Maxtor OEM drive with no Maxtor markings -- PICTURES ADDED

[Kwad Guy]

Note: I just added scans of the front, back and spine of the drive
for anyone curious what this drive looks like. Another list
member who has worked at Maxtor has confirmed that this is
a PC Peripherals drive...

Click here to see the front of the drive.
Click here to see the back of the drive.
Click here to see the spine of the drive.

I recently purchased a few Maxtor OEM hard drives from
a reputable source. What is odd about these drives is
that the label does not mention Maxtor at all. Now,
the model number is on the label (and it is the standard
Maxtor drive model number). And these are definitely
real Maxtors (can compare the electronics with a real
one, comes up properly, Maxtor utilities see it properly,
whatever). But the label itself only has a bit of info,
and the Maxtor name itself is nowhere.

I've purchased OEM drives through standard retail
channels before, and they had standard Maxtor labels.

Has anyone seen this type of label before? If so, do
you know if Maxtor offers a warranty on them. (The place
I got them offers a year warranty, and I don't expect
them to be going anywhere).

Oh, also, when I run the Maxtor utilities, the drive
serial number comes up as a series of 0's (i.e. doesn't
seem to be encoded in the BIOS).

Kwad

 

[Fisher999]

I've never seen a Maxtor drive OEM or Retail-boxed without a MAXTOR label....the serial number (0000000's) doesn't sound good either... I'd avoid that one!!!

 

[dkozloski]

OEM equipment is just exactly that. It is made to the specs of an Original Equipment Manufacturer. Usually the difference between OEM and retail is just packaging but it can mean differences in features and performance as well. I have seen OEM hard drives that were built to be storage for telephone switches and industrial process control equipment that were totally unsuited to be in PC's. Let the buyer beware.

 

[AMB]

I've bought 3-4 Maxtor drives, and they all had their logo and the part numbers.

 

[Gunbuster]

Engineering or OEM demo/sample model maybe?

 

[SPAnDAU]

I deal with about 10 OEM maxtors a week, and have never seen one that does not have maxtor's name on it.

 

[DaddyG]

I'll bet these are Compusa drives. Maxtor builds 'em, pretty sure they are the same as normal Maxtors though.

 

[Gunbuster]

The Compusa drives are just in comp. boxes, they still say maxtor on the drive

 

[LXi]

All Maxtor OEM drives should have Maxtor logo on it, the 30 Dells in our lab all have Maxtor OEMs with logos on them, I have 2 Maxtor OEM drives both have logos.

 

[Edski]

If there is a serial number on the drive that begins with a "P", you got screwed. If it does, that drive was bought from Maxtor by PC Periphials. PC Periphial drives are drives that Maxtor tests the living crap out of, then throws them away. It does NOT come with a 3 year warranty and if the drive fails, try getting a free replacement like you would from Maxtor.

 

[smp]

Man.. that sounds bad.. I would go and slap your retailer in the face with it. "Oh, it's broken, give me a new one.. WITH SERIAL NUMBERS ON IT THIS TIME!!!!" Sorry, I just hate shady business men like that.. ewww

 

[Smbu]

That doesn't sound right. My two Maxtor OEM drives(one from Gateway, the other from an online store) both have Maxtor labels on them.

 

[TonyT]

I have an OEM Maxtor drive without any Maxtor reference on the label (just like Kwad Guy). I also thought it kind of odd that Maxtor's name didn't appear anywhere on the drive itself. I purchased the drive just under a month ago, and I really haven't used it that much.

This morning, as I was lying in bed, I was awakened by a loud clicking sound coming from my computer (for any newbies, this is a BAD sign). Sure enough, the clicking was coming from my hard drive. The machine stopped displaying anything to the screen, and the machine would hang when the BIOS was trying to detect the still-clicking drive. Needless to say, my drive is dead.

Anyway, just letting you know what happened to me this morning. I'm going to try to get a full refund from the store I purchased the drive, and then I'm going to buy a normal Maxtor drive (with "Maxtor" shown prominently on the label). In short, I wouldn't trust those non-labeled OEM drives, Kwad Guy.

 

[DrDap]

This is interesting.

