hdd knackered (DOA)?

[ralphuk100]

Hi,

I got a maxtor 250gb ultra ata 133 drive delivered today. Tried formatting it with a slipstreamed XP cd and after about 75% it made a couple of clonking sounds....these got more and more regular...had to cancel the format eventually. Thought it was maybe my slipstream cd gone wrong and it could not work out how big the drive was. Re-created one 40gb partition on the drive to test with, that formatted fine, installed xp and booted up. Now get the occasional clonk when installing things.... am I missing something obvious or is this drive either buggered or about to fubar? Im thinking send it back but I just want to check that there is no reason that it should be doing this. Cheers.

[Van Nugent]

Try formatting it with the MaxBlast 3 utility, m8. A MB3 CD should be included with your drive or you can download its bootable CD image from Maxtor site.

[smokafatty]

I've found Maxtors make a clanking sound a little louder than the other brands of hdds. I have 2x 200gb and 1x 120gb maxtor hdds and they all have that slight clanking noise to them.

How long is your warranty for? If clanking doesn't get louder I don't think you should worry as long as its under warranty.

[Acheron]

My Maxtors don't seem to make any noises out of the ordinary ... but in all fairness, I'm not sure I could hear them over the roar of my 11 or so case fans. Never had a problem with them though, 20GB is running for nearly 10 years, 120GB for about 1 year.

[orson88]

My Maxtor drives are pretty loud, and I don't have any problems with them. I guess this is normal?

[BlackDiamondJr]

I use Maxtor's Powermax (http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm) diagnostic software to test their drives. Any noise from the drive outside of the normal spin up/spin down whine is extraordinary and should not be taken lightly.

[PhilEnfield]

I had similar probs a few weeks back installing a 160gb Maxtor
Windows XP needs SP1 installed for large drive support above 128gb or 134gb.. I forget). On the Maxtor site, there's a utility called .... wait for it .... "big_drive_enabler.exe".

If you install SP1 and then run this utility, it edits your registry and enables large drive support. I did this and then used Partition Magic to extend the partition and I now have 160gb (well 152gb to be accurate) ;)

HTH

P.S.
I have the utility if you cant find it, email me thru profile.