Maxtor hard drive problems - update - weird coincidence

[merlocka]

I own 6 maxtor drives. They seemed to be fast and reliable and a good value.

In the last 3 months, 3 have failed. I'm not sure the exact problem but the symptoms have been anywhere from corrupted data, extreme reduction in performance, and most recently, sudden failure (click of death). I caught the first two early through SMART errors. The last lost me some data, which I'm currently trying to recover.

50% failure rating for me? I'm not liking this...

The worst part is that the recent failure is on the drive I received back from the first RMA! It died within 3 months.

It seems I'm the exception, but anyone else have any problem with DiamondMax drives?

------- update --------

One thing I've just noticed. All the drives which failed were in AMD/VIA PC's... OK, don't think I'm blaming the chipset because that's obviously not true.

I *am* however curious about a few things.

These 2 PC's are 1GHz Tbirds. Each PC had 2 HD's. The cases are pretty small and cramped, and as a result, the temperatures of these systems are high. In contrast, the other PC's are running celeron's and a 800MHz P3 which all generally run alot cooler.

I'm seriously wondering if this was a heat related issue. I'm not an overclocking fiend, all the PC's I use for work run at stock speeds, but these cases are hot inside. Asus probe measures 55C CPU and 40C System. 40C seems pretty hot, and the drives inside are pretty warm to the touch (I'm sure it doesn't help that they are stacked within 1/2 inch of each other. Perhap it's time for me to consider some improved-airflow cases for my computers.

 

[Gaunt]

This isn't good to hear... Personally I've stuck with Quantum drives, and just lately had one crash on me. Since maxtor now owns quantum, I have to deal with them for the RMA. Although their service seems good, I noticed when reading over their RMA info that the drive they send you to replace the one you send them is a factory re-certified drive, which scares me. I don't want to risk losing that much data a second time on a drive that could be faulty. I've run their diagnostic tools on the drive I have now, and found that I can get the drive to pass the advanced test (the re-certification test) but the drive fails with a 6 character code when I try to low-level format, which apparently means the drive needs to be replaced, going by the info on their web page.

I do have one maxtor drive in my machine though, and I haven't had any problems with it so far. It is very loud however...

 

[cholley]

i like maxtor drives, are your failures all the same model?

 

[hungrygoose]

i also just had a 20gb diamondmax keel out on me for no reason after about 6 months of use.....at least they are rma'ing it for me but still.....this drive went completely dead.....click of death kind of thing

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: Gaunt
This isn't good to hear... Personally I've stuck with Quantum drives, and just lately had one crash on me. Since maxtor now owns quantum, I have to deal with them for the RMA. Although their service seems good, I noticed when reading over their RMA info that the drive they send you to replace the one you send them is a factory re-certified drive, which scares me. I don't want to risk losing that much data a second time on a drive that could be faulty. I've run their diagnostic tools on the drive I have now, and found that I can get the drive to pass the advanced test (the re-certification test) but the drive fails with a 6 character code when I try to low-level format, which apparently means the drive needs to be replaced, going by the info on their web page.

I do have one maxtor drive in my machine though, and I haven't had any problems with it so far. It is very loud however...

everyone sends out refurbed stuff for RMA. just the way the world works.

 

[Adul]

at least you dont any deathstars.

 

[? (=Þ)]

2 IBM's out of 2 have reported a defective drive... 1 60GXP, 1 75GXP

1 old 13gb Maxtor that is 3 years old, still running strong and passed the diagnostics test by maxtor

1 D740X I just bought to replace the IBM "DEATHSTAR"

I'm putting my faith into maxtor as well. =\

 

[merlocka]

The models that have failed are

Feb 02 - 34098H4 - 20GB 7200 RPM
May 02 - 32049H2 - 20GB 5400 RPM
June 02 - 34098H4 - 20GB 7200 RPM (the unit that they sent me for 1st RMA)

I can't knock their RMA speed, they ship new drives right away and acutally they replaced the 20GB 5400 RPM with a 40GB 5400 RPM unit. That was pretty nice.... I just hope it lasts longer than 4 months.

