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. That'll keep me busy.

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

 

[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

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]

Maxtor +- 40gb had a bad stretch

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.

 

[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]

Hard drive failure

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?