Hitachi 250GB 8MB IDE drive - $109 AR

[gibster]

Originally posted by: MadCowDisease

Originally posted by: gibster

Originally posted by: John

Originally posted by: gibster
Couldn't pay me enough money to get suckered into another IBM drive... The 30 gigger I had died a horrible premature death, just outside of warranty.

Sh!t happens, and all drives regardless of mfg. will die at some point.

Yes, the keyword is: ALL IBM drives die at a very early point.

Not true. IBM drives were phenomenal before the deathstar 75GXP series, and since they sold their drive manufacturing division(s) to Hitachi supposedly quality control has gotten even better. The 'scare' spread from one bad batch of drives to the rest of their drive line, and they've had a bad reptuation since then. With a 3-year warranty, honestly, what are you so worried about?

StorageReview

I WAS talking about the 75GXP. I got it, used about 1 year as a primary in my system, then got a bigger drive, and later put the 75GXP into my kid's system, where it promptly went bad in a span of 1 week.
I'm outside of warranty (valid until 7/2003), so tough luck.

Check out \[H\]ardOCP, they lost ALL of their IBM drives there, they had a large quantity (like 15).

Where I worked previously, we lost half of the IBM drives (out of 20).

Don't tell me this is normal, and it happens to all mfrs. It has never happened in such numbers to any Maxtors, Western Digitals, or Seagates I had, or that I know of. Yes, the drive had good performance, but this is where it ended.

Spreading 'the scare' you say? Well if IBM acted responsibly and admitted the "malfunction", I would be more inclined to trust them. All they said is that their drives should not be used 24x7, which is baloney.
They never recalled the drives, or offered any kind of compensation for bad drives, as far as I know.

As they say, "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me".

And "not worrying because you have 3 year warranty" is also bs. If I knew the actual lifespan of this drive was 1 year or less, I would never have purchased it to begin with. Too much of a headache.

Again, I would advise anybody NOT TO PURCHASE any drives that IBM had anything to do with.

You are just setting yourself up for a disappointment if you do.

 

[ECartman]

Be careful on the extra $20 rebate on this IF you got one of these deals in April or May or June. Hitachi extended the rebate period without notice and is denying the $20 rebates for deals purchased in June or July if you did a deal in April or May.

Even though the $20 rebate forms from April state that the promotion ended in April, and the forms in May stated the deal ended in May, (and so on) Hitachi considers the separate deals in April, May and June to be the SAME promotion and will deny your $20 rebate based on the 1 per address. Apparently for Hitachi that means 1 $20 rebate per address EVER instead of per rebate period.

The $120 rebates are considered separate promotions and you will get them multiple times as long as you make only one purchase per rebate period.

 

[So]

Originally posted by: gibster

Originally posted by: MadCowDisease

Originally posted by: gibster

Originally posted by: John

Originally posted by: gibster
Couldn't pay me enough money to get suckered into another IBM drive... The 30 gigger I had died a horrible premature death, just outside of warranty.

Sh!t happens, and all drives regardless of mfg. will die at some point.

Yes, the keyword is: ALL IBM drives die at a very early point.

Not true. IBM drives were phenomenal before the deathstar 75GXP series, and since they sold their drive manufacturing division(s) to Hitachi supposedly quality control has gotten even better. The 'scare' spread from one bad batch of drives to the rest of their drive line, and they've had a bad reptuation since then. With a 3-year warranty, honestly, what are you so worried about?

StorageReview

I WAS talking about the 75GXP. I got it, used about 1 year as a primary in my system, then got a bigger drive, and later put the 75GXP into my kid's system, where it promptly went bad in a span of 1 week.
I'm outside of warranty (valid until 7/2003), so tough luck.

Check out \[H\]ardOCP, they lost ALL of their IBM drives there, they had a large quantity (like 15).

Where I worked previously, we lost half of the IBM drives (out of 20).

Don't tell me this is normal, and it happens to all mfrs. It has never happened in such numbers to any Maxtors, Western Digitals, or Seagates I had, or that I know of. Yes, the drive had good performance, but this is where it ended.

Spreading 'the scare' you say? Well if IBM acted responsibly and admitted the "malfunction", I would be more inclined to trust them. All they said is that their drives should not be used 24x7, which is baloney.
They never recalled the drives, or offered any kind of compensation for bad drives, as far as I know.