 

[HGC]

I had a Maxtor 40 GB from BestBuy emit death rattles and lock up after about a week of use, a couple of months ago. Then an older IBM DeathStar did the same a few weeks ago. :-\

 

[BFG10K]

I stick to Seagate all the way and they make great HDs. I've only ever seen one HD fail (on a machine at work) and you guessed it - it was a Maxtor.

One day it just decided it was going to die and that was the end of it.

 

[IronCityPA]

I'm currently using a Maxtor 740x series 7200rpm drive (40 gig)... pretty damn fast.. but has gotten slower since I'm down to 10 gigs (need to run defrag like 20 times). Anyhow... can't speak for this drive but I've had 2 other Maxter drives, a 2.6 gig ide-16 drive that died once but is going strong for about 6 years now (although i'm done with it now), and an 8.4 gig udma/33 hdd that has lasted 3 1/2 years now and is going strong. The thing I like about Maxtor is good rma service, and I have had decent luck with them (although I've only owned 3 so far). I had a WD 3.1 gig die on me as well at about 4 years old. Also, from my packard hell P150 platinum xxi or whatever I have a 2 gig Seagate.... not quick or anything but I'll be damned if that thing isn't around 6-7 years old and going strong. I have no experience with IBM. My take on it is like this... it's a gamble. Maybe more so of a gamble with IBM with all those failures...but I've had 2 out of the big 3 manufacturers go on me... it happens. I'm thinking I want an 80 gig WD 800JB (8mb cache) in here. I'll put my star trek episodes on my 40 gig (got 17 gigs of those things so far) and use the 80 gig for the main drive... it's FAST i hear.

 

[DaFinn]

Well,

I had a similar situation with Seagate drives that were couple of months old. I have 7 machines in the office, and all of a sudden 3 drives just died on me, SAME DAY. And a week after a 4th drive.
I have replaced all Seagates with Maxtor drives, and these are really working great so far.

I have at home 2x40 gig Maxtor 740DX drives with fluid bearings, and I love them!!!

 

[MWink]

I lost all confidence in Maxtor the day they merged with Quantum. I have still yet to see a single Quantum drive in working order (drives over 1GB only). I have to have at least 10 dead Quantum drives sitting around here. Now I use Seagate and I'm very happy with them.

 

[Elcs]

I have had my Maxtor 1.6 gig HD working since I got it around 5-6 years ago. All problems I have had when it has been active have been unrelated. It still has no bad blocks or problems.

Unless Maxtor have changed that much, they still get thumbs up from me.

 

[CubicZirconia]

I think this thread proves that hard drive failure is largely a matter of chance. Stick with what you like, if you don't like it anymore try something else.

 

[merlocka]

Updated up top with a potential reason...

 

[skyeandangus]

I got a 30gig 7200rpm diamondmax plus via Newegg in Sept, it died suddenly on me in March. Maxtor was very kind, and got an rma out quickly. Replaced it with a 40gig dx740 7200rpm with ata133, so I was happy. But last weekend the computer suddenly locked up. Sure enough, I ran their powerdiag.exe tools, and got a six digit error code. I wonder if lightning struck twice, or if Maxtor isn't too good with these 7200rpm drives, or if my mobo may have a problem. But, merlocka, seems we had similar problems.

 

[merlocka]

I ran thier powerdiag.exe tools, and got a six digit error code

If the code ends in S57 your drive might be OK. They will RMA it regardless, but the Maxtor CSR admitted to me that some of their drives are reporting codes when they are actually OK.

The only way to determine if it's really bad (according to Maxtor) is to run their powermax factory re-certification (wipe the drive clean) and retest. Of course, this isn't a viable option for most users so Maxtor is simply RMA'ing any drive which pops up with a code.

 

[skyeandangus]

662f02 was the code. Called Maxtor and they are RMAing it. But still, not a good record with me.

 

[BDawg]

Originally posted by: MWink
I lost all confidence in Maxtor the day they merged with Quantum. I have still yet to see a single Quantum drive in working order (drives over 1GB only). I have to have at least 10 dead Quantum drives sitting around here. Now I use Seagate and I'm very happy with them.

<---- Owns a 5 year old 3.2GB Quantam Fireball which is still in use (SCSI).

 

[merlocka]

662f02 was the code

I dunno what that means, but it sure sounds bad