IBM Travelstar/Deskstar hard drive failure; class action suit

IBM's Travelstar and Deskstar hard drives are the subject of numerous failure reports. Most users state that the drives fail with a "clicking" noise, generally when applying an incremental update to Mac OS X (including the recent 10.2.3 release). Among the complaints:

• "I work for a support company that supports about 3000 Macs and the IBM Deskstars are affectionately known as IBM Deathstars because we have replaced so many of them."
• "My IBM Deskstar 75GXP recently died when I installed Mac OS X 10.2.2."
• "At our location, we had about 20 percent of the 15GB DeathStar drives (as we liked to call them) fail with hardly any warning. In some cases I was lucky enough to get the drive to mount one more time to get the data off."
• "The first IBM Deskstar failed under OS X 10.1.5. Got the 'click of death and that's all she wrote. I had another brand new IBM Deskstar laying around so I installed that one (both 40 gig, internal IDE). That one lasted about two months. It currently won't mount in OS X, will mount in OS 9 but will hang the system when certain folders are accessed"

The law firm of Sheller, Ludwig & Badey's has posted an IBM 75GXP Class Action Press Page, which contains a selection of articles on the problems users have had with the 75GXP and on the litigation against IBM. The firm says "We hope that these articles will provide a clearer picture of the nature and extent of the problem with the 75GXP and help to more fully explain the litigation against IBM."

A separate page indicates that cases are currently pending in California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

Possible solutions: Some users have had success using an externally powered FireWire hub, or using AC power instead of power from the FireWire bus. Apparently, some TravelStar/DeskStar drives are not getting enough power through the Mac they are connected to, and require an added energy boost.

Feedback on this issue? Drop us a line at late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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