As they say, "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me".

And "not worrying because you have 3 year warranty" is also bs. If I knew the actual lifespan of this drive was 1 year or less, I would never have purchased it to begin with. Too much of a headache.

Again, I would advise anybody NOT TO PURCHASE any drives that IBM had anything to do with.

You are just setting yourself up for a disappointment if you do.

I had a 13.5 gig 35GXp (I think) deskstar that ran for ~5 years, got beaten up, moved from computer to computer, one time even dropped well, tipped it was sitting on its side (|) and fell flat (_) on a wooden table and ran fine. I finally pulled it when I needed room in my desktop for a bigger drive, but it is still sitting in the closet, waiting for the day when I need to throw together a scrap rig. Pretty fast drive too, 7200 RPM w/ on of the first ATA66 interfaces IIRC. It was my MP3 drive for much or its life too, so CONSTANT reads all day for those 5 yrs.

 

[gibster]

I had a 13.5 gig 35GXp (I think) deskstar that ran for ~5 years, got beaten up, moved from computer to computer, one time even dropped well, tipped it was sitting on its side (|) and fell flat (_) on a wooden table and ran fine. I finally pulled it when I needed room in my desktop for a bigger drive, but it is still sitting in the closet, waiting for the day when I need to throw together a scrap rig. Pretty fast drive too, 7200 RPM w/ on of the first ATA66 interfaces IIRC. It was my MP3 drive for much or its life too, so CONSTANT reads all day for those 5 yrs.

All this proves you can find a golden nugget in a pile of sh!t if you look hard enough.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: So

Originally posted by: gibster

Originally posted by: MadCowDisease

Originally posted by: gibster

Originally posted by: John

Originally posted by: gibster
Couldn't pay me enough money to get suckered into another IBM drive... The 30 gigger I had died a horrible premature death, just outside of warranty.

Sh!t happens, and all drives regardless of mfg. will die at some point.

Yes, the keyword is: ALL IBM drives die at a very early point.

Not true. IBM drives were phenomenal before the deathstar 75GXP series, and since they sold their drive manufacturing division(s) to Hitachi supposedly quality control has gotten even better. The 'scare' spread from one bad batch of drives to the rest of their drive line, and they've had a bad reptuation since then. With a 3-year warranty, honestly, what are you so worried about?

StorageReview

I WAS talking about the 75GXP. I got it, used about 1 year as a primary in my system, then got a bigger drive, and later put the 75GXP into my kid's system, where it promptly went bad in a span of 1 week.
I'm outside of warranty (valid until 7/2003), so tough luck.

Check out \[H\]ardOCP, they lost ALL of their IBM drives there, they had a large quantity (like 15).

Where I worked previously, we lost half of the IBM drives (out of 20).

Don't tell me this is normal, and it happens to all mfrs. It has never happened in such numbers to any Maxtors, Western Digitals, or Seagates I had, or that I know of. Yes, the drive had good performance, but this is where it ended.

Spreading 'the scare' you say? Well if IBM acted responsibly and admitted the "malfunction", I would be more inclined to trust them. All they said is that their drives should not be used 24x7, which is baloney.
They never recalled the drives, or offered any kind of compensation for bad drives, as far as I know.

As they say, "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me".

And "not worrying because you have 3 year warranty" is also bs. If I knew the actual lifespan of this drive was 1 year or less, I would never have purchased it to begin with. Too much of a headache.

Again, I would advise anybody NOT TO PURCHASE any drives that IBM had anything to do with.

You are just setting yourself up for a disappointment if you do.

I had a 13.5 gig 35GXp (I think) deskstar that ran for ~5 years, got beaten up, moved from computer to computer, one time even dropped well, tipped it was sitting on its side (|) and fell flat (_) on a wooden table and ran fine. I finally pulled it when I needed room in my desktop for a bigger drive, but it is still sitting in the closet, waiting for the day when I need to throw together a scrap rig. Pretty fast drive too, 7200 RPM w/ on of the first ATA66 interfaces IIRC. It was my MP3 drive for much or its life too, so CONSTANT reads all day for those 5 yrs.

