Lyris Lite :: NO MORE MAXTOR

Saturday, April 28, 2007

NO MORE MAXTOR

With all the lossless video that gets thrown around my hard drives, I think it's safe to say that I give them a good workout. The benefit of using up all this disk space is that any problems with disks usually become evident sooner rather than later. But this little incident sets a whole new record because I've only been using this drive for 5 days.

I was happily writing data to the disk, when I was given a message that is enough to scare the crap out of anyone:

Thanks to Windows Vista's advance warning, I was able to rescue everything from the defective disc. Which is better than what happened last time. Yes, none of this is really that new to me, because this is the second Maxtor disk I've had fail in about 3 years. In 2004 I lost a ridiculous amount of data thanks to a previous Maxtor hard drive buggering up, the only differences are that this time it was a brand new drive, and this time I didn't lose everything.

A friend suggested I run Maxtor/Seagate's disk check utility, and sure enough:

Seriously Maxtor, fuck you. That could have been someone's entire livelihood. This thing is getting sent back and replaced.

Update: Here's some food for thought (this too). It's a page called Maxtor Hard Drive Failure Rate. I think this quote sums it up nicely:

As a 45-year technician and Computer Store owner...I would rather eat Pig-shit than buy another Maxtor Drive.

Have to say love the site, visit everyday to see your reviews. Keep up the good work.

Glad you were able to save all your data, is that the reason for the lack of updates ;)

David S.H.
April 28, 2007 8:27 PM

Partly. That, and exams!

Lyris
April 28, 2007 8:37 PM

Eww you use Vista? It's such a garbage OS and I got a free copy for being a beta tester. I'm happily humming with XP Pro and XP Pro 64bit edition.

I've never liked Maxtor. I always use Western Digital and I've never had any problems.

Mike

Michael
April 28, 2007 9:27 PM

I just installed Vista last night and really liked it. It's actually faster on my Core 2 Duo than XP was, which surprises me.

It has some annoying quirks (No Start>Run command by default) but you can work around them, and I think it's worth it. What didn't you like about it?

Lyris
April 28, 2007 9:33 PM

Well there's the fact that alot of settings are buried within a hundred clicks, you can't set the shutdown button on the start menu to prompt unless you use the classic start menu, A few items simply link to the 2000/XP style menu (almost all of the display settings). Also, I like to access programs but using the Start Button and then hitting P or run or network connections but in Vista it starts that annoying search. I'd rather it not do that. Oh ya and there's the All Programs Menu: A) I don't like how it appears in the recent box and B) If you organize your Start Menu it lists folders after shortcuts.

Don't get me wrong there are a few things I like, for example: Per application volume control. But I'm not impressed with the result of 4+ years of work.

It's mostly alot of little things that annoy me and I'd rather stick to XP for now.

Mike

Michael
April 28, 2007 11:17 PM

>> Also, I like to access programs but using the Start Button and then hitting P or run or network connections but in Vista it starts that annoying search.

Yeah, you and me both. There are lots of little hotkeys I use that they seem to mess around with. I used to like Pressing Windows button then R to access the Run command, but as you say now it does Search. Fortunately I can press Windows + R to bring up the Run window.

They're good at pissing us "power users" off, aren't they?

All good points, but all the same I find it worth getting used to for the speed increase.

Lyris
April 28, 2007 11:33 PM

Ya it's not too bad but like you say for us power users its more of a pain. Mostly my family was like, it's so pretty and I cant help but shudder when that happens.

Do you like the UAC (User Account Control)? I hate it. I disable it AND login as the actual administrator account. It's my computer stop annoying the shit out of me if I want to do something.

One other thing and this isn't actually a Vista thing but rather an IE 7 thing. I've noticed that IE7 not only updates IE but adds some network security. Every time I went to access a mapped drive on my server and run a file it asked me if I'm sure. and there isn't an easy way around it. So I'm staying clear of IE7.

Mike

Michael
April 29, 2007 1:01 AM

I have 5 Maxtor drives: ranging from 5years old to the present.

They never let me down ( touch wood ) ... I hear a lot of bad things about other makes. I always say, " If something works for you, stick with it "

Seagate have bought Maxtor now. I'll be buying Seagate from now on.

Leon Ahoy!
May 2, 2007 2:46 PM

That's the thing, part of you wonders if there are so many reports of Maxtor unreliability just because they're the most popular brand of drive. But I won't be taking any chances now.

Lyris
May 2, 2007 3:01 PM

Site Design © by David Mackenzie. Unless stated, the opinions contained herein are entirely my own. I make no claim to any other properties or trademarks mentioned. NOT AFFILIATED with Lyris Technologies, an e-mail marketing software provider. This site uses a cookie to store your preferred visual style. Some Javascript functions are the work of other programmers (used with permission).