Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

trancepriest · 11:25 AM

I purchased dual Maxtor 250gb SATA internal 7200 rpm drives a year back. While checking in disk utility this morning I noticed that both drives are failing. Needless to say that would explain alot of the problems I've been having since I bought the drives. Problems such as frequent stalls while booting up and freezes while waking from sleep. While reading hdforindies.com I noticed Mike was having a problem with his 8 Maxtor drive RAID. He even posted the question if Maxtor drives are proned to failure? I'm guessing that they are. Even if our cases are isolated problems... its still good to go with other HD makers like Seagate.. because they have a 5 year Warranty vs. Maxtors one year warranty. If your in the market for an hard drive upgrade... I would definitely advice going with non-maxtor hard drives. I'm replacing both of mine with Seagate 300gb.. at least I know I will be covered by the 5 year warranty.... protect your investment... I'm not feeling so good about wasting 600 bucks on Maxtor HD's.

all2ofme · Mar 21, 2005, 03:49 PM

Another vote for drives made by someone other than Maxtor. I had two Maxtors out of two fail on me. Both in the first year. Will never buy another one.

f1000 · Mar 21, 2005, 04:25 PM

I had a Maxtor die on me last year as well. I bought it retail from CompUSA, and the thing began clacking horribly within a few months. I used the old freeze-and-bang-on-a-countertop trick to bring it back to life, but the drive died soon after never to return.

Before I criticize Maxtors as being prone to failure, I should emphasize that anecdotes do not substitute for statistics. I've had other Maxtors that worked for years, so perhaps it was the fanless Firewire case that did it in.

analogika · Mar 21, 2005, 05:17 PM

I get the impression lately that ALL hard drives are increasingly prone to failure.

It's gettting to the point where I refuse to trust the damn things at all.

Backup, backup, backup, and at least a three-year warranty on every new drive.

Disgruntled Head of C-3PO · Mar 21, 2005, 07:30 PM

out of the 5 Maxtors I have owned 4 have failed within a year.

tooki · Mar 21, 2005, 09:52 PM

Whereas I've never had a Maxtor fail on me.

Right now, though, I buy Seagate, since they give 5 year warranties vs the others' 1 and 3 year warranties.

tooki

analogika · Mar 22, 2005, 02:31 AM

Originally posted by tooki:
Whereas I've never had a Maxtor fail on me.

This very iMac's Maxtor 80GB drive is currently failing (I'm getting several S.M.A.R.T. alerts a day, and sometimes it won't power up again - so I keep it running until it dies).

It's four years old.

Disgruntled Head of C-3PO · Mar 22, 2005, 10:35 AM

Originally posted by analogika:
This very iMac's Maxtor 80GB drive is currently failing (I'm getting several S.M.A.R.T. alerts a day, and sometimes it won't power up again - so I keep it running until it dies).

It's four years old.

You obviously don't value the data on it much do you.

GORDYmac · Mar 22, 2005, 02:51 PM

Seagate drives have a 5 year warranty. They're the only manufacturer I'd consider. Amazon had a deal on the 300GB drive last week.

analogika · Mar 22, 2005, 10:13 PM

Originally posted by Disgruntled Head of C-3PO:
You obviously don't value the data on it much do you.

Originally posted by analogika:
I get the impression lately that ALL hard drives are increasingly prone to failure.

It's gettting to the point where I refuse to trust the damn things at all.

Backup, backup, backup, and at least a three-year warranty on every new drive.

nimrod.

Krusty · Mar 22, 2005, 10:29 PM

I can't comment on Maxtor .. the only one I've owned came built-in to a machine I bought and it lasted fine (though it was slow and relatively loud).

I've never had a Seagate fail me. They're quiet, cool-running, and reliable. Perhaps there are other drives that are as good ... but I feel like I've found a good brand so I'm sticking with it

A 120gb Seagate is in transit to my house right now ...

Disgruntled Head of C-3PO · Mar 22, 2005, 10:49 PM

Originally posted by analogika:
This very iMac's Maxtor 80GB drive is currently failing (I'm getting several S.M.A.R.T. alerts a day, and sometimes it won't power up again - so I keep it running until it dies).

And you continue to use it...

nimrod.

analogika · Mar 23, 2005, 07:53 AM

Originally posted by Disgruntled Head of C-3PO:
And you continue to use it...

Yes, O Great Vacuum, I Continue To Use It...

Not having an alternative, and this being my living room internet station rather than my production machine (whose hard drive died a few weeks back, and whose fate is currently being fought out with AppleCare) I actually back up my data and run this iMac into the ground for as long as it still works before acquiring a replacement drive/machine.

(Why the **** do I even bother justifying myself to someone who'd just obviously failed to read the thread and is now wantonly being a total prick about it???)

-s*

Disgruntled Head of C-3PO · Mar 23, 2005, 10:06 AM

Originally posted by analogika:
I actually back up my data and run this iMac into the ground for as long as it still works before acquiring a replacement drive/machine. -s*

Right and NO WAY could a failing drive possibly backup data corrupt or anything.

analogika · Mar 25, 2005, 03:43 PM

Originally posted by Disgruntled Head of C-3PO:
Right and NO WAY could a failing drive possibly backup data corrupt or anything.

Not the data I already have well and safely tucked away on my external drive and the iDisk, no - NO WAY.

My email is on the IMAP server, and everything else is just fluff at the moment.

I appreciate your heartfelt concern, though.

Disgruntled Head of C-3PO · Mar 25, 2005, 05:46 PM

Originally posted by analogika:
Not the data I already have well and safely tucked away on my external drive and the iDisk, no - NO WAY.

My email is on the IMAP server, and everything else is just fluff at the moment.

I appreciate your heartfelt concern, though.

Still replying though eh. Must feel rather defensive about it eh

Steve · Mar 26, 2005, 12:06 AM

The 4 external Maxtor drives I use at work have been running fine for over a year, whereas the couple of Lacie external drives have both given me problems; failures, returns, etc.

I think I'm going to suggest to management that we invest in some Seagate drives. It would be terrible to lose capped video and projects being worked on.

egleband83 · Mar 26, 2005, 12:53 PM

I haven't had any Maxtors fail on me, but I've had 3 Western Digitals fail, so I've written off that company for reliable HDs. I agree with the other folks about Seagate; they are great cool running, quite HDs that have been extremely reliable for me. It's the only brand I buy and recommend to others.

analogika · Mar 27, 2005, 05:21 AM

The internal in my iMac (4 yrs old) that is now dying is a Maxtor. My friend's recently-dead HD (<2 yrs. old) is a Maxtor.

-s*

drive-thru · Mar 27, 2005, 05:43 AM

My G4 has a Maxtor 120GB (6Y120L0) which came up with an error in Disk Utility when I checked it. Ran some TechTools things and it looks ok now, but I don't trust it at all. Not sure how old it is, but it's less than 6 months.
I've got 2 x 120GB Seagates on the way and a Firmtek SATA PCI card. I was planning to use the current Maxtor 120 as a firewire backup, but I'm not so sure about that now - sure it will last longer as it's not used as often as the main disk, but I don't want to turn to my backup in an emergency and find a dead drive.

analogika · Mar 27, 2005, 06:50 AM

Originally posted by Steve:
The 4 external Maxtor drives I use at work have been running fine for over a year, whereas the couple of Lacie external drives have both given me problems; failures, returns, etc.

That is a rather pointless statement, since LaCie doesn't make disk drives. They use drives from different manufacturers in their enclosures.

-s*
__________________________
idiocy reigns supreme