is Maxtor 80GB 8MB cache a reliable HD?

GratefullySaved

Senior member
Jan 8, 2003
206
0
0
Hi gang,

I have both a WD 80 GB 8MB cache (Special Edition of course) and a Maxtor 80GB 8MB cache. I only need one and can keep the Maxtor for $66 after rebate. Is it reliable though? I've heard of the WD "click of death" and I've heard Maxtor is one of the least popular drive makers. Then I've heard from retailers that Maxtor's are their lowest return rate drives, yet WD is much higher. (OK, will the REAL truth please step forward...?) You guys will know for sure, so if you could, whoever truly KNOWS or has real experience with this matter - could you please chime in with a few words of advice?

The drive by the way, is going to be used as an external backup to my external storage drive. I also have an internal 30GB drive that I work off of to create my work. (I'm a creative artist)

I'm thinking the Maxtor will be fine until I get a DVD-R burner, (within 6 months), and then if it does die, I'll have everything burned to DVD anyway. But this is worst case scenario - I really want to ensure that I have a good drive that is fast (and hopefully quiet).

Thanks you guys,

GS
 

magomago

Lifer
Sep 28, 2002
10,973
14
76
I HAVE THE wd AND HAVEN'T RUN INTO TROUBLE

oops, sorry about the capps lock


but If you can get a 80gig 8meg Maxtor for 66 bucks....Do that instead
 

kendogg

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
3,824
0
71
Over the course of the years Ive had serveral WD drives die on me :(

1st WD death: WD 27.7GB expert 7200RPM HD(valueamerica deal)

2nd WD death: WD 40GB BB 7200RPM HD

3rd WD death: WD 120GB JB 7200RPM HD

After the second I promised myself not to go WD. After some time WD seemed to have upped their quality and reliability with their 8mb cache drives (JB), with all the great praise they received not only by members of this board but reviews were good too. So I gave in... Literally less than a month of use.. starting with boot failures and intermitent hd detection.. the hd ended up dying.. it is not detected in my computer anymore. During the life of the 120GB JB, this had to be one of the quietest drives ive ever used in my life.. also performed very low temp (with no fans in my case). As far as reliability =x.. thumbs down to WD. Thats my experience with them.
 

zmzhang

Senior member
Feb 17, 2001
593
0
0
I have the maxtor 80 gig that i got from frys on black friday. It runs silent and is very fast. I haven't had a problem with any of the maxtor hds other then the one i accidentally dropped. :p
 

Boogak

Diamond Member
Feb 2, 2000
3,302
0
0
I've had my 80gb 8mb WD SE drive for a few months now, very quiet and good drive. I just bought a Maxtor 80gb 8mb drive (thru Office Depot deal probably the same as you) and it does make an audible noise when seeking whereas the WD is totally quiet. If I were to choose between the 2, I'd take the WD, quieter plus it comes with a 3 year warranty as opposed to the 1 year Maxtor warranty.
 

Lonyo

Lifer
Aug 10, 2002
21,938
6
81
I have 2 WD drives, on about 10 months old, the other about 4 and both are fine, the 4 month one is a JB 80gig, the other a 60gig BB, no problems with either.
I'd go for the cheaper drive of the two you have.
 

jojiboy

Senior member
May 8, 2000
837
0
0
Just to clarify, Maxtor's retail DiamondMax Plus 9 8mb cache drives have 3 year warranties too, not 1.
 

BlueWeasel

Lifer
Jun 2, 2000
15,943
475
126
While not the 8mb kind, I have a Maxtor 60gb and 30gb, and they perform well and very quiet.
 

RobCur

Banned
Oct 4, 2002
3,076
0
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Why settle for only 80gb? When there are larger capacity such as 120gb,160gb,180gb,200gb,250gb, and soon 320gb? More cache is not neccessarily better if your storage is stilled limited... I rather have 120gb or 160gb with only 2mb cache, a little slower but for storage it is much more useful.
 

