Hitachi Deskstar - OK drive?

Question

I've got a new Dimension 4600, 2.6 HT, 256 RAM, 64 Meg Video Card running XP Home. The first hard drive, a Western Digital 80 Gig was noisy so I had Dell replace it - the next WD was just as noisy. Then I bought, on my own, a Seagate 80 Gig and it was very quiet at first but develpoed a nasty habit of "buzzing" verey 2-5 minutes for anywhere from 15 -60 seconds (when the drive was idling). I called Dell and requested they ship me a Seagate - they said they would BUT, and isn't there always a but with Dell customer service, a new, not refurbished, 80 Gig HD Hitachi Deskstar arrived today. It's from the latest family - GPX180.

Does anyone know if these are any good, reliable, etc. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!!

Wayne21_f35410 · Answer

I received about the same machine a week ago and it had the Hitachi DeskStar in it. (It isn't even clear if this is a 7200 RPM drive, cache level etc.) I'm not very thrilled since the only DeskStar drives I know of were branded IBM. Some of the early (3 GB) of those IBMs were much more troublesome than the competition and earned the name DeathStar. I'm going to cross my fingers and hope these are better than the IBM units.

Hope that provides some insight.

Beatrice57 · Answer

Thanks for the information. For what it's worth mine is a 7200 with a 8 MB cache. I looked it up on the Hitachi website - www.hgst.com If you remove your drive from the cage, which, very unfortunately I've gotten very good at, you can see the model # and track it on the Hitachi site. My model # is IC35L090AVV207. My problem has been noise with my other drives and I was very unhappy when this drive arrived this AM - I remember other posts saying these are luckly to make it a year. However, I loaded XP no problem and so far, so good, no strange noises. WOULDN'T YOU KNOW IT!! The second I typed that I heard this fairly loud, but short screech. My the heads were being parked. I'll let it settle down and see - one more burp and I'll be back in touch with Dell.

Good luck with yours.

parickmlyons · Answer

There have been numerous problems with the Deathstar's reported on this forum. They make strange peroiodic noises.

Francis Nguyen · Answer

The Deathstar is a problem child.  I would return the PC a long time ago. F.

Beatrice57 · Answer

This drive, and this system is out of here.  I'm getting a replacement.  The Hitachi drive now starts creaking like an old barn door opening that hasn't seen any oil in about 15 years.  Unbelieveable.  It must be me - I've gone thru 3 drives.  As far as I'm concerned the Hitachi is junk.  Deathstar is an approriate name for the drive.

Wayne21_f35410 · Answer

Hmmm, my workstation is still burning in as I prepare to put it into service. Yes, the Hitachi HD does make some noises now and again, a very quick kind of 'blip' but I assumed that was like I've heard with other drives.

Have the problems with this drive (aka DeathStar) been recent with the Hitachi version?

tsbrown3 · Answer

I also have this IBM/Hitachi drive in 120GB configuration.  It also exhibits a creaking noise periodically as described above.  Good to know I'm not the only one with this problem for when I call Dell for a replacement.  I was considering adding a 2nd one of these but now it's off my list based on similar complaints.

ronss · Answer

maxtors and wd are my favorites. i had 2 75gxp deathstars, ended up sending both back. had em on raid0. so what did ibm do, send me a 60gxp drive, quess they didn,t know i was using raid. its still working. they did send me back a 75gxp deathstar, and it seems to be still working good for about 1 .7 years now.

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Hitachi Deskstar - OK drive?

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