Agree. Back in the day, IBM IDE drives carried a price premium, and were well-regarded in terms of both performance, and quality. I owned both a 13.5GB 14GXP, and a 30GB 75GXP, and both drives were excellent performers, with the 75GXP being both incredibly fast, and incredibly quiet, due to it's ceramic rather than steel ball-bearings. Eventually, both of those drives were sold, the 14GXP still running as well as ever, but with a slight bearing-whine, and the 75GXP in a working state, after doing that "click-of-death" thing once on bootup, ran fine for a month afterwards during heavy use (I erased the drive after the noise), but I still didn't trust it, knowing the rumors of the day, so I sold it. I kind of wish I had kept it now, considering how much it could be worth as a collector's item (working 75GXP). Apparently mine was not made in the "bad" factory; before I got rid of it, it had been working reliably for 2.5 years.

If one wants to talk about crappy HDs, I would put Maxtor ahead of IBM on that list. My 60GB DM+9 drive failed after only six months. It had been purchased as the replacement successor to the "bad quality" 75GXP. Go figure. (In fact, prior to the failure, I had read on some singaporean hardware boards, that the DM+9 60GB line, specifically, was as bad or worse, quality-wise, than the infamous IBM 75GXPs. I didn't believe it at the time, but in hindsight, I would have to say that it was correct.)

I skipped out on any further 75GXP HDs, and the 60GP and 120GXP generations, but I wouldn't be afraid to pick up a 180GXP or one of their newer 250KV line, as long as it had a 3-year warranty and a decent price. Both IBM and Maxtor are going to be producing drives in China though; that should be an interesting scene to watch, in terms of their reliability.

 

[Marauder-]

Originally posted by: MadCowDisease

Not true. IBM drives were phenomenal before the deathstar 75GXP series, and since they sold their drive manufacturing division(s) to Hitachi supposedly quality control has gotten even better. The 'scare' spread from one bad batch of drives to the rest of their drive line, and they've had a bad reptuation since then. With a 3-year warranty, honestly, what are you so worried about?

StorageReview

Eh - the data maybe??? Even if the cost of the drive is fully recovered usually data - especially on primary computers is hard to recover completely.

I lost a 45gb 75GXP - they swapped mine out for a 60gb 60GXP - which I sold very shortly afterwards b/c I just didn't trust their drives anymore. I'd be willing to give them another shot but I'd probably put it in secondary function till it proved itself. I've heard Seagate has one of the best QCs so I've stuck w/ them b/c of both quality and low hdd noise.

 

[hallf]

My drive arrived yesterday in a glossy red and white Hitachi box, and I looked all over it and there's no UPC barcode!!! Both rebates require a UPC and all there is on the box is a sticker that has two barcodes and two numbers one is a "CPN" and one an "SN"...but they aren't in a UPC-type format. Looks like I get to spend some time on the phone explaining this to the rebate companies...

 

[imported_nitrus]

Originally posted by: hallf
My drive arrived yesterday in a glossy red and white Hitachi box, and I looked all over it and there's no UPC barcode!!! Both rebates require a UPC and all there is on the box is a sticker that has two barcodes and two numbers one is a "CPN" and one an "SN"...but they aren't in a UPC-type format. Looks like I get to spend some time on the phone explaining this to the rebate companies...

its the sticker on the box with the bar code, they did not kid around took more then a month for them to send it to me.

 

[DarkSarkas]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry

Originally posted by: So

Originally posted by: gibster

Originally posted by: MadCowDisease

Originally posted by: gibster

Originally posted by: John

Originally posted by: gibster
Couldn't pay me enough money to get suckered into another IBM drive... The 30 gigger I had died a horrible premature death, just outside of warranty.

Sh!t happens, and all drives regardless of mfg. will die at some point.

Yes, the keyword is: ALL IBM drives die at a very early point.

Not true. IBM drives were phenomenal before the deathstar 75GXP series, and since they sold their drive manufacturing division(s) to Hitachi supposedly quality control has gotten even better. The 'scare' spread from one bad batch of drives to the rest of their drive line, and they've had a bad reptuation since then. With a 3-year warranty, honestly, what are you so worried about?

StorageReview

I WAS talking about the 75GXP. I got it, used about 1 year as a primary in my system, then got a bigger drive, and later put the 75GXP into my kid's system, where it promptly went bad in a span of 1 week.
I'm outside of warranty (valid until 7/2003), so tough luck.

