Maxtor External Drive Noise a problem?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Aaron Lake
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Aaron Lake

I've had a Maxtor One Touch 160G drive for about 2 weeks now. Just one concern
though. Often when it starts up it will clang/bang quite loudly for 3 to 20
times, at a rate of about 2 times a second. It makes quite a racket. Then it
settles down never to do it again for that session. It only does it on startup,
and does it whether connected to the computer or not, although occasionally it
won't do it at all. The drive seems to work fine in all other respects. I've
googled about a bit and found nothing on this noise. Is it normal or is it a
defect or sign of impending doom? My old BUSlink 40G external drive makes no
such noises. I have about 2 more weeks to bring it back. should I?
 
Aaron said:
I've had a Maxtor One Touch 160G drive for about 2 weeks now. Just one concern
though. Often when it starts up it will clang/bang quite loudly for 3 to 20
times, at a rate of about 2 times a second. It makes quite a racket. Then it
settles down never to do it again for that session. It only does it on startup,
and does it whether connected to the computer or not, although occasionally it
won't do it at all. The drive seems to work fine in all other respects. I've
googled about a bit and found nothing on this noise. Is it normal or is it a
defect or sign of impending doom? My old BUSlink 40G external drive makes no
such noises. I have about 2 more weeks to bring it back. should I?
Click to expand...

This is not normal and is fairly typical of the noise a drive makes once
it has already failed.

I would recover as much data as you possibly can and get a warranty
replacement.


Odie
 
Odie said:
This is not normal and is fairly typical of the noise a drive makes once
it has already failed.

I would recover as much data as you possibly can and get a warranty
replacement.


Odie
Click to expand...

Thanks Odie. I suspected as much but wanted a second opinion. I returned the
drive. I declined to get a replacement and opted for cash back on the chance
that this was one of a bad lot. However the clerk (at Costco) said that this was
the first one that was returned and they had been on the shelves for a month.
What is the reputation of this drive series (Maxtor one touch external drives)
for failures?
 
I've had several big name drives fail on me. Seagate was the first and
Maxtor was the last. You will find people who prefer one over the other. I
did some research on my last purchase and got really good recommendations on
the Hitachi drives.

I had a Maxtor Diamondmax drive that started to make noise after a year.
Had a feeling something was wrong and let it go for another year since it
wasn't a primary drive. Then I foolishly decided to test out winxp on it
and eventually switched to it exclusively. It finally failed and I was
really glad Maxtor had a 3 year warranty! All I had to do was input some
info off the drive and voila, replacement! I also didn't lose any data,
just lost the ability to boot (whew)

Since both Hitachi and Maxtor have 3 year warranties, I feel comfortable
using their drives and remembering to backup critical data more often. Hope
this helps
 
yubba said:
I've had several big name drives fail on me. Seagate was the first and
Maxtor was the last. You will find people who prefer one over the other. I
did some research on my last purchase and got really good recommendations on
the Hitachi drives.

I had a Maxtor Diamondmax drive that started to make noise after a year.
Had a feeling something was wrong and let it go for another year since it
wasn't a primary drive. Then I foolishly decided to test out winxp on it
and eventually switched to it exclusively. It finally failed and I was
really glad Maxtor had a 3 year warranty! All I had to do was input some
info off the drive and voila, replacement! I also didn't lose any data,
just lost the ability to boot (whew)

Since both Hitachi and Maxtor have 3 year warranties, I feel comfortable
using their drives and remembering to backup critical data more often. Hope
this helps
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response. What to do? Maybe I'll just hang tight for awhile as
the drives get bigger and the prices come down...
 
Aaron said:
Thanks Odie. I suspected as much but wanted a second opinion. I returned the
drive. I declined to get a replacement and opted for cash back on the chance
that this was one of a bad lot. However the clerk (at Costco) said that this was
the first one that was returned and they had been on the shelves for a month.
What is the reputation of this drive series (Maxtor one touch external drives)
for failures?
Click to expand...


I am sitting on a number of Maxtor drives at the moment - all with
probably terminal damage preventing the recovery of data.

The drives I am seeing least of are Seagate and Samsung - my current
choice of drive is Samsung, with their 3-year warranty. They also run
quiet and are fast.

As much as I used to, I find I can no longer recommend Maxtor drives to
anyone.


Odie
 
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