40 GB IBM's Read!

ryan5262

ryan5262

1
"40 GB IBM 120GXP 7200rpm 2Mb cache ATA100"

They are S**t and that is me Being Nice.....

Don't Touch them With a Ten Foot Barge Pool. Hit them Way it might make them better...

I have had one For about 7 months And that is it GONE just
would not work My Freind who bout one at the same time Doing Similar Things So i thought i would read up And IBM have just
about admitted that they are Crap one Of there Quotes Was "Only Use the Hard Drive For 7 Hours a day Max" Witch Puzzles me.... :confused:

So let me know of your Miss Happs And let every one know not To Touch them !!!!

Dam IBM :mad:
 
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aimunregistrd

1
i have a MAXTOR 40 GB HD, does this count as an IBM 40gb drive you were mentioning? cuz ahhh YIKES! i've had mine for about 3 months and about every once a week i leave it on for about 12 hrs....so is that okay? or should i stop? (i let it convert to mpeg while leaving it on, im sleeping too while doing this)
 
ryan5262

ryan5262

1
I think the MAXTOR is ok I think that is a Diffrent Company I leave mine for ages My other mate has just got one seems to be fine nice And Fast Well not so much one His P3... Nice On my Amd 1.6 As i have Stolen it off him Till i get a replacement Hard Drive
 
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aimunregistrd

1
ummm i hav the MAXTOR 40GB, should i be using a cooler fan with it? i dont want my HD to die...im scared! cuz i dont have any 51/2 drive bays left(only have 2 in my box and both are used by cdrom and cdrw) so what should i do? i leave my computer on for about 10 hrs a day.
 
ryan5262

ryan5262

1
That is me Up and runing again On this Machine Got my Self a Replacement A 40 Gig MAXTOR wich seems to be Great and nice and Fast For me... :rolleyes: Ahhh Well That is IBM out the Window...

I am Looking To buy a USB Caddy So i can take one Of my HD in to Collage And download A few Small Filles :rolleyes: On there T3 Witch beets my 56k... DO you know any good Place for me to get a nice Cheap one??
 
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sarahjh

1
i have returned 3 maxtors

my only 40 gig IBM
works just fine, often for 24hrs a day
about twice as fast as the maxtors.
 
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Maxamus

1
so far since i built my rig 7 months a go, i have had 1 IBM 75GXP 60Gb die on me and 1 IBM IBM 60GXP 60Gb die on me.
Thats 2 IBMS in 7 months gone!
I returned them to ibm and now i have 2 more.
Ive had the new ones now for 2 months and so far its all good.
Hopefully they will continue being great.

I have read alot about why ibm hdd die and 1 interesting article that i read said:

IBM hdd's die because of they clusters, hdd's which are not tightly packed with data are more likely to go faulty because when the 7200rpm is used for long periods or used to move data alot, the clusters expand with the heat which causes the problem.
To stop this from happening, keep alot of data on the drive so the clusters are packed tightly togther.
 
whitewolf359

whitewolf359

1
I have had IBM drives die on me in the past as well now my machines are IBM fre they all have Western Digital IDE drives or Seagate SCSI drives. Yes SCSI is very expensive at the moment but these babies can take a beating and still keep going. Ive got 2 machines that have all SCSI drives and havent been rebooted in months.
 
L

LTR12101B

1
IBM Deathstar drive help

The info site
h**p://www.geocities.com/dtla_update
(over bandwidth when I looked)

Or:

1. Get the latest IBM DFT from here
h**p://www.storage.ibm.com/hdd/support/download.htm
Check your firmware - DOS BOOT FLOPPY CREATED, use UTILITIES, Drive Info

The full firmware id is longer than the 4 chars that Windows gives you.

2. Get the CORRECT DFT/Firmware updater from here
h**p://www-1.ibm.com/support/manager.wss?rs=0&rt=0&org=psg&doc=MIGR-38933

For xxxI (Windows) or xxxIxxxx (Utility), it's the pz2z16
For xxxO (Windows) or xxxOxxxx (Utility), it's the pz2z18
*** This is for GXP models - 3070xx only ***

If the minor id is A5xA, it updates to A5AA, A6xA updates to A6AA

Fixes include correction of problems from SMART data collection (delays?) and forcing the heads to wander when idle to provide wear rate and thermal levelling across the surface.

*** Even drives already becoming erratic have been known to improve. ***

For GXP60 models....
Try here
h**p://www.scan.co.uk/ibmhddtest.htm
 
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Armagan1

1
i have aQuantum 20 GIG As 7200 series and another 30 GIG of same specifications. And noone can make me use another brand.. the only problem is that i'm now thinking of upgrading to 80 GIG, and i'm in suspect of quality of Maxtor.. Chickenman are you happy with your 80 GIG Maxtor??
 
ryan5262

ryan5262

1
Alrighty

Alright all.......

I did not think me starting this post would be so Popular....

Armagan1 : 80 GIG Maxtor??
Click to expand...
That would Do nicely i think i have Just got a 40 GIG Maxtor and it is great you Could Try and Repair the IBM'S Like LTR12101B said But I dont think it is worth the Hassle Just Dont Buy the Dam things that is my suggestion... :p
 
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Armagan1

1
thanks for the recomendations, i'll buy 80 GIG Maxtor. Here in Turkey it's 160 USD including %18 VAT.. any quotations from your countries????:cool: :cool: :cool:
 
Shadey

Shadey

1
Maxamus said:
I have read alot about why ibm hdd die and 1 interesting article that i read said:

IBM hdd's die because of they clusters, hdd's which are not tightly packed with data are more likely to go faulty because when the 7200rpm is used for long periods or used to move data alot, the clusters expand with the heat which causes the problem.
To stop this from happening, keep alot of data on the drive so the clusters are packed tightly togther.
Click to expand...
Out of curiosity - can u minimise the effect of this problem using driver coolers ?

Max - Did u read this from the IBM website ? Just want to check out the article for myself :) Thx
 
L

LTR12101B

1
I think it's just part of the mythology that springs up around unreliable components.

My foraging got me several snippets from various places.

1. Don't use the innermost tracks (limit capacity) [Linux users, mostly]
2. Lower the transfer rate / don't use DMA [various]
3. Don't allow to idle for long periods / not for 100% on or server use [rumoured to be IBM source]
4. Made in Hungary are bad, others are good [various]
5. Win98 has trouble, Win98SE is ok [guy sellin a couple of 15Gb at show]

The truth seems to be that they made a massive leap in technology (GMR heads, 15Gb/platter) and came unstuck when scaling up, as the 15Gb single platter seems to be rarely reported as giving trouble.

So my guess, is that inter-platter heat buildup has a lot to do with it, and the head tracking from a long time in one area to a "quiet" area results in a significant deviation in calibration.

One fix being, it seems, firmware revision to cycle the heads across the entire surface. The other fix relating to SMART data collection, probably addresses the same proble which was alleviated by lowering transfer rate.

I installed the patch as described on a friend's 20 Gb DTLA307020
Firmware TX3OA58A - revised to TX3OA5AA
Some unexplained system delays vanished - with a slow shutdown being cured.

The drive was not old, actually a warranty replacement for a failed MAXTOR 20Gb in the same PC.
 
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