Am I the only one left with a working 75GXP?

[BG]

I'll probably never buy another IBM/Hitachi drive ever again mainly
because of the companies attitude at claiming there was no problem when
there clearly was an issue (although I dont believe it was as bad as
some people try to make out).

I've still got a 30GB 75GXP drive which has run 24/7 virtually every day
since I bought it when they were first introduced. A friend also has a
45Gb 75GXP still going strong which is almost as old.

So are our drives freaks off the production line or is it as I suspect
the issue nothing like as bad as some think. Admittedly a sample of
only 2 drives not going hold much wieght but most people only post to
newsgroups when there having problems not when everything is working
fine. I'm sure there are more drive of the GXP family out there still
working, anyone else?

 

[Rod Speed]

I'll probably never buy another IBM/Hitachi drive ever again mainly
because of the companies attitude at claiming there was no problem
when there clearly was an issue (although I dont believe it was as
bad as some people try to make out).

I've still got a 30GB 75GXP drive which has run 24/7 virtually every
day since I bought it when they were first introduced. A friend also
has a 45Gb 75GXP still going strong which is almost as old.

So are our drives freaks off the production line or is it
as I suspect the issue nothing like as bad as some think.

No one with a clue has ever been silly enough to claim that they all died.

That did happen to one hard drive made in India, but
not to any of the mainstream hard drive manufacturers.

Admittedly a sample of only 2 drives not going hold much wieght

Yep, the technical term for that is pathetically inadequate sample.

but most people only post to newsgroups when there
having problems not when everything is working fine.

You do see some say that their's is still working fine, particularly
when someone says theirs has just died and the RMA did too etc.

I'm sure there are more drive of the GXP
family out there still working, anyone else?

There's been quite a few say that even just in this newsgroup.
Try groups.google.

 

[Bruce Kellog]

I am waiting for the arrival of my third 45GB 75GXP replacement.

#1 Failed within 2 weeks of its purchase
#2 Failed after 1 year
#3 Failed after 11 months

And the scary thing about the last failure is that it occurred without ANY
warning. One day I went to turn on my computer. Instead of the familiar
spinup, the drive made a *crunch* *crunch* *crunch* sound. Did it several
times and then stopped. BIOS didn't see the drive, nor did the DFT.

I have no idea what Hitachi will send me. I called them last week, and all
they could tell me is that the replacement drive is coming from overseas.
In the past they've always sent me an exact model replacement. This time,
if they do the same thing and don't upgrade me to a 120, I'm not going to
even bother installing it. Thinking of going to a Hobby and Crafts store
and buying some clear Lucite. Will encase the drive in Lucite and use it
as a paperweight. Should make for a great conversation piece. In any
case, if your data is important to you, or you need a computer that just
cannot fail unexpectedly, DO NOT USE AN IBM 75GXP!!!!

 

[Arno Wagner]

I'll probably never buy another IBM/Hitachi drive ever again mainly
because of the companies attitude at claiming there was no problem when
there clearly was an issue (although I dont believe it was as bad as
some people try to make out).

I've still got a 30GB 75GXP drive which has run 24/7 virtually every day
since I bought it when they were first introduced. A friend also has a
45Gb 75GXP still going strong which is almost as old.

So are our drives freaks off the production line or is it as I suspect
the issue nothing like as bad as some think. Admittedly a sample of
only 2 drives not going hold much wieght but most people only post to
newsgroups when there having problems not when everything is working
fine. I'm sure there are more drive of the GXP family out there still
working, anyone else?

I have one 75GXP and one 60GXP warranty replacement sitting on the
shelf which are presumable still o.k.. After I had 2 75GXP (out of 2)
and one 60GXP (out of 1) fail on me, I just did not have the patience
to try it. No such problems with Seagate and Maxtor so far.

After IBM did not admit the problem I moved away from their brand, and
after a discussuion with out hardware people at the office, so have
they. (They where already thinking about dropping IBM for numerous
failed 75GXPs. Fortunately the vendor gave them Seagates as
replacement.) I think we might still have some 60GXPs at the office
that work. We where thinking about replacing them all, though.

Arno

 

[Crypto]

Things cut not relevant...

There's been quite a few say that even just in this newsgroup.
Try groups.google.

I still gave a 45 gig 75 GXP and a 30 gig 75GXP still working fine in
my mom's computer which she uses all the time. It's all backed up and
she only uses it for word processing. I check them from time to time
and they are always just fine. These used to be my drives which I
replaced although they never showed any sign of being bad. So, I will
just wait and see. They are out of warranty now and I have probably
gotten my money's worth from them.

