Strange problem with Maxtor UDMA66 HD

[Jon P. Inghram]

Cool, I may just think about getting a G400 then.

It's kinda reassuring that I'm not the only person who can't overclock the FSB on their MVP3G5. :-/ I can run the CPU, a 450 K6-2, at 500 or even 550! But this thing just can't take ANY increase in FSB, even with PC133 CAS2 RAM.

[Jon P. Inghram]

Hmm... I just disabled the external cache and used the BIOS to bump the FSB to 112 and it seemed to run fine. I then turned the cache back on, and it wouldn't boot. Oh well...

[RAB]

Jon,
I think the L3 cache on the motherboard is the problem. Its just not fast enough. I think my MVP3C2 uses different cache chips and it can therefore get to 112 mhz. Oh well, both the Epox boards are far more stable than the FIC 503+ they replaced.
RAB

[bongo]

so, should I enable write behind caching in the file system properties?? or not?

what's the diff?

[Dyre]

Matox isnt that bad guys, and it hella cheaper than anything else on the market. I can think of anouther hd that is MUCH worse than Matrox, WD!
Sure, i had to RMA a Maxtor HD, but thats cuase my cat knocked over my full tower case, while on, while copying mp3's! Needless to say my drive was dead. within 5 minutes i had a new one on its way to my house. I got the new one and it was slighly larger AND UDMA66 (old one was a udma33) within 2 days....

Sure they arent the fastest, but who else has a 40gig UDMA66 7200rpm drive for $280?!?!!?

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PIII 450 @ 504
generic BX motherboard
G400 MAX : )
GlobalWin VOS32!
Maxtor 13 gig UDMA 33
Maxtor 13 gig UDMA 66
Creative 36x CD-ROM
96 megs PC100 RAM
128 megs PC133 ECC RAM
NetGear 10/100
Soundblaster 32 AWE
Diamond SupraExpress 56k
Logitech Wireless Desktop (best $50 ive ever spent)
1 92mm Sunon Fan
4 80mm Sunon Fan's

[CHHAS]

I'd have to disagree with you on the part about Maxtor not being the fastest (nasty SCSI drive aside, of course )

Look here: http://www.storagereview.com/articles/leaderboard.html

(Storage Review gives the top 7200 RPM IDE spot to Maxtor DM 40+)

I've had a Maxtor drive for about a year without any problems, and just recieved my DM 40+ last week, this drive ROCKS.

Winbench 99 marks:

Access time : 10,8 ms
Transfer rates between 29 and 19 MB/s

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P3 500, 224 MB ram, G400 16SH,
Maxtor DM 40+ 30GB

[Rags]

I will echo Gurm's opinion of Maxtor...Maxtor is the BIGGEST HEAP OF CRAP when it comes to HDD's...I have had nothing but problems with them. I would rather spend 20 dollars more and get a GOOD drive rather than being a cheap skate and save 20 dollars then have my drive crap out on me. Also, the Maxtors that I have tried have not liked overclocked PCI buses either. WD, Seagate, and the IBM I currently have all took well to my OC'ed PCI bus fine.

Rags

[Nuno]

I have that 7200 rpm 13 Gb Maxtor. I can´t say I´m not happy with it. Fast and *quiet*. It does less noise than the 5400 rpm 6.4 gb fujitsu I also have, that´s not a noisy hdd either.
How long it will last it´s another story

[Gurm]

You want QUIET? Get IBM.

IBM 5400RPM drives are inaudible. Literally. You'll have to take the case cover off to hear them accessing, even under heavy loads.

IBM 7200RPM drives are the same loudness as everyone else's 5400's, and that's just the spindle noise from the higher RPM's. Accesses are still nearly inaudible.

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[birdy]

I recently upgraded from a 13.5gb 7200 ibm to a 30gb 7200 maxtor. Both have 2mb cache and the maxtor pisses all over the ibm in every respect.

Average read speed 28mbps compared to 16.5 and it's quieter too.

nuff said

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2 x Celeron 366@550 with huge HSFs. Abit BP6 MB. 128mb Winbond pc133, 128MB PC100 generic SDRAM, iwill 2930u scsi, diamond pro pci modem, SB Live!, pioneer dvd104s, hollywood plus dvd card, plextor 40x cd rom, ricoh 1420 cdr, Maxtor Diamond Max 30GB!!@ 7200rpm, G400 @ max settings.Win98/w2k Dual boot. All wrapped up in a big case with loads of fans. Belinea 10 30 40 17" monitor

[RAB]

Bongo,
Write behind caching is for REMOVABLE drives (like Zips and LS-120's) and does not apparently affect HARD drives. At least HD Tach tests the same on my hard drive whether its turned on or off.
RAB

[Gurm]

What model # was the IBM? Lots of their 13GB 7200RPM drives weren't U66 capable, just compatible (a la Matrox - knew there was a tie-in here somewhere!).

And you can tell me how great the Maxtor is in a year when (if) it's still running, ok?

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[Jon P. Inghram]

Jon,

Get your data off that hard drive. NOW. TODAY. Get it all off and return it immediately for repair/replacement. That clicking will recur, and happen more and more until the drive expires!

I mean it. Heed my warning.

Dang thing did it again today, but I'm pretty sure it won't ever do it again... EVER! (We're missing an "evil grin" smiley.)

It just suddendly started going "CLICK... whirrr... CLICK... whirrr... CLICK... whirrr..." around noon, the whirrr sound being the disk spinning back up to speed. It actually FROZE XP, no BSOD, just a rock hard freeze. Wouldn't reboot until I turned the whole system off and let it sit for a bit. Then, like every time before, it recovered as if nothing had happened. Used smartmontools to run SMART selftests and again it reports that nothing's wrong. I gave in and copied the drives contents over onto my main 40 gig and performed an autopsy on the poor Maxtor, figuring it's time to get a new drive and use the 40 for storage. I had to use wire cutters to bite into the torx screws and loosen them cause my smallest torx driver, a T-10, was just a hair too big to fit. Those voice-coil magnets are STRONG, takes a bit of effort to pry 'em apart and that's even with the gap for the coil between them.

[cjolley]

I think your warranty is both expired and toast


PS LOL I didn't realize what the fuss was over these tiny HDs untill I finally saw the date on the posts.

[Jon P. Inghram]

The warranty had expired of old age years ago, the poor thing was manufactured 07/03/99. I had just been using it for miscellaneous storage anyway, it's been about a year since it list did that, but with the prices of new drives now it's not worth bothering with even as a secondary auxillary sub-backup drive.