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hard drive problems

  • 04-12-2003 6:47pm
    #1
    Figment
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,747 ✭✭✭


    I am not sure what to do about this.
    I got a new external Maxtor hard drive. Formated it and puts loads of stuff on it. All good.
    3 months later its giving me errors then wont give me access to the drive at all. Tested it on win2000, xp and Linux. None can access it.
    I have to buy getbackdata to recover the files.

    I bring it back and its still under warenty. They check it, have to reformat it to test the drive and bring it back and say its working fine. When pushed they say the drive didnt fail but the partition failed.
    Now i am worried as to why the partition would fail. I am not too knowledgeable about hard drives so does a partition just fail?
    I ran Norton Disk Dr and it tells me there are now a few bad sectors. Is that not a failure of the drive? Can that not get worse and cause the partition to fail again?

    What do you think? Is it safe to start putting files back on it?


Comments

  • #2
    Virus_Inc
    Registered Users Posts: 333 ✭✭Virus_Inc


    Bad sectors are physical defects... if its under wannanty they have to take it back.
    Its worth getting the maxtor drive tools or whatever they're called and running the scan on the drive and print out the results with the evidence of bad sectors on it so they can't fob you off again...


  • #3
    dazberry
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,150 ✭✭✭dazberry


    The Partition table is only a single sector on the disk, and acts like a map so the PC and OS know how the disk is divided (if at all). It does a few other things, but I don't think these are relevant in your case. The partition could fail if some errant sector was written to it, its not impossible but its not likely TBH. A virus perhaps or a badly written program, perhaps a power loss if you were updating the MBR, but otherwise very unlikely.

    But even if it was a million to one situation, getting the drive back with bad sectors would suggest the drive is failing. Unlike older drives which came with defect maps, bad sectors are mapped out of IDE drives when you get them - tho' they may still be there, but in this day and age I don't honestly know how common that is. The only time I've ever seen bad sectors on an IDE drive was when the drive was starting to fail. I'd be lookin' for a replacement if I were you.

    D.


  • #4
    Tiesto
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,509 ✭✭✭Tiesto


    Yeah maxtor suck!!!!
    I had 2 of them but they broke.


  • #5
    Figment
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,747 ✭✭✭Figment


    which of these are the drive tools i need?

    http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/index.htm


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