 

[DeepOne]

I'll probably never buy another IBM/Hitachi drive ever again mainly
because of the companies attitude at claiming there was no problem when
there clearly was an issue (although I dont believe it was as bad as
some people try to make out).

I've still got a 30GB 75GXP drive which has run 24/7 virtually every day
since I bought it when they were first introduced. A friend also has a
45Gb 75GXP still going strong which is almost as old.

So are our drives freaks off the production line or is it as I suspect
the issue nothing like as bad as some think. Admittedly a sample of
only 2 drives not going hold much wieght but most people only post to
newsgroups when there having problems not when everything is working
fine. I'm sure there are more drive of the GXP family out there still
working, anyone else?

I have a 40GB 60GXP that is still working fine as the boot drive in my
other (video editing) computer.

I retired my 45GB 75GXP (in a closet at the moment). I had some odd
experiences with it. It worked perfectly well for quite awhile
attached to an Asus P2B-F motherboard. When I upgraded to an Asus P2B
board, it started developing bad sectors while running Win98's disk
defragmenter (no problems prior to defragging). After this happened
several times, I returned it to the P2B-F board which was now in my
2nd computer. Once there, it passed the drive fitness test with no
problems, and it ran fine again for quite some time.

Eventually, I upgraded the P2B-F in the 2nd computer to a P4T533-C
because I wanted more speed for video editing on that computer.
Again, bad sectors started cropping up while defragmenting. Since I
was no longer running the P2B-F with which it worked well, I decided
to replace it.

The boards with which I had problems both have ATA-100 support while
the P2B-F only supports ATA-33. I wonder if that had anything to do
with the problem. I was also running a P3 processor on the P2B-F and
P4 processors on the other boards.

 

[Mr. Grinch]

I have 2 of the 22GB GXPs that are still working well. The only problem
I've had with them so far is that my Promise Ultra 133 TX2 card could not
recognize them after a reboot. It recognized all my other drives (one
segate, 3 maxtors) but not the IBMs. A year later Promise finally came out
with a firmware update to fix that and it worked.

Because the 22GXPs were so good I got a 75GXP. It was so noisy I was
worried it was going to die and it did, within a week. Replacement died
within a few weeks. I did not wait for the 3rd replacement to die, it
started making the same noise so I just sent it back. My vendor didn't
want to deal with replacing the drives anymore so I got the Maxtors
instead. Maxtor has had some bad runs too but I lucked out and all of mine
have been problem free.

I'm not interested in trying Hitachi (IBM) drives at this point. I'm happy
with Maxtor and will likely continue to buy them. I'm interested in
Seagate as well, because they seem to have the one of the quieter drives
out there right now. But I'm thinking a 5400 rpm drive (maxtor) probably
is just as quiet as the quietest 7200 rpm drive if not better. My next
system might be built with one fast drive for OS and apps, and a slower
5400 rpm large drive for data, something like the Maxtor 300GB drives. Of
course, anything could change between now and then! The drive market seems
to have been somewhat stagnant over the last 6 months.

 

[Rod Speed]

I have 2 of the 22GB GXPs that are still working well. The only problem
I've had with them so far is that my Promise Ultra 133 TX2 card could not
recognize them after a reboot. It recognized all my other drives (one
segate, 3 maxtors) but not the IBMs. A year later Promise finally came out
with a firmware update to fix that and it worked.

Because the 22GXPs were so good I got a 75GXP. It was so noisy I was
worried it was going to die and it did, within a week. Replacement died
within a few weeks. I did not wait for the 3rd replacement to die, it
started making the same noise so I just sent it back. My vendor didn't
want to deal with replacing the drives anymore so I got the Maxtors
instead. Maxtor has had some bad runs too but I lucked out and all of mine
have been problem free.

I'm not interested in trying Hitachi (IBM) drives at this point.
I'm happy with Maxtor and will likely continue to buy them.
I'm interested in Seagate as well, because they seem to
have the one of the quieter drives out there right now.

Not the latest. The stupid clowns have disabled AAM
because of a percieved patent infringement with that.

But I'm thinking a 5400 rpm drive (maxtor) probably is
just as quiet as the quietest 7200 rpm drive if not better.

Try one of the Samsung P80 drives. Amazingly quiet even
when used in a system which I dont bother to put the covers on.

My next system might be built with one fast drive for
OS and apps, and a slower 5400 rpm large drive for
data, something like the Maxtor 300GB drives.

Of course, anything could change between now and then!

It already has, the Samsung P80s |-)

The drive market seems to have been
somewhat stagnant over the last 6 months.

With some manufacturers, sure.