeinfwa,

I would definitely say you were unluckey. Think about it: if your experience really indicated the average reliability of an IBM drive, then IBM has a 67% failure rate. Obviously that is not the case, or they would have gone out of business long ago.

Thorin,

Actually, of the small sample of four Quantum drives I've used in system builds over the past few years, two have failed. I'm not naiive enough to believe that this represents any kind of scientific sample of Quantum drives. Still, we shouldn't be so quick to make a positive/negative judgement on a brand based solely on anecdotal evidence.

The fact is, there has been absolutely no controlled study of long term computer component reliability in years. Without proper statistical data, we're shooting in the dark when we try to say which brand is more or less reliable. And there's strong evidence from people like JohnnyGuru, who handle hundreds of drive RMA's, that each brand has a nearly identical failure rate: 3-5%.

Since we have no conclusive evidence as to brand reliability (and the little good evidence we do have suggests equality), we should restrict our hard drive buying criteria to only two factors: price and performance.

Modus

 

[weeber]

Yeah, I tried to install an IBM drive in my system and it was basically DOA. It only lasted one night before it trashed my data and went belly up.

I've had about 5 WD drives, only 1 went bad after a couple weeks of use. Never had a problem with Maxtor.

 

[AndrewR]

Were they by any chance shipped in the same package? That almost makes me think that you have a shipping handling problem to have that many drives fail. I've had one drive fail on me -- a Western Digital 850MB. I've used IBM, Maxtor, Seagate, Connor, and other WD without any problems.

 

[Eug]

How many of you are running overclocked systems? If so, what is your PCI speed.

Yesterday I managed to kill a brand new 30 Gb Maxtor drive (DiamondMax 60 series, 5400 rpm) in less than 2 hours, running overclocked up to 38.3 MHz PCI (115 FSB).

My Quantum, IBM, and 3 ROM drives all run fine up to 41.5 MHz, although my CD-RW isn't a reliable burner at 41.5 MHz. Even my ancient 1 Gig Fujitsu ran at 41.5 MHz fine.

Howver, I think I'll consider running at 36.3 MHz (110 FSB) now that I've 38.3 killed a Maxtor so easily. By the way, my friend's Maxtor won't do 37.5 MHz either.

 

[mikeinfwa]

These drives where 8.4s and 20.5s purchased and delivered and different times.

Maybe i shouldn't wear those magnets (for pain relief) when working on computers!! (just kidding)

mike

 

[mikeinfwa]

only ran these at 100 mhz

 

[JellyBaby]

Yep, sounds like a fluke. I've purchased many of the "most reliable" brands over the years and some do fail. In fact I had a terrible run with Western Digitals when it was common to praise them (5+ years ago). IBMs are good stuff.

 

[thorin]

CRV
"wtf is with that huge long string.
Some reason to piss on me today?"

Wasn't meaning to piss on you. It was just a question. Maybe I shoulda included a sorry CRV.

Modus
"Actually, of the small sample of four Quantum drives I've used in system builds over the past few years, two have failed. I'm not naiive enough to believe that this represents any kind of scientific sample of Quantum drives. Still, we shouldn't be so quick to make a positive/negative judgement on a brand based solely on anecdotal evidence.

The fact is, there has been absolutely no controlled study of long term computer component reliability in years. Without proper statistical data, we're shooting in the dark when we try to say which brand is more or less reliable. And there's strong evidence from people like JohnnyGuru, who handle hundreds of drive RMA's, that each brand has a nearly identical failure rate: 3-5%.

Since we have no conclusive evidence as to brand reliability (and the little good evidence we do have suggests equality), we should restrict our hard drive buying criteria to only two factors: price and performance."

I never claimed that it was more then anecdotal evidence, however between the people I was speaking of, we're talking easily hundreds of drives, all Quantum no problems. I never claimed it was any kind of controlled sampling or poll, just our experiences.

I agree that the main factors are price and performance, and Quantum is normaly high (or highest) in both of those factors (For good reason. They score best or second best in all the reviews I've ever read on performance, Quantum knows this and charges for it).(This can be seen on the storage review website).

Thorin

 

[Eug]

I suspect that while for the general population, reliability is not the issue, things may be different for AnandTechers, who overclock everything in sight. I firmly believe that overclocking the PCI speed affects certain drives much more than others, although I don't have great numbers to support that belief. Perhaps one of the overclocking sites should include a hard drive overclocking database.

 

[Jakki0]

To: Mieinfwa:
I am very sorry that your recent experience with IBMs have led you to come to such an awful conclusion. I do however beg to differ strongly with you on that note. I am currently running 5 IBM drives including a 68 pin SCSI 6.4g in my system. Some of these drives dates back to over 2 yrs. My most recent addition is a 15.3g ATA 100 drive. My current PCI bus speed is 37MHz (CULS2 P3-500e @750 (150/150/37))and I have yet to get a hick out of any of my IBMs. I also have a MAXTOR Diamondmax 10g and that recently gave me a lot of problems leading to a reformat. I still would not use this experience to say that MAXTOR drives are bad overall.
I think you should perhaps take a look at your VAR. Where is he getting the drive he is selling to you. Is he an authorized IBM reseller. You do have some drives that fall into the "Grey Market" a check with IBM using the serial number of the drive can tell you who they sold that drive to. That is why they will not even warrant the drive. I am trying to down your VAR but it seems very unlikely that so many drives would be that faulty.
I once ran into a situation like that with some IBM drives I brought at a computer show. 14g for $75.00 got 3. Tried to install them and there goes that clicking noise. Called IBM, they asked for the serial numbers and told me that those drives was sold to a top tier OEM and was not supported by IBM. I did not get them from no top tier OEM. Returned to seller but was not able to get proper replacements. Had to get money back. Now I get my drives from an auth. reseller. Take notice that the numbers on the label of the bag the drive comes in and the one on the label on the drive itself should match. IBM uses this for quality assurance.
My point is that IBM make the best/most reliable/quietest drives hands down (putting on my flame proof jacket).

 

[hans007]

i've never had a harddrive fail. a 120meg seagate has some bad clusters on it now. But thats it. The only one i've ever had a problem with is a maxtor 27 gig. Once because of overclocking the system shut off and its file table was erased. my new ibm is working great so did my old seagates.

 

[thorin]

"I suspect that while for the general population, reliability is not the issue, things may be different for AnandTechers, who overclock everything in sight."

Agreed, OC'ing is a way of life which pushes reliability. However the majority of the poplation doesn't partake in it.

Thorin

 

[Modus]

Thorin,

<<I agree that the main factors are price and performance, and Quantum is normaly high (or highest) in both of those factors>>

Actually, Quantum drives make a mediocre showing on the price/performance scale. Maxtor drives rate far higher. See AnandTech's Quantum Fireball LM review @ [l]http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1240&amp;p=14[/l], where the Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 40 edges it out, and compare that to the price difference between the two drives: $124 vs. $163 by Pricewatch. Even assuming performance of the LM is as good as the +40, we still find that the Quantum drive costs 33% more for no added gain.

I've got nothing against Quantum drives but Maxtor is pretty much the accepted price/performance leader at the moment.

Modus

 

[Rigoletto]

I have a 22XGP 7200RPM and it's fast and quiet. Love it. You must have very bad luck!