Maxtor Hard Drive

[DebiLynn]

Hello,
I purchased a Maxtor 160 gig hard drive with my MicroStudio software. It's only been a few years and the hard drive just died with everything I had in it. How long are these hard drives designed to last? I had to buy a new hard drive and reinstall everything.

Thanks,
Debi Lynn

[MTUSUPPORT]

There is no set time limit on them. Each manufacturer is different, I have heard alot of Maxtor drives crashing in other forums lately. So I would stay away from the Maxtor brands of drives. I have read that the Seagate drives seem to be the best currently by reliability reports.

[mlepine]

I also had a Maxtor 160 gig that died on me in less than 3 months! Like MTUSUPPORT said, stay away from them & choose Seagate or Western Digital which they have models that has a 3 year warranty.

[George]

Debi,

It is well worth the money, considering time spent after a crash to install
Norton's Ghost, and a USB hard drive. You can then keep a clone of your main hard drive and restore in minutes in the event of a crash.

Since heat is the main cause of hard drive failure, a USB back up is preferential to having the clone drive installed internally. The USB drive will not be running constantly. Just plug in to make back ups or restore.

If you don't want to go through the expense of a second drive at this time, you can temporarily use CDRW's, or better yet if you have a DVD capable burner, use DVDRW's...that's what I'm using at the minute, but am heading towards a USB Drive. Using CD/DVDRW's will enable you to re-use the same set of discs and not have to chuck discs each time you do a fresh back-up.

Warranty or not, the loss of data and subsequent hassle restoring programs is still present without a back-up.

Hope this helps,

George

[mooman]

I disagree. I use maxtor hard drives all the time - they are great value for money, however they do run hot so good vent is essential. as long as one of your drives is a maxtor you can also download and use this prog :-

http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/maxblast3.htm

It is essentially a tool to format very quickly any maxtor hard drives but more imortantly it will let you 'clone' your c: drive as well as others. This will give you an exact copy of your c: drive. If you then use caddy's to install your hard drives you can swop out a failed hard drive in about 10 seconds and then reboot. The added bonus of caddy's is of course you normally get an additional cooling fan to go with them. Take a look here for example. :-

http://http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=422

As George suggests you can also get external usb hard drives, but you can also get usb 2 hard drive enclosures so you can stick inside whatever you like. This makes it a lot cheaper option. It also gives you a warm glow inside knowing that if you have a hard drive failure half way through a show you can play your mp3 player background music for a couple of songs while you swop.
Have fun:g

[mikedomi]

first of all this drive Maxtor 160 gig they have had a lot of problems with
as far as the rest of the drives and manufactor go they are all about the same
drive for drive
the reason you here a little more about the maxtor drives is they sell for a little less money so people buy more of them

but based on the (return to the sales) of drives all manufactor are close to beaing the same

i would say when it comes to seagate ,western dig and maxtor
go for the best price

westeren dig cost a little more but when they are on sale i would buy them
support and return are easier for this company

i have had better luck with western dig drives but any of these 3 are ok

just dont buy any maxtor 160gig not a good drive