I bought a Maxtor 120GB 7200rpm hard drive a few months ago, and something was wrong mechanically inside, so I returned it for another of the same kind.
Recently, I’ve been trying to setup Windows XP on a new PC. I had about 40GB worth of files on my 120GB hard drive, which I transferred to two other hard drives, so I could re-format the 120GB drive as an NTFS file system.
That’s when it skunked on me. It doesn’t even format past 2% now, so I’ll be returning yet ANOTHER 120GB hard drive.
What does the SDMB think about hard drives this large? Are they statistically more prone to failure than smaller hard drives??
No, it’s in a perfectly hardware-friendly environment, dry and cool. Maybe I’ve just had bad luck.
After calling, a support person at Maxtor told me about a “low level format” utility I can run that’ll take forever, but might fix it. Hopefully. I hate returning hardware.
I’ve had two 120GB HDD’s on my home computer for a year and a half (one of which is a Maxtor) and support a few dozen computers at work, many of which have 120GB drives. I’m not saying that they never fail, but I haven’t seen one go yet.
Also, from what I’ve read, drives are actually more reliable now than in previous years.
I used to have a couple of older drives that seemed non-functional until I low-level formatted them. After that, they were fine. It’s definitely worth a try. Just set it formatting before you go to sleep or something.
I have several drives and only had 3 of them go bad (an old 420 MB (not GB)), my HP 60 gig, and a surprisingly bad 75 gig IBM deskstar top of the line model which set me back a whopping $500 when new).
I had them all replaced (rather annoying with my 420 as it was my only drive at the time) and I currently run 3 computers with 10 HDs total and haven’t had any recent problems. The number 1 killer of HDs is heat. I run a 85 hitachi (deskstar replacement) and a maxtor 100 gig in my primary system with 6 system fans and a HD heatsink.
A low level format might work but if you have bad sectors, it probably won’t fix them (but it might).
I once had a freak problem on one of my systems. I thought my HD was bad while formating it but it really was my system RAM. The ram had gone bad and caused format (in windows) to stall and screw up my drive. I had to reformat in DOS-mode and it worked fine (and I had to throw out my ram).
I worked for years in computer repair and I have replaced TONS of Maxtors. Those and the silly Quantum Bigfoot’s.
I had a maxtor 4 gig drive that went tits up. I got a replacement from warrenty. That replacement was dead out of the box. Warrenty sent me another. It lasted about 4 months before it went belly up. The replacement for that drive I sold without opening it.
There have been new drives that have had unusual failure rates (such as the IBM 75 series) but this is not directly related to size. The hard drive business is so competitive that drives have to be manufactured very cheaply and yet meet the unofficial industry standard of less that 1% failure per year. This means a lot of drives fail. If you value your data, the prudent thing to do is to make sure you have all the data backed up on CD or, even better, install a second hard disk to back everything up to.
I’ve had very good luck with Maxtors. I currently have 7 desktop hard drives in operation, 5 Maxtors and 2 IBM’s. My last hard drive failure was a 20 MB drive (yes MB) in 1990. I always install an intake fan blowing directly on the hard drives.
I’d check your power supply. Make sure the +5V and +12V voltages aren’t too high or too low. Repeated HDD failures is often a warning sign of a bad power supply.
I have had less trouble with my larger drives (current largest is a 137 Gb SCSI). That really has more to do, IMHO, with the bigger ones being the newer, more advanced drives.
I have had trouble with Maxtor HDDs, but I’d bet you can find somebody who’ll bitch about any brand you can name.
I did a low-level format on a Maxtor 120GB drive last night, and haven’t had a chance to see the results. Does it create an NTFS format, or do I still have to do that?
Low-level formatting takes FOREVER. About 8-9 hours for 120 Gs.
Hitachi was a partner for years and then bought the whole business. I think they have stopped branding them IBM but it’s the same design, produced in the same factories. There have been reliability concerns but mostly with the 75 series drives (not just 75 GB) so keep away from those. The 60 and 120 series seem pretty good as long as you cool them well. They do tend to run hot.
i didn’t have to return any of my hard drives. the only trend i notice is that bigger newer drives are quieter and faster thats why i only keep 2 drives, even though my case could hold more. i get rid of older smaller drives cuz they are slow and noisy.
my 180 ( hitachi/ibm ) did lose all of the data on it and refused to work, but me and my cousin concluded that it was a bios problem with my motherboard. the HDD was ATA 133 and mobo was ATA66. i got a new NForce2 motherboard with ATA133 and it works fine now. ( just to be sure i am backing up stuff to DVD+RW )
also note, that Hard Drive capacity is not a measure of areal surface density of data.
hard drives have anywhere from 1 to 3 platters, and a platter can have 1 or 2 surfaces. so you are looking at 1 to 6 surfaces.
so a 40 gig drive can have higher areal density ( finer precision of mechanical parts requried ) than a 200 gig drive, if the first drive uses just 1 surface and the second uses 6.
hard drives of same generation use same surfaces, just different number of them. newer generation means more data per surface.
IMB GXP 120 for example means that this line tops out at 120 gigs per drive ( 6 surfaces at 20 gigs each ). so a 80 gig drive from that generation ( IMB GXP 120, 80 GIG ) would have 4 surfaces ( 2 platters x 2 surface x 20 gigs ).
