IBM Deskstar Hard Drives.... fast but unreliable????

[elgeorge]

Hello,

I've read a few reviews of the IBM Deskstart HD's (the 60gig 7200 GXP) and all agree that these drives are quite fast. But then I read some user opinions on Cnet and most of the posts say that the IBM HD are pretty unreliable. That they are fast but after a couple of months of use they start to develop bad sectors and clicking noises. Is this any true?? How's been your experience with IBM deskstar drives?

George

 

[Nocturnal]

Ive had two 34gxp's, and 2 60gxp's. out of all four, none have ever gone bad on me :::Knocks on wood:::

i know there are quite a few horror stories regarding the 75gxp series drives. also there are your regular failures of 60gxp's, but what hdd manufacturer doesnt have failed drives, right?

i havent heard much about the newest line, the 120gxp. im wondering if they're any good. i wanna pick up 2x120gig for raid 0

 

[Trader05]

Not another! J/K........I've had 3 Ibm HD's in my lifetime lol.....my first one was a 14gxp 14gb that thing is still going after 3 years, then i picked up a 75gxp 45gb and that took a crap after 3-4 months, rma'd it and i recieved a brand new 60gxp 60gb. This 60gig has been running flawlessly for 6 months now. The 75gxp series was very bad in rma's, 60's weren't as bad..don't know about the new 120's

 

[jcmkk]

Here's a good article for you to read. Decide for yourself if you want to trust one. My 60GXP hasn't crapped out on me yet, but I don't think I'll buy an IBM for my upcoming rig.

 

[krackato]

My 75gxp hasn't broken yet, but I decided to go with a Maxtor for my newest rig.. the 120gxp's are tempting, especially for my video editing needs, but I'll probably try to see if the Western Digital 120GB special edition will work for my needs before I get another IBM. There really are way too many horror stories.

 

[HappyPuppy]

Six months from now the forums are going to be full of posts from people whose Maxtor/Western Digital/Seagate Hdds have failed.

I can remember when Maxtor, WD and Seagate HDDs were to be avoided at all costs. They were total POS.

I would never defend IBM, but it seems there is a paranoia being spread about the failures of some of their drives. There is nothing wrong with the 60 GXP from my personal experience nor from what I have read on various forums.

Also, I think there are a lot of trolls who pick up on a perceived weaknesses of a product and make numerous posts on the different tech forums with no other purpose than to make people doubtful of very good products.

What's my point? This thread was started by a new member with 7 posts. If it had been started by a member with 2038 posts I might take it more seriously. Trolls abound on the internet.

 

[Wolfsraider]

i don't know about you but i am not buying any hard drive that's rated 333 hours per month

Under Reliability

but that's just me

 

[RossaTesta]

I have 2 IBM drives in my primary system, they are 15,000 RPM SCSI, I believe that are of the Deskstart line, anyway they have been reliable for almost a full year now... knock on wood

 

[krackato]

scsi reliability and IDE reliability are two different animals.

As far as the IBM harddrive failure rate being blown out of proportion, I remember that was a company that had bought hundreds of IBM harddrives for it's online storage business or something and they had a huge percentage of them fail. I don't remember the company or have a link to the story (please post a link if you have it), but ever since I read that story I had to assume that there was something inherently wrong with the product. My 75gxp is fine, but a large company unwittingly does an experiment for you by running hundreds of harddrives all day long, all of a particular model and 30-40% break, that's telling you something.

I will try to find the story and post a link if I do.

 

[Darien]

I have a 60gxp and a 75gxp -- so far so good.

 

[CrazyHelloDeli]

Have 30 gig 75GXP's right here at home. Run great never a problem.

 

[Amused]

6 75GXPs (over a year old) and 2 60GXPs in machines I own, or have built for other people and no problems here. Hell, I even have a 14GXP 14.4 GB drive running in a box I built for someone. It's a little loud, but running like a champ.

BUT, I follow some strict guidlines in handling my HDDs:

1. I use active cooling with all my HDDs, unless I can mount them directly in front of an intake vent. I other words, there is always cool air moving over my HDDs. This is VERY easy to accomplish in Antec cases. (Even Dell has done this since the XPS series systems).

2. I NEVER bump or move my box while it's running.

In fact, I've never had a HDD fail on me. I had one old 1GB drive in a Packard Bell develop one bad sector, but it's STILL running to this day (my niece uses it).

 

[Sandor]

I had a 40GB 75GXP die on me after 4 months. RMAed that, got a 60GB 60GXP in return, which I thought was quite nice. Unfortunately, that just died on me (~5 months of use). I bought Maxtor while I RMA the IBM- see how that works out. Alot of people haven't had any problems, but after two failures, I'm ready to try something new. But the IBM was indeed fast and I don't think I've heard many stories (if any) about people getting denied replacements, so its not all bad- I'm just going to wait to hear longevity stories about the newer models before I buy from them again.

 

[aceO07]

I have an IBM 13.5GB 22GXP 7200rpm ata66 drive and an IBM 30GB 75GXP 7200rpm ata100 drive both running great after over a year or more (22gxp).

 

[AndyHui]

Read this FAQ about IBM hard drives.

 

[elgeorge]

Hello Guys,

Thanks for all your replies!!.

Based on all of the posts I'd rather not buy the IBM drive now. It's clear that lots of people are running this drives with no problem, but for me it's better not to take the risk of buying it and counting on RMA in case that the drive fails, simply because I'm outside the US (Venezuela) thus RMA it's not an option for me.



HappyPuppy.... it's true that there's people that just want to trash products, but I guess that we must take any message seriously, no matter how many posts the person has.

Thx.

George

 

[Eug]

<< Read this FAQ about IBM hard drives. >>

I do appreciate all the work of the FAQ-writing people and I mean no disrespect to Windogg, but that FAQ has made me wonder. I've heard all the same rumours, but so far we don't have definitive proof of much of what's in there. There's nothing wrong with a FAQ mentioning these rumours, but it seems like the tone is that people should consider this fact.

As for the Tweaktown article... When I read this I thought: "Hmmm... Replacing circuit boards to access data... Doesn't he ever backup?" If you read between the lines of the Tweaktown article it comes across to me as "Auuuggghhh! I lost my pr0n! Dammit stupid @#$@&^!#% IBM drive. My bud had the same problem and I hear it could be because of cooling maybe. I dunno anything about the technology, but dammit they're responsible for my data loss." Regardless of what brand and model drive you have, you should assume it may fail sooner or later.

Read the following. He doesn't even properly name the drives and it seems clear to me that this guy is no expert in hard drive hardware.

<< I believe IBM is already using this glass platter technology in some of their drives, in 10,000 RPM hard disk drives to be exact. Our research also suggests the 20GB Deskstar GXP has one glass platter, the 40GB Deskstar GXP has two glass platters and the 60GB Deskstar GXP has three glass platters for 3 times the friction and heat. Maybe IBM will confirm this for us. >>

Indeed, in his article his main source of "proof" about the problems with this drive is the AT FAQ I mentioned above.