Bought a 500 GB Maxtor Drive

Message

Bruce B · #1 Post by **Bruce B** » Sun 27 Jan 2008, 12:10

I bought a 500 GB Maxtor IDE drive. The reason why was 89.00 price tag. Meaning it was an impulse item and not something I need, but at that price why not?

The box is unopened and I have another twenty days to return or exchange it.

If anyone knows of why I might ought to return it, please reply with reasons or considerations.

#2 Post by **Flash** » Sun 27 Jan 2008, 13:20

My experience with bargain hard disk drives is they barely outlast their warranty. One of the two hard disk drives I've had fail on me was a Maxtor I bought because it was cheap. (I can't pass up a bargain either.

)

Bruce B · #3 Post by **Bruce B** » Sun 27 Jan 2008, 13:37

Flash,

Thanks. My first thoughts are fear. Who wants to lose 500 GB of data?

The packaging was genuine Maxtor. My thinking was it was OVERPRICED because the industry seems to be phasing out IDE in favor of PATA - SATA.

Who knows if it's a second? I don't know the laws regarding packaging seconds.

I'm thinking maybe another 89 dollars if supplies are still there. Then mirror one to the other periodically.

Bruce

#4 Post by **Flash** » Sun 27 Jan 2008, 13:54

Trusting your data to a hard disk drive seems to be a crap shoot. That's why I switched to multisession DVD. The other hard disk drive I had that failed was a 40 GB Fujitsu. It was blazing fast - while it lasted. It turned out to have a flaw in its controller somewhere that caused it to fail after a relatively short time. Apparently so many of that model failed that Fujitsu lost a class-action lawsuit. I didn't find out about it until it was too late to get a check from them.

By the way, the acronym IDE comes from "Integrated Drive Electronics." Technically, any modern hard disk drive is "IDE", even SATA. I didn't know that until I read this explanation of HD interface nomenclature.

headfound · #5 Post by **headfound** » Sun 27 Jan 2008, 14:23

Keep it! Buy a cheap usb/ide (or sata) adapter and just use it sparingly to backup your main pc. Ive had a seagate 320gb for a while now and just use it for that. Still have 80gb left despite changing pc's twice in the last 6 months. I would only use a drive that big on a pc if I was doing some heavy video work (like high def).

nic2109 · #6 Post by **nic2109** » Sun 27 Jan 2008, 14:56

headfound wrote:Keep it!

I'm with headfound on this. You can partition it up and use one for a "whole partition image copy" and another for incremental backups. Yes, you're still vulnerable to disk failure, but you'll need to have 2 simultaneous failures to be right up sh"t creek.

At that price you could do infrequent backups and keep it somewhere else as an off-site backup. That's safer still, and it might last longer if infrequently used. Though paradoxically this kind of stuff is often more reliable when in constant use.

Lobster · #7 Post by **Lobster** » Sun 27 Jan 2008, 15:35

I keep my data in the freezer

When my 160 GIG hard disk went recently, I put it in the freezer
(that gives you long enough to back up data)
The thing is It worked for another two weeks

but the second freezing (it went again) was only
partially successful.

Maybe I need a more organised back up routine . . .

At the moment I am running from CD and USB keydrive
for some reason the 40 GIG hard drive I had in a USB HD enclosure
is not running as an internal HD

Maybe I should freeze it?

To be honest I like to keep my data on someone else's server if possible
Google or Servage - someone with a bit more sense than me . . .

The reason I mention all this is because unless you have a huge
film collection (as many do) 500Gig is massive

For me 20Gig is plenty. My feeling is reliability is more important than storage size.

In fact I am seriously contemplating going over to USB key drives
Leaving the dying moving platter technology for solid state . . .

Running from CD and USB will be fine
Eventually CD can be phased out - as can ram . . .

Operating system, memory and storage on one keydrive . . .
Is Puppy ready? This is what it was designed for (running on an SD card like you get in cameras)

Crash · #8 Post by **Crash** » Sun 27 Jan 2008, 18:30

Personally, I haven't lost a hard drive for ages (knock on wood). The biggest drive I have, a 250 GB Maxtor, sits in the garage. I just use it to do occasional backups. I got it a couple of years ago for about the same price as you paid, so I think that although you got a good deal, it is not a suspiciously low price. I note that the 1TB hard drives are now coming out for about $300.

