Hard-drive Lifespan

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09-30-2003, 09:16 AM
RedRival

Lucky I bought a spare seagate barracuda to back up the old maxtor 60gig hdd that I got about 1.5yrs ago. And about 1 yr ago, it's been giving me problems, eg not being able to boot up because OS not found or Hdd not found. I managed to sustain the maxtor hdd for another 0.5 yr by hitting and kicking it :D .

So now, I got my primary drive as the seagate and slave as my old maxtor. Been storing for the last 3-4 mths without any problems and now the maxtor piece of crap juz brokedown again...I have like 30gigs full of files in there, yep my fault for trying my luck on some maxtor junk, but I was wondering if ther eis anyway to retrieve the files. And note, the old hdd is inconsistent, it works sometimes and sometimes not.

Another question:

Why is it that my primary hdd won't boot windows up when my slave isn't working?? Shouldn't it just bypass the slave hdd coz it's not functioning and continue booting up windows??
09-30-2003, 09:23 AM
balamm

Drive letters may be changing or you might have both drives set active. Which would lead to some of the other problems you listed as well.
If the electronics are screwed, the cable select settings and even ordinary slave master readings wouldn't be possible. The cmos might remove both as a protection measure.
All you can do is try changing jumpers around and see if you can boot and copy files or do it in dos.

Those drive should last up to 5 years but constant use like filesharing and encoding can shorten that. I've lost maxtors at 3 months but still have a few that are close to 8 years.
09-30-2003, 09:31 AM
FuNkY CaPrIcOrN

:D Western Digital! :D
09-30-2003, 10:40 AM
clocker

Quote:

Originally posted by RedRival@30 September 2003 - 02:16
I managed to sustain the maxtor hdd for another 0.5 yr by hitting and kicking it :D .

Might this be part of the problem?

It may decide to swallow your 30GB just out of spite...
09-30-2003, 11:38 AM
RedRival

Quote:

Originally posted by clocker+30 September 2003 - 11:40--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (clocker @ 30 September 2003 - 11:40)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-RedRival@30 September 2003 - 02:16
I managed to sustain the maxtor hdd for another 0.5 yr by hitting and kicking it :D .

Might this be part of the problem?

It may decide to swallow your 30GB just out of spite... [/b][/quote]
lol, no. could be something wrong mechanically, so a few 'nudges' will make it go smooth again.. has been working fine, then it doesn't work temporarily, if i put it back right now, i'm pretty sure it will work after switching the pc on and off for a few times.
09-30-2003, 11:53 AM
clocker

Quote:

Originally posted by RedRival@30 September 2003 - 04:38

lol, no. could be something wrong mechanically, so a few 'nudges' will make it go smooth again.. has been working fine, then it doesn't work temporarily, if i put it back right now, i'm pretty sure it will work after switching the pc on and off for a few times.

That may be, but if you do have a mechanical problem, it won't heal itself. It can only get worse, in fact.
If you can gain access again, I would get everything off of that drive ASAP and count myself lucky...
09-30-2003, 12:12 PM
lynx

Maxtor drives tend to run hotter than other manufacturers for some reason, which dries out the lubrication on the spindle and the arm. So it could be the arm sticking, or the spindle not getting up to the correct speed, either of which would make the drive unresponsive.

I had one go like this, but it was still in warranty so I took it back. Fortunately, they didn't have any Maxtor drives in stock nor an expected delivery date, so they gave me a Western Digital instead and it has performed without a hitch ever since. Take clocker's advice, back up your data and dump the drive.
09-30-2003, 01:16 PM
bigdawgfoxx

Yeah I hear that Seagate and Western Digital are the best. I have been running an 80 GB Seagate with no cooling besides the processo fan (no case fan) and it runs at about 100F. It has never had ANY problems. My friends WD are also very good
09-30-2003, 02:17 PM
Somebody1234

I would check the electical connections to the drive. It sounds like a loose connection. Try using another IDE cable and use another 4 pin power supply connector. Wiggle the plugs on the drive themselves. Maybe you can get it to work long enough to retrieve your files.
09-30-2003, 02:35 PM
james_bond_rulez

I overcooked my maxtor drive...

now i get slow read, write

even dir listing is screwy... :angry:
09-30-2003, 03:45 PM
Kunal

i never had a single prob wid maxtor! me 1st comp had 1 (13 yrs old) and dat 1 still wrks!
09-30-2003, 05:45 PM
RedRival

Quote:

Originally posted by Somebody1234@30 September 2003 - 15:17
I would check the electical connections to the drive. It sounds like a loose connection. Try using another IDE cable and use another 4 pin power supply connector. Wiggle the plugs on the drive themselves. Maybe you can get it to work long enough to retrieve your files.

nup double-checked that, im working with my cpu case open right now. Using an Aopen case, so one side is open so everything in there, hopefully cools faster.

fact is, i want that maxtor drive to be working so i can store or my junk in there. I have about 23 game ripz in that hdd plus lotsa other stuff, i won't want those to be dumped on my seagate drive.

looks like i haf to chalk/choke up some money to get a new slave drive.

EDIT: I got about 80bucks aus dollars in all, juz got 50 from my dad for my b'day, and i don't work nor get allowance any other time...if someone can sell me a western digital drive for 80 bucks ooh yeh...
09-30-2003, 05:51 PM
clocker

Quote:

Originally posted by RedRival+30 September 2003 - 10:45--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (RedRival @ 30 September 2003 - 10:45)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-Somebody1234@30 September 2003 - 15:17
I would check the electical connections to the drive. It sounds like a loose connection. Try using another IDE cable and use another 4 pin power supply connector. Wiggle the plugs on the drive themselves. Maybe you can get it to work long enough to retrieve your files.

nup double-checked that, im working with my cpu case open right now. Using an Aopen case, so one side is open so everything in there, hopefully cools faster.

fact is, i want that maxtor drive to be working so i can store or my junk in there. I have about 23 game ripz in that hdd plus lotsa other stuff, i won't want those to be dumped on my seagate drive.

looks like i haf to chalk/choke up some money to get a new slave drive.

EDIT: I got about 80bucks aus dollars in all, juz got 50 from my dad for my b'day, and i don't work nor get allowance any other time...if someone can sell me a western digital drive for 80 bucks ooh yeh... [/b][/quote]
Maybe you could take some of that $50 and invest in some blank CDs and transfer those precious games to them...

Unless you find a reason for that HDD to be malfunctioning you are living on borrowed time. ;)
09-30-2003, 08:10 PM
RedRival

that's my topic here. :lol:

go rant and rave in the lounge. i have cds to burn my games on, but i'm looking into a long term investment. I don't necessarily want to keep this games for a long time, every so often, i'll delete and download new ones. but as for now, i need to save em on my hdd if it boots up fine the next time.
09-30-2003, 10:26 PM
LTJBukem

I agree with somebody1234, it does sound like a loose connection. Have you tried swapping ide cables/mobo sockets and power supply cables?

To my knowledge, there are no reliability issues associated with Maxtor drives in particular.