Ouch! - Maxtor Plus 9 80GB dies after 3 months?

[Wayne Youngman]

Hi,

just thought I would share a recent experience. I fitted a new Maxtor 80GB
(8MB cache) to a friends INTEL system. That was 3 months ago, then he calls
me to say he can't boot his PC, so I pay him a visit to try to fix the
problem. . . no go! so I took the PC home with me and removed the hard disk
and fitted it to my PC so I could attempt to recover the contents of My
Documents etc, all his digital pictures of his 2 year old son from birth
etc. Anyway this went ok all important data backed up, then suddenly the
drive just vanished from My Computer? really weird.

So I re-fitted the rogue drive back into my friends PC, but this time it
couldn't even be seen by the BIOS? tried new cables etc, re-checked IDE
fittings etc but no?

As far as I can see this drive is DEAD! it doesn't make any kind of sound
when the PC is power-on and doesn't get warm etc, yes I tried different
power connectors etc but no go. . .

I am using a regular ATA/33 cable attached to an INTEL/Supermicro BX chipset
(P6SBA), is their a chance that I need to use a different cable as I know
this drive is ATA/133 but the mobo only supports ATA/33.

I will be RMA'ing this drive, but it kinda shook my confidence in MAXTOR,
from my experience they seem to have the highest fail rate, normally they
fade slowly and start making lots of nice etc, but this time it just plain
decided to die, even SMART didn't give me a warning?

Any comments?

Wayne ][

 

[Rod Speed]

just thought I would share a recent experience. I fitted a new Maxtor 80GB
(8MB cache) to a friends INTEL system. That was 3 months ago, then he calls
me to say he can't boot his PC, so I pay him a visit to try to fix the
problem. . . no go! so I took the PC home with me and removed the hard disk
and fitted it to my PC so I could attempt to recover the contents of My
Documents etc, all his digital pictures of his 2 year old son from birth
etc. Anyway this went ok all important data backed up, then suddenly the
drive just vanished from My Computer? really weird.

So I re-fitted the rogue drive back into my friends PC, but this time it
couldn't even be seen by the BIOS? tried new cables etc, re-checked IDE
fittings etc but no?

As far as I can see this drive is DEAD! it doesn't make any kind of sound
when the PC is power-on and doesn't get warm etc, yes I tried different
power connectors etc but no go. . .

I am using a regular ATA/33 cable attached to an INTEL/Supermicro
BX chipset (P6SBA), is their a chance that I need to use a different
cable as I know this drive is ATA/133 but the mobo only supports ATA/33.

Nope, its just died.

I will be RMA'ing this drive, but it kinda shook my confidence in MAXTOR,
from my experience they seem to have the highest fail rate, normally they
fade slowly and start making lots of nice etc, but this time it just plain
decided to die, even SMART didn't give me a warning?

Some drives die that way. And have done for years now too.

Any comments?

Buy a CD burner and backup what matter properly.