Microdrive users BEWARE!!! (long)

I have heard that the 1Gig are better but these both suffered some type
of catastrophic failures in less then 2 months each. I might try again
when they get to 2-5 Gig.

Steven

TheSwede said:

Steven Noyes said:

When out of the camera, it lived (like my CF cards) in anti-static
containers. Ther were babied. And they both still died.

Click to expand...

Were they the old 360MB variety or the newer generation 1GB? And
what kind of failure, just plain died, or sticking, or head crash?

Sorry to hear you had trouble with them.

--
Jesper

Click to expand...

--
---
My really bad summer pictures:
http://www.pbase.com/snoyes/summer_travels

Steven Noyes said:

I have heard that the 1Gig are better but these both suffered some
type
of catastrophic failures in less then 2 months each. I might try
again
when they get to 2-5 Gig.

Click to expand...

Yes, there were a lot of teething problems with the old drives. A major cause of malfunction was the head parking surface on the disk surface; the coating tended to stick to the head. This was especially frequent in humid environments.

That was rather fatal. The disk simply ceased to spin, and thereby function. IBM addressed this in manufacture procedures and so far I have not heard of it happening on a single 1GB drive.

--
Jesper

IBM responded (quite quickly). two emails, here is what they wrote:
"
Date: Sun, 21 Jul 02 14:03:56 MDT

IBM-CALLOWN INTERNET RESPONSE FACILITY

Subject.: IBM'S REPLY...

Dear Mr. Rozee,

Thank you for contacting IBM.

Thank you for your comments on the warranty service provided
by IBM.

We appreciate and encourage input that contributes to our
overall efforts to improve our service to you. Please note,
we have forwarded your comments to the IBM Hard Disk Drive
Support Center for review.

Thank you for visiting our site and contacting IBM.

Megan (m.) McCormack ([email protected])
Electronic Response Center
http://www.ibm.com/contact
1-888-746-7426
"

and an hour later:
"
Date: Sun, 21 Jul 02 15:07:34 MDT

IBM-CALLOWN INTERNET RESPONSE FACILITY

Subject.: IBM'S REPLY...

Dear Mr. Rozee,

Thank you for contacting IBM.

We appreciate the time you have taken to write to us
regarding the article written about IBM. We appreciate
input that contributes to our overall efforts to improve
our services to you.

Thank you for visiting our site and contacting IBM.

Ani Bekmezian ([email protected])
Electronic Response Center
http://www.ibm.com/contact
1-888-746-7426
"

regards,
robert rozee
christcxhurch, new zealand

Scooter said:

robert rozee said:

hi,
bad publicity is the answer. everyone who has read this thread (or
part therof and are unhappy with IBM's actions should contact
IBM and tell them. go to:
http://www.ibm.com/us/
select 'Contact' at the bottom of the page, then the 'E-mail IBM'
link.
fill out the form, telling IBM what you are unhappy about and why.
provide a pointer to the start of this thread.

with a bit of luck Phil Askey might notice this thread, and might
be able to use a bit of leverage to get some action . . .

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

[ stuff deleted ]

Scooter wrote:
...

Scooter said:

I got a 1 gig Microdrive about two months ago. Within a month it
started acting up and eventually failed completely

Click to expand...

...
--------

I would never use them. For one thing, the capacity is too high. This is putting way too many eggs in one basket. Take a look at this:

http://www.robgalbraith.com/reports/microdrive_feedback.html

To be on the safe side I would be reluctant to use a CF card larger than 256 Megs.

Luis Nadeau
http://www.photoconservation.com

Every company does this I don't know why but it's stupid. stupid. stupid.

This is what they all assume.

That we f* king enjoy taking a perfectly working item and initiate a process that we all enjoy so much, try to get a replacement.

Just in case we are all f* king idiots, and we don't know how to use a f king microdrive to a point that it's f king working, we just don't f king know it. We just like to pretend it does not work so we can send it back. And wait an indertermined amount of time for it to come back, and in the mean time we have to spend more of our f king money for a temporary solution.

Do they always think that we are sending a perfectly good item back, so they can prove to us that its really okay. Why are they so worried about how we ship a broken part.

Do they really take it apart when they get it back and try to fix it?

If so, I would not want the part after they fix it. If all they can do is replace your bad one with some one elses bad one that they fixed, then I'd rather not bother with the whole mess.

Wouldn't we expect a new item since we were inconvenienced and probably lost photos because of the defective item?

If you can't make a product reliable then why bother.

When my MD's goes, I won't be replacing them.

1 of 2 is already having hiccups. I now use a 256mb CF as a norm, until/if I run out during a shoot, but then there are always, digital wallets, oh wait, there's a hard drive in them also....

RichW said:

with any hard drive manufacturer. They have been burned too many
times. Any hard drive manufacturer would have done the same thing.
Don't fault IBM on this one. They all have very strict packaging
requirements. If you send it without antistatic packaging, not
properly boxed they can not be responsible for any problems.

Click to expand...

Funny, a friend of mine bought a western digital drive "as is" (which could also be read as "dead") called western digital found that it was still within warranty, got an rma number and mailed it back to them in a paper envelope. They seemed to have no issues with this as he received a replacement in a week! This did however happen in 1994 so I don't know how they are now.

jim

Depending on where you live / where you purchased the microdrive, the onus may be on IBM to prove that what you did is what caused the damage. Check with your state attorney general general's office on this. Since the cost of the microdrive is only ~$350 this could probably be taken to small claims court. Just the request for them to show up in small claims court could cause them to make good on the drive as it would probably cost them significantly more just to show up.

add the obligatory IANAL,
jim

That seems pretty impressive - can't see IBM doing that in the UK. I mean, shipping you a part first and then asking you to return the faulty one?

Anyone know different?

Janek.

DaveKinneer said:

Less than a week later I had a CD with my 500-plus images and my MD
back from Action Front. I then called IBM again and explained my
situation, including the fact that the MD had been opened in the
recovery process. They asked if Action Front had put a seal on it
and I told them they had. IBM sent me a brand new MD via Airborne
Express by overnight delivery. It arrived the next morning before
9:00 a.m. They told me to return the old MD in the package the new
one came in. They included a pre-paid return label in the package.

They did ask for my credit card number and told me they would
charge me for the price of a new MD if I did not return the
defective one within a month. It's been a month and I haven't been
charged so I assume the procedure worked.

Dave

Click to expand...

hoang nguyen said:

Every company does this I don't know why but it's stupid. stupid.
stupid.

This is what they all assume.

That we f* king enjoy taking a perfectly working item and initiate

Just in case we are all f* king idiots, and we don't know how to
use a f king microdrive to a point that it's f king working, we
just don't f king know it.

Click to expand...

Just one suggestion:

Decaf
Please note the above...