Different Powerbook HDs: Hitachi, Toshiba and Fujitsu ? does it matter?

Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
The OE suppliers of Powerbook hard drives are ? I believe ? Hitachi, Fujitsu and Toshiba. Are there any confirmed or just generally accepted beliefs about the relative merits or lack thereof of each drive?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 14
    Are you referring to current or new (replacement) drives for your PB?
  • Reply 2 of 14
    c-bearc-bear Posts: 111member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ac7860

    Are you referring to current or new (replacement) drives for your PB?



    I'm referring to current, OEM drives; specifically, to the manufacturers (Hitachi, Toshiba and Fujitsu) and if there is a user-opinion hierarchy among them.
  • Reply 3 of 14
    My user opinion is Hitachi (feat. IBM tech) first, Fujitsu second, and Toshiba a distant third. Avoid Toshiba.
  • Reply 4 of 14
    lucaluca Posts: 3,833member
    I've also heard that Toshiba isn't very good. But a friend of mine has had two Fujitsu desktop drives die on him in the past couple months, so I don't know about those either. Hitachi is good though - IBM used to have some pretty horrible drives (like the craptacular Deathstar 75GXP), but they cleaned up their act and sold their drive division to Hitachi. I'd say the Hitachi is probably the best.
  • Reply 5 of 14
    As well as the highest performance laptop drives (7k60 and 5k80) and highest capacity. Fujitsus are used in powerbooks as well.



    Toshibas suck for two reasons: noise (high pitched whine), and their supposed cache which for all intents and purposes doesn't work and yeilds no performance gain.



    http://www.barefeats.com/hard34.html

    compares them all.
  • Reply 6 of 14
    gongon Posts: 2,437member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Luca Rescigno

    I've also heard that Toshiba isn't very good. But a friend of mine has had two Fujitsu desktop drives die on him in the past couple months, so I don't know about those either. Hitachi is good though - IBM used to have some pretty horrible drives (like the craptacular Deathstar 75GXP), but they cleaned up their act and sold their drive division to Hitachi. I'd say the Hitachi is probably the best.



    IBM 75GXP.. the horror!



    I got one of the first batch to arrive here, before it was publicly known that they are lemons. Result: a total of three HD replacements, meaning, I lost the HD contents three times. The last replacement was newer model and works well.
  • Reply 7 of 14
    guarthoguartho Posts: 1,208member
    So, who knows what's in the G4 iBooks, especially the 60 Gig variety?
  • Reply 8 of 14
    I know that my old Fujitsu sucked A#$. I like Gon, lost data on numerous occasions. My new Hitachi 7K60 rocks! The Hitachi drive was well worth the additional cost.
  • Reply 9 of 14
    My G4 iBook 800 came with a Toshiba 30gig. It's virtually silent, I hope it holds up ok, you guys have me worried already
  • Reply 10 of 14
    I can't vouch for all Toshiba drives but the few that I have are all over 2yrs old and still going.
  • Reply 11 of 14
    All I know is that the fujitsu that's in my 17 inch 1.33ghz is astoundingly quiet.
  • Reply 12 of 14
    g-newsg-news Posts: 1,107member
    Quote:

    IBM 75GXP.. the horror!



    That really depends on your luck.

    I have had a 75GXP for years without a single problem and 2 of my friends have had the same drive for almost as long, also without any problems.

    the 75GXP were not just BAD, there were these and those.
  • Reply 13 of 14
    buckeyebuckeye Posts: 358member
    So what is the best 7200rpm drive to put in my new 1.25Ghz Powerbook?
  • Reply 14 of 14
    eugeneeugene Posts: 8,254member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by G-News

    That really depends on your luck.

    I have had a 75GXP for years without a single problem and 2 of my friends have had the same drive for almost as long, also without any problems.

    the 75GXP were not just BAD, there were these and those.




    Of course it depends on your luck. But you had to be more lucky than with other HDDs. IBM ended up admitting the 75GXP and even the 60GXP were prone to failure. It had such a huge impact that IBM changed the way it listed its POH ratings for their other HDDs.



    75GXPs were pretty damned bad.
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