Hard Drive Replacement

[eLinux]

My HD on my Thinkpad is finally about to go; it's obvious by the "click of death" syndrome which clearly denotes the future death of a hard drive.

I wondering how IBM handles hard drive replacements. I've had horrible past experiences with "refurbished" hard drives from various companies and manufacturers (Dell, Compaq, HP; Maxtor, WD, etc.). Does IBM actually bother sending out refurbished parts (in this case, the hard drive) or do they just send new parts out?

Here's to hoping if they do send me a refurbed that it works like new, or preferrably a new HD. I'd hate to have another bad experience with a refurbed HD.

Any thoughts/ideas/input appreciated. Thanks.

[Leon]

They will send you a new drive.

update: based on below post
Experience in my company has shown that replacement drives shipped have always been new. Maybe we've been lucky, maybe they treat business accounts differently.

[K. Eng]

IBM, like all the other manufacturers, uses either new or refurbished parts depending on what the repair depot has on hand. For example, my T40 has had 2 system board replacements. The first replacement part was new, and the second is a refurb.

I'm not so concerned about refurb parts that aren't mechanical, but I am very skeptical of refurb hard drives and other things with moving parts. Case in point - I recently RMA'd a Western Digital hard drive that was making horrible noise, and I got a 'recertified' drive back that still makes pretty bad noises.

You could buy a new HDD yourself and sell the refurb (if you do get a refurbished drive), but you would almost certainly loose some money in the transaction. Also keep in mind that some parts labled as 'refurb' are in fact new. I had a HDD go on a Dell notebook, and I got a refurb replacement, but the drive was clearly new as it was still sealed in original packaging and was clearly never opened (unlike the WD refurb that I got back, with scratches & sticker that clearly said 'recertified').

[rvehock]

I had my HD die and I replaced it with a Samsung MP0402H 5400rpm hard dirve brand new for $63 from compgeeks.com and it is at least twice as quite as the old hitachi drive that was in my T40.

[eLinux]

I had my HD die and I replaced it with a Samsung MP0402H 5400rpm hard dirve brand new for $63 from compgeeks.com and it is at least twice as quite as the old hitachi drive that was in my T40.

While this is pretty affordable, and probably not such a bad idea, I'd rather not spend any money. Especially considering the laptop is under warranty.

I guess I'll just give 'em a call and hope that I get a new one. I really wouldn't be so picky if it wasn't for the bad experiences I have had in the past, and the fact that HD's are such sensitive devices. I'd really rather not take the risk with my important data.

Thanks everyone for your input

[JHEM]

I wondering how IBM handles hard drive replacements. I've had horrible past experiences with "refurbished" hard drives from various companies and manufacturers.

I've never heard of IBM sending a refurbished or "recertified" HD out as a replacement.

I've probably gotten 50 or so replacement HDs from IBM over the past 10 years, every one of them was brand, spanking new.

Regards,

James

[jkelsey1]

I've installed a Samsung MP0402H hard drive in the Ultrabay of a T21 and while thr BIOS lists the 2nd HD, I don't see it in DOS or Win98SE in order to format and use it.

Any ideas?

[mdarnton]

My replacement was a previously used drive (it has a little sticker on it that says so) so yes, they do it, and there hasn't been any problem with it at all.

[brewt]

If you read their warranty statement (or whatever it's called), I'm pretty sure it says they can replace parts with refurbished parts if they want. That said, the replacement 20GB for my dad's A31 was new, so I guess it all depends on what they have in stock.

You could buy a new HDD yourself and sell the refurb (if you do get a refurbished drive)

Remember that the person you sell the drive doesn't get any warranty on the drive. Warranties for OEM drives are usually only valid with the hardware they came with. If they try RMA the drive with the manufacturer (hitachi, fujitsu, etc), they'll get declined (the s/n won't work with their systems), since you can only get it replaced through IBM (which would require your notebook's s/n and p/n).

[awolfe63]

I might note, however, that unlike most drives, the T4X drives often click normally with no impending problem.

[Marc_G]

Mine (a T42P with any of three drives: 60 GB 7200 RPM, 80 GB 5400 RPM, 80 GB 4200 RPM) makes a noticeable click whenever the active protection system kicks in. I don't consider this a defect.

Marc