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Anyone used Hitachi RMA process for IBM Deskstar HDD

A

AnnoyedGrunt

Senior member
Hi,

I guess it was bound to happen at some point, but one of my 2 40GB IBM HDD's died the other day, and since I was running a RAID 0 array I pretty much lost everything. I didn't loose anything important except some digital pictures from my wedding that I forgot to back up, but other than that all I lost was saved games, spy ware, and virii.

So I've reinstalled windows and the single game I am playing the most on the other 40GB drive, and am now back up and running.

Anyhow, my drives are still under warranty (about 3 months left, lucky me) so I will be sending in the dead drive on Monday.

My question is this:
Has anyone with a similar drive and failure (clicking sounds on startup, as if servo is stuck) gone through the Hitachi Global Storage Technology RMA process and can let me know what to expect and what type of replacement drive you received?

Also, if you want to offer your condolences, I'll gladly accept them as well 🙂

Thanks,
D'oh!
 
Sent 1 GXP75 got a larger GXP120 back and 2-GXP60's ... got 2 GXP180's back {same size}. I had to wait about 3 weeks but it was worth it as they are all still running and Hitachi pulled through ...
 
Thanks for the info people.

I wasn't aware that there was a firmware fix, but upon searching I only found a fix for a SMART error. My drive wouldn't even start up, so I doubt the firmware would have fixed that (but it is possible).

One thing I didn't realize was that Hitachi has very stringent shipping constraints on the drives. They didn't mention those constraints during the RMA process, and I only saw it linked in an e-mail they sent me later. Unfortunately for me, by the time I read the e-mail I had already shipped the drive using methods they explicitly said would void the warranty.

Needless to say, I'll be pretty pissed if that happens, but I sent them an e-mail to see if there was anything I could do to fix the situation. I'm hoping that since this is a relatively common failure they will still give me a replacement drive, but I am now lowering my expectations.

Time will tell....

-D'oh!
 
Originally posted by: AnnoyedGrunt
Thanks for the info people.

I wasn't aware that there was a firmware fix, but upon searching I only found a fix for a SMART error. My drive wouldn't even start up, so I doubt the firmware would have fixed that (but it is possible).

One thing I didn't realize was that Hitachi has very stringent shipping constraints on the drives. They didn't mention those constraints during the RMA process, and I only saw it linked in an e-mail they sent me later. Unfortunately for me, by the time I read the e-mail I had already shipped the drive using methods they explicitly said would void the warranty.

Needless to say, I'll be pretty pissed if that happens, but I sent them an e-mail to see if there was anything I could do to fix the situation. I'm hoping that since this is a relatively common failure they will still give me a replacement drive, but I am now lowering my expectations.

Time will tell....

-D'oh!
Click to expand...

I have 2 HD boxes sitting on the shelf I have been saving ever since my last rma with Hitachi. I went and bought a new Seagate and used the box to send my old DeathStar back to them. (I doubt they got the hint!) I was already pissed they wouldn't do advanced replacement.
 
Well, I got my replacement drive today. The replacement is the same part number I had before (different serial number) and is a "serviceable used" drive. Given that this replacement drive could have potentially the same problem as the old one (and is likely a repaired, earlier RMA'd drive), I'm not overjoyed. I am happy though that I did get a replacement with no hassle and in about 1 week. Since I already reconfigured my computer with my second old drive, I will probably not bother to install this replacement until I run out of space or reformat and reconfigure the computer.

I guess I was kinda hoping I'd get a newer drive that definitely wouldn't have the same issue, but I never really expected that.

Thanks for the link to the firmware update and the info.

Later,
D'oh!
 
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