Maxtor Hard Drive failures

[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