TonyB

Senior member
May 31, 2001
463
0
0
I buy the 8mb cache versions for the 3 year warranty. I personally cant see or feel any speed improvements between 8mb and 2mb caches... Ive only had 2 drives fail on me, an IBM 75GXP 75GB drive that lasted for 3 months, and a WD 120GB Special Edition 8MB cache version. The IBM made silent clicking sounds when booted up and could not be seen by the bios. The Western Digital could be detected by the bios but failed the DAtaguard utility. It also froze up the system when you tried to access a file that was on a bad sector of the drive. Luckily I only lost 10% of the information when recovering the files, it was completely filled, 120GB worth of anime files....

As for Maxtors and Western Digital's RMA process, I like WD's better because you dont have to run the diagnostic program provided by the manufacturer while Maxtors require you to input the error code from their PowerMax.
 

Bovinicus

Diamond Member
Aug 8, 2001
3,145
0
0
According to Storagereview's Reliability Database, the 1200JB is more reliable than 72% of the other surveyed drives with sufficient information (It has 179 comments). The 100JB is more reliable than only 20% of the other HDDs with sufficient information (It has 37 comments). Unfortunately, they don't have the 80GB variant in their database. Take it for what it's worth. I beleive the 120GB model uses larger platters (Some do, some don't, it depends on when it's manufactured), so this change in platter design could account for the increased reliability.
 

Texun

Platinum Member
Oct 21, 2001
2,058
1
81
It's a Ford vs. Chevy thing. Both are very popular and many claim one is more reliable than the other. Years ago I switched from WD because 3 out of 5 died within 24 months, went with Maxtors and have had great results out of the last 9 drives I've owned. I recently purchased the WD-JB because only because Maxtor did not have an 8 meg available at the time. I wish that I had waited a while longer. The WD is fine but I just like Maxtor due to the history I've had with them.



 

Amploud

Member
Feb 5, 2002
88
0
0
Since you are asking for opinions on Maxtor Vs. Western Digital: I am staying away from both for a while!

Maxtor 40GB 5400RPM: Failed within one year. Called service and they asked for the error code. Sent a brand new drive, no questions asked. Still, I lost everything on the drive. Very frustrating. The replacement drive has been running for about 18 months just fine. Out of the 2 companies, I am most satisfied with Maxtor but still ready to try something else.

Western Digital 80GB 7200RPM RETAIL IN BOX FROM BEST BUY: Again, lasted less that a year. It died of the infamous "click of death." I have never heard any drive click that loud before, not even a cheap 5.25" floppy! The problem started and within a few minutes the PC was useless. I lost everything on the drive. Again, this was very frustrating, but WD managed to make it much worse.

First, the service people were VERY rude on the phone but at least they offered to replace it. They told me that they have a failure rate of 5 to 7%! That's more than 1 in 20! I chose to do the "advance" replacement so I could have the drive faster. Second, the "advance" replacement was a joke because I didn't have my new drive for 3 weeks. Third, I get the drive and its a REFURB! This was an insult since I paid for a brand new retail drive (most expensive way to buy it. yeah, I got a PM and a rebate, but that should not matter!) and they sent me a refurb! The aluminum case of the refurb drive had holes drilled in it (I guess from the repairs?) and they just covered them with stickers. Again, this is total BS. I called WD and again they were very rude. The person said that they can't send me a new drive because I didn't send them a new drive. What kind of logic is this? If you take it out of a retail box, it's a refurb in their eyes.

Fourth: Here is the REAL kicker! I got the replacement drive October 23, 2002 and it failed today (2/1/2003)! Wow! It lasted a whole 3 months! I have yet to see what they will do about this since their office was closed when I called. I'll keep you posted. One thing is for sure, I am not accepting another refurb drive. I don't have time to reformat and load dozens of programs every three months. If they don't give me a brand new drive I will explore a few options. A trip to small claims court will cost me a few bucks, but it's gonna cost them a lot more than the price of a new hard drive. They either have to defend themselves or default. Let's hope they see it that way.