Check out \[H\]ardOCP, they lost ALL of their IBM drives there, they had a large quantity (like 15).

Where I worked previously, we lost half of the IBM drives (out of 20).

Don't tell me this is normal, and it happens to all mfrs. It has never happened in such numbers to any Maxtors, Western Digitals, or Seagates I had, or that I know of. Yes, the drive had good performance, but this is where it ended.

Spreading 'the scare' you say? Well if IBM acted responsibly and admitted the "malfunction", I would be more inclined to trust them. All they said is that their drives should not be used 24x7, which is baloney.
They never recalled the drives, or offered any kind of compensation for bad drives, as far as I know.

As they say, "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me".

And "not worrying because you have 3 year warranty" is also bs. If I knew the actual lifespan of this drive was 1 year or less, I would never have purchased it to begin with. Too much of a headache.

Again, I would advise anybody NOT TO PURCHASE any drives that IBM had anything to do with.

You are just setting yourself up for a disappointment if you do.

I had a 13.5 gig 35GXp (I think) deskstar that ran for ~5 years, got beaten up, moved from computer to computer, one time even dropped well, tipped it was sitting on its side (|) and fell flat (_) on a wooden table and ran fine. I finally pulled it when I needed room in my desktop for a bigger drive, but it is still sitting in the closet, waiting for the day when I need to throw together a scrap rig. Pretty fast drive too, 7200 RPM w/ on of the first ATA66 interfaces IIRC. It was my MP3 drive for much or its life too, so CONSTANT reads all day for those 5 yrs.

Agree. Back in the day, IBM IDE drives carried a price premium, and were well-regarded in terms of both performance, and quality. I owned both a 13.5GB 14GXP, and a 30GB 75GXP, and both drives were excellent performers, with the 75GXP being both incredibly fast, and incredibly quiet, due to it's ceramic rather than steel ball-bearings. Eventually, both of those drives were sold, the 14GXP still running as well as ever, but with a slight bearing-whine, and the 75GXP in a working state, after doing that "click-of-death" thing once on bootup, ran fine for a month afterwards during heavy use (I erased the drive after the noise), but I still didn't trust it, knowing the rumors of the day, so I sold it. I kind of wish I had kept it now, considering how much it could be worth as a collector's item (working 75GXP). Apparently mine was not made in the "bad" factory; before I got rid of it, it had been working reliably for 2.5 years.

If one wants to talk about crappy HDs, I would put Maxtor ahead of IBM on that list. My 60GB DM+9 drive failed after only six months. It had been purchased as the replacement successor to the "bad quality" 75GXP. Go figure. (In fact, prior to the failure, I had read on some singaporean hardware boards, that the DM+9 60GB line, specifically, was as bad or worse, quality-wise, than the infamous IBM 75GXPs. I didn't believe it at the time, but in hindsight, I would have to say that it was correct.)

I skipped out on any further 75GXP HDs, and the 60GP and 120GXP generations, but I wouldn't be afraid to pick up a 180GXP or one of their newer 250KV line, as long as it had a 3-year warranty and a decent price. Both IBM and Maxtor are going to be producing drives in China though; that should be an interesting scene to watch, in terms of their reliability.

Agreed. I've had a lot of drives in my time (~5 IBM (2 Deathstar), 2 Maxtor, 3 WD, 1 Seagate), and as far as I can tell the WDs are more prone to failure than any of the others. Of those 3 drives, 2 have failed (both were newer releases... one 160gig RMA'd, and a 120gig.). One of the two Deathstar drives failed, but only after 4 years of reliable and speedy operation. The other 4 IBM drives are solid (one of them for 6 years!) and both the Maxtor drives are still working (one for almost 7 years now). I've never had a Seagate drive die, and never known anyone who had a Seagate die on them.

If it were a contest, I would give Seagate the gold, IBM the silver, Maxtor the Bronze, and WD would get a crappy consolation prize. Like a t-shirt or something.

Oh, BTW: In my experience the WD drives are also the loudest (and hottest) of the bunch. Higher seek times than competing IBM drives as well

 

[mscdex0]

Ok, was all of that quoting necessary?

I mean, it looked very ugly when I was viewing it in Trillian.