IBM Drives & Reliability

[Jason Clark]

If you noticed today we had an outage for about an hour, this is at least the 5th IBM drive that has died in our servers. We'll be replacing them with either Maxtor or Western Digital by the end of this week. Just to let you guys know, might help future hardware purchases until IBM sorts out their quality control issues.

 

[Ryan]

Whoa! So that's what caused it! Thanks for keeping us up to date!

 

[Jason Clark]

Yep, bad sectors, and one or two just plain gave up, wouldn't spin up. We think it's important when something is happening enough to be consistent that you should know, as we use hardware that the average user uses for the most part.

 

[ILikeSprite]

I would go with Maxtor. I have never had any problems with them at all. I have 4 of them and they all work great. My main rig is currently using a 100GB Western Digital but only because I got such a good price on it I couldn't refuse. No problems so far but I've had a lot of bad expierences with WD drives (had 3, all died) so i'm keeping my fingers crossed for now.

 

[Priit]

Woah. What kind of IBM drives died, Zuni? 60GXP's, 75GXP's or both? I sure am happy that I asked Seagate instead of another IBM from my vendor when my 60GXP passed away (read/write errors, no drive detected sometimes, lasted less than a month).

 

[olds]

IBM failures are nothing new.

 

[Ryan]

<< IBM failures are nothing new. >>



Really!?!??!!!? I would have never known!

I think the reason for Zuni posting this is to reiterate the fact that this is a big problem.

 

[Jason Clark]

Obviously this isn't old news

.

But, this is more evidence of a problem. This is a heads up for those interested in hearing about these drives and their problems.

The drives are 20GB, with a 30 I think probably DTLA-307020 and the DTLA-307030 models.

 

[GrumpyMan]

I thought it was on my end for a little while, thanks for the heads up.

 

[Carrot44]

Yep I noticed it Also had a IBM 75 GXP fail after 4 months of operation.

 

[anthrax]

damm..i better use RAID on my MB HDD soon....all my drives are from IBM.....
shite..

 

[olds]

<< Yep I noticed it Also had a IBM 75 GXP fail after 4 months of operation. >>


Same here. I had two 75's in RAID 0 and one failed. I registered for the lawsuit a couple of months ago. IBM was of no help and the retailer only wanted to replace it with a like unit.

 

[amdskip]

dang, I missed the forums the few minutes they were down

stupid IBM

 

[olds]

<< Obviously this isn't old news

.

But, this is more evidence of a problem. This is a heads up for those interested in hearing about these drives and their problems.

The drives are 20GB, with a 30 I think probably DTLA-307020 and the DTLA-307030 models. >>


I didn't mean that as a slam on you. My apologies if you took it that way. I only ment that IBM sucks.

 

[filmore crashcart]

Okay, I've had a 60gxp for about a year now running strong.... does all this mean I should freak out and get a Maxtor before it does the inevitable? Is it because I don't run my computer 24/7 that I've had no problem?
I went through this when I had a WD and became nervous after reading all the negative posts about them over a year ago. I went out and got the IBM because of the reviews it received at that time and I became convinced the WD was going to crap out any day. Thing is, the WD is still going strong and so is the IBM. I've had 2 hard drives fail on me in the last 6 years between home and work: a Seagate and a Maxtor.
What I'm confused with is whether it is all IBM hard drives we are talking about here, or is it the 75gxp's that are the culprits.

 

[olds]

I wouldn't sweat it other than to make frequent back ups. If you start hearing a clicking sound, back up, run the IBM Fitness Test and replace it if is going bad. I'd have the fitness test handy.

 

[VTrider]

Haven't been paying too much detailed attention, but it does seem like its been the 75GXP a lot lately. This is funny, I also remember about a year ago many here (including I) would buy nothing except a IBM HD, now look at the situation! Same Shi* different day, different company - happens all the time. This will soon blow over and then in 6 months it will be another company skimping out on their quality control!

Doh! What to do?

-VTrider

 

[John]

Jason, give the 120GXP a chance.

 

[Jason Clark]

oldsmoboat nps at all .

John, hehe, I wouldn't mind one for home actually. But, I think we'll stick with maxtor for now until IBM gets their problems sorted out.

 

[mcveigh]

<< Jason, give the 120GXP a chance. >>



do it with your own data!

 

[Devistater]

<<

<< Jason, give the 120GXP a chance. >>



do it with your own data! >>



Yep, not with our anandtech forums
Let me quote from IBM's official specs:


<< 6.6.3 Life
Expected product life is 5 years under typical desktop PC usage conditions:
333 Power-On Hours (POH) per month.
Seeking/writing/reading operations to be 20% of POH at 40 degrees C or lower enviromental temperature >>


That's from page 50 of the OFFICIAL IBM 120gxp specs, here's the link for the 120gxp ones, other links to 60gxp and stuff are in a long post I made about this here
Do the math, 333 hours a month (11 hours a day) for 5 years, "Expected product life" comes out to less than 20,000 hours lifetime for the drive. Run it 24/7 and that's barely 2 years power on hours. 20% of that is read/write/seek, so that means if you access the drive constantly (I dunno what the anandtech server usage patterns are, but it probably accesses the hard drive quite a lot during a 24 hour period) that's under 4,000 hours life, you are talking under 6 months here.

 

[AncientPC]

2 IBM 60GXP's failed on me the this morning. :|

 

[Jason Clark]

Umm reread my message people I said I wouldn't mind one for HOME . As said they are all coming out of the at servers this week.

 

[Mem]

<< Umm reread my message people I said I wouldn't mind one for HOME >>



Zuni I agree, it would make a nice expensive paperweight for the home infact probably works better that way .

 

[AncientPC]

Actually they're pretty functional as doorstops too.