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Well, counterpoint... Posted by Justin VanAbrahams [Email] (#32) [Profile/Gallery] (more from Justin VanAbrahams) on Thu, 24 Aug 2006 15:38:04 In Reply to: Re: OT-Maxtor hard drive?, JasonS, Thu, 24 Aug 2006 08:52:23 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
I have nothing but Maxtor drives in my main computer (all 1.8TB worth) and at least a few more TB in Maxtor drivespace at the office. I've personally had far fewer failures with Maxtor drives than any other single brand. Horror stories of failure rates from a friend of mine who's a higher-up at WD scared me off their drives years ago, and I've gone back.
All that said, I can't say there is overwhelming evidence pro or con one manufacturer. Every one of them pops out a bad drive now and again, and MTBF is just that - MEAN time. Yours could fail tomorrow or in ten years.
My advice is back everything up regularly and buy the drive with the best warranty. I think Maxtor has gone back to a 2 or 3 year on most of their drives, and a 10 year on their MaxLine series. I think Seagate is up to five years again. No idea was WD is doing. RAID is cheap (buy a Dell CERC4 (IDE) or CERC6 (SATA) off ebay for $100) and send drives back when they fail.
Anyway, on topic, you should be able to download Maxtor's MaxBlast software (download the ISO version, burn to a CD) and run a full low-level format of the drive. It'll take a long time, but tell you conclusively if there is a problem. You can also try IBM/Hitachi's DFT (Drive Fitness Test) - it will work on non IBM/Hitachi drives with limited (but useful) functionality... You can do the same Full Scan on it.
posted by 216.57....
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