GuysA sad tale. 3 days ago I bought this 80GB U-ATA133 drive - the ball bearing type - along with a Lian Li PC61 case, which is fine.The drive is, in my opinion, DOA because, while it will accept Win98 and later upgrade to XP, it will NOT let me complete a fresh install of XP nor a Ghost installation from my old disk of 2K Pro. System in both cases just hangs mid-boot after install.DOS format came up with 8 or 9 instances of damaged locations, accompanied by ominous clunking while it tried to fix them, outcome not reported.NOW. While it is obvious that this drive is jiggered, I'd like to know if anyone's running this, as opposed to the FDB-equipped "L4" model? I know it's 7200RPM but I can hear the thing screaming from across the room over the noise of the Thermaltake Volcano 5 cooler and 4 case fans. I think this is abnormal. I have a friend with the FDB drive and he says he can't hear anything once it's spooled up. Even my 1.2GB WD Caviar from 1996 is quiet and error free.I'd rather return this and get my money back and buy a Seagate Barracuda 4 which definitely has Fluid bearings, but I'd like know how noisy my current drive "should" be before I make that call...and is the Seagate any good?Thanks in advanceNeil

Neil,I don't run the J4, I run the fluid version of your drive. Whilst you only asked for people running the J4, I think I can still assist. My fluid version is indeed quiet and I can't really hear it once Windows is up and running. When it is just spinning (and not seeking) you can't hear it at all as even the power supply fan is much loader.Now www.storagereview.com reports that the difference in sound pressure levels between my version and your version is only 2.4 decibels (dB). 3 dB is supposed to be the quite a small increase in sound volume - for example, you would notice the difference but it would be quite small (10 dB is a doubling in perceived sound pressure). Given that you find the drive quite noisy, I find it almost impossible to believe your drive is only around 2.4 dB louder than mine. Therefore I think it safe to assume your drive is mechanically far louder than a normal ball bearing drive and certainly way out of specification.

thanks for the info JonHad I known I was going to get the ball bearing one I'd have ordered an FDB Seagate from elsewhere. Of course they didn't state on their stock list which variant they were supplying.It's been returned with insurance on the carriage - at my expense - and I'm taking the line that they either replace it with the FDB model or refund me.In case anyone reading this is in the UK, the company in question resides at www.theoverclockingstore.co.uk and I cannot honestly recommend them to anyone! After 2 days of not replying to my request for an RMA I found that their returns line was constantly busy, perhaps off the hook. Finally I contacted sales who said "we have a lot of people off in that department". Right. They've got a slick e-commerce solution for selling but they can't set up an alias for an email account? The worst thing is they take "pride" in their service and responding to mails the same day with a 2-day turn-around on returns. My _rse!So it's anyone's guess as to when I'll get sorted.Sorry to rant but this kind of thing really hacks me off.Best regards//Neil

I know I had heaps of trouble getting my fluid bearing drive. I contacted my usual supplier who told me that their distributer just gets "batches" of drives from Maxtor - some a ball bearing - some are fluid. Therefore (according to that supplier), they can't actually order a fluid drive - you just take what you get at that particular time.So I contacted my secondary supplier and they said much the same thing. However, they did say they could get a fluid drive on special order. Which they managed to do without any problems. One Maxtor ditributer actually reckons the ball bearing model is getting phased out and they will be fluid exclusively.I think I had to pay an extra $20 Australian to get the fluid drive but I think any fluid drive from any manufacturer is more than worth the price premium.

Hi JonIf I handn't also wanted a Lian Li case and Enermax supply, I'd have bought the Seagate 80GB FDB drive from DABS.com. They don't have specialist cases and supplies though. I saved on the postage but the resultant hassle wasn't worth it! The Seagate drive was 10 pounds cheaper at dabs also.We live and learn...Best regards//Neil