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Hard drive hangs at POST

David_W
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Posts: 2,305
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Registered: ‎19-07-2007

Re: Hard drive hangs at POST

Maxtor are terrible.  I have in my PC a 160GB ATA Maxtor drive which isn't my original.  I bought one and not long after it gave up the ghost and died on me, I ran Maxtor tools and it said "yeah, I'm faulty".  So I RMA'd it and got my replacement drive.  A week or so later, that gave up the ghost and died too.  Totally frustrated I rang up Maxtor and vented with "this isn't good enough, I just sent you a drive back and its broke down!" so the nice lady said "ok, we'll send you a drive and pick up the broken one, how does that sound?" and I figured "ok!".
So they sent me a replacement drive and never bothered to pick up the broken one.  Straight away though I set it as a back up and bought a Seagate which worked perfectly.
So I was looking for a replacement drive for it and went to Aria and saw my Maxtor, 500GB, 32MB Cache, 7,200RPM and I thought "ok, them specs seem nice, but its Maxtor, nah it couldn't happen again, maybe I should get the Seagate?" but my cheapness won through and I bought the Maxtor. 
My brothers given me a 500GB Samsung now though and so far its working perfectly, a little slower than the Maxtor (only 5.8 on Vista test, Maxtor was 5.9 and just found out I hadn't turned on the SATA2 option).  I will never buy Maxtor again.
And yes, unbackedup is a word cause you said it, and I said it, one more person and it should make the dictionary Cheesy
VileReynard
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Registered: ‎01-09-2007

Re: Hard drive hangs at POST

I believe that there are techniques that might allow you to get data off the disc.
They rely on the drive spinning up though...
I've heard that last-resort tactics such as putting the drive in the the freezer for an hour or two,
followed by a rapid attempt to read it might just work Smiley
Read the following instructions first http://geeksaresexy.blogspot.com/2006/01/freeze-your-hard-drive-to-recover-data.html
Read the blog comments too.
Use Google a bit too.
No guarantees Crazy

"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."

David_W
Rising Star
Posts: 2,305
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Registered: ‎19-07-2007

Re: Hard drive hangs at POST

I don't think I've got anything on the drive that I *need* enough to warrant sticking my hard drive in the freezer Tongue would that void the warranty?  Interesting theory, especially if Seagate as "so, what have you done to try and get it to work?" - "Well, I stuck it in the freezer...."  Grin
Mav
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Registered: ‎06-04-2007

Re: Hard drive hangs at POST

Quote from: dgwebb
but its Maxtor, nah it couldn't happen again, maybe I should get the Seagate?" but my cheapness won through and I bought the Maxtor. 

Aren't they now basically the same as Seagate own Maxtor?
Quote from: dustofAbsoluteEvil
I've heard that last-resort tactics such as putting the drive in the the freezer for an hour or two,

I did exactly that before whipping it to the PC shop. However, they felt a couple of hours in a fridge or 30 mins in a freezer would have done.
Whatever, I got my data back Smiley
However many people may say it... unbackedup just doesn't sound right to me Wink
Edit: Forgot to mention that I did put the disc in a sealed bag to help prevent condensation.

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David_W
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Posts: 2,305
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Registered: ‎19-07-2007

Re: Hard drive hangs at POST

Seagate bought out Maxtor and straight away inherited their problems, their 1TB Barracuda having terrible failiure rates due to a firmware issue Tongue
Backedup, hrm, backup would be a word so you would think that backedup would also be an off-shoot of that word really, to backup, to have been backedup, un would be to like, make it the opposite, so maybe un-backedup?  Or two hypens un-backed-up!
Mav
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Re: Hard drive hangs at POST

I'm leaning towards backuped and un-backuped.
A look at Cambridge on-line dictionary shows backup to be a noun and not a verb so neither of the above is correct.

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VileReynard
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Re: Hard drive hangs at POST

I've got two SCSI Seagates (on seperate desktop PC's).
I've had no problems with either.
One is about 4 years old (in an external casing).
The other is about 3 years old.
I got the cheaper 10,000 rpm models Smiley
I would get the 15,000 rpm version if I had more money Cry

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Mav
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Re: Hard drive hangs at POST

I think hard drive failure is just (un)luck of the draw.
I had two Maxtors that lasted from 2002 till 2007 without any problems before failing quite rapidly then a spate of drives failing over 18 months including but not limited to Maxtors.
I now have a mixture of Seagate, Maxtor, Western Digital and Hitachi drives. I do tend to get obsessive and nervous about any noises coming from any of them!

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Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear - Mark Twain
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David_W
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Registered: ‎19-07-2007

Re: Hard drive hangs at POST

I've just had poor issues with Maxtor, the support I got was good though, and they replaced the drives quickly enough, but installing Windows again and again turns into a nightmare.  I'll have to make a mirror image I guess, I did have one for Windows XP but never got around it for Vista.  My motherboard also has the option of creating a backedup partition (see, using that word :D) but only on IDE drives not SATA so I may have to upgrade my motherboard, hrm, sounds like I need to go shopping Cheesy
StickyMick
Grafter
Posts: 325
Registered: ‎29-11-2008

Re: Hard drive hangs at POST

Maybe they don't see it as a necessity to have a backup facility with SATA, as you could build your own using a RAID1 configuration, which gives you a real-time (as you go) backup. When the main drive goes (even in mid flight) the backup kicks in thus giving you total peace of mind until you can fix/replace the duff drive. As long as one of the disks survives, that is.
David_W
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Posts: 2,305
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Registered: ‎19-07-2007

Re: Hard drive hangs at POST

The thing with Raid1, iirc, is its an instant mirror rather than a backup, so if you are using a drive and it corrupts the data before you shut down the mirror drive has the corrupted data written to it also?
It could be because, as you say, SATA usually has a RAID solution, or ACHI so would be incompatible with the back up solution.  I'm still waiting on Maxtor to get back to my support ticket, F9 has spoiled me with their quick turn arounds Cheesy
skippyonspeed
Grafter
Posts: 46
Registered: ‎21-02-2009

Re: Hard drive hangs at POST

This is just a possibilty
I only use Ide drives at the moment so do not know if this is applicable.  It is important to set the jumpers on the rear of the devices to one as a master and the other to slave on a shared controller.  Neglecting to do this will give the symptoms you have described