I think the technology is outpacing our needs in this respect. The most demanding use I currently have for mass storage is digital photos, but even then I can keep every picture I've taken in the last year on one DVD. I recently bought a camcorder with a 30 GB hard disk inside it, but so far I have barely filled it up. Somebody will have to dream up the "next big thing" to justify hogging up all that space on our hard drives in the future.

Auda · #9 Post by **Auda** » Sun 27 Jan 2008, 19:34

I would use it, why not ? Data is data back it up if you dont you are a fool. I have 2 WD 120 gig drives that run all the time and have done for a few years no problems. A 320 ? gig that gets hammered with video work also a WD no problems.
The last drive I had fail was an 80 meg drive way back when that was the biggest you could get. That caused me major problems, it was a controller failure and crapped on some of the data. I bought an idenical drive and swapped controllers got most of the data back. Now I back up that which I cant afford to loose.

Auda

P.S. The 80 meg was a WD as well.

#10 Post by **BÃ©Ã¨m** » Sun 27 Jan 2008, 19:44

I would buy a second one and mirror the first one to the second one.

Will reduce the chance to data loss.

Eyes-Only · #11 Post by **Eyes-Only** » Mon 28 Jan 2008, 01:16

If you don't want it Bruce you could always give it to Charity.

Oh, by the way, did I mention that my middle name is "Charity"?

Largest drive I've ever had was an 80gig drive and I'm currently using it. Got 5 distros installed on it. My last drive in the other computer (still running btw) is 20gigs and at one time that had something like 6 distros running on it. LOL! So this 80gigs with 5 feels downright roomy!

I recall back when I wowed everyone by buying a 1gig drive. "Man! You can't ever fill that up jimmi!" Oh yeah? With all the software testing I did? hehe. 3 months tops I think it was!

Have fun Bruce! And "Charity" will take anything that 500gigs replaces.

haha!

Amicalement,

Eyes-Only
"L'Peau-Rouge"

nic2109 · #12 Post by **nic2109** » Tue 29 Jan 2008, 09:32

Eyes-Only wrote:I recall back when I wowed everyone by buying a 1gig drive. "Man! You can't ever fill that up jimmi!" Oh yeah? With all the software testing I did? hehe. 3 months tops I think it was!

Ah, nostalgia! When I got my first programming job in 1972 the mainframe (an ICL1907) had just had an upgrade: the Exchangeable Disk Storage devices had gone "Double Density", from 4 to 8 megabytes each. Remembering that each was about 12 inches diameter by 8 deep ( see http://www.mfarris.com/index.html for a picture of the actual disk; the housing you put it in to use it was about the size of a top-loader washing machine) it's pretty staggering just how far disk storage has come.

Bruce B · #13 Post by **Bruce B** » Thu 31 Jan 2008, 04:28

Thanks for everyone's input. Here's where I'm at. I went back to buy the second drive and the price went from 89 to 149.

My reason for buying it was for the 89 dollar price tag, but the idea of being able do to a fast and clean sector by sector, perfect drive copy backup is something I really want for such a huge (for me) drive.

The drives are sitting on a pallet so I can see what the 'on floor' inventory is. I'm hoping for another sale this weekend. If not, then I'll buy the second drive at 149.

Eyes-Only · #14 Post by **Eyes-Only** » Thu 31 Jan 2008, 04:33

Good luck Bruce and thanks for keeping us apprised mate! Hope that there's a sale and that the price goes BACK down for you so that you can grab the second drive to do as you've always dreamt of doing.

Two thumbs up for ya!

Amicalement,

Eyes-Only
"L'Peau-Rouge"

Bruce B · #15 Post by **Bruce B** » Sat 02 Feb 2008, 06:45

Eyes-Only wrote:Good luck Bruce and thanks for keeping us apprised mate! Hope that there's a sale and that the price goes BACK down for you so that you can grab the second drive to do as you've always dreamt of doing.

