Important Memo regarding WD Caviar Green drives

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Important Memo regarding WD Caviar Green drives

Are current [last 4-5 years to now] Fujitsu 2.5" drives any good?
I don't think I've had a Fujitsu laptop drive since 40Gb laptop drive was a big drive.

Actually looking for some deals on IDE 2.5" [80Gb or over] for some Toughbooks I'm refurbishing.
Only been looking at Seagates but if Fujitsus are okay........ more options.....
.

[Per Hansson]

Re: Important Memo regarding WD Caviar Green drives

I think you will agree that there are too many rumors when it comes to HDD reliability
Sure, there are specific cases with bad models, like the IBM 75GPX.
And more lately the firmware issue with Seagate 7200.11 drives.

But when it comes to reliability of harddrives the big brands are very close.
It much more comes down to how the drive is handled when it is shipped to you.
And after that how it is used (abused) in the system by it's owner...

That's my 0.02$ worth anyway...

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Important Memo regarding WD Caviar Green drives

I don't fully agree with that..

What I often see is people say:
WD -> this .. and Seagate -> that
... and they apply the statements to the entire brand...
All the while the specific models they see are 1-3yr warranty models with one of the brands they are comparing but 5yr warranty models with the other brand they are looking at.
[Yeah I make it seem like that too sometimes by not being specific enough.]

I would not say:
"reliability of hard drives the big brands are very close."

I would say
"reliability of hard drives with the same warranty as new is very close."

Comparing a 1yr or 3yr drive to a 5yr drive is just bogus.

---
One of the WD RE model lines had a firmware issue about the same time as Seagates little problem but the fix was so easy it really didn't bother me.
Well, other than I had to do over 100 of them..

---
There WERE some IBM/Hitachi laptop drives famous for issues.
Was actually a one liner in a BCN thread that made me aware of it.
7K(something) or 5K(something) series sound vaguely familiar to anyone?
I don't know their series names very well. Don't see enough of them.
.

[severach]

Re: Important Memo regarding WD Caviar Green drives

I would say it's all batch based. Some batches like the IBM DeathStar were so bad that they became infamous. The rest just have good and bad days. Buy a dozen WD's made on bad days and you'll hate them forever. Buy a dozen made on good days and they will be the best drive evarr even after a dozen more have failed. The same happens with Seagate, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Hitachi, and (not) Samsung.

People buy random brands from random batches so their reports are random, and therefore meaningless. I buy whatever has the longest warranty. Seagate can sell me all the bad drives they want. They will pay for each one that goes bad which might encourage them to produce slightly less bad drives.

[Scenic]

Re: Important Memo regarding WD Caviar Green drives

Are current [last 4-5 years to now] Fujitsu 2.5" drives any good?

fujitsu HDDs are no more. They sold their HDD subsidiary to toshiba in 2009

that's why you will see 2.5" drives branded "Toshiba Hornet" now. Hornet used to be what Fujitsu called their notebook HDD series.
actual Toshiba drives have model numbers starting with MKxxxxGSxx, while rebranded fujitsu drives start with MHxxxxxBx (letters in bold are always the same)

examples:

real Toshiba:
Toshiba MK3265GSX 320GB SATAII
Toshiba MK5061GSYB 500GB SATAII
Toshiba MK1059GSM 1000GB SATA II

rebranded Fujitsu:
Toshiba Hornet M60 80GB SATA (MHV2080BH)
Toshiba Hornet A160 320GB SATA (MHZ2320BJ)
Toshiba Hornet J100H 300GB SATA (MHX2300BT)

the above is for SATA(II) drives. something similar is going on for the 2.5" IDE drives though. The real Toshibas always start with MK.... while the rebranded Fujitsus always start with MH...
Fujitsu-Toshiba 2.5" IDE drives also always end with "Ax" (like for example "Toshiba Hornet V80 80GB (MHW2080AT))

[mockingbird]

Re: Important Memo regarding WD Caviar Green drives

It's a shame. Except for those old Fujitsu "AH" drives back in the day which had those faulty logic chips, Fujitsu drives had the highest quality mechanics and lowest failure rates of any drive.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Important Memo regarding WD Caviar Green drives

fujitsu HDDs are no more. They sold their HDD subsidiary to toshiba in 2009

that's why you will see 2.5" drives branded "Toshiba Hornet" now. Hornet used to be what Fujitsu called their notebook HDD series.
actual Toshiba drives have model numbers starting with MKxxxxGSxx, while rebranded fujitsu drives start with MHxxxxxBx (letters in bold are always the same)

examples:

real Toshiba:
Toshiba MK3265GSX 320GB SATAII
Toshiba MK5061GSYB 500GB SATAII
Toshiba MK1059GSM 1000GB SATA II

rebranded Fujitsu:
Toshiba Hornet M60 80GB SATA (MHV2080BH)
Toshiba Hornet A160 320GB SATA (MHZ2320BJ)
Toshiba Hornet J100H 300GB SATA (MHX2300BT)

the above is for SATA(II) drives. something similar is going on for the 2.5" IDE drives though. The real Toshibas always start with MK.... while the rebranded Fujitsus always start with MH...
Fujitsu-Toshiba 2.5" IDE drives also always end with "Ax" (like for example "Toshiba Hornet V80 80GB (MHW2080AT))

Thanks! - I didn't know that one.

