Broke My Mirror :(

[RobDog888]

My system reported a corrupted D drive today so I rebooted and turns out that one of my SATA drives in my D drive
mirror has been laid to rest. I am limping along on a single D drive. Luckily I am running a mirror on C
and another mirror on D.

So my question: My drives (all 4 of them) are Maxtor drives. Should I just replace the dead drive with another Maxtor
and regenerate the mirror or buy 2 drives of a different brand to replace my D drive mirror?


Thanks

[ALL]

i would but new drives... taking the drives apart is verry "problem prone"... in other words, you could loose all the data off of it if a spec of dirt got cought on the head.

that is unless you have a clean room... but i doubt you have one of those!

[RobDog888]

Umm, I was referring to purchasing the same brand (Maxtor) or getting a different brand.

[ALL]

go for the cheaper one!

[RobDog888]

I only ask since this is my second Maxtor SATA drive failure.
Maybe someone knows of a more reliable brand?

[Madboy]

I too am using a 80Gb IDE Maxtor drive, no problems here.....yet

[RobDog888]

My replaced drive is about a year old and all my drives are about 2 years old. I do use my system allot but it doesnt seem that 2 drive
failures in 2 years should be common.

I have plenty of fans in the system and my other mirror is 2 Maxtor ATAs and no failures. Maybe its just a SATA thing?

[Madboy]

Are you using a surge plug? You might be vulnerable to power cuts, spikes etc

[RobDog888]

I am using a surge protector with a high rating but wouldnt that hurt other components too and not just one drive in the mirror?

[Madboy]

No, basically the surge stops a faulty component damaging another. I remember once i didnt use a surge plug and my network card bust, it spiked the motherboard too, as a result, i ended up having to buy a new network card, and motherboard.

[RobDog888]

I was also thinking that since this hd went out once already that maybe they gave me a re-furb. So that may explain part of it?

[VBdynamic]

I'd go with Segate drives. I've seen to many Maxtor's die.

[RobDog888]

I have had 1 Western Digital & 3 Maxtor drives die. 2 were at work and the last one this Maxtor. This is starting to really irritate me.
Some data was lost during a reboot. Windows did a chkdisk and that had an error so it rebooted. Now My mirror regenerated. It had been
downgraded and all of a sudden it started to regenerate and it regenerated the corruption too so I am losing data.

[RobDog888]

Any other suggestions on a good hd brand? Or anyone else had other experiences with Maxtor?

I may take a chance and get a replacement Maxtox since its a mirror raid that Im running.

[Madboy]

try posting here: www.pcadvisor.co.uk - They know EVERYTHING

[RobDog888]

Thanks. I'll check it out.

[penagate]

I have a Samsung, works great, had it for about 1.5 years with no problems.

[RobDog888]

I had a Samsung before the Maxtors and it went belly up with multiple bad sectors.
Maybe its just common for hds to go out every couple of years?

[penagate]

Maybe its just your bad luck

seriously, only HD that's ever failed on me was a Seagate and that was about 4 years old.

[RobDog888]

Guesss I'm just getting the drive replaced and look at getting a new pair later on. I have good luck with Maxtor ATA drives so
maybe it was just that the SATA drives were new technology or something. Lets see if I have to re-visit this thread next year.

[kfcSmitty]

one of my maxtor SATA drives died on me the other day too ..Although that might have been because I kicked my computer

[RobDog888]

That reminds me that I hit the box once when it pissed me off.
Probably shortened its life expectancy

[Madboy]

...haha, something i would do.

So did www.pcadvisor.co.uk help at all?

[RobDog888]

I tried a few search variations but nothing yet. I was too lazy to register in order to post a question.

[Madboy]

yet you posted on here before 6.00am?

[RobDog888]

Nope, 9:56 Pm over here. Remember we are almost half a world apart.

[Ideas Man]

I recommend Seagate, I've got 2 that are 4 years old and one that is 6 years old, they still work like new, not noisy or anything, they are terrific.

I don't think it's anything wrong with SATA either, because you said your HDD failed, which means it's the drive itself, not the controller.

You should be able to mix and match drive brands also, as long as they are the same size and speed, it shouldn't matter, it's really up to how much money you are willing to spend.

[RobDog888]

Correct and Thanks. I dont have much right now to be spending on systems but my drive may be under warrenty so I'm
looking at just getting an RMA and getting a new one for free.

[conipto]

If you can get a free one, go with that. Otherwise, I've had alot of luck with Western Digital (though you did say you had one fail) and IBM deskstar drives. The brands I've had very bad luck with are:

Maxtor
Fujitsu

The best luck I've had has been with IBM and WD, though you aren't the first I've heard say WD has failed on them, but they sure make some fast SATA drives, none of which I've had fail yet...

Bill

[RobDog888]

Thanks Bill. I'm looking into designing a new faster system and maybe I will use IBM or WD.