IBM GXP Problems: The Truth Exposed and Possible Fixes (arti

[robertku]

I purchased a 30.7GB IBM Deskstar drive in Feb 2001 and have been running it quite happily in my Windows 2000 box with NTFS partitions with no problems whatsoever.

For the last 3 months my computer has been constantly on, with the case open, until last week.

Got home and heard a strange clicking noise coming from my home office, I'll give you one guess what happened.

What can I do? any ideas?

Took the drive to the computer shop, they connected it as a slave drive on a Windows 98 machine and it is very well behaved, even though they could not see the NTFS partitions, computer shop staff thought I was lying.

[DigitalDD]

As far as this thread goes, I've never understood all the hoopla over the GXP series. I work for a company who buys nothing but Western Digital drives for all our offices PCs [these are company built computers for each office and theres over 700 of them out there] I return about 3-5 drives a month to WD. Not great but not bad considering the abuse they take.

Now as far as the systems I buld for myself/friends/associates I only use IBM drives and always the GXP series [funny thing is I've never used any of the multi-platter models] 15 gig 75GXP's or 20 gig 60GXP's only so far. Not one of these has died on me or anyone I've put a system together for.

I've only used about 30 GXP drives though, but the single platter thing has got to have something to do with it I think. As since every article I've read on the subject says that multi-platter drives give off more heat than single platter drives I'm sure a few other people might agree.

Note: I don't use rounded cables but i do tend to fold my ribbon cables to improve airflow in the case, I aslo tend to place fans only where they are needed instead of putting in fans everywhere blowing in various directions. IMHO this is the biggest problem a lot of overclockers have they know to add fans but don't take the time to consider where the fans should go in the case.

:geek: :sun: :glasses2: : peace2:

[BUhockey13]

DigitalDD,
You mention you use ribbon over round cables...... I use rounded cables in my case.....

you think this might attribute to the bad blocks appearing on my IBM Deskstar 75GXP 30.0G drive?

Thanks

[Anonymous]

While on the subject of RMA's

What country are you from?

The US

[Synetech]

Well, I might as well throw my hat in the mix... First the objective info, then the subjective info. :)


1. As Wiggo briefly mentioned, there is in fact a class action law suit against IBM in California stating that IBM falsely represented the GXP75 as being a reliable drive. You can join it at http://www.sheller.com/ibmclassaction.htm (that's a case I wish I could have had :)

2. I think it would be worth differentiating between the sounds a hard drive makes. There are:
i. the spin up which is a whirring that goes up in pitch. It SHOULD only occur when you first boot and when you come out of a power save mode
ii. the constant soft whir that accompanies platter rotation
iiia. small, quick ticks that accompany reads/writes
iiib. larger, quick, repeated ticks that accompany thrashing. Thrashing just means A LOT of fast/repeated reading/writing
iv. larger, longer, repeated ticks that accompany failed reads/writes. This usually occurs when a hard drives platters get messed up, like when a head crash occurs and scratches the disk. Sounds like a tick-tock where the tock is shorter than the tick
v. noticable, louder sudden clicks [clacks?] which indicate the head moving/resetting. These sound like the arm is slamming itself against the drive wall. (This can also occur in CD drives, CDRWs, etc.! Although, with CD drives, the head really IS slamming against the wall!?!)

3. It may be difficult to distinguish between type iii noises and type iv noises. Sometimes you hear what sounds like a type iv noise but upon investigation it turns out to be a type iii noise. Type iv noises can be normal if your system is just doing a bunch of quick small reads/writes rather than trying the same read/write over and over because of a failiure. A good way to determine whether the noise is a type iii noise or a type iv noise is to use a disk access monitor. You can see what program is accessing the disk (and for what reason, file, type of access, mode, etc.). You can watch it going and cross reference it with the noises that you are listening to at the same time to figure out if it's normal or if your hard drive is crapping out.

4. This forum may sound distressing seeing that so many people are complaining about problems with their drives but you should keep something in mind. Similarly to the pschological communities distaste for anecdotal evidence and subject selection bias, the large number of complaints in places like this should not be taken as evidence that there is indeed something wrong with the item (although in this case there may be, I'm speaking about other things and in general). You can expect most of the people who post here to complain since most of them probably came to this forum after reading the article, and most of the people who read the article likely chose to read the article because the heading caught their attention because they had problems with their drives. People who are happy with their drives probably do not bother reading the article and end up not coming to the forum and posting. Another way to look at it is to say that if 10% of all GXP drives have problems, then of those 10%, 9.5% of them somehow end up in this forum and of course post complaints. So if you see a lot of people in one place complaining about a piece of hard/software that you have (or anything else for that matter) don't panic, it may not be a problem with it, it may just be that you've found a high density cluster of people how happened to end up with the problem, after all; birds of a feather...

