Forum Home
Press F1
Thread ID: 30280	2003-02-15 00:30:00	Reliability of Fujitsu drives. What date range is affected?	Billy T (70)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
121393	2003-02-15 23:11:00	Well guys Here's what my original research turned up: Reference #1: Problems: There are known problems with the following Fujitsu desktop hard disk model numbers: MPG3102AT, MPF3102AT, MPG3102AH and MPF3102AH (all 10Gb), MPG3204AT, MPF3204AT, MPG3204AH and MPG3204AT (all 20Gb), MPG3307AT, MPF3307AT, MPG3307AH and MPF3307AH (all 30Gb), MPG3409AT, MPF3409AT, MPG3409AH and MPF3409AH (all 40Gb). There are similar problems with the laptop MHM and MHN hard disk models. Symptoms: These Fujitsu drives will in many cases seem to be working perfectly, then all of a sudden they just appear to fail and die. They will not be recognised by the BIOS and sometimes the BIOS may identify them with nonsense information. You may see an error message telling you of a disk boot failure and also that your operating system can not be found. Cause: These drives fail as there appears to be an inherent fault on one of the chips on the controller board of the hard disk. Taking the form of a memory leak, after a finite period of time the drive will quite literally forget what it's doing and fall over. Reference #2: On the subject of drives another which has not been mentioned is Fujitsu. Stay away. They, in Sept. admitted that at least 3% of their drives sold in Japan will have to be replaced but they made no admission in regards to drives sold elsewhere. In the US a class action law suit has been filed against Fujitsu of America and HP for sale of system with said drives. Now not being produced for the desktop market many pre-built systems were/are sold with these drives. If you have 1 of these systems my suggestion would be to replace it or at the very least make very frequent back-ups. The drives most prone to failure are the MPG3xx, MPG3204AT, MPG3307AH and the MPG3409AH. Additional info on the class action suit can be found at This Site (www.sheller.com) So: The faulty sub-component referred to above is a Cirrus Logic controller chip (CL-SH8671-450E-A3) Operational time to failure seems to be 300-400 hours. The chip in my drive has an A4 suffix, but that doesn't exempt it from suspicion because it fits within the time frame. See my dilemma? Knowing the above, would you entrust your data to this disk? I think I have enough info now to go see DSE and get a refund or a different drive. I have always found them to be absolutely excellent in the past, a bit like the Warehouse for no argument replacements. Cheers Billy 8-{)	Billy T (70)
121394	2003-02-16 00:02:00	Thanks Billy I had about 5 Fujitsu 20GBs on one site go in three months last year with the symptoms you mentioned. Replacing the drives was no problem, but the owners were really unhappy. Now I can pass on this advice.	Marty2001 (421)
121395	2003-02-16 00:48:00	think I have enough info now to go see DSE and get a refund or a different drive. I have always found them to be absolutely excellent in the past, a bit like the Warehouse for no argument replacements. Yes, thats why I said just go back to them. Thats my experience with them as well.	dot_com (558)
121396	2003-02-22 00:30:00	Well, DSE offered a replacement (Maxtor) but by a curious quirk the sales receipt said it was a 30GB drive and what I had was definitely a 40GB, so we compromised, they credited the purchase price and I bought some software instead. Now, what is a more reliable brand of 7200rpm 40GB drive (or 60 or 80GB) I'm open minded about the size as it is for storing drive images from 6 computers and 12 HDs. Cheers Billy 8-{)	Billy T (70)
121397	2003-02-22 01:13:00	I've got a WD800JB here and it's fine. But then I know someone else that had one and it died with in a month. I think there aren't really any hard and fast rules between which ones are reliable... though there are the ones which definitely aren't I think seagate would probably be the best priced one for what they are. They're not the fastest but from what you're going to be using it for you won't be needing speed so much.	-=JM=- (16)
121398	2003-02-22 01:17:00	I find Seagate drives reliable. There were some problems with some of the early 7200rpm ones, but that is long ago :|	wuppo (41)
121399	2003-02-22 01:25:00	> Now, what is a more reliable brand of 7200rpm 40GB > drive (or 60 or 80GB) I'm open minded about the size > as it is for storing drive images from 6 computers > and 12 HDs. > > Cheers > > Billy 8-{) I am sure with you infinite knowledge Mr Billy T, you could have answered your own question. If its for what you say, just buy the cheapest one. It will be under gaurantee like the last one, so not really a problem. And it dosen't sound like it will be doing anything too complicated	dot_com (558)
121400	2003-02-22 02:03:00	well everyone has their personal favorites but generally i would stick to the main brands, seagate, maxtor, western digital. i have seen quite a few newish seagates that have been extremly noisy (compared even to my old seagate barracuda2 ). i havn't had any problem with WD's (touch wood).	tweak'e (174)
121401	2003-02-22 03:03:00	Ah.... dot com You flatter me. Even my children know I don't possess infinite knowledge. But you really need to reconsider what you wrote, because to take your advice would be potentially disasterous. What use is a guarantee if your precious back up data has been lost? I want the drive to store backups for six computers, ergo reliability ranks above price or speed, though because of the file sizes, speed needs to be second on the list of desirable features. Nobody should ever buy their backup hardware on price alone. Would you buy the cheapest parachute/lifejacket/crash helmet/fire extinguisher you could find just because you would only need to use it once? I think not. :| Cheers Billy 8-{) :D	Billy T (70)
121402	2003-02-22 03:32:00	I have been waiting on a replacement for my 20Gb Fujitsu since Dec 8 last year, so I wouldn't hold your breath for quick sevice from Fujitsu's NZ agents, if anyone has a problem with one of the affected drives. Despite numerous phone calls I am still driveless. On the strength of this, I will never buy another drive with a fujitsu sticker on it.	Stumped Badly (348)
1 2 3