I don't understand what it is with IBM these days.

I own two IBM Deskstar 75GXP drives, a 14.4GB and a 45GB model. Both are 7200rpm models, at the top of the heap when released. Both are running in the same box, one on top of the other. Both have been run in my system for over a year, pretty much 24/7 (the 14.4 has probably been over two years now). While the 45GB model might have been among the production models that people are suing over, neither of these two drives has ever failed.

IBM had such a rep that when I was a reseller, we only used two manufacturers of drives for workstations (we used Seagate Cheetahs for servers) --IBM and Western Digital, and IBM was what we sold a customer when they wanted the best and nothing but. Ever since their early 1.7GB Deskstars, which in the day were top of the heap, they ruled the roost.

Now it seems they're really shooting themselves in the foot. Last fall I called to get a drive RMA'ed for a customer, and was told "I'd be lucky to see a replacement within 20 days". Forgive me, but this isn't acceptable. Western Digital and Maxtor still offer advance replacements, and IBM couldn't guarantee me anything. I advised the tech. rep that although I knew he wasn't responsible, I'd be switching customers over to another manufacturer until they could get their act together. Now IBM is telling us that their current line of high-end drives shouldn't be on more than 8 hours a day. I'm quite sure that my next hard disk purchase will be one of the 8MB buffer Western Digital models instead. When I buy a disk drive, I expect performance, reliability, and 3 year warranty with prompt service. I'm willing to pay money for this, and it looks like IBM will be losing mine.