Does maxtor make particularly crappy hard drives? at DVinfo.net

Josh Bass · October 3rd, 2003, 03:02 PM

Okay, so for some mysterious reason, about four or five months ago my hard drive died. Had to get it replaced. Got a maxtor, from Microcenter, where the work was done on it. Today, the bastard won't boot up, gives me a "disk read error message." Into micro center again. If I have to buy yet another drive, should I avoid Maxtor? Or is it just bad karma?

Andres Lucero · October 3rd, 2003, 03:26 PM

All signs point to Yes.

My external Maxtor drive crapped out on me this week as well. :(

Boyd Ostroff · October 3rd, 2003, 04:18 PM

I got a new Powermac g4/1.25g about 6 weeks ago. 3 weeks after I bought it the internal Hitachi Deskstar 80gb drive failed dramatically, making a clickity-click-grind-grind sound. Fortunately everything was backed up....

I have a whole bunch of Maxtor drives, both internal and external, including four 160gb 7200 rpm firewire drives with the Oxford 911 chipset. They have been working great for video editing. I did experience corruption on one of them but was able to repair with disk warrior, so I think this was an OS or software related problem and not hardware.

Your mileage may vary....

Nathan Gifford · October 3rd, 2003, 07:17 PM

I know a number of people who had some bad luck with Maxtors, but I wasn't one of them.

However, the cost between Maxtor, Seagate, and Western Digital is small. For my last disk buy, I decided I would try Western Digital rather than deal with the risk.

Dean Sensui · October 3rd, 2003, 07:29 PM

Quite some time ago I had Maxtor drives for a digital still camera. One of them went bad and, unfortunately, Maxtor was no longer manufacturing them nor supporting them. The response I got from customer support wasn't the slightest bit apologetic nor sympathetic. Just plain rude. Not exactly what I wanted to hear for the demise of a $400 type III PCMCIA hard drive.

So I stayed away from Maxtor drives since then.

On the other hand, I have been using Seagate ultrawide SCSI drives for several years without a problem and just recently got a pair of IBM Deskstars to build a 360-gig RAID. So far so good.

Dean Sensui
Base Two Productions

Alex Ratson · October 3rd, 2003, 07:49 PM

I have had no problems with my Maxtor Fire Wire hard drive on Mac and PC platforms.

Happy Shooting
Alex

Matt Betea · October 3rd, 2003, 08:06 PM

All hdd manufacturers go through "spells" where they get a rash of defective drives. You remember a couple years or so ago IBM with their deathstar(deskstar) drives. Western Digital when everyone just had to have the special edition 8mb cache drives. With this technology there is always going to be defects, it's not what if, but when.

That being said I've had numerous Maxtor drives over the years, never had a problem. But then again I never had a problem with any drives I've used.

Rob Belics · October 4th, 2003, 09:20 AM

Same here. I have bought 3 Maxtor drives over the past 3 years with no problems.

Keith Loh · October 4th, 2003, 11:29 AM

I have connected or in my computer every major brand of hard drive except for Seagate. I have an IBM Deskstar, Maxtor and WD. All of them are running fine.

Josh Bass · October 4th, 2003, 02:17 PM

Hmm. Thanks for the input. This drive was, I believe, $75. 30 Gig, 7200RPM. Internal. Was working fine for about 4 or 5 months.

Well, then is micro center particularly crappy? I don't know who else in Houston does computer service and repair and is reputable.

Matt Betea · October 4th, 2003, 02:30 PM

Josh,
I apologize as last night I was tired and didn't read your whole post. Did they test the drives or did you try them on another connector? It's not unheard of for a IDE connector to go bad. Bad cables can also be the source of a problem like that. Usually, but not always these drives give signals in the form of noise when they're going to crap out.

If it's past whatever MicroCenter's return policy is, I would deal with Maxtor and get a replacement from them.

If the drives are definitely toast, you must have been a very bad boy lately to get 2 to quit on you in 6 months ;-)

Josh Bass · October 4th, 2003, 08:14 PM

I played with the IDE cables. . .that's a good possibility. . .they ARE like 5 years old and dusty and stuff, I hope I didn't pay the 85 dollars "just to look at it" to find out I have to simply replace an IDE cable. On the other hand, it's better than having to buy another HD and reinstall.

October 3rd, 2003, 03:02 PM	#1
Josh Bass Slash Rules! Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Houston, Texas Posts: 5,472	Does maxtor make particularly crappy hard drives? Okay, so for some mysterious reason, about four or five months ago my hard drive died. Had to get it replaced. Got a maxtor, from Microcenter, where the work was done on it. Today, the bastard won't boot up, gives me a "disk read error message." Into micro center again. If I have to buy yet another drive, should I avoid Maxtor? Or is it just bad karma? __________________ The Bass' camerawork The Bass on IMDB

October 3rd, 2003, 03:26 PM	#2
Andres Lucero Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Austin, TX Posts: 75	All signs point to Yes. My external Maxtor drive crapped out on me this week as well. :( __________________ "Oy... Aim it downhill."

