Maxtor Hard Drive failures

[rurbaniak]

I've benn running into alot of Maxtor drives that have been failing recently. All of them recently have a common denominator, which is the manufacturer.

Gateway 500 SE systems, and all are Black/Silver towers purchased in or around 2002.

I've run into two versions of HD. Maxtor 20 GB 5400 RPM, model # 2F020J0 and Maxtor 40 GB 5400 RPM Model # 2F040J0.

Doing a search on these Models will pop up alot of "Hard Drive Recovery Services".

Anyways, when these FAIL, or start failing SMART does not work so it can fail without the end user being notified of any problems previously. All of drives will get corrupt sectors and overheat, and give a TEMP 253 OVERHEAT on diagnostics.

The quick and easy way to diagnosis this is using the Seagate Seatools from the manufacturer website here:

seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools


Some of the signs of the drive failing are: Slow accessing data, and boot sector corruption causing OS Loop on boot.

[Bryce W]

Yep, avoid Maxtor hard drives like the plague. Ive had a few run ins with them, all of them was caused by overheating. Probably the most common issue is the drives disappearing from My Computer. After you allow them to cool-down they appear again.

Be glad this didnt happen: http://www.dragonsteelmods.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=351&Itemid=1

[rurbaniak]

Also, ALSO! The client with the original problem has 22 more of these. :eek: That'll keep me busy.

Ahh well, a few good callouts and hard drive sales for you :D

[MrMille]

Maxtor used to be great.

[Bryce W]

Maxtor used to be great.
How long ago was that? I wonder what changed.

[MrMille]

I wasn't born in black and white, but maybe I'm showing my age :cool:

Around 10 years ago, they were okay. I guess a lot has happened to damager their reputation yea?

[Bryce W]

Perhaps they put larger and larger platters/parts in older enclosures, that dont have sufficient cooling or something?

I choose to stick with Western Digital. I have never ever had, or seen a Western Digital fail in my entire history of computers *touches wood*.

[tkrabec]

I've had problems with all brands of Hard drives. I stick with the WD's and Seagate's now I try to buy only the ones that have the 3 or 5 year warranty.

[greggh]

Ive had just as many Western Digitals fail as Maxtor. I can't sell either to customers in good faith. I sell only Seagate these days. We partnered up with them. Not only do they rarely fail (especially when compared to maxtor and WD,) but they offer a 5 year warrenty. I do data recovery on 8-9 drives a week on average. Right now its about a 50/50 split between WD and Maxtor. With a rare old seagate or quantum.

[MrMille]

Based upon your post, I'm going to lean towards Seagate from now on.

[greggh]

Even if the WD's werent dying as much on me, that 5 year seagate warrenty is still worth it. One thing to consider is this: would seagate offer a 5 year warrenty if they beleived their drives would die within that time? No, all companies do a cost analysis on these things and come up with a number they can afford. If they can afford 5 years you have to think those drives are going to last a little longer than the competition who offers 1 year. That isnt very scientific, but it does seem to be true here.

[Bryce W]

Perhaps I've just been really lucky? or the WD's coming out of the areas closer to me in Aus are better quality? Do all WD's come out of Asia? or are there American assembly plants?

[greggh]

From what I know all of them come from the same couple plants. I just know Seagate has always been great and has that warrenty. I just did data recover on 2 WDs today and 1 maxtor. Another maxtor couldnt be worked on at all, it will require a cleanroom and platter transfers. So that one is getting sent off for that.

[gunslinger]

I have had good luck with WD, not so much with Maxtor. Almost every computer I have worked on in the past 2 years that had HD failure had a maxtor drive. I have even had one shipped DOA. I don't know much about Seagate drives, but the 5 year warrenty does sound nice. I guess the question is exactly how much extra you might be paying for it, or are the prices about the same for a given capacity?

[greggh]

The prices are nearly identical. But you get far less failures, and when you do its a 5 year warrenty. You cant ask for much more than that.

[SteveF]

Seagate now owns the Maxtor brand, lets see if they work out alright. Anyway the Maxtor 40gb type were a bad batch. Seagate so far with the 5 year is the best performer and they run so much cooler than WD's and Maxtor's hdd.
:eek:

[gunslinger]

Going to get a 500 gig internal sata soon, and an 80-120 gig portable. I will try the seagate brand and see how it works out.

[Fred_G]

Just had my first Seagate drive die today, only 2 years into it's 5 year warranty. Will see how Seagates customer service is Monday. I have had a ton of Maxtors die, refuse to buy them, even though I know they are now owned by Seagate.

Where I used to work, we got several 'Maxtor' hard drives that were DOA. Maxtor said they were not Maxtor drives, would not warranty them. Heck they had Maxtor stickers on them, but Maxtor said they were fakes. Another reason to stay away from the Maxtors.

E

[greggh]

You should be happy with their service. We sell 20-30 drives a week so I have to RMA a couple every few months and so far they have been great. It is very easy to get them to take the drives back. Unlike the problems I have with maxtor and WD. Their support does nothing but give me the run-around.

