Maxtor or WD?

[Claude Jones]

On Fri June 16 2006 11:49 am, fredex wrote:
> > >As for which brand to buy, I'd go with whichever one has
> > > the longest warranty.
> >
> > Three years on the both of them!
>
> Then I'd go with whichever one costs less. Or whichever one is
> the prettiest!

Personal experience. I do among other things, hardware management 
for one company and one non-profit org. Maybe 75-100 pc's under 
my care. I have a stack of dead Maxtors in my service shop. 
About twenty have failed in the past 18 months. Do the 
research - there's plenty out there about this; somebody saying 
all is well because he's got one that's run 6 months, and 
another that's run a year reminds me of the story of the guy who 
jumped off the tall building - half way down, someone leans out 
the window and asked how he was doing - "so far, so good..."   
he replied...

Maxtors are junk in my view. Of the ones that have failed, 1/3 
were the USB externals variety. the ones housed in the plastic 
cases that can't breathe - I've taken some apart and found 
browned ribbon cable from the heat; many were fairly recent 
vintage in the 160-300 GB range, and the balance were a little 
older 20-35GB varieties. 

And don't bother to get their technical support to acknowledge 
this issue - they can't for obvious reasons...
I can only hope that since their acquisition by Seagate, things 
will improve. 

To the poster who related his positive 6mo/1yr experience, I 
would just say, make sure you've got anything you care about 
backed up...
-- 
Claude Jones
Brunswick, Md, USA