TWO Maxtor failures in a row

[Tom Scales]

In the last two weeks, I've had two Maxtor hard drives fail. Hard.

The first was a Maxtor external USB2 drive in the original Maxtor case. The
second is a Maxtor drive in a generic external USB2 case.

Both were pretty heavily used.

The error I get is a popup stating "Delayed write failed -- unable to write
to G:\msft"

The drive disappears and doesn't show on the subsequent boot.

OK, so I won't buy Maxtor, but is there ANY way to salvage the data? 500GB
worth!

The critical stuff is backed up, but I'd still like to save everything else.

Thanks in advance.

Tom

 

[Arno Wagner]

In the last two weeks, I've had two Maxtor hard drives fail. Hard.

The first was a Maxtor external USB2 drive in the original Maxtor case. The
second is a Maxtor drive in a generic external USB2 case.

Both were pretty heavily used.

Maybe grossly inadequate cooling? Many external enclosures are
suffering from this problem and are only fit for sparing use if at
all. Maxtor says 50C maximum and that tests have shown that the
failure rate should only begin to increse from 55C and up. However
usually the failure rates increase dramatically on overheated
HDDs. Death by "old age" within 3 months is a real possibility.

The error I get is a popup stating "Delayed write failed -- unable to write
to G:\msft"

The drive disappears and doesn't show on the subsequent boot.

OK, so I won't buy Maxtor, but is there ANY way to salvage the data? 500GB
worth!

One possibiluty is that not the drive but the interfaces or PSUs failed.
Unlikely in my opinion but might be worth a try. Remove the hdds from
the cases and try them directly in your computer. If they are o.k.,
you should get them detected and should be able to run PowerMax
for diagnostics. You might also be able to read you data, I did this
sucessfully under Linux with my enclosure.

Arno

 

[Tom Scales]

Maybe grossly inadequate cooling? Many external enclosures are
suffering from this problem and are only fit for sparing use if at
all. Maxtor says 50C maximum and that tests have shown that the
failure rate should only begin to increse from 55C and up. However
usually the failure rates increase dramatically on overheated
HDDs. Death by "old age" within 3 months is a real possibility.




One possibiluty is that not the drive but the interfaces or PSUs failed.
Unlikely in my opinion but might be worth a try. Remove the hdds from
the cases and try them directly in your computer. If they are o.k.,
you should get them detected and should be able to run PowerMax
for diagnostics. You might also be able to read you data, I did this
sucessfully under Linux with my enclosure.

Arno

They don't work directly connected, so they're dead. I too suspect cooling.
For the no-name, that makes sense, but for the Maxtor sold drive, that's
frustrating.

Clearly, I am only going to use the external drives for backups and light
use. This drive was pretty heavily used.

Tom

 

[The Other Guy.]

Go Hitachi man, never look back.

They don't work directly connected, so they're dead. I too suspect cooling.
For the no-name, that makes sense, but for the Maxtor sold drive, that's
frustrating.

Clearly, I am only going to use the external drives for backups and light
use. This drive was pretty heavily used.

Tom

 

[Arno Wagner]

In the last two weeks, I've had two Maxtor hard drives fail. Hard.

[...]
One possibiluty is that not the drive but the interfaces or PSUs failed.
Unlikely in my opinion but might be worth a try. Remove the hdds from
the cases and try them directly in your computer. If they are o.k.,
you should get them detected and should be able to run PowerMax
for diagnostics. You might also be able to read you data, I did this
sucessfully under Linux with my enclosure.

Arno

They don't work directly connected, so they're dead. I too suspect cooling.
For the no-name, that makes sense, but for the Maxtor sold drive, that's
frustrating.

I agree. If they cannot deliver a solid product, they should have stayed
out of the external drive business. Still, I guess they looked at typical
usage patterns and concluded that light usage is the norm. There might
even be something in the documentation about it.

Arno

 

[Arno Wagner]

Go Hitachi man, never look back.

Not this decade. 5 out of 5 dead "deathstars" and no honest explanation
so far is enough to not trust them again for a long time.

Arno

 

[Tom Scales]

You're joking, right? Every single IBM Deskstar I have ever owned died.

I don't think I am alone.

Tom

 

[larry moe 'n curly]

I've never used an external drive, but the aftermarket enclosures I've
seen, including removable IDE drive bays, didn't seem to be well
ventilated, and Maxtor drives have six tiny chips for the motor and
head movement that reach about 70C in 25C surrounding air. But simply
mounting the drive vertically can cool those chips by 15C.

 

[Arno Wagner]

You're joking, right? Every single IBM Deskstar I have ever owned died.

I don't think I am alone.

No, see my post. We threw even the working ones out at work after
several people lost data.

Arno

 

[CJT]

Go Hitachi man, never look back.

<snip>

ROTFL! Yeah, right ...

 

[jcombalicer]

i also have two maxtor 80GB and i only use it for only 4months and it
fail the sad part of it was, they forfeit the warranty, i promise to
myself never to buy any maxtor product anymore. Its a waste of money
considering am just a student... so sad thats my allowance going to
waste.... maxtor doesnt even respond to my question, why? :shock:

 

[chrisv]

Go Hitachi man, never look back.

Ron, is that you?

 

[Arno Wagner]

i also have two maxtor 80GB and i only use it for only 4months and it
fail the sad part of it was, they forfeit the warranty,

What reasoning?

Arno

 

[Brody]

With the reports of drive failures from different manufactures, this
raises a question... for me that is..

who makes a reliable drive..

 

[Timothy Daniels]

"Brody"wrote:

With the reports of drive failures from different manufactures, this
raises a question... for me that is..

who makes a reliable drive..

That is too broad a question. Remember that the original
posting involved external USB hard drives without a cooling
fan. Even if you narrow the question to internal ATA drives,
the speed is important due to its influence on heat generation.
The number of platters might even have a bearing.
Care now to ask something more meaningful?

*TimDaniels*

 

[Arno Wagner]

With the reports of drive failures from different manufactures, this
raises a question... for me that is..

who makes a reliable drive..

Nobody. A fundamental impossibility.

Even very high levels of reliability (which I assume you actually ask
for) are not available today.

Arno

 

[J. Clarke]

Nobody. A fundamental impossibility.

Even very high levels of reliability (which I assume you actually ask
for) are not available today.

For certain values of "very".

 

[Impmon]

who makes a reliable drive..

That's like asking if Microsoft Works...

 

[Brody]

Nobody. A fundamental impossibility.

Even very high levels of reliability (which I assume you actually ask
for) are not available today.

Arno

Then I might as well go with the IBM Deskstar.

 

[Brody]

"Brody"wrote:




That is too broad a question. Remember that the original
posting involved external USB hard drives without a cooling
fan. Even if you narrow the question to internal ATA drives,
the speed is important due to its influence on heat generation.
The number of platters might even have a bearing.
Care now to ask something more meaningful?

Why bother, this newsgroup seldom generates meaningful answers.

There are a few who post here because they actually want to help, Svend
for example. Most of the rest strut around trying to show how clever
they are while never actually answering a question.

My question was simple. Who makes a reliable drive. I should not have to
state that I mean a drive operated within the manufacturers
specifications; external OR internal is irrelevant