IBM GXP drives may be defective

Attention DAW users! There is a defect in IBM gxp series IDE hard drives. This drive came standard in many apple G4 models. I had 2 fail. After some research I found there is a documented defect in IBM gxp75 series drives. In fact there is a class action against IBM now. The failures are bad news, with no warning, disk warrior will not show the problem. Disk first aid will not show a problem nor will Norton disk doctor unless you use the check media option, (takes a long time). Apple drive setup will show the problem if you use the check drive media option. If you are on a PC IBM has a little app on their site that tests for defects, nothing for apple though. All of our friends and colleagues with apple boxes are especially susceptible to these damn drives. From what I have read the problem develops as random bad sectors on the drive until you get a total failure, then of course it's too late. I feel like this is important info to get out to anyone who might lose their work, art, mind due to IBM's bad product. Pass on this info. especially to your sever host company. and your I.T. guys at work. here is a link to the firm handling the class action against IBM. here is a link to a discussion group with gxp info.

here is a link to the complaint . this is a serious problem, don't get bit on the ass.

The specific model #'s are: IBM Deskstar 75GXP DTLA-307015 DTLA-307020 DTLA-307030 DTLA-307045 DTLA-307060 DTLA-307075 15GB thru 75GB a link to IBM warranty service and windows drive checker:

I have a IBM 60Gig deskstar..which has been making strange noises for a while..I went to the IBM siye suggested in the link above but found no MAC Drive TESt only a Windows ......Could someone advise me.. thanks... 2 weeks ago i lost 20gigs of data ..all corrupted with no warning.... Now it looks like I've found the answer... thanks for any info..

This isn't Theo Mack from Syracuse, is it?

yup that's me I am in NYC now.

Latenights: the drive test is only for windows. Read my 1st post carefully. The only way to detect (as far as I can tell) on a mac is to run NDD check media or apple drivesetup, function menu test disk. even then It might not show up till it's too late.

Hey Theo. I met you years ago when I was in a band w/ Paul Worden. I'm a friend of Matt Machaffie's in NYC too. Thanks for the warning on the drives. I saw your post on Macintouch and wondered if that was you or not. -doug

Right, thanks for the info... I'm the happy owner of a DTLA-307075... Now I'm depressed... I guess I just have to wait and watch it die...Back up has been made but eventhough...I'm depressed...I can only hope that my drive is the chosen one...the one that won't fail...

I just read that FWB hard drive toolkit can check with the gxp internal S>M>A>R>T chip and show the error rate of the drive and indicate if it has bad sectors. Only the full retail edition of HD toolkit has this option. Hard Disk Toolkit 4.5.2 full edition S.M.A.R.T. stands for "Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology"