IBM Deathstar Hell

[Daniel Matthis]

Kris Bodenheimer wrote:

> I have a deathstar that develops "bad sectors" every 2 days, using IBM's 
> Drive fitness utility I am on my 4th "erase and repair disk" which 
> appears to be a low level formatting.   The drive is under warranty for 
> 3 more months, but I can't get the Drive fitness utility to give me an 
> error that earns me an RMA.  Anyone know how to "help" this drive along 
> its slow death?  BTW this will be the 10th IBM Deathstar to go to hell 
> in the past 2 months.  Kris
> 

You really need to get a speedy Tie Fighter instead of the Deathstar. 
Falcons are old but reliable though... but to speed on its demise you'll 
need an R2-D2 unit and a proton torpedo.... ;D

Sorry I just couldn't resist. On a serious note the only things I could 
think of would most likely void the warranty. You could try a program 
that can quickly fill up the disk and wipe it several times. Then you 
might get lucky and crash it enough until it starts grinding. You might 
try asking them to give you a different drive as these are crap and 
you've already replaced it 10 times. I'd think they'd realize there is a 
problem if you've gone through 10 of them. Our IBM drives usually aren't 
that bad. We have several 18 gig SCSI that have been around for 6 or 7 
years with no problem.

Oh and if this is the IBM 75GXP then you may want to look here:
http://www.sheller.com/ibmclassaction.htm

As there appears to be an attempt for a class action lawsuit on these 
drives. And if you want some fun reading just google: IBM hard drive 
deathstar

- Daniel