I'm a survivor of the IBM Deathstar debacle

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HGST_Deskstar#IBM_Deskstar_75GXP_failures

I'm a survivor of the IBM Deathstar debacle

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HGST_Deskstar#IBM_Deskstar_75GXP_failures

 

I remember that, caused by a change of resin supplier wasnt it?

 

Seagate is different, I stopped buying their drives because so many of them have failed on me over the years, the latest was actually a warranty unit replacement for a dead drive I extracted and found still had a warranty from my sisters PC. That drive had died after less than 3 years use, and the replacement has had a similar amount of time installed, although the info suggests it was manufactured in 2010, so 5 years old, of which 2 years were spent sealed in its OEM carton.

 

2-3 years seems to be the maximum life I ever get out of a Seagate drive, and that is why I stopped buying them; I have WD and Hitachi drives (plus a few whose names I forget, but were absorbed by other makers), that I have passed down through scratch-built PCs for the children at nursery going back to Win98 days and still working. I have thrown out all the sub-1GB drives now, but there are several 3-10GB drives still in use

Can't remember why the deathstars failed but they were going down in double figures some days.

 

Spent a whole month just changing hard disks and rebuilding PCs one summer.

 

Then the capacitor issues started to begin. Ah the good old days.

Edited 13 January, 201610 yr by Aspman

Capacitors? Dell GX260 SFF/mini tower, by any chance?

Can't remember why the deathstars failed but they were going down in double figures some days.

 

Spent a whole month just changing hard disks and rebuilding PCs one summer.

 

Then the capacitor issues started to begin. Ah the good old days.

 

 

The factory making 70% of the plastic resins used burnt down, so all the HDD makers were scrabbling around for a substitute, one suppliers mix starting failing, but by then a LOT of drives had been shipped.

 

Capacitors? Dell GX260 SFF/mini tower, by any chance?

 

The GX and SX models suffered from this, but not all of them; I have had 2 SX280s and both are still going strong on the original caps.

Yeah, I think it was the 260 only, maybe 260 and early 270. They fixed the supply issue pretty sharpish when it started costing them a lot in warranties, if I remember correctly. Not that that helped me when I had about 100 of the things boxed up that hadn't been touched for three years, none of them died until the warranty expired and I couldn't get any goodwill replacements from them :(

I changes out dozens of mobos then. I don't recall it being in Dells. All pretty random I think lots of manufacturers were affected.

I remember that, caused by a change of resin supplier wasnt it?

 

Seagate is different, I stopped buying their drives because so many of them have failed on me over the years, the latest was actually a warranty unit replacement for a dead drive I extracted and found still had a warranty from my sisters PC. That drive had died after less than 3 years use, and the replacement has had a similar amount of time installed, although the info suggests it was manufactured in 2010, so 5 years old, of which 2 years were spent sealed in its OEM carton.

 

2-3 years seems to be the maximum life I ever get out of a Seagate drive, and that is why I stopped buying them; I have WD and Hitachi drives (plus a few whose names I forget, but were absorbed by other makers), that I have passed down through scratch-built PCs for the children at nursery going back to Win98 days and still working. I have thrown out all the sub-1GB drives now, but there are several 3-10GB drives still in use

 

Read this - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/01/14/server_retired_after_18_years_and_ten_months_beat_that_readers/

 

And thought of you ;-)

 

 

'Ross says the box was “Built and brought into service in early 1997” and has “been running 24/7 for 18 years and 10 months.”'.....

"The drive's a Seagate, for those of looking to avoid drives that can't deliver more than 19 years of error-free operations."

Read this - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/01/14/server_retired_after_18_years_and_ten_months_beat_that_readers/

 

And thought of you ;-)

 

 

Yes, I saw the story (but havent read it yet); I suppose by the law of averages, that drive is why all the others fail so soon.

Hi to all on this post

 

The problem has now been solved, our very good friend in IThas done the following.....

 

 1  Sourced a new identical drive form the USA

 2  Changed the ROM fron the original PCB onto the new PCB

 3  Fitted the New PCB with the old ROM soldered on to the New PCB

 4  Fitted modified PCB to old Drive

 

Job done, all working.

Next Tranfer to new media

 

Thanks to all, but this is now closed from my end, thanks

 

Mayoboat

Hi to all on this post

 

The problem has now been solved, our very good friend in IThas done the following.....

 

 1  Sourced a new identical drive form the USA

 2  Changed the ROM fron the original PCB onto the new PCB

 3  Fitted the New PCB with the old ROM soldered on to the New PCB

 4  Fitted modified PCB to old Drive

 

Job done, all working.

Next Tranfer to new media

 

Thanks to all, but this is now closed from my end, thanks

 

Mayoboat

Just feel I have to add one further step to the list:

5 Back up everything to avoid future problems.

Glad it worked out for you, but you ARE a jinx; I have had SIX HDD failures in TWO different PCs and a caddy this week; one of them a brand new SSD that I only fitted 3 weeks ago.

 

The damned caddy killed 3 drives, before I was convinced it wasnt a coincidence (they were fairly elderly drives, but all had Green SMART status before it killed them).

 

The SSD left me gutted, I had only just recovered from the last OS HDD failure, and was planning to clone the disk on Thursday; then it died Wednesday night!!

 

The failure in my back-up PC was also the OS drive, and it STILL shows a GREEN SMART status, yet full testing fails with multiple errors less than 1/3rd of the way through (39,000 odd bad sectors yet still showing GREEN!!!!); it turns out THIS was my last Seagate drive!!! - Not sure how I forgot about it, probably because I need the spare PC so rarely. I know I didnt buy it, so it probably came out of the old (old, old!!) work PC.

Can't remember the maker, but one maker with Green drives, at one stage offered a three year warranty, quickly reduced to two years after problems caused by drives failing. Reason given on the forum was down to them sleeping/waking up,. If they'd not gone into sleep mode, them there'd be fewer problems.

Western Digital have a "Green" series of drives. TBH they arent worth the money over their standard range,. However, I have had more than a few standard WD drives, and none have died - ever. At least until this caddy killed one.

 

A new Patriot SSD fitted to my main PC - but Windows7 refused to validate, even after leaving it a few days for the "old" SSD version to clear the system, so wpa'ed it - M$ can sod off if they think I am buying a new license for an old OS; especially when I only paid for it last year anyway.

 

Old SSD will be shipped back for an exchange in a few days, but Chinese New Year means it will be a month+ before the exchange replacement arrives.

GG-it was Western Digital ,and there was a lot of debate on their forum a while back as to whether the auto shutdown ( to make them green) affected the drive. And lo & behold at that time, the warranty period was cut from three years to two.

WD cut the warranty on ALL their drives, as did nearly everyone else.

Make that SEVEN HDD failures, and this one proved me a liar.

 

My wifes PC crashed yesterday (shop bought 18 months ago), the Win7 partition has developed some hardware fault that cannot be repaired/ remapped.

 

The liar bit?? It turns out to be a Seagate drive; I thought my last failure was the last Seagate drive we had.

 

This one is being RMA'ed, so in theory I could get a replacement, but since it has proved IMPOSSIBLE* to buy the packaging Seagate INSIST must be used to return the drive, they may refuse to honour the RMA (* impossible unless I want to buy 8,000 units).

 

So I have just blown her birthday money on a Patriot SSD replacement (happy birthday Lao Pao)