I have a WD 1 TB external usb enclosure + drives. Its completely dead and I want a replacement. So I call them and they explain to me that it is a european serial number, not a US one. I tell them I bought it in the US from a US dealer and they have to honor the warranty. They say that they dont because it is a european one that I should not have imported. This went on for multiple phone calls until I gave up.

[Simmy]

That's bad news gregg. What about the dealer you bought it from? What do they have to say for themselves?

If you want you can ship the drive to me and I'll get it RMA'd for you? I know those drives are expensive, so it would probably be worth it even with shipping costs?

[greggh]

It was Tiger Direct and they say that they only offer a 30 day warranty and the fact that it is a european model is not their fault but WDs.

So at this point I am stuck. Maybe I will send it to you, who knows. I am going to try one more round of yelling with WD before I do anything else.

[tkrabec]

I'd press the issue with both companies, It's not your fault the part is from Europe, that was a screwup between the two of them. Push your way to some who has clout.

[Fretzen]

I had exactly the same problem some years ago only that in my case was in the opposite direction. Maxtor technical service in Europe said that the drive had an US serial number and they couldn't do anything about it. My distributor said he had imported that drive as usual and they didn't take any responsibility as the one year warranty they gave had ended. Finally I had to buy a new drive as he was a good customer. Since then I stay away from Maxtor drives as much as I can.

Apart from that problem with their service I remember from when I had my shop that Maxtor drives broke more often that Seagate or WD. Unfortunately five months ago a friend of mine needed urgently a new hard drive and at that moment the only big one I could find in stock locally was a Maxtor one. I told him that I wasn't very happy with Maxtor but as he really needed it he decided to try. Now while I write this I have that drive sitting dead next to me waiting for a warranty substitution. Maybe it's very bad luck but I think I would keep staying away from Maxtor in the future.

[Bryce W]

Im glad someone else is having trouble with them. Based on responses earlier in this thread I was beginning to think maybe I've just my bad luck with them. Guess I am not alone :)

Ive always had overheating problems with them, they run very hot and then fail. Many times at LAN parties people have complained that some of their HDD's arent being detected. I ask if they are Maxtors and they say yes. I said turn off the computer for 20 minutes, boot it back up and I bet your HDD's will be back. Sure enough, they cooled down and they were back.

[gunslinger]

I'm buying a portable HD soon, and I was going to go with WD. now i'm not so sure, their products are getting some really bad reviews on tiger and newegg. So now i'm thinking about going seagate even though its about $30 more it does come with a 5 year warranty.

[breadtrk]

For the most part, every business critical server on the planet uses Seagate, nuff said.

[greggh]

I wont sell a server to our customers with anything other than Seagate.

[iladelf]

Seagate is what I install exclusively now, 'nuff said. Even though Maxtor is now owned by Seagate, Maxtor still has issues (like the ones noted above), and all the WDs I've ever run into die way too soon, IMO.

According to StorageReview.com, they claim there is nothing to the idea that Seagate's are more reliable (I posted about this there some time ago). They claim it all has to do with the reliability of the shipping from manufacturer to your hands. If they're dropped at any point along the line, all bets are off.

I beg to differ otherwise. My experience says go with Seagate, SATA if possible, and enjoy the fact that you don't have to mess with returns in 3-6 months of crappy HDDs like Maxtor and WD.

Still wonder if that's why Maxtor was taken over by Seagate; Maxtor knew they had design issues, and were (are) looking for engineers from Seagate to fix said issues.

[jimmm33]

I use Seagate.

I don't RMA dead drives either. They will send you a refurb. I don't dare use a refurb in a customers machine. If a drive fails I eat the loss.

[Fred_G]

I RMA'd a Seagate last week, got this email today:

SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY

Your order has shipped!

================================================== =============================
ORDER NUMBER: *********
================================================== =============================

SHIP TO:

Gotta love a 5 year warranty. And no, I would not sell this one as new. I will just use it in one of my own computers. I never trust a refurb for anything critical.

E

[Fred_G]

Just had my first Seagate drive die today, only 2 years into it's 5 year warranty. Will see how Seagates customer service is Monday. I have had a ton of Maxtors die, refuse to buy them, even though I know they are now owned by Seagate.

Where I used to work, we got several 'Maxtor' hard drives that were DOA. Maxtor said they were not Maxtor drives, would not warranty them. Heck they had Maxtor stickers on them, but Maxtor said they were fakes. Another reason to stay away from the Maxtors.

E

It took me a while to get the drive shipped off, but about 1 week after sending my dead 80Gig drive to Seagate, I got a refurbed 250Gig drive today. Got it hooked up and running, nice service from Seagate.

E

[gunslinger]

Maxtor drive died on me yesterday its a 200 gig. I'm thinking of going seagate

[Vitiated]

Seagate > Maxtor in my experience. Interesting to see where this goes with Seagate obtaining Maxtor as was mentioned earlier.

Either way, hard drives have mechanical part which fail. Not that can fail, eventually WILL fail. Not drive brand, but backups, are the answer. Of course, some have a better track record ;)

[gunslinger]

Lesson learned, go with the best you can buy then make copies of your backup copies