5. Personally speaking I liked my 20.5 gig GXP IBM drive because it was surprisingly stable and solid when I got it 2 years ago. I'm not sure how, but I can get a sense of the solidness of a drive. (I'll have to pay attention next time to see what it is that I'm [unintentionally] noticing). I have found that Maxtor drives are pretty good but are far from solid, they give a sense of extreme fragility. WD drives on the other hand feel very solid and safe. The same goes for IBM drives. This mainly goes for the drives I have had experience with and may [will] not hold for all drives from those manfs.

6. I have had no problems with my GXP 20.5Gb drive since I got it and have felt very comfortable with it. However recently (Thursday 7th), I have gotten a few type v (see table above) noises from it. I shut down my system as soon as possible after that. Over the next 30 hours I had those noises briefly a few more times until about 6:30pm on Friday, I could no longer boot. My system was toasted. Fortunately, when I tried it again at about 9:30am on Tuesday morning, things were good again, and I've been okay since (no type v noises, but some type iv noises).

7. There was something else I had wanted to say, but I cannot remember what it was. oh well :) Never mind, I remember it (point 4) :)

Wow! what a big post. :)


--
Alec
[email protected]

[Raven]

I do believe I'm running a 20 gigger IBM 60GXP on my backup system. Dear lord.. :runs for cover:

[-GK-]

Hi,
I got my IBM Deskstar 40GB about 2 months ago, dunno exaclty what type it is but model number is IC35L040 @ 7200rpm. I read that article on the overheating issues of this drive, and about half an hour later I attempted to empty my recycle bin, which contained around 500kb of data. This operation took no less that 2 minutes during which i noticed the drive making some f**ked up clicking sounds: 3 clicks then some drive movement, 3 clicks again, drive movement and so on...

I have one primary C: (30GB) partition and two extended (or logical, i dunno =/) partitions D: & E: (5GB each)

I start to get a little worried after reading the article about heat problems and shutdown the computer. I came back after 20 minutes and boot up. The clicking noises come back, I get worried again, and while waiting for windows to start up I feel the controller chip to check its temperature, slightly warm. When windows doesnt boot up after 5 minutes and I get a prompt asking me for COMMAND.COM which the PC failed to locate I decide to format. I use the Win98 start up disk and FDISK to delete the primary partition and create a new one. It verifies drive integrity about 3 times and tells me to restart. So then I boot up with Win98 CD and try to setup windows again; setup tries to format my drive. I give up after 2 hours of waiting as the status has only got to 5%. I get pissed off and try to manually format using win98 start up disk, this takes the same amount of time but tells me about 'recovering allocation units'. I switch the computer off when that gets to 3% after 4hours and go to sleep.

What can I do now? Is all my data lost on C: and what about on partitions D: and E:? And If I do get the drive back, what can I do to make sure this doesn't happen again, will a few fans blowing onto the drive directly help?

Thanks a lot

GK

Its a GXP60 btw, just checked

[OKCompMan317]

I have had a failed 60gig 60 gxp and i see it related to heat, since i have 2 of them and 75gxp 60 gig that share the problem. I mounted them vertically and attached two 40cfm 80mm fans around the cage they were in.
Previously they were a major factor in heat and still is but the chips are running at acceptable levels now.

to all who have them or looking to buy them, COOL THEM!

[Anonymous]

Greetings...

Just to chime in: I purchased 10 (yes TEN) 75GXP's in a lot in December of 2001. Of the Ten Drives 5 (FIVE) have failed. Meanwhile I have Maxtor Drives 60 GB's that I bought in a lot of 10 (TEN) and have used them for 2 years without a single failure.

Here I thought I was being cool gettting the "performance" of the IBM drives, no thanks.

It sucks when your TIVO B drive is IBM, I have got to tell you.

James Kirkes

[email protected]

[Anonymous]

'Nuff said.

[jaeger66]

[Anonymous]

jaeger66,

Your comment seems as productive as the freeze spray. I made a mistake, forgive me - Maybe you live the perfect world, others don't.

[Albinus]

I just contacted Dick Smith myself and they said that the freeze spray is NOT CONDUCTIVE - and is actually designed for temporarily cooling IC chips as one of its primary functions.

So before you shoot off your mouth jaeger66, it may be worthwhile to do some homework first

[Anonymous]

I was told the exact same thing - You live and you learn...

[Anonymous]