I own two RioCar units, each with a pair of 30GB drives. Three of these drives are the factory installed Fujitsu MHL2300AT 30GB drives, and one is a Toshiba 30GB I added later.

Both RioCar units were working fine, but they were put on a shelf for several months due to other priorities.

Today I was surprised to discover that one Fujitsu drive in EACH of the RioCar units has failed. That is two out of the three OEM Fujitsu drives.

Set to IDE master, I have connected each drive to each RioCar, using each IDE cable. The good drives work regardless, while the failed drives produce "No hard disk, contact support" messages, using either connector on IDE cable, on both units.

The failed drives spin up, then produce a continuous tick-tock clicking sound, even after the "disk problem, contact support" message appears.

All 3 Fujitsu drives have the same date code 2001-01, revsion code 10E-3022, and the serial numbers are 13300, 13550, 13554.

Have others experienced similar failues with these Fujitsu drives?

What would be the warranty situation regarding these drives?

I intend to use an IDE adapter to connect the drives to a PC for further testing, but don't really expect them to work.

Thank you in advance.

Before you jump to the conclusion that the drives are bad, make sure you've ruled out all the other possible causes for disk trouble.

I'm not saying the drives aren't bad, I'm just saying that there are also some very common things which would make the drives to SEEM to be bad when in fact they're fine. So check the cheap and common things first.

I know you said "using either connector" on the IDE cable, which is one good step to help rule out a bad cable, but there is a whole list of other possible issues, and there's also the problem that most of these failures are intermittent, and you can't be super-certain that one plug-and-test pass is enough to rule out a certain set of possible problems.

Having said all of that...

Yes, I seem to recall others reporting problems with a certain batch of Fujitsu drives. Anyone have links to those threads?

Try putting them in to a laptop , that will rule out the empeg as the problem.

My 30GB had a duff drive from new, thats how i proved it was not the empeg that was the problem.

C.

Remembering my box of failed hard disks (at one point there were 80 drives totalling over a terrabyte) there were as many dead Toshiba drives as Fujitsu.

The failure rate on both felt higher than I would have liked, but I estimate that we've purchased around 150-200 replacement hard drives over the years for a base of around 6-8,000 drives, so percentage-wise it is in the low single figures, which is to be expected.

The 20GB Fujitsu drive in my daughter's laptop died a couple of weeks ago with the same problem (spins up, but the head don't load, makes click, click sound). MHM2200AT dated 7/2001.

A little web searching turned up at least one class-action lawsuit regarding manufacturing defects in their 3.5" drives. Personally, I'm replacing the Fujitsu drive in my empeg. And I'm still looking for someone who can recover my daughter's drive for less than $1600!

I myself have had 2 of the fujitsu drives go bad, but my third is doing ok so far (30GB models BTW).

The class action lawsuit is only for their 3.5" desktop drives and only a specific series as well. They don't use the same chipset in their laptop drives.
The problem with the 3.5" drives is related to controller chip failures. The supplier for the epoxy used to make the chip packages changed their formula without telling Cirrus Logic who actually manufacture the chips. Fujitsu bought the chips off Cirrus Logic and put them into the drives.

- Trevor

I seem to recall others reporting problems with a certain batch of Fujitsu drives

I remember that the Fujitsu drives were more temperature sensitive than the others -- they wouldn't work under cold conditions that other drives handled readily.

tanstaafl.

i think you can have a good or bad experience with any brand of drives. i have used two of my mkIIa's as "permanent residents" in my car (i never take it out) for a year and a half, and both of these happen to have a pair of 30GB fujitsu drives. even in sub-zero chicago weather, i have never experienced a boot failure with either unit.

YMMV,
--dan.