From: Alex Bochannek (alex_at_p9.com)
Date: Mon Dec 31 2001 - 14:52:53 EST
Tom,
> I have a 32GB Travelstar that has already been replaced once. It worked
> fine until it started knocking. Then it died. IBM replaced it for a
> refurb which worked great until about two weeks ago when the knocking
> started again. It died again, but after I let it cool down, it started
> working again.
I called IBM again and they will send out another drive for me. IBM
was curteous and prompt as always. In fact, I only had one negative
experience with IBM over the last year and then it was resolved simply
by hanging up the phone and calling again to get a different person.
> I am probably going to have it replaced again, but I really don't trust
> these drives anymore. A friend with an A21p and the same 32GB drive had
> to replace his once already too. Same symptoms.
I had IBM verify that the 32 GB is not available anymore. In their
support database it says "replaced by 48 GB". It will be interesting
to see what I will receive from them.
> I have noticed that if I leave my TP on for a few days straight the
> knocking starts again. If I shut it off for a night it seems to work
> fine for a day or so, and then the knocking returns. The system seems
> to slow down considerably too. In XP's event viewer, I get a lot of
> warnings about errors detected on the hard-disk.
No disk events logged - yet. The knocking definitely seems to be
related to temperature. I mostly get the noise when I am using the
docking station. When I use the system without it it stays much cooler
and I won't get the knocking.
> Is there anyway we can get IBM to fix these things for good? I know
> there is a class-action lawsuit against them for their Deskstar 75GXP's.
> I hate the idea of lawsuits, but it seems that this drive model is very
> prone to errors.
I know two people who have had their Deskstar 75s crash on them.
> As I mentioned, I can't trust it anymore. I religiously back up all my
> data every few days.
I would love to do a full system backup (I do back up data to CD-RW),
but my tape drive (EXB 8500) is not fully supported by Win2k. It is
recognized by the system backup utility but tape load won't be
detected.
Alex.
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