The Maxtor 15.0 GB hard drive that I have in my computer is starting to make a fairly high pitch noise off and on. I have only had it for almost a year. Will the drive probably continue to operate normally or should I look into buying a new hard drive?

System Information:
400 MHz P II
128 MB RAM
4 GB Seagate HD (primary)
15 GB Maxtor HD (secondary)

are you certain it is the maxtor, not the seagate? I am sorry, but my opinion is seagate sucks, unless it is scsi, or unless it costs a fortune. I have had bad experiences with them. I know quantum is worse though http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif Anyway, I have never had a hard drive do teh loud noises, so I know it isn't normal...

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Joe Redd
MCP

All companies make bad drives once in a while, Joe. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif
But it's true that it's most likely the older drive will go first. If it really is the Maxtor, it's under warranty. Contact their tech support, and ask if it should be replaced. They will be the best judge.

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Charles M. Kozierok
Webslave, The PC Guide (http://www.PCGuide.com)
Comprehensive PC Reference, Troubleshooting, Optimization and Buyer's Guides...
Note: Please reply to my forum postings here on the forums. Thanks.

I am sure that the Maxtor Drive is the one that is making the noise. I disconnected one drive at time until I singled out the one making the noise. However, Could the fact that the Maxtor drive spins at 7200 rpm (Somewhere around that number)be another factor or the fact that both drives are basically sandwiched into a HD bay and a Floopy drive bay located right above the hard drive bay? Also both drives are not old. I bought the maxtor only 8 or 9 months ago.

Not too familiar with 7200 RPM drives, but if it didn't have the noise you hear before, I'd check and see if it's still under warranty, and have it checked out. My Maxtor had a 2 year warranty, so yours might be still under warranty after only 8 or 9 months. Check the documentation and find out what it says about warranty work. It seems to be a recently acquired noise, from what you posted, so I'd say you have a problem. Send it in before the warranty expires.

ReddDogg: Guess it's unfortunate that you had bad experiences with Seagate, but I've had exactly the opposite. I have 4 Seagate drives in various machines now, all working perfect, and a couple are MFM drives made over 10 years ago, in XT machines. Seagate is one of my favorites. The Maxtor in this machine has done quite well, despite the tech who told me shortly after I bought it he didn't like Maxtor at all, said they were crap.

As ixl said, all manufacturers turn out a lemon now and then. I've had good results with Seagate, Maxtor, Western Digital, Quantum, Samsung and one old IBM MFM drive.

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If you had everything...Where would you put it?

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On the whole, 7200s are definitely a bit louder than 5400s. But other than seek noise (which should occur only during activity) the noise should be constant. Intermittent noises that sound "scratchy" or "whiny" could be a sign of trouble.
Contact Maxtor's tech support department. Drive makers are one of the few hardware companies with clueful technicians; use them.

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Charles M. Kozierok
Webslave, The PC Guide (http://www.PCGuide.com)
Comprehensive PC Reference, Troubleshooting, Optimization and Buyer's Guides...
Note: Please reply to my forum postings here on the forums. Thanks.

How extensive have you worked with hard drives pete? I mean, I honestly would not buy a quantum drive, even if it was half the price. At my school, we have about 200 computers, roughly 140 of them Dell's, and the other 60 are midwest micro (maker of the wonderful emachine). The midwest micro computers all have quantum drives, and when I worked as a lab assistant, on average 2 hard drives a week were dropping out on us (hard drives 2=3 years old). We of course replaced them with western digital drives, which are one of the top two in my book (maxtor is my top). I personally havea quantum drive that went bad less than 6 months after I bought it. I also have had a seagate drive go out on me, but it doesnt' mean they completely suck, I just wouldn't buy one. I will admit I have a 1 gb seagate scsi drive from back in the early nineties running in my nt machine, it runs good yet. I also have a maxtor from sometime in the early to mid nineties (512 mb) that runs good too... Anyway, I guess it is all personal preference.

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Joe Redd
MCP

DEpends on the drives, Joe. Quantum has made some major clunkers, especially those Bigfoot nightmares of the lat 90s. Their current drives are pretty good though...

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Charles M. Kozierok
Webslave, The PC Guide (http://www.PCGuide.com)
Comprehensive PC Reference, Troubleshooting, Optimization and Buyer's Guides...
Note: Please reply to my forum postings here on the forums. Thanks.

Yep, Quantum's newer ones are doing pretty well. I would go with Maxtor or Seagate, they've given me the least trouble of 'em all....This Maxtor 2.8GB has been through 5 motherboards, DOS/win95 and Win 98, Fat 16 and Fat 32 and is 4 years old. Still works perfect, and scandisk hasn't found a bad cluster yet.

------------------
If you had everything...Where would you put it?

Computer Information Links (http://www.geocities.com/paleopete/)