In conclusion, WD needs to shape up and then they may get my business in a few years. Maxtor may get my business again soon because they at least had fast, friendly service and the replacement drive has been great. I have 3 PC's in that "need" a larger HD, so I am looking at my options now as well. Anybody have opinions on Seagate?
 

NesuD

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
4,999
106
106
Originally posted by: Boogak
I've had my 80gb 8mb WD SE drive for a few months now, very quiet and good drive. I just bought a Maxtor 80gb 8mb drive (thru Office Depot deal probably the same as you) and it does make an audible noise when seeking whereas the WD is totally quiet. If I were to choose between the 2, I'd take the WD, quieter plus it comes with a 3 year warranty as opposed to the 1 year Maxtor warranty.

The maxtor 80 gig 8meg cache drive is sold as an ultra series drive in retail and comes with a 3 year warranty not the standard 1 yr as the plain 2 meg cache drives.
 

chizow

Diamond Member
Jun 26, 2001
9,537
2
0
I have both the Maxtor 80GB 8MB and 2 x 120GB 8 MB Ultras in a RAID 0 config. The 80GB definitely seems louder than the 120GBs, but it may just be an isolated instance with the drive. As for reliability, surveys and user feedback, the WD JB's have been on the market considerably longer than the Maxtor Ultras. I've seen comments from users of both saying the Maxtors are faster, and some reviews at digitlife also seem to indicate this. As for reliability, both are excellent mfgs. Flip a coin and go with whichever is cheaper (or if speed is your thing, whichever is faster).

Chiz
 

chilled

Senior member
Jun 2, 2002
709
0
0
erm......u might want to check this out:

x-bit labs 8MB IDE review - Maxtor/WD/IBM

Near the conclusion bit (from different paragraphs):

During the test session we lost WD2000JB (after a re-start of the testbed it clattered with its heads and was no more recognized by the system), and Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 (6Y160P0) got covered with bad sectors. Two drives of the four is a little too much, in our opinion. The HDD from IBM showed high performance in all the benchmarks. While it wasn't the best in every test, it didn't suffer the same drastic failures as some other drives did. By the way, it survived all the benchmarks.

I'm a little worried about all these HD failures of recent times, especially since I have not yet had a HD fail on me having used a Seagate, Quantum Fireball LM & IBM 40GV. I'm thinking of buying a IBM 180GXP. Do you think a HD Cooler would help things???
 

bgeh

Platinum Member
Nov 16, 2001
2,946
0
0
Originally posted by: Maezr
What's the 'click of death'?

it's a clicking sound from the hard drive that is usually followed by a hard drive failure
 

Boogak

Diamond Member
Feb 2, 2000
3,302
0
0
Originally posted by: NesuD
Originally posted by: Boogak
I've had my 80gb 8mb WD SE drive for a few months now, very quiet and good drive. I just bought a Maxtor 80gb 8mb drive (thru Office Depot deal probably the same as you) and it does make an audible noise when seeking whereas the WD is totally quiet. If I were to choose between the 2, I'd take the WD, quieter plus it comes with a 3 year warranty as opposed to the 1 year Maxtor warranty.

The maxtor 80 gig 8meg cache drive is sold as an ultra series drive in retail and comes with a 3 year warranty not the standard 1 yr as the plain 2 meg cache drives.

Hmmm... it says 1 year warranty on my retail box, right above the silver Ultra Series tagline.

Edit: Upon further investigation, there apparently seems to be 2 retail boxes floating around for these Maxtor drives. One box says 3 year warranty, the other says 1 year warranty. My 1 year warranty box looks different from the standard red Maxtor retail box, it has a Robert Downey Jr. looking guy grinning at me. This suxors :(
 

fluxquantum

Platinum Member
Oct 27, 2000
2,398
1
71
i just bought the 80 gig maxtor since my IBM 40 gig died on me. i had to RMA the IBM drive. so far i like the maxtor one. it seems fast and not too noisy.