Article mentions Maxtor high failure rate

[Timothy Daniels]

Mention of this article appeared in the Dell newsgroup.
Does anyone know which Maxtor HD had the high
failure rate?

http://webdesign.ittoolbox.com/news/dispnews.asp?i=124041&t=99


*TimDanliels*

 

[Mel Bourne]

200GB ATA, 250GB ATA and 250GB SATA 7200rpm. I was unfortunate to own a
total of 5 of these losers at home and at work. All failed within a few
months of each other. Three of them were retail drives purchased from
different retailers over time. Two came with my PC system as OEM
drives. So the problem was not due to a bad batch from a single
distributor, but was an indication of some serious quality problem.

 

[J. Clarke]

200GB ATA, 250GB ATA and 250GB SATA 7200rpm. I was unfortunate to own a
total of 5 of these losers at home and at work. All failed within a few
months of each other. Three of them were retail drives purchased from
different retailers over time. Two came with my PC system as OEM
drives. So the problem was not due to a bad batch from a single
distributor, but was an indication of some serious quality problem.

Generally speaking, when I have two drives in a row fail, I look for what it
killing them. 5 in a row is evidence of something wrong other than the
drives.

 

[Arno Wagner]

Mention of this article appeared in the Dell newsgroup.
Does anyone know which Maxtor HD had the high
failure rate?

http://webdesign.ittoolbox.com/news/dispnews.asp?i=124041&t=99

In my experience not the 120GB ATA model. I have had
zero failure in 23 of these drives running 24/7 for a year now.

I have had 3 failures in 18 of the 200GB drives in a bit more than
a year. No catastrophic failures, but bad SMART status or an high
number of reallocated sectors. That is a failure rate of about 17%,
I would call that a quality problem, but not a really bad one like
the deathstars (4 defect of 4 here in 2 years).

I hope it is not the 250GB SATA model, since I recently bought 9 of them.
No problem so far, but it has only been 2 months.

I have all the disks under smartd monitoring with email notification now.
Also all RAID1 or 5, which dramaticelly reduces repair time.

Arno

 

[Mike Tomlinson]

Generally speaking, when I have two drives in a row fail, I look for what it
killing them. 5 in a row is evidence of something wrong other than the
drives.

Normally I'd agree with you, but recent Maxtors (made within the last 3
years) have had serious quality issues. We have had several failures:
in different machines, different drive models, different PC builders.

 

[Tod]

This is why I'm asking Santa for a Seagate or Western Digital 200GB for
Christmas.

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

In my experience not the 120GB ATA model.

I have had zero failure in 23 of these drives

running 24/7 for a year now.

Did you ever consider that there might be a clue in that?

 

[FoggyBottom]

5 in a row is evidence of something wrong other than the
drives.

When they're in different machines in different locations????!!

 

[Arno Wagner]

On Wed, 08 Dec 2004 07:40:51 -0500, "J. Clarke"

When they're in different machines in different locations????!!

It depends. If they share one common influence, e.g. same power net
with surges, being deliverd together and dropped during delivery,
all running far too hot in a hot country, all installed by the same
heavy-handed person, etc., the cause can be this common influence and
not a specific problem of the disks.

I think a good measure is how many disks were in the sample.
If it is 5/5 bad and no obvious common link it is likely a
problem with the disks. If it is 5/100 bad it is more likely
an outside problem. YMMV as usual.

There are no simple answers for this one, just indicators.
Determining the true cause(s) needs an intelligent human being,
which may still fail in many cases to find the true problem.

Arno

 

[J. Clarke]

When they're in different machines in different locations????!!

Quite possibly if they are the same brand and model of machine or if the
environmental conditions are similar.

 

[J. Clarke]

It depends. If they share one common influence, e.g. same power net
with surges, being deliverd together and dropped during delivery,
all running far too hot in a hot country, all installed by the same
heavy-handed person, etc., the cause can be this common influence and
not a specific problem of the disks.

Or all bulk-pack ordered from the same hamhanded mail-order house that
things that two wraps of bubble-pack is adequate protection for shipping.

I think a good measure is how many disks were in the sample.
If it is 5/5 bad and no obvious common link it is likely a
problem with the disks. If it is 5/100 bad it is more likely
an outside problem. YMMV as usual.

There are no simple answers for this one, just indicators.
Determining the true cause(s) needs an intelligent human being,
which may still fail in many cases to find the true problem.

In addition, sometimes the common factor is in the history of the drives and
the necessary records weren't kept to allow the guy working the problem to
find it.