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Hello all, I am pretty sure my hdd is getting ready to say so long but thought I would post this in case I am missing something. When I got home last night went to check my email and the thing locked up solid. So I rebooted to a BSOD saying some system file was missing or corrupt. So I run Ghost and copy the image back to the hdd. When it boots this time it goes to a plain blue screen just a blue backdrop and the mouse pointer nothing else. So I reboot again and it runs check disk and loads windows. So all seems ok I try to send an email when I ht the send button I get another BSOD. So I shut down check all the cables and ram for good seating. One IDE cable was a little loose. Fire it back up and it runs check disk again and boots to windows. Now when I run Win Doctor or check-disk it reports 152kb in bad sectors and can not fix them.The hdd is a IBM 75GXP. I know all the horror stories about them but this one has been good for about two years. Anyway I am fairly sure the drive is getting ready to die but am I missing anything. Mobo is a Soyo Dragon With 1700+ XP CPU 512 megs Crucial ram. TIA

unless you have a virus, sounds like the "deathstar" blues

The hdd is a IBM 75GXP.

OMG!


Seriously, that could still be the problem. But this only happens when you check email? If so then it may just be an issue with outlook, perhaps check for any updates or reinstall the os.

But with those bad sectors, some hard drive makers like maxtor have an app that can usually repair them and it tests the hard drive. You might see if IBM has anything like that. The maxtor one is very good.

If its a deathstar and has bad sectors get a new HDD before it totally dies out. At least you can send it in for an RMA and SELL it once it gets back... lol Thats what i did with my 60GXP it lasted 2 months and died bought a maxtor d740x and rma'd that ibm and sold it once i got it back. IBM's turn around was pretty fast i had it back a week an a half later. Brand new sealed drive.

Well the system is running now but a little flaky sometimes. Email is working fine for now and I have run a full virus scan and found nothing. I used IBM's disk checking utility and it says it has bad clusters and offers to repair them but it has to erase the whole drive to do so. Think I will do what Pred said and pick up a Maxtor and rma this IBM and sell the replacement.

If you can afford it find of the the Western Digital JB drives. they come in 80 100 and 120 gig size. 8 megs of cache. They blow everything else away. Load times are noticably faster. And that one drive isn't much slower than most Raid 0 setups. U can find deals on the 80 gigger for around 90 bucks.

Pred too late the damage is done I ordered a Maxtor 40 giger. I would have got one of those WD drives if they came in smaller sizes. I just have no need for that much room. I dont even have need for the 40 giger I ordered. I have another 10 giger I use for back up of ghost images so I will end up with 50 gigs and at present only have about 18 gigs used. Although having the extra space might spark my interest in Kazaa again.

LOL I've got a 120 gig WD JB and a 80 gig maxtor and i've got about 30 free gig right now Gotta love my DivX collection now i just pray i don't lose a drive LOL

Is there some sort of general problem with these drives?

I have an 80 gig Deskstar and reading the posts to this thread makes me a very worried person.

It's fairly brand new (May 2002 stamped on the casing) so should I be worried??

Mine was good for two years but I am sure it is failing now. The IBM drives have a very high rate of failure. Many people seem to think that they are very sensitive to heat and if cooled well they work fine. Mine has been in a HDD cooler since day one and when I check the hdd temp with the IBM software it never goes about 32c well within the range that IBM specs. I would suggest keeping everything important backed up.

Thanks dad,

I have a Lian Li case with two 80mm fans right in front of the HDD tray, so I'm guessing those should keep the drive nice and cool.

On the down side, I built a machine for one of my friends recently and it's also got an IBM deskstar drive in it (he didn't want to pay too much and the IBM was the cheapest option) but there is no additional case cooling in the system because he won't be overclocking at all.

So from that point of view it could be a worry - sounds like he may have to invest in a HDD cooler like you have.

Can I download the software that you refer to from the IBM website, and what's it called?

Yeah you can down load it from the IBM site. They have a few utilities there. The one that reads the temp of the drive is called IBM Feature Tool

Thanks again, dad.

I used to buy IBM hard drives all the time but after all the Deathstar 75GXP and 60GXP's began dying they lost me as a customer.

This is really ridiculous expecially coming from a company that had the most respect 2 years ago. Yeah IBM harddrives were the best for a while like with the 34GXP. Then the 75GXP's came out and they started dying, followed by the 60GXP's.

Hitachi bought IBM's hard drive division and there was supposed to be no disruption in support. But when you read threads like this one, its just another reason to stay away from IBM hard drives. Maybe all the hard drives dying is why IBM unloaded the hard drive division off onto Hitachi.

Definitely a smart move to go with Seagate for my last drive.

Western Digital, Seagate and Maxtor are good.

<img src="http://www.gotapex.com/images/leon/deathstar.jpg">