TWO Maxtor failures in a row

In the last two weeks, I've had two Maxtor hard drives fail. Hard.

The first was a Maxtor external USB2 drive in the original Maxtor case. The
second is a Maxtor drive in a generic external USB2 case.

Both were pretty heavily used.

The error I get is a popup stating "Delayed write failed -- unable to write
to G:\msft"

The drive disappears and doesn't show on the subsequent boot.

OK, so I won't buy Maxtor, but is there ANY way to salvage the data? 500GB
worth!

The critical stuff is backed up, but I'd still like to save everything else.

Thanks in advance.

Tom

Previously Tom Scales wrote:
In the last two weeks, I've had two Maxtor hard drives fail. Hard.

The first was a Maxtor external USB2 drive in the original Maxtor case. The
second is a Maxtor drive in a generic external USB2 case.

Both were pretty heavily used.

Maybe grossly inadequate cooling? Many external enclosures are
suffering from this problem and are only fit for sparing use if at
all. Maxtor says 50C maximum and that tests have shown that the
failure rate should only begin to increse from 55C and up. However
usually the failure rates increase dramatically on overheated
HDDs. Death by "old age" within 3 months is a real possibility.

The error I get is a popup stating "Delayed write failed -- unable to write
to G:\msft"

The drive disappears and doesn't show on the subsequent boot.

OK, so I won't buy Maxtor, but is there ANY way to salvage the data? 500GB
worth!

One possibiluty is that not the drive but the interfaces or PSUs failed.
Unlikely in my opinion but might be worth a try. Remove the hdds from
the cases and try them directly in your computer. If they are o.k.,
you should get them detected and should be able to run PowerMax
for diagnostics. You might also be able to read you data, I did this
sucessfully under Linux with my enclosure.

Arno
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"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws" - Tacitus

"Arno Wagner" wrote in message
...
Previously Tom Scales wrote:
In the last two weeks, I've had two Maxtor hard drives fail. Hard.

The first was a Maxtor external USB2 drive in the original Maxtor case.
The
second is a Maxtor drive in a generic external USB2 case.

Both were pretty heavily used.

Maybe grossly inadequate cooling? Many external enclosures are
suffering from this problem and are only fit for sparing use if at
all. Maxtor says 50C maximum and that tests have shown that the
failure rate should only begin to increse from 55C and up. However
usually the failure rates increase dramatically on overheated
HDDs. Death by "old age" within 3 months is a real possibility.

The error I get is a popup stating "Delayed write failed -- unable to
write
to G:\msft"

The drive disappears and doesn't show on the subsequent boot.

OK, so I won't buy Maxtor, but is there ANY way to salvage the data?
500GB
worth!

One possibiluty is that not the drive but the interfaces or PSUs failed.
Unlikely in my opinion but might be worth a try. Remove the hdds from
the cases and try them directly in your computer. If they are o.k.,
you should get them detected and should be able to run PowerMax
for diagnostics. You might also be able to read you data, I did this
sucessfully under Linux with my enclosure.

Arno

They don't work directly connected, so they're dead. I too suspect cooling.
For the no-name, that makes sense, but for the Maxtor sold drive, that's
frustrating.

Clearly, I am only going to use the external drives for backups and light
use. This drive was pretty heavily used.

Tom

Go Hitachi man, never look back.



On Mon, 13 Dec 2004 09:01:33 -0500, "Tom Scales"
wrote:


"Arno Wagner" wrote in message
...
Previously Tom Scales wrote:
In the last two weeks, I've had two Maxtor hard drives fail. Hard.

The first was a Maxtor external USB2 drive in the original Maxtor case.
The
second is a Maxtor drive in a generic external USB2 case.

Both were pretty heavily used.

Maybe grossly inadequate cooling? Many external enclosures are
suffering from this problem and are only fit for sparing use if at
all. Maxtor says 50C maximum and that tests have shown that the
failure rate should only begin to increse from 55C and up. However
usually the failure rates increase dramatically on overheated
HDDs. Death by "old age" within 3 months is a real possibility.

The error I get is a popup stating "Delayed write failed -- unable to
write
to G:\msft"

The drive disappears and doesn't show on the subsequent boot.

OK, so I won't buy Maxtor, but is there ANY way to salvage the data?
500GB
worth!

One possibiluty is that not the drive but the interfaces or PSUs failed.
Unlikely in my opinion but might be worth a try. Remove the hdds from
the cases and try them directly in your computer. If they are o.k.,
you should get them detected and should be able to run PowerMax
for diagnostics. You might also be able to read you data, I did this
sucessfully under Linux with my enclosure.

Arno

They don't work directly connected, so they're dead. I too suspect cooling.
For the no-name, that makes sense, but for the Maxtor sold drive, that's
frustrating.

Clearly, I am only going to use the external drives for backups and light
use. This drive was pretty heavily used.

Tom

Previously Tom Scales wrote:

"Arno Wagner" wrote in message
...
Previously Tom Scales wrote:
In the last two weeks, I've had two Maxtor hard drives fail. Hard.
[...]
One possibiluty is that not the drive but the interfaces or PSUs failed.
Unlikely in my opinion but might be worth a try. Remove the hdds from
the cases and try them directly in your computer. If they are o.k.,
you should get them detected and should be able to run PowerMax
for diagnostics. You might also be able to read you data, I did this
sucessfully under Linux with my enclosure.

Arno

They don't work directly connected, so they're dead. I too suspect cooling.
For the no-name, that makes sense, but for the Maxtor sold drive, that's
frustrating.

I agree. If they cannot deliver a solid product, they should have stayed
out of the external drive business. Still, I guess they looked at typical
usage patterns and concluded that light usage is the norm. There might
even be something in the documentation about it.

Arno
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For email address: lastname AT tik DOT ee DOT ethz DOT ch
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Previously The Other Guy. wrote:

Go Hitachi man, never look back.

Not this decade. 5 out of 5 dead "deathstars" and no honest explanation
so far is enough to not trust them again for a long time.

Arno
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For email address: lastname AT tik DOT ee DOT ethz DOT ch
GnuPG: ID:1E25338F FP:0C30 5782 9D93 F785 E79C 0296 797F 6B50 1E25 338F
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws" - Tacitus

You're joking, right? Every single IBM Deskstar I have ever owned died.

I don't think I am alone.

Tom
"The Other Guy." wrote in message
...



Go Hitachi man, never look back.

I've never used an external drive, but the aftermarket enclosures I've
seen, including removable IDE drive bays, didn't seem to be well
ventilated, and Maxtor drives have six tiny chips for the motor and
head movement that reach about 70C in 25C surrounding air. But simply
mounting the drive vertically can cool those chips by 15C.

Previously Tom Scales wrote:
You're joking, right? Every single IBM Deskstar I have ever owned died.

I don't think I am alone.

No, see my post. We threw even the working ones out at work after
several people lost data.

Arno
--
For email address: lastname AT tik DOT ee DOT ethz DOT ch
GnuPG: ID:1E25338F FP:0C30 5782 9D93 F785 E79C 0296 797F 6B50 1E25 338F
"The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws" - Tacitus

The Other Guy. wrote:


Go Hitachi man, never look back.

snip

ROTFL! Yeah, right ...

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