Western Digital buyers beware!

**0l33l** · 11-10-2005, 04:24 PM

Every maxtor drive I've seen has either been dead or non functioning.
No problems with WD here... I'm usign 2x 1200jb right now.
Haven't had any problems with seagate either.

**gnomad** · 11-10-2005, 04:34 PM

Originally Posted by Enforcer

I'm going through the process of swapping maxtor sata drives for WD's.

reason : Maxtors only have a 1 year, WD have a 3 year (yes 3 not 5, but these are not the raid edition.). The maxtors run very hot (as report on many websites and from my own experience because one failed after only six weeks and the temp in my cupboard shot up after4 switching to these)

So far I have got the faulty one replaced and it seems to run cooler. Now trying to get the still working one replaced as I want to use them as a mirrored raid.

Maxtor warranties vary depending on where you get them. Used to be the retail versions came with 1 and 3 year warranties, but now all the retail versions are 1-year only. For some strange reason, the OEM drives still have the 3 year warranty. (check the newegg web site for confirmation)

Heat also varries greatly among Maxtor drives. I have both 160 meg and 200 meg DiamondMax 9 drives, and the 160 meg runs *much* cooler than the 200. The 200 megger is also louder and produces more vibration. It's hard to tell if this is part of the design or construction (perhaps the spindle in the 200 megger is slightly out of balance.)

In any case, Maxtor drives have always done well for me. I have bought perhaps a dozen of them in the past 5-6 years and so far I've only lost one of them, and that was a 20 gig drive that only just started to flake out on me after 5 years of service.

However, I did get a 300 gig drive DOA from Newegg a while back, but I've been just too damn busy to RMA it. At this point I'll probably have to send it back through Maxtor Warranty. In the meantime, I'm very tempted to pick up one of the new Seagate drives with a 5 year warranty...

-p.

-p.

**tj!2k4** · 11-10-2005, 04:38 PM

Originally Posted by gnomad

I have both 160 meg and 200 meg DiamondMax 9 drives

Old skool! Using them in the 386?

**judoGTI** · 11-10-2005, 04:47 PM

too many words...

**Enforcer** · 11-10-2005, 05:05 PM

Originally Posted by gnomad

Maxtor warranties vary depending on where you get them. Used to be the retail versions came with 1 and 3 year warranties, but now all the retail versions are 1-year only. For some strange reason, the OEM drives still have the 3 year warranty. (check the newegg web site for confirmation)

Heat also varries greatly among Maxtor drives. I have both 160 meg and 200 meg DiamondMax 9 drives, and the 160 meg runs *much* cooler than the 200. The 200 megger is also louder and produces more vibration. It's hard to tell if this is part of the design or construction (perhaps the spindle in the 200 megger is slightly out of balance.)

In any case, Maxtor drives have always done well for me. I have bought perhaps a dozen of them in the past 5-6 years and so far I've only lost one of them, and that was a 20 gig drive that only just started to flake out on me after 5 years of service.

However, I did get a 300 gig drive DOA from Newegg a while back, but I've been just too damn busy to RMA it. At this point I'll probably have to send it back through Maxtor Warranty. In the meantime, I'm very tempted to pick up one of the new Seagate drives with a 5 year warranty...

-p.

-p.

Should also point out that at work we are suffering a lot of failures amongst our systems with maxtor drives.

A few years back I experienced a lot of problems with WD drives but the MAxtors were fine.

It seems to go in circles, or it could even be batches.

But I prefer a 3 year warranty to a year warranty.

**MatrixPC** · 11-10-2005, 05:27 PM

Well I never had any problem with either WD or Maxtors drives. I still have a few working drives from 2Gb - 8Gb laying around.
Maybe back then, those WD drives are better than today drives.
Also have a 9G Seagate (Baracuda???) 7200RPM that is soooo freaking hot but never fail. I sure can fry a egg after 10 minute use.
I have a hard time recover data from an infamous 16G IBM DeathStar. If the drive sitting out in the cold overnight, it will work for about 15min-20min. After that, the drive disappear from the system.

BTW, Newegg, Monarch Computer rock for their customer service.

**TheLlama** · 11-10-2005, 05:49 PM

I've had the best luck with Seagate and Maxtor (surprisingly). I've had a 540MB, 1.2GB, 20GB, and 160GB WDC fail on me before.

**Chris31** · 11-10-2005, 05:55 PM

Out of about 5,000 PC in the building I worked with, WD seems to go dead often, then maxtor. The one that survive the most are the fujitsu drive.

Seagate drive, cant really comment as I dont get to see them often in the machine we had.

Saying all that, of course it depend on the model/PN of each drive some just go bad more often regardless of the brand.

**HHdesign** · 11-10-2005, 05:56 PM

My seagate has been through hell and back, and lives on to tell about it. Never skipped a beat, and runs warm, but not hot.

Seagate 4TW

**TheLlama** · 11-10-2005, 06:41 PM

The best drive I've ever had is a quantum fireball. That thing is around 6 years old and used to be in my old car pc over 4 years ago. I flipped that car twice and smashed into two telephone polls. It's been running in a server 24/7 for at least 2 years. No dead sectors, no increase in noise, no problems.