Crashed Without Warning, 3 Mos out of warranty Update Oct '05
Written: Mar 05 '04 (Updated Feb 18 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Cost effective, compatible with USB1, USB2.0, Firewire,
Cons: Crashed 3 months after warranty expired
The Bottom Line: I will never buy another Maxtor product.
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| Saxguy's Full Review: Seagate Personal Storage 5000DV 160 GB FireWire 40... |
Update Oct 05
I had sent the unit back for a warranty repair, I think due to a virus before the warranty expired. Then, About 3 months out of warranty, I heard a grinding sound coming from the unit without warning. There was no way to access the files. I called Maxtor and they said that the unit was no longer under warranty and wasn’t worth repairing. They said that it was possible that I’d get “something” if I used a data extraction service. I already had a second copy of most of my data, and hooked my old Gateway to the replacement unit, a Simpletech 160 USB external hard drive. So, it wasn’t a catastrophe, although it did take some effort to get the data again.
I’ve made the decision to be fully redundant (i. e have two backup copies of every file). I have also made the decision to never buy another Maxtor product.
Here is a link to my review of my current secondary external drive, the simpletech usb 250.
Simpletech USB 250GB External hard Drive
The original review is shown below.
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About a month ago, I had a dilemma. My vintage (Gateway 466) PC with the 13 gig hard drive was running our of space. I kept getting rid of unneeded files and archiving others on CDRoms, but space continued tight. Plus, I really wasn't backed up on most non-critical applications.
I plan to replace my PC during the summer, but I needed help now!
I went looking for cost-effective external hard drives. My criteria was:
1. Had to be compatible with USB1 (which I have now) but also USB 2.0 and Firewire, which are speedier protocols available on new models.
2. Value proposition (i. e. how much space and speed for how much money)
3. Quality
4. Ease of Use (installation, software)
I considered units at 80, 120 and 160 gigs. The most cost effective vendors for these amounts and the speedy 7200 disk RPMs were Maxtor and Western Digital, with Maxtor having what looked to be a better reputation based on CNET and other review sites.
Once I identified Maxtor, next I had to determine the size. The cost per gig on the 160 gig unit was $1.40, comparatively less than the 80 and 120 gig drives. The larger drives did not have much difference. I chose 160 as it would be enough to last for years.
I bought the unit from Buy.com, letting them talk me into 2-day shipping. That was a waste because the unit shipped from about 20 miles away from my house. It still took the two days. The total was around $230. I chose Buy.com because I have had history with them and I was not familiar with the lower cost vendors.
Out of the box, it was very easy to set up the truly plug and play unit. I plugged in the power supply, plugged in the USB cable and ran the installation CD.
The backup software is Dantz Retrospect Express. This software can be set up to automatically backup the entire existing hard drive, then do incremental backups, where only those programs that have changed are updated. These backups can be initiated by the user or set up to run automatically. Reviewers on some sites have observed a perceived flaw in the software which will delete a file in the backup if it is deleted on the hard drive being backed up. This is not a problem for me, because I set up an archive directory on the external drive to hold programs that I delete off the existng hard drive but which I might want to save.
The initial backup took about 24 hours, the USB1 speed was slow enough and got even slower, particularly for music files. On the other had, the weekly updates have been done in a matter of hours.
There have been no performance issues with the hard drive.
It has done everything I wanted and I am delighted with it.
Here is a quick listing of the specs from the Maxtor site:
Featuring a Maxtor 7200RPM internal hard drive and both FireWire® (IEEE 1394, i.LINK®) and USB 2.0 interface ports, the 5000DV is one of the most versatile drives available for your PC or Mac.
The requirements for PC are Pentium II or later, win98 or later, 32 meg Ram, CDRom drive, USB1, USB2 or Firewire interface.
Please check out my related reviews:
Lite On SOHW-1673SU DVD±RW Dual Layer Burner
Canon Pixma IP4200 Photo Printer
Simpletech 250GB USB2 External Hard Drive
D-Link DUB-H7 7-port USB2 hub
D-Link AirPlus Xtreme G DI-624 Wireless Router
Thanks for reading. God bless!
Recommended:
No
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