Maxtor Atlas losing it?

[bigbeark]

I have a Gigabyte P4 Prescott 3Ghz machine, primary HD is Maxtor Atlas SCSI, which is prettly rattly.

I'm seeing unreponsive Internet searches, when clicking on History links.
After the first access to the page, subsequent searches are very quick.
I suspect the machine is searching the Hardrive to find the previous link and perhaps the rattly heads are overshooting the physical disk location. I tolerate these Atlas drives because they are cool-running, unlike the Seagates. The page when it does present has unresolved images etc. I need to hit the refresh button to get the screen to display properly.

I have swapped out the Ethernet card to no avail. I have ruled out router problem, as I plugged in a 939 machine I have and the access time to the same websites is really fast.

Any ideas?

[seanc]

Re: Maxtor Atlas losing it?

Why not do some SMART analysis on the drive?
I think blaming the drive is a long shot - based on troubles when browsing the internet.

You plugged in a different PC *where*. To the end of the Ethernet cable being used by the affected PC?

[kc8adu]

Re: Maxtor Atlas losing it?

use the verify function of the controller.

[weirdlookinguy]

Re: Maxtor Atlas losing it?

Speedfan does superb SMART analysis if you want to give that a shot.

[bigbeark]

Re: Maxtor Atlas losing it?

Why not do some SMART analysis on the drive?
I think blaming the drive is a long shot - based on troubles when browsing the internet.

You plugged in a different PC *where*. To the end of the Ethernet cable being used by the affected PC?

Yes, removed all cables from the affected PC and plugged them into the Socket 939 machine.

This just started happening in the last few days, the drive has always been "clanky" but fast.

[bigbeark]

Re: Maxtor Atlas losing it?

I think it's the SCSI adapter card. Did a verify, all perfect. Those Adapatec 160s, I think the tiny little SMT caps with the strange codes slowly die. My Internet has been pretty ratty lately as well. May try taking the wireless router out of the circuit, see if that helps.

[pfrcom]

Re: Maxtor Atlas losing it?

Do you have spares to try a different cable and/or terminator ?

I had weird problems in the past with flakey performance from UW drives recycled from IBM AS/400s

Culprit turned out to be the 68 conductor cable

Also compatibility - I have a 4.5gb Atlas which just won't co-exist with a 9gb Atlas, but is happy living with a 9gb IBM drive

If you do get another controller, maybe an LSI Logic 53Cx based one instead of Adaptec

[Krankshaft]

Re: Maxtor Atlas losing it?

Maxtors are absolute crap I've only owned 3 of them 1 of them kept working but the motor bearings whined like hell until I got rid of it. One had it's motor die unexpectedly. The final one had an intermittent read problem sometimes it would work others times it acted as if it was dead. I was barely able to recover my data off it.

Do a stress seek test on the drive and see if it chokes. Be sure to backup your data first though.

If it sounds clunky or the bearings are high pitched whining your Maxtor is circling the drain luckily it's warning you first though since a majority of the time the failure is sudden and unexpected.

Stay with the REAL brands like Seagate and WD.

I have had problems with WD complete failures on 2 drives. Bad sectors on one and dead motor on the second. But those are the only 2 I've had problems with. I've lost count of how many I've purchased. Plus at least they offer a decent replacement warranty 3 or 5 years depending on the model color Caviar blue or black.

Seagates haven't been bad to me either yes I agree they do heat up a bit more but who cares? If you have proper ventilation in your PC it doesn't matter. I run mirrored Seagates on my server and they've been running constantly since 03 they're still ticking.

By the way Seagate bought out Maxtor in 06 how old is the drive? If it's pre 06 it's Maxtor.

Maxtor ate Quantum in 2000 (I still have about 4 dead Bigfoots in my junk drawer) I wonder if post 2000 Maxtors where made in Quantum's manufacturing facilities?

[shovenose]

Re: Maxtor Atlas losing it?

Maxtor sucks. Seagate sucks.
Quantums are so so. I have like 4 10gb idw drives thwt sre easily 10yrs old. And heavily used (now sitting on shelf).
WD IS EPIC DONT BUY ANYTHING ELSE!!!
besidesmaybe a samsung. Never used one but i hear theyre great!

[seanc]

Re: Maxtor Atlas losing it?

This could easily turn into another HDD debate thread...

Maxtor & Seagate - pretty much the same now. The slim SATA 80+GB ones usually fail with bad sectors, if they're going to fail.

I have a batch of 25 x ST3500320AS, gradually dropping, only 2 years old. Usually riddled with loads of bad sectors - some data usually recoverable. The latest one sounds like it's had a head crash - sounds awful, no data recoverable.

I've had about 7 WD SATA drives die on me. This includes a couple of notebook drives. The oldest drive is from 2007. Again, usually bad sectors, the latest 250GB notebook drive had too many bad sectors for me to get anything useful back.

Batch of 25 x 320GB Hitachi SATA that I purchased at the same time as the above Seagates, no issues to report.

Samsung HM160LI notebook drives, 5 or so of them died - no warranty because they're all pulled from Dell or HP. Bad sectors
Desktop wise, Samsung 250GB SATA, 160GB SATA, 2 x 80GB IDE, ranging from no spin up to bad sectors.

1 x Fujitsu 250GB notebook drive failed - no spin up.

Had plenty of older 40GB/80GB Seagate desktop drives go south - they're all approx 4-6 years old, some in harsh environments, stone masons, food produce, factories etc. Some PCs get positioned in such a way that the end user would regularly kick the PC (accidentally). Nothing I can do about it.

Point is, I think pretty much every manufacturer is going to have a bad batch at some time. If you always buy the same manufacturer, then you'll be biased towards the failure rate of that manufacturer, because you'll have no experience of anything else. From 2002 - 2008 I know the hard disks used were primarily Seagate. The 25 Hitachi may be a fluke, we never buy Hitachi otherwise.

Umm, slight derail, sorry. Feel free to move this post into another or new topic.

[Wizard]

Re: Maxtor Atlas losing it?

Whoa don't call this Maxtor drives as bad. Not all were for a time. Do your research especially older models.

Maxtor Atlas was quantum Atlas drives before Maxtor bought out Quantum. Good stuff.

Now we don't have to worry about Maxtor now since Seagate bought out the Maxtor several years ago. It is just a name now on Seagate drives expecially external drives.

Cheers, Wizard

[shovenose]

Re: Maxtor Atlas losing it?

These are drive failures ive had recently:
Maxtor: 1
Seagate: 2
Wd: 0
Fujitsu: 1
Hitachi/ibm: 1

Then drives that owrk but have bad sectors:
Wd: 0
Maxtor: 3
Seagate: 1
Ibm: 1

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Maxtor Atlas losing it?

Mmm... If you're talking only about drives that i owned myself, here's my fail list:

Maxtor: 1 40GB. Head crash, took away 10 gig of stuff that i can never get back.
Fujitsu: 1 40GB notebook drive. Was recoverable.
Seagate: No catastrophic failures but i did have a 40GB hiccup occasionally.
WD: None. Absolutely none. I've had 6 WD drives so far, of them 3 are still in daily use, 1 used occasionally. The drives are 3 years old on average. They had their share of lemons (80GB SATA), but it's been the most reliable brand for me.