IBM: Don't power hard drive over eight hours a day

wvjohn · Post by **wvjohn** » Fri Mar 08, 2002 4:40 pm

lol

http://www.theinquirer.net/08030205.htm

SuperDave · Post by **SuperDave** » Fri Mar 08, 2002 5:35 pm

You have absolutely gotta be kidding me.

You're not, are you?

IBM reinvents the Edsel. I'd say I'm loving this, but I have an IBM drive in this box, which stays on 24/7.

DocSilly · Post by **DocSilly** » Fri Mar 08, 2002 6:16 pm

It is true, it's in their specs for the new 120GXP Travelstars, I pointed that out a few days ago in a storage related thread.
I've seen it first at Storagereview , you can read the PDF by clicking here .
It is on page 2 under reliability.

Error rate (non-recoverable) 1 in 1013
Start/stops (at 40° C) 40K
Recommended power-on hours (monthly) 333

IBM is the first to introduce such a limited recommended usage time for HDDs.
Might be caused by the above average failure rate of the 75GXP drives ...

Post by **sbp** » Fri Mar 08, 2002 8:11 pm

Definitely glad I went with a Seagate Barracuda ATA IV for my last hard drive after hearing about the failure rates with the 60GXP and 75GXP. Next time I buy a hard drive it won't be an IBM either.

WeekendWarrior · Post by **WeekendWarrior** » Fri Mar 08, 2002 10:32 pm

Well that is bs to me. I leave my machines on 24/7
They should be able to run all the time or I wont buy another hard drive from ibm.
WW

nexus_7 · Post by **nexus_7** » Fri Mar 08, 2002 10:44 pm

wonder if they will release one with a cooling fan and it will have an "upgraded" usage term. Still retarded though.

Greg

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Fri Mar 08, 2002 11:23 pm

If a Maxtor can run 24/7, why am I going to spend the money on an IBM? Sheesh....

PreDatoR · Post by **PreDatoR** » Fri Mar 08, 2002 11:28 pm

Yeah IBM drives are a royal POS my 60GXP died after 3 months of being on 24/7.... Never had a maxtor fail me yet and will never stray away from Maxtor... Even if they are quantam's... IBM still sucks!

TruckStuff · Post by **TruckStuff** » Sat Mar 09, 2002 7:45 am

I think the important think to note here is that this does NOT apply to ALL IBM drives. It only applies to the new 120GXP drives. This is not a reccomendation for every IBM drive out there.

tunis5000 · Post by **tunis5000** » Sat Mar 09, 2002 2:00 pm

Heh yeah, sounds like most of you didn't even read the article...

Not that I'm an IBM HD supporter or anything, they still shouldn't release a drive that you can't keep on 24/7, what's the use of buying something like that?

DocSilly · Post by **DocSilly** » Sat Mar 09, 2002 2:24 pm

The IBM GXP120 are more than enough for Joe Sixpack who starts his PC sometime in the evenning when he comes home, checks his emails, surfs for an hour or two and then shuts the PC down for the night.

Most users are like Joe Sixpack, only few are like me who run 24/7 in their homemachine.

But the GXP120 is no HDD for the professional use, like in servers, computers that require 24/7 uptime ...

bluewhale · Post by **bluewhale** » Sat Mar 09, 2002 7:33 pm

This brings the 'falibility' of software to the hardware manufacturer's.
You bought a new car, but you can't drive more than 10 hours before stopping for the night else the warranty is void.
I'd like to hope the industry will just refuse to buy this but...
They obviously will have a high failure rate. Do we have to prove that we didn't run it beyond 8 hours in a single day to have a replacement shipped out?
It's just sad.

DocSilly · Post by **DocSilly** » Sat Mar 09, 2002 8:41 pm

Interesting point bluewhale ...

My old IBM 7200 SCSI drive had no probs so far running 24/7 for over 3 years, same goes for the Cheetah 9LP ... but those are SCSI drives that come with a 5 year warranty.

It might be hard for you to prove you don't run your drives 24/7 ... but I guess it'll be as hard for IBM to prove you did.
I dunno the US laws who is to provide evidence in such a case, a GXP120 failing within the 3 years warranty time that is.

FuNPoLiCe001 · Post by **FuNPoLiCe001** » Sat Mar 09, 2002 9:33 pm

well, its innocent until proven guilty right?

so shouldn't that mean that IBM would have to come up with the evidence that the drive was run for more than 8 hours a day? But if they say things like, "well, the drive wore out a lot faster than it should have, the mechancial wear and tear blah blah blah"

if they say that, can't we just say that its shiatey manufacturing?

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sat Mar 09, 2002 10:28 pm

Doc I have to disagree with your "Joe Six-pack" approach. A lot of casual users leave their systems on 24/7.

Any cheap POS drive will run for 2 or 3 years 24/7 - heck even a crap Fujitsu will run for a couple of years continously.

I've got some ancient 1 Gb Maxtor drives I've pulled out of business computers that have been running 24/7 for 6 or 7 years.

It's absolutely absurd in this day in age that a drive is rated for limited use.

Traditionally hard drives are rated for total hours of operation and power on/off cycle times. If a drive is rated for 100,000 hours or whatever, that's what you should get. It's assinine to add a caveat that it should only be run 8 or 10 hours a day.