Okay, you can take this with a pinch of salt if you want, many of you may have had different experiences, but this has got beyond a joke for me now. I just want to warn people against buying Maxtor hard drives.
Basically in the last 12 months I've had 5 out of 6 of my Maxtor drives at home fail, what's more it's not one particular model, I've lost:
- 2x 40gb IDE internal
- 1x 160gb external
- 1x 120gb SATA internal
- 1x 67gb IDE internal
Now, some might think it's something I'm doing wrong, hell it's even crossed my own mind, but note also that I have many more drives, seagate, IBM, western digital all operating under exactly the same conditions, none of which failing. What's more is that I've also seen quite a few Maxtors failing at work lately all within the first 12 months. Also, defending myself more as I know many would be quick to jump to Maxtor's defence if they've made the mistake of purchasing one of their drives I've been using PCs, self built systems for well over 10 years and have never once seen such a horrible failure rate from a specific brand of hardware. It did cross my mind that it's perhaps a temperature thing but it's been a generally cold year especially compared to last and it's only the Maxtor's failing so I personally think it's safe to rule that out.
Defending Maxtor I do have friends who haven't had many problems with them, but for me it's time to speak out, for me a failure rate of 83% - 5 out of 6 drives all within the first 12 months, and in fact 2 within the first 6 months is just not, under any circumstances acceptable.
What's more, I have to pay around £5 or more in courier costs if I want the drives replaced and to rub it in, the replacement drives are the same models and such meaning they're going to be prone to the exact same unrealiability and horrific failure rate.
As I say you can take my advice or leave it, but if you want to be cautious and don't want to fall victim to massive data loss as I have (funny part is, I had some of the data backed up on other drives, only to have those drives fail whilst I was awaiting replacements also meaning backups were **** all use) I'd avoid Maxtor drives at all costs. I certainly will never pay Maxtor another penny as the quality of their drives is atrocious and unacceptable. I'll certainly be writing to trading standards and such as well as writing a written complaint to Maxtor themselves seeking some compensation.
If you have a Maxtor drive, the best thing I personally think you can do right now is make sure any essential data is stored elsewhere, be it on CD, another non-Maxtor drive or whatever.
This isn't one of my usual wind people up threads, and it's certainly not an attempt at starting a who's the best hard drive manufacturer, it's just a friendly warning about the issues I've faced with Maxtor recently.
If you are looking for a new hard drive I've yet to have a problem with IBM/Hitachi, although I have known people who have had issues with them, as an alternative seagate is probably worth a look - they've just started releasing drives with a 5 year warranty, that must show some confidence in reliability about their drives so probably well worth a look, either way don't be tricked by Maxtor's speed at producing the largest drives and their cheap prices, it's not worth the loss and trouble in the long run.
Basically in the last 12 months I've had 5 out of 6 of my Maxtor drives at home fail, what's more it's not one particular model, I've lost:
- 2x 40gb IDE internal
- 1x 160gb external
- 1x 120gb SATA internal
- 1x 67gb IDE internal
Now, some might think it's something I'm doing wrong, hell it's even crossed my own mind, but note also that I have many more drives, seagate, IBM, western digital all operating under exactly the same conditions, none of which failing. What's more is that I've also seen quite a few Maxtors failing at work lately all within the first 12 months. Also, defending myself more as I know many would be quick to jump to Maxtor's defence if they've made the mistake of purchasing one of their drives I've been using PCs, self built systems for well over 10 years and have never once seen such a horrible failure rate from a specific brand of hardware. It did cross my mind that it's perhaps a temperature thing but it's been a generally cold year especially compared to last and it's only the Maxtor's failing so I personally think it's safe to rule that out.
Defending Maxtor I do have friends who haven't had many problems with them, but for me it's time to speak out, for me a failure rate of 83% - 5 out of 6 drives all within the first 12 months, and in fact 2 within the first 6 months is just not, under any circumstances acceptable.
What's more, I have to pay around £5 or more in courier costs if I want the drives replaced and to rub it in, the replacement drives are the same models and such meaning they're going to be prone to the exact same unrealiability and horrific failure rate.
As I say you can take my advice or leave it, but if you want to be cautious and don't want to fall victim to massive data loss as I have (funny part is, I had some of the data backed up on other drives, only to have those drives fail whilst I was awaiting replacements also meaning backups were **** all use) I'd avoid Maxtor drives at all costs. I certainly will never pay Maxtor another penny as the quality of their drives is atrocious and unacceptable. I'll certainly be writing to trading standards and such as well as writing a written complaint to Maxtor themselves seeking some compensation.
If you have a Maxtor drive, the best thing I personally think you can do right now is make sure any essential data is stored elsewhere, be it on CD, another non-Maxtor drive or whatever.
This isn't one of my usual wind people up threads, and it's certainly not an attempt at starting a who's the best hard drive manufacturer, it's just a friendly warning about the issues I've faced with Maxtor recently.
If you are looking for a new hard drive I've yet to have a problem with IBM/Hitachi, although I have known people who have had issues with them, as an alternative seagate is probably worth a look - they've just started releasing drives with a 5 year warranty, that must show some confidence in reliability about their drives so probably well worth a look, either way don't be tricked by Maxtor's speed at producing the largest drives and their cheap prices, it's not worth the loss and trouble in the long run.
