IBM Deathstar - Warning

[ITY]

IBM GXP 120 Deskstar Hard Drives. They fail, if you have one get it checked out, and be quick about it (yes! back it up first). It appears that the GXP 60 and 75 series also suffer from the same catastrophic mechanical failure. Mine ran for 9 months, but I've heard they can fail in 3. The tell-tale sound your looking for is called the "Click of Death". Sounds a bit like a really noisey T-cal routine, but it's not. Mine did a "click-beep" type of thing. Then the head crashed. IBM have sold their Tai plant to Hitachi and are in a class action over the GXP75. Google search "IBM Deathstar". Shame, it was a bloody fantastic (ATA) hard drive. Yes, it does appear to be a design fault.

I hope this is of some help.

Advice to myself: "Backup more often you jerk!"

 

[mlilke]

I've had 4 IBM's fail in the last 2 years. They were always extremely nice to me. They arranged pacel pick-up and a quick exchange. Being in Europe, such a service is something special.
I do have a GXP in my G4. What's the reference I need to make when calling? I can't just say some guy posted this on a forum.
Thanks for the tip ITY

 

[ITY]

If IBM were to admit that there was a design fault with the GXP series, they'd have to do a recall. I guess it's too late for that now. To the best of my knowledge your drive has to of failed to be replaced. Of course IBM have been excellent in regard to warranty replacements. What else could they do? They can't supply another brand of drive (the solution) because they only make their own drives. Anyway, this is history now. Your port of call for IBM Deskstar warranties is

http://www.hgst.com/

This is of course Hitachi. I've spoken with them and they are more than happy to replace my failed GXP (theres a serial number checker on the site). But of course they will not entertain the concept that the drive has a design fault. My only suggestion would be to return the drive without a fault, and hope that they just replace it without checking. Then you'll get 3 to 9 months of use again. We are hoping that the GXP 180 series does not have the same fault, but this has not been the case of the past 3 generations of GXP. Alternatively you could approach your supplier and as them to swap the drive for another brand. This is what I'm currently trying to do with scan.co.uk, sadly with little luck so far.