Documents recently made public shed some interesting light on the IBM GXP Deskstar hard drive failure class action suit.
Maximum PC has dug up some internal IBM discussions revealing failure rates 10 times as high as competing products from other manufacturers, an apparent determination to address the problem through marketing denials rather than manufacturing changes, and a decision to sell a batch of faulty drives into distribution (and thus to consumers) after its rejection by a larger customer due to high failure rates.
These practices seem to have raised significant concern inside IBM, based on excerpts from internal communications. A sample: “We have woven a story based upon half truths and misinformation that now places IBM in a position that is almost untenable.”
A post on Tech Report puts the pieces together.
