Hi guys, My Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 200GB hard drive decided to bite the dirt today. Per tech support, I ran the PowerMax utility which couldn't even access the drive. The drive makes this loud whining noise for about 30 seconds and then becomes unresponsive. I called Maxtor TS back and they said that the drive has to be replaced. It is under warranty, but there are some serious shortcomings to the service provided. First, I have to pay to ship it to them. Second, they will only replace it with a refurbished drive that will have a warranty that ends when my current drive's warranty ends. My questions: 1. Does any other drive manufacturer offer a better warranty (replacement with a new drive.... preferably a newer version than the one that died)? 2. Can anyone recommend a data recovery service? 3. If you have 140 GB of data on the drive, where is that data recovered to? Thanks.
wouldnt touch a refurb drive. data is too important and too big a hassle to take that short cut. maxtor seems to have a lot of problems. i like wd drives. you could try one more thing. unattach the drive hook it up as a slave and bang it on something hard to see if it will start. i have been able to get drives going one last time and get the data off in the past doing that. its a long shot but could work. professional data recovery is expensive.
I've used this company with good results. Cheap, fast, and easy to work with. http://www.nationwidedatarecovery.com/ You can have the data transfered to either DVD media or another hard drive if you furnish them with one. I don't worry myself with the warranties. I buy drives when they are dirt cheap with rebates and keep them on a self until needed. The shipping on the bad drives will cost you more than the drive in most cases, and as you state, you receive a rebuilt unit in return; so why even bother. FYI, I currently have two WD 200GB I picked up for $40 each configured in RAID. One goes out, I get another one from the self and I'm back in business within an hour. Important files are also backed up to an external drive as a precaution. It only takes one drive failure to realize spare drives and data backup are a no-brainer. st
1) Backup your data. Hard drives are cheap. Buy a couple and place them in a RAID or backup to an extenal USB2 drive. NO Drive is 100% reliable. You will lose data someday. 2) Maxtor quality is going down fast. Built a new machine in February. One of the Maxtor SATA 300GB drives dies less than 2 weeks later. Even though it was within a month, maxtor sent me a refurb drive. I now use the refurb drive for junk and replaced it with a Western Digital. 3) Restoring 140GB from a drivesavers type company will cost you a few thousands and is not always complete.
The link I provided in an earlier post is a data recovery company I have used in the past. The maximum price they charge is $459 and they are quite good at getting all of the data according to my own experience, experience of others I have recommended the company to, and of numerous others who have posted on various geek forums. As you state, most data recovery firms charge a minimum of a $1000, and $2-3K is typical for a full recovery. I have no idea why the florida service is so much cheaper than most, but they get the job done, sometimes for as low as $99! Just a happy customer. st
Gosh.... you guys are full of good news. I'm hearing the line from Chris Rock's stand-up where he yells out "lie to me, Jerry... Lie to me!" If you haven't seen his stand-ups, don't worry about it (funny as hell though). Anyway, it has been a pretty lousy day overall. The Maxtor was actually an option I naively chose for a replacement on a Seagate that was out of stock. I know now that Maxtor is a POS. This WAS my backup drive with a bunch of additional videos, install programs, etc. My main drive is running fine (it is a WD, in fact). I think I will take the new drive, pawn it off as used and will be ordering a new drive in the meantime. Prices have gone down quite a bit. As far as data recovery, I won't bother. I will try Vehn's suggestion to throw it against a brick wall and see if it still works ( ). Some poor soul will probably get it as a warranty replacement later this year. I didn't lose anything of substantial value. I shadow my drives with my laptop before I travel and I just got back from a trip last night, so a lot has been salvaged since my last ghosting. Thanks a lot fellows. It is good to hear that this is a Maxtor problem. I will avoid them in the future. In fact, I will short their stock tomorrow morning. Take care.
I've lost 3 MXO drives in the past 2 1/2 years and now my 4th and final one is starting to sound like a distant table saw. Quantum used to be good then was absorbed into MXO now Seagate has merged with them so who does that leave any more. Every night I copy my data in quadruplicate using Acronis and a combo of RAID, EIDE internal and USB external drives. I figure if any one drive fails I've got 3 more copies and all I lose is time, not data. Waht else can you do. Consider a year about the average running time if you're lucky.