[Scenic]

Re: Important Memo regarding WD Caviar Green drives

It's a shame. Except for those old Fujitsu "AH" drives back in the day which had those faulty logic chips, Fujitsu drives had the highest quality mechanics and lowest failure rates of any drive.

the "evil series" with the dying Cirrus Logic controller IC were the MPG and MPH series. the data on these HDDs is perfectly fine.. it's just that the CL controller f*cks up and can't position the heads properly. Or it just "disappears" and doesn't get detected anymore.

i had one of those myself. Fujitsu MPG3409AH. (40GB, 7200rpm, 2MB cache, ATA100)
i still have it flying around somewhere because there's some "important" data on it that i would like to get off.. but so far i haven't managed to find one that's still working (and doesn't cost a fortune) to get the PCB and/or controller off of..

the stuff that's still on mine has lots of emotional value to me.. but that still doesn't justify paying 30-40euro / 40-60 US$ for one that still works on ebay..

i mean.. it's still just and old 40GB IDE drive... :/


edit: by the way... the AT or AH at the end of the model number (for those old 3.5" IDE drives) is for the cache size and rpm.
AT = 5400rpm 512KB cache
AH = 7200rpm 2MB cache

[Per Hansson]

Re: Important Memo regarding WD Caviar Green drives

I would say
"reliability of hard drives with the same warranty as new is very close."

Comparing a 1yr or 3yr drive to a 5yr drive is just bogus.

I agree, this is also what I look at when buying harddrives.
Sorry for not being more specific...

One of the WD RE model lines had a firmware issue about the same time as Seagates little problem but the fix was so easy it really didn't bother me.

What series was it, do you remember?
I upgraded my RE2-GP 1TB drives with firmware file from WDC named "RE2IdleModeUpd.zip" (seems to no longer be on their site, now they link to wdidle3_1_05.zip instead)
http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3263

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Important Memo regarding WD Caviar Green drives

RE2 with model numbers ending in YS.
http://support.wdc.com/product/downl...sid=57&lang=en

[Per Hansson]

Re: Important Memo regarding WD Caviar Green drives

Thank you very much.
My drives are not the same but the problem I have with them sure is!
I fired off a mail to WD asking about it...

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Important Memo regarding WD Caviar Green drives

From here:
http://translate.google.com/translat...%26prmd%3Divns

I virus scanned it before uploading.
Hopefully it won't make your drives speak French.
.

[Per Hansson]

Re: Important Memo regarding WD Caviar Green drives

Thank you for the effort PCBONEZ
But I already upgraded to that firmware when I originally bought the drives... (As I wrote in post #49 above)

I will keep you updated on WD's reply though...

[dood]

Re: Important Memo regarding WD Caviar Green drives

i only know of their proprietary 1.8" IDE HDDs dying like flies (average lifetime was about 6-9 months before the click of death or something equally fatal)

they were used in Thinkpad X40/41 Tablet PCs aswell as the Dell Latitude D400 or D410 Subnotebooks IIRC

???

the d400 and 410 use 2.5" IDE drives.

The d420's used the 1.8" drives. We only ever had two in service, but the drives have been replaced multiple times. And they're not cheap!

We also had some Sony Vaio's with the crappy 1.8's in them. They've all been replaced multiple times, too. Luckily, they all just started developing bad sectors, so I've always been able to get the data off.

[Scenic]

Re: Important Memo regarding WD Caviar Green drives

i knew it was one of the D4xx series.. just couldn't remember which one.
a friend of mine replaced the crappy 1.8" Hitachi in his Thinkpad X41 with a 1.8" 32GB KingSpec SSD.

oh and yeah.. those 1.8" Hitachis aren't cheap.. cause they stopped producing them years ago.. and no other manufacturer made 1.8" IDE HDDs..

[mockingbird]

Re: Important Memo regarding WD Caviar Green drives

the "evil series" with the dying Cirrus Logic controller IC were the MPG and MPH series.

I have ten of them sitting in my basement. I wonder if it was a substrate issue like nVidia, because those chips were not BGA.

[Per Hansson]

Re: Important Memo regarding WD Caviar Green drives

I don't remember the brand but it was slim 3.5" drives, they dropped like flies...
With slim I mean half the height of a normal 3.5" drive...

[Scenic]

Re: Important Memo regarding WD Caviar Green drives

^ Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 8
the series before and after that were fine again..

they had pretty much exactly the same firmware issue as the Seagate 7200.11

[mockingbird]

Re: Important Memo regarding WD Caviar Green drives

Those thin Maxtor drives. There are two types. Diamondmax Plus 8 and "Fireball 3". Boy did those Fireball 3s give me problems.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: Important Memo regarding WD Caviar Green drives

Thank you for the effort PCBONEZ
But I already upgraded to that firmware when I originally bought the drives... (As I wrote in post #49 above)

I will keep you updated on WD's reply though...

Oh...
I thought you had bought additional drives of the same model and needed the program again.
.