sata drive

[Simon]

Maxtor is the only drive I've ever had a problem with, and wouldn't buy another.

[plugwash]

I had two segate U series drives (not sure exactly which model) die, iirc one was about 4 gig one was about 8 gig.

More recently (but still a long time ago) I had a maxtor go smart status bad but I got all the data copied and returned it to maxtor before it actually failed.

other than that and some very very old laptop drives I haven't had any problems.

It seems all the drive vendors go through bad phases, unfortunately you can't really tell what manufacturers are currently in a bad phase only which were in a bad phase a few years ago.

[Sebby]

I have to agree. WD are also very reliable. Maxtor are poor.

[Rik]

I'm with Drummer, RAID0 is an extremely undesirable way to go. Most makes of drive are good, but Maxtor is a brand I would avoid. Of course, if you want speed, then look at WD Raptors!!

[Steve]

If RAID 0 is well backed up elsewhere surely one should be safe?

[Rik]

Agreed, Steve, but how many people make regular and complete backups?

[Steve]

But in that case they will end end up in trouble with or without raid0, obviously the risks are higher with the latter.

[Rik]

Again, I agree, Steve. The problem, to me, is that most people don't see the additional risk with RAID0, just the performance gain. Personally, with the price of HDs these days, I'd go for RAID0+1, which offers the best of both worlds.

[mogden]

RAID's worth the effort IMHO (that's why I did it!  ) Gave my three year old machine a huge performance boost (with enough RAM so I could switch paging off).

RAID0+1 or RAID5 if you don't have another automated backup means. I use RAID0 + Allway Sync overnight - until I can afford another two discs.

I have never had a problem with Western Digital disks  , but have also had Maxtors fail.

At the risk of being boring, how many people remember to do an offsite backup? 

[Rik]

Me.

[Sebby]

I run 2 x 250GB Seagates in a RAID0 array, but I do backup daily.

[TheMonkey]

this is for you depending how much space you need but
a sumsung drive few quid short of £50 for 500gig is pretty good in my book!

http://www.ebuyer.com/search/?strSearch=&bolShowAll=true&intStoreID=2&intCatID=4&intSubcatUID=1090&intMfrID=40&bolShowAll=true

[Inactive]

Nice find...

[Baz]

what sort of bother do you get with the Maxtor drives then. Ive never had any trouble and thats why I stuck with them.

maybe I'm just lucky

[Inactive]

I think the reliability varies from model to model with all HDD's.

[Rik]

what sort of bother do you get with the Maxtor drives then. Ive never had any trouble and thats why I stuck with them.

They just seem to have had a reputation for failures over the past year or or so, Baz.

[Baz]

Hmmmm  will keep that in mind thanks

[Sebby]

I personally haven't had trouble with the few Maxtor drives I've owned over the years, but I know several people that have.

[Simon]

I had two Maxtors fail while building a new machine for a friend.  One wouldn't format, so I had to wait a week for a replacement from Watford Electronics, then the second one loaded Windows, but constantly clicked while running, so ended up buying a WD from PC World, and getting a refund for the Maxtor.  After two bad experiences, with other manufacturers available, I have no reason to use them again.

[Rik]

Part of your problem was dealing with WE, Simon.

[Simon]

Indeed, Rik.  Like so many companies, a good service, until something goes wrong.  With faulty parts, firms should send immediate replacements, not make you wait until they have received and tested your returned item. 

[Rik]

WE were always small-minded in my experience, right from the early 80s.