I was just wondering what people's experiences are with refurbished
Maxtor drives in terms of lifespan/defect rate compared to brand new
ones. What are the odds of a 5 year life span on a refurb.
Thanks in advance for any insight.
I have a couple of refurb'd Maxtor drives, still running fine 2 years
later. Their (now) lower speed and capacity make them less desirable for
any use compared to several other, newer Maxtor drives here. I've sold at
least a couple of refurbed Maxtors too, should be roughly 4 years old now
but I can't be certain they still work or are even in service instead of
being replaced/upgraded/etc, but AFAIK they still work fine.
I doubt you'd be able to get valid estimate of MTBF for any given
generation of refurb'd drive except from Maxtor, but that they wouldn't
release that info, and even if they did it may not be all that applicable
to any particular refurb'd drive, since the prior hours of use, handling,
and failure mode may vary, in addition to the variability in usage and
environment after it was refurb'd. Also consider that with drives 2 years
old but a 3 year warranty (which ended for several models shipped after
Oct.1, 2002) after another year has passed the warranty has expired,
Maxtor isn't even going to be aware of the failures of many refurb'd
drives before that (5 year) interval you mention has elapsed.
I'd use a new drive for valuable data, not a refurb. For less important
data you might put it in a low-importance use to confirm that it continues
operating properly for at least a couple months, and by all means run the
Maxtor diagnostics on it.
