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More on IBM 75GXP Drive Fiasco

Posted by michael on from the quality-control-is-priority-one dept.

FolkImplosion writes "Internal documents have been released suggesting that IBM was well-aware that its click-of-death 75GXP hard drives had a failure rate of as much as 10 times that of its competitors. IBM apparently sold drives it knew were faulty into distribution, and reportedly planned to deal with any issues with marketing spin rather than a fixing the problem. This new information should help bolster a class action suit that accuses IBM knowingly shipped defective 75GXP drives with abnormally high failure rates." The lawfirm pursuing the class action suit has a page of information, including the latest news report (pdf) on information coming out in the suits. See also our original story about the drive failures.

6 of 371 comments (clear)

  1. Reputation by radionotme · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This can't do IBM's reputation much good - fortunately for them the damage should be minimised since they no longer sell hard disks directly (so little loss of business)

    1. Re:Reputation by ob1knob777 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I wonder if this was why they sold the hard disk business off to Hitachi in the first place. Maybe they knew about the high failure rate and wanted to wash their hands of the whole mess before it got too bad?

  2. Institutional behaviour by heironymouscoward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's not rarely corporate policy to release faulty products. (Microsoft freaks, step aside, please.)

    What happens is that internal politics turn problems into cover ups. Someone, somewhere decides that it's more logical to ignore the issue than to address it. The falacy continues up the line, since decisions are often based on information from 'down the line'.

    The best thing IBM can do is to issue a general recall, offer generous replacement policies ("bring it in, we'll fix it on the spot") and try to recover their image as a reliable drive manufacturer. Otherwise their HD business is down the drain.

    Oh wait! They sold it to Fujitsu! OK, sue their asses!

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    Ceci n'est pas une signature
    1. Re:Institutional behaviour by millahtime · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "...you have to transfer all the data over to the new one... which is a royal pain in the arse..."

      I hate to point this out but should should do the whole backup thing. I mean even a high reliability HD occasionally fails.

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      Evolution or ID?
  3. Isn't that the way we do things now? by millahtime · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Don't we build cheaper things that are less reliable so that you have to buy new ones more often. Many industries already do that. They can make a light bulb that goes for 10 or 20 years no problem. And I can buy one that is garunteed to go for 5 years. But there are still ones that have 2500 hours. This concept isn't something new.

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    Evolution or ID?
  4. Re:Minor correction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I have a gun with six chambers. I put one bullet in a chamber, and left the other ones empty. Then I put the gun to my head, and pulled the trigger.


    So anyway, you can chalk me up as a Russian Roulett success story. No complaints here.