[NEWS] Seagate, Maxtor and Hitachi with faulty drives?

[Handruin]

The Inq is reporting that drives made for these companies by Chinese plants over the last few months have a return rate of 10% _now_ Hoo mama! Pass the salt, but...

..."HARD DRIVES manufactured in Chinese factories are being recalled because of bad sector problems, according to a report.

And the defect rate on 40GB and 80GB products from Seagate, Maxtor and Hitachi Global Storage drives is as high as 10 per cent, according to a report in today's Digitimes.

That wire reports that distributors have seen big return rates on drives since the end of April, and, claimed Digitimes, came from the same sources in China.

The problems – so far unconfirmed by the big three drive makers – are due to a move to a new production process.

Yet Western Digital drives are free of the problems and doesn't have manufacturing in mainland China, said the wire, implying that mainland factories aren't quite up to the job.

The three manufacturers have not so far responded to the reports"...

(Note: this isn't recent news on the front page, but I mistakenly forgot to create LiamC's news thread. Please accept my apologies.)

 

[LiamC]

According to an update, this story is bogus as commercial shipments of drives from the Chinese plants of the manufacturers listed have not started!

I spoke to a friend who knows a bit about this and his stance is that Digitimes (Taiwan - where the story originated) is simply a PR rag for Taiwanese companies. It may simply be a FUD/propoganda piece.

 

[zx]

Consider the recent move to 1-year warranties... Isn't it strange that Seagate and Maxtor, who have 1-year warranties on (almost) all their drives, have reliability problems. However, it's probably just a coincidence.

True or not, it's very bad for PR...

 

[Mercutio]

Um, Hitachi has 1-year-warranties, too.
In any case, this story has hit zdnet and slashdot, which means basically the whole spectrum of techies has heard about it. The damage has been done.

 

[Pradeep]

No matter, picked up a Maxtor DM Plus 160GB drive from CompUseless yesterday. $169 and a $70 mail in rebate. Slipped it into an ADS Dual Link enclosure and life is good.

 

[Pradeep]

Oh yeah, there were a bunch of retail WD Raptors in the case too, but at $250 I couldn't justify it (espceially since I already have a SCSI controller).