A few months ago, I bought a few drives without Maxtor markings,
like the ones described here. Of these, one came up with the
name P<maxtor drive number>, while the others just came up as
<maxtor drive number>. That's odd, I thought. But whatever.

Anyway, all drives were placed (one in a computer, several more
in hard drive video recorders). A few weeks ago, one drive failed.
Guess which one it was? The one that started with &quot;P&quot;.

Edski: Can you explain more about the &quot;P&quot; / PC Peripherals drive
designation? Who are &quot;PC Peripherals&quot;? Is this a reseller or?

Is there any utility to determine whether a hard drive is truly
new or has had the &quot;hell tested out of it&quot; as you state? Is drive
use time/accesses or something else encoded into nonvolatile memory
on the drive?

Thanks,

DrDap

 

[Kwad Guy]

Does Maxtor reprogram the BIOS to include a &quot;P&quot; in front of the
name to designate crappy used drives? Or does the &quot;P&quot; mean
something else?

Or does PC Peripherals reprogram the BIOS (that seems kind of
unlikely).

kwad

 

[thorin]

Not to be mean but the solution isn't rocket science. When in doubt RTFM or Call Maxtor and ask

If the Model # and Utils work it is almost undoubtedly a Maxtor drive, IMHO

Thorin

 

[Kwad Guy]

Thorin:

Where in this thread...ANYWHERE...Do you see anyone questioning
whether this is a Maxtor drive? I don't see it anywhere. It
is very easy to confirm using the Maxtor utilities that this
is, indeed, a Maxtor drive.

That does not tell me or anyone else what the &quot;P&quot; means, or why
there are no standard Maxtor markings on the drive. And, woo boy
this is a surprise, those topics are also not covered in the
F manual.

So thanks for your comments. Very useful.

Kwad

 

[Edski]

thorin, I used to work for Maxtor over the past 2 years, I know these &quot;non-labled&quot; drives. You call their customer support and give the numbers on a PC Periphials drive, and they will give an 800 number to call...they wont support it.

Kwad, by the requirements in the agreement between Maxtor and PC Periphials, PC is required to flash the bios on the drive with their own version. Try running Maxtor's diagnostic on it....it won't recognize the drive as a Maxtor drive, that is if they haven't changed the diag program since I left...which I wouldn't doubt they have.

All OEM Maxtor drives will have the Maxtor name on the drive. The difference between an OEM and Maxtor retail is NADA, they all come from either Singapore or the test lines in San Jose, CA or Longmont, CO. The test line drives will have a white plugin slot on the circuit board, Singapore drives wont.

 

[Kwad Guy]

Hi Edski:

Thanks for the good information...

All the drives I got have that white plugin slot. Actually, I
was wondering about that, as I didn't recall seeing it before
on my other Maxtor drives. Is there anything better/worse about
a drive from the &quot;test line&quot;?

Since you are familiar with the arrangement with PC Peripherals,
is it true that the drives PC Peripherals sells are actually
&quot;used&quot; test drives? If the drive name starts with &quot;P&quot; it's
actually a used drive??

Thanks again,

Kwad

 

[mcveigh]

I've got an unmarked maxtor drive I bought a year ago at a computer show. the guy selling them had like a thousand. but he never said they were maxtor's just &quot;OEM from major manufacter's&quot; any way I bought one because he seemed nice and professional- not shady. it shows up as a maxtor in the bios, and is still going strong- no complaints

 

[thorin]

Kwad Guy

My post was in reference to:

&quot;Has anyone seen this type of label before? If so, do you know if Maxtor offers a warranty on them. (The place I got them offers a year warranty, and I don't expect them to be going anywhere).&quot;

If you want to know if there's a warranty read the docs or call the company.

Thorin

 

[Kwad Guy]

I added scans of the drive if anyone wants to see it.

See my (edited) first message.

Kwad

 

[Hanpan]

I noticed it uses micorn pc133 so it;s probably a newer drive. Still it seems kinda fishy to me.
Definatly a maxtor though. I can tell but the way it looks. Different hdd look different and this is a maxtor.

 

[kami]

My Maxtor OEM (DiamondMax Plus 45) has the maxtor logo..