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akskdl
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IBM harddrive will not format

Thu Jan 23, 2003 11:27 am

I started having problems with windows xp installation. My programs kept getting corrupted no matter what I did. So I decided to install on my other harddrive. It only formats to a certain point and locks up. Don't know what to do? I have already ordered a new hd this morning but would like to salvage my old ones.

I have two 30gig ibm hd. I think they are 120gxp models but I am not at home right now. Any ideas?
 
muyuubyou
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Thu Jan 23, 2003 11:41 am

Ouch!

I'm afraid your drive (drives?) are RIP :cry:

If those are half as unreliable as their prior Deskstars, IBM HD division is doomed.
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Aphasia
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Thu Jan 23, 2003 12:53 pm

Have you run ibm tests on them.. available on their homepage....

and muyuubyou .... that is partly fud talking.... theyve had their faults.... but they isnt that crappy as everyone would seem. If that were the case both Maxtor, Western Digital, Seagate, Quantum, Fujitsu, Connor(doesnt exist anymore i think) would never have sold a disk after they had their faults.... ibm just managed to get late to the party with their first real bad disk.
 
akskdl
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Thu Jan 23, 2003 3:33 pm

Thanks Aphasia. Hopefully the utilities will help.
 
Ragnar Dan
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Thu Jan 23, 2003 3:45 pm

http://www.tech-report.com/news_reply.x/3035

That will give you an indication of the problems 75 GXP's have been giving people. I don't know about 120's, but since they never gave a good explanation for their problems, never fixed the problem, and slashed the duty cycle of their hard drives, I quit buying IBM.
 
Aphasia
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Thu Jan 23, 2003 4:24 pm

I know..... and how many of the millions of good 75gxp's have people posted about... almost none..... why... they dont care.

By that account western digital wouldnt even exist as they had a caviar model with over 30% bad in all the batches we got when i worked retail.

And yes.... many faults has there been with the 75gxp.. although my 3 work perfectly fine. But to judge all of ibm for one lousy model which is almost one of their first lousy ones... is a bit harsh. Im not saying ibm handled it well, i dont say there wasnt any fault, just that one lousy model doesnt make a company bad. Hell, then we wouldnt have any computer parts from any company.
 
Niteslayer
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Thu Jan 23, 2003 5:47 pm

I have an 80ig Deskstar and haven't had any problems with it. Be aware though that IBM has sold its Disk Division, to Hitachi I believe, so support my soon be out the window as far as they are concerned..........
"Klaatu, Barrada Nikto!"
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morphine
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Thu Jan 23, 2003 9:43 pm

I've already had 3 Desk(Death)stars die on me. Another friend, other two. The problems with the IBM drives are not, repeat, NOT, f.u.d.

As for your particular problem, do as Aphasia says, get the diagnostic utilities from the IBM homepage and run them. Still, I believe your disks (one of them at least) are already dead/dying.
 
JustAnEngineer
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Fri Jan 24, 2003 12:47 am

http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Drive Fitness Test is the program that you need.
 
akskdl
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Fri Jan 24, 2003 10:12 am

Thanks guys

I went home last night used ibm dft and it seemed to work. I've got xp up and running. However, I don't know how long it will last. I did order a wd se 40gig, just incase.

I did check out what model I had last night as well. They both are 30gig 75gxp. Hopefully this will be the end of that. Thanks
 
morphine
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Fri Jan 24, 2003 10:19 am

Did you run the IBM DFT's extended surface-scan tests? These are usually the ones that throw out errors (because IBM Deathstars tend to get their disk surface screwed up).
 
Forge
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Fri Jan 24, 2003 10:31 am

Deathstars have issues with drive geometry and head/disk alignment. It's believed that the platters in the 75GXPs, for whatever reasons, expand and contract unevenly, meaning that the drive has to stop and realign every little while (the famed clunk-clunk-clunk-click while working). Others seem to have the disk platters stretch out of true as time goes on (creeping data corruption). Still others simply have the drive electronics package fail, possibly due to the unusual numbers of head calibrations, or maybe just because.

The bottom line? Western Digital 8MBs are all I use these days.
 
morphine
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Fri Jan 24, 2003 10:38 am

Forge wrote:
[...] (the famed clunk-clunk-clunk-click while working) [...]

Not while *working*, it's while *dying*. A friend of mine very enlightenly called it "the dying swan's last song".

:)
 
akskdl
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Fri Jan 24, 2003 2:13 pm

Yes I did run IBM DFT. After I recieved an error, I just erased the entire thing. It was empty anyway. Hopefully when I get home it will still be running and not restarting over and over. Do you guys think it will be safe to use them for storage only? Not actually running an OS on them?
 
Aphasia
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Fri Jan 24, 2003 4:29 pm

If it fails it fails... and some claim they will, without fail. YMMW though. I have 7 deskstar, where of 3 is 45gb 75gxp's never had an error(not even a bad cluster) in three years.
 
UoMDeacon
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Mon Feb 10, 2003 1:36 pm

Aye, unfortunately the reliability of the 75GXP series has not been good for me. I had my first drive replaced after 4 months of usage when I heard the 'dying swans last song' as it refused to boot. I was thrilled to have lost all of my data. At least it taught me to back up all the things that I hold dear to myself. Unfortunately, recently my second 45gig 75GXP has started giving me file corruptions, it managed to lose my account data in WinXP, thus kicking me in the balls. I managed to save all of my recent data though. Tonight I am going to do a complete reformat of the drive (not fun). However, my faith in this drive isn't good. Can any of you recommend a large sized drive for around $100? I really don't care that much about rotation speed or transfer rates, as I mostly game and goof off.
 
Starfalcon
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Mon Feb 10, 2003 2:11 pm

I would go with the WD SE 80G drive, they run about $100 or so on http://www.newegg.com .
 
morphine
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Mon Feb 10, 2003 4:08 pm

WD or Seagate. Both reliable enough. For 80GB, go for Seagate, if you want to get a 120GB drive, go for the WD1200JB, it's very fast and worth the difference.

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