Hitachi slips past Fujitsu with speedy 320GB laptop drive Hitachi is updating its TravelStar laptop hard drive range with a more capacious 320GB disk that spins at 7,200rpm. The refresh follows Fujitsu's announcement of its own 320GB, 7,200rpm notebook disk drive, for which the company staked a "world's first" claim back in March. As we pointed out then - the timing left an opening …
So, I've really wondered -- has Hitachi cleaned up or shut down the plant that was churning out bad Deathstars? The OLD Deskstars (20GB and down) were fabulous, the later IBM Deskstars were what were so bad. The smartest thing Hitachi could have done is announce publicly they've fixed their problems; without knowing I wouldn't risk it.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/10/22/fujitsu_hdd_fiasco_to_end/
Funny how the IBM Deathstar debacle is frozen in people's minds, but the Fujitsu drives with sub-par electronics are already forgotten it seems... Well, I lost a drive back then, and I'm not going to pick Fujitsu over IBM/Hitachi.
That said... Which one will fit inside my MacBook Pro? :)
--
Rune
I'd agree with Rune on this one. The company I worked with at the time had 30 of those defective Fujitsu HDDs. We had 5 go within a couple of weeks. It was almost impossible to get any money out of Fujitsu at the time. We moved on to Western Didge. Hitachi drives don't seem to be that bad. Usually pretty well spec'ed. That's my 5pence worth.
"Travelstar isn't called the "DeathStar" for naught."
Travelstars aren't called Deathstars at all. It was the old (IBM days - around 2000) 3.5" Deskstar drives (the clue is in the 'Desk' part) which were dubbed that name. Specifically, it's actually just 1 model which appeared to be the problem (75GXP) - which was the subject of a Class Action. It was the first drive to use glass platters (rather than aluminium). To bundle Nth generation 2.5" drives released in 2008 against first generation 3.5" drives released in 2000 probably isn't fair.
http://www.astro.ufl.edu/~ken/crash/index.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/10/23/ibm_hit_with_hard_drive/
The death star issue was resolved at least 7 years ago. Even the later IBM drives were good.
We've had loads of the Hitachi drives, no problems at all.
Has plenty of problems with Fujitsu drives. Wouldn't put my data on a Seagate drive again eugh.
Western Digitals are (were?) good but noisy.
But hey lets carry on using some 7 year old news to slate a company that produces good products
Why is it that when there's any article about hard drives, you have a load of people bashing the manufacturer or the drive. In this case, it's the "Deathstar" issue which occurred and was resolved many years ago. Do you idiots actually think that a 2008 2.5" SATA II drive has any relation to a 2000 3.5" PATA drive?
And why is it only hard drives that you guys do this for? Why doesn't anybody bash Intel? After all, they had the P3 FDIV bug. They also had the opcode (which I forget, but have written down somewhere) that would lock up your machine when th CPU tried to execute it. That one worked at least up to the P4, even in WinXP.
Visiting the past may be nice in some cases (like reminiscing about old games), but it's illogical to think that current technology is stuck in the past, or to forever bash a company because of past mistakes (especially when the past mistake was made by a different company).
If you avoid every hard drive manufacturer who has produced faulty hard drives at one point in their history, you will find that you are left with none.
@Chris C: "Why is it that when there's any article about hard drives, you have a load of people bashing the manufacturer or the drive... And why is it only hard drives that you guys do this for?"
Apparently, you haven't seen some of the Windows vs. Mac vs. Linux "discussions" around here. This HD bashing is baby tame by comparison.
@everyone else: And, OK, fine, I got my facts about the "DeathStar" crossed. Mea culpa. My only real complaint about all the TravelStar drives I have (2 6GB and 2 20GB) is that they're all fairly loud; even when they're idling. I stay away from them when I'm searching for replacement drives for that reason. If they've quieted them down (like the Samsung and *shudder* Seagate laptop drives I have... and I have my own misgivings about Seagate in general, but that's not important now), will someone please tell me? I'll be willing to give them a sporting chance.
Because this time it's personal. Data, that is. When my video card dies I go out and get a better one. When my hard drive goes, I lose stuff, backups notwithstanding. Consigning people's personal stuff to the great bit bucket in the sky is a good way to generate long standing grievances.
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