Two thumbs up for ya! :)

Amicalement,

Eyes-Only
"L'Peau-Rouge"

The drives went back OVERPRICED for today for 89 so I picked up number 2 today. Thanks all.

Lobster · #16 Post by **Lobster** » Sat 02 Feb 2008, 11:18

glad you got it at the bargain price. You must be pleased.

I usually leave my case open (only recently started using them)
and was gonna suggest only having one HD connected
(connect up when backing up)

Most computers function slower with two or more connected
or is that just older hardware?

One of the things I was wondering whether to get a HD or USB keydrive. I am gonna take Flash's advice and use recordable DVDs

Will you be setting up some sort of RAID system or just do a periodic backup?

Bruce B · #17 Post by **Bruce B** » Sat 02 Feb 2008, 13:43

Lobster wrote::D glad you got it at the bargain price. You must be pleased.

Thanks.

Lobster wrote:I usually leave my case open (only recently started using them) and was gonna suggest only having one HD connected (connect up when backing up)

What a coincidence, for the longest time my computers would just be parts spread out on the table. This one however has a case with three cooling fans.

Lobster wrote:Most computers function slower with two or more connected or is that just older hardware?

Maybe operating system. I noted with W98SE that it began to crawl to standstill as I kept adding disks and partitions unless I hid some partitions. The idea I formulated was that it had to cache a lot file information and manage more than it was designed to.

Lobster wrote:One of the things I was wondering whether to get a HD or USB keydrive. I am gonna take Flash's advice and use recordable DVDs

I thought Flash was using re-recordable DVDs. I must say I'm more than surprised at the long term success he has had with it. I regarded the medium as less than reliable, maybe I have to give it different thinking. For the money you can't beat it. Most people using Puppy on removable medium seem to be using flash sticks. I don't know off hand of anyone else using DVD.

Lobster wrote:Will you be setting up some sort of RAID system or just do a periodic backup?

I only bought it for backup. What I'd like to do is buy a tray by which I can easily remove the drive and shelf it when the backup is done.

Lobster · #18 Post by **Lobster** » Sat 02 Feb 2008, 14:57

I only bought it for backup. What I'd like to do is buy a tray by which I can easily remove the drive and shelf it when the backup is done.

Be interested how you get on. Another possibility is a USB enclosure (But backups will be slower)

Crash · #19 Post by **Crash** » Mon 01 Mar 2010, 08:33

As a sign of the times, I noticed this week's Fry's ad has a 1,000 GB hard drive OVERPRICED for $69.99. Hurry before the price goes down!

I haven't bought one yet - I'm still working on filling up a 500 Gig'er that I bought a year ago.

http://www.frys-electronics-ads.com/ads ... Hard-Drive

DMcCunney · #20 Post by **DMcCunney** » Mon 01 Mar 2010, 16:03

Bruce B wrote:I bought a 500 GB Maxtor IDE drive. The reason why was 89.00 price tag. Meaning it was an impulse item and not something I need, but at that price why not?

The box is unopened and I have another twenty days to return or exchange it.

If anyone knows of why I might ought to return it, please reply with reasons or considerations.

I don't see a reason to return it.

Hard drives are getting steadily larger, faster, and cheaper. $89 is decent price, but not out of the ordinary.

I've accumulated hard drives from Maxtor, Western Digital, Quantum, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Toshiba, and others. All have been fairly reliable. The problems I've have have been power supply or motherboard related. (The worst HDs I ever saw were from a no longer existing manufacturer called Tulin. They bred bad blocks like flies.)

I'm also cynical about SMART reporting. The idea is a good one, but you can't necessarily believe what it says. (I have a drive that regularly reported it was about to fail. I finally turned off SMART monitoring on that drive in the BIOS to get it to shut up. It's been in place and working fine for several years since.

Go for it. And if you like the price and have the setup to do it, add it to the first in a RAID 0 array.
______
Dennis

(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Bought a 500 GB Maxtor Drive

Bought a 500 GB Maxtor Drive

Re: Bought a 500 GB Maxtor Drive