October 3rd, 2003, 07:17 PM	#4
Nathan Gifford Wrangler Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: Tickfaw, LA Posts: 1,217	I know a number of people who had some bad luck with Maxtors, but I wasn't one of them. However, the cost between Maxtor, Seagate, and Western Digital is small. For my last disk buy, I decided I would try Western Digital rather than deal with the risk. __________________ Nathan Gifford Southern Cyclist Magazine & Productions For quick answers try our Search! To see me and Rob Lohman click here

October 3rd, 2003, 07:49 PM	#6
Alex Ratson Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Squamish, British Columbia, Canada Posts: 149	I have had no problems with my Maxtor Fire Wire hard drive on Mac and PC platforms. Happy Shooting Alex __________________ Alex Ratson www.alexratson.com

October 4th, 2003, 11:29 AM	#9
Keith Loh Air China Pilot Join Date: May 2002 Location: Vancouver, B.C. Posts: 2,389	I have connected or in my computer every major brand of hard drive except for Seagate. I have an IBM Deskstar, Maxtor and WD. All of them are running fine. __________________ -- Visit http://www.KeithLoh.com \| stuff about living in Vancouver \| My Flickr photo gallery

October 3rd, 2003, 04:18 PM	#3
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,787	I got a new Powermac g4/1.25g about 6 weeks ago. 3 weeks after I bought it the internal Hitachi Deskstar 80gb drive failed dramatically, making a clickity-click-grind-grind sound. Fortunately everything was backed up.... I have a whole bunch of Maxtor drives, both internal and external, including four 160gb 7200 rpm firewire drives with the Oxford 911 chipset. They have been working great for video editing. I did experience corruption on one of them but was able to repair with disk warrior, so I think this was an OS or software related problem and not hardware. Your mileage may vary....

October 3rd, 2003, 07:29 PM	#5
Dean Sensui Inner Circle Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Honolulu, HI Posts: 2,054	Quite some time ago I had Maxtor drives for a digital still camera. One of them went bad and, unfortunately, Maxtor was no longer manufacturing them nor supporting them. The response I got from customer support wasn't the slightest bit apologetic nor sympathetic. Just plain rude. Not exactly what I wanted to hear for the demise of a $400 type III PCMCIA hard drive. So I stayed away from Maxtor drives since then. On the other hand, I have been using Seagate ultrawide SCSI drives for several years without a problem and just recently got a pair of IBM Deskstars to build a 360-gig RAID. So far so good. Dean Sensui Base Two Productions

October 3rd, 2003, 08:06 PM	#7
Matt Betea Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: detroit, mi Posts: 187	All hdd manufacturers go through "spells" where they get a rash of defective drives. You remember a couple years or so ago IBM with their deathstar(deskstar) drives. Western Digital when everyone just had to have the special edition 8mb cache drives. With this technology there is always going to be defects, it's not what if, but when. That being said I've had numerous Maxtor drives over the years, never had a problem. But then again I never had a problem with any drives I've used.

October 4th, 2003, 09:20 AM	#8
Rob Belics Major Player Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: St. Louis, MO Posts: 581	Same here. I have bought 3 Maxtor drives over the past 3 years with no problems.

October 4th, 2003, 02:17 PM	#10
Josh Bass Slash Rules! Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Houston, Texas Posts: 5,472	Hmm. Thanks for the input. This drive was, I believe, $75. 30 Gig, 7200RPM. Internal. Was working fine for about 4 or 5 months. Well, then is micro center particularly crappy? I don't know who else in Houston does computer service and repair and is reputable. __________________ The Bass' camerawork The Bass on IMDB

October 4th, 2003, 02:30 PM	#11
Matt Betea Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: detroit, mi Posts: 187	Josh, I apologize as last night I was tired and didn't read your whole post. Did they test the drives or did you try them on another connector? It's not unheard of for a IDE connector to go bad. Bad cables can also be the source of a problem like that. Usually, but not always these drives give signals in the form of noise when they're going to crap out. If it's past whatever MicroCenter's return policy is, I would deal with Maxtor and get a replacement from them. If the drives are definitely toast, you must have been a very bad boy lately to get 2 to quit on you in 6 months ;-)

October 4th, 2003, 08:14 PM	#12
Josh Bass Slash Rules! Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Houston, Texas Posts: 5,472	I played with the IDE cables. . .that's a good possibility. . .they ARE like 5 years old and dusty and stuff, I hope I didn't pay the 85 dollars "just to look at it" to find out I have to simply replace an IDE cable. On the other hand, it's better than having to buy another HD and reinstall. __________________ The Bass' camerawork The Bass on IMDB