Hmm maxtor is slipping. Like Ive said before I had the 30gig when it first came out. diamond max series. Had it 5 days-then it dropped 10 sectors with a screeching (ching ching ching) sound at startup! Returned to store and guess what-all the 30gig'ers were gone. None on the shelves and the manager said the orders were being refilled (IE no stock in 30gig in warehouse). Sounds like a bad batch of drives he told me. I agreed. Worst they disapeared from other stores aswell. Very quietly like. I think maxtor is doing it again. Covering their mistakes. And folks are trusting their name with their data! Nice maxtor. Well WD, Samsung, Seagate and toshiba will take your buisness gladly. Personally I went to WD, now samsung. Anything but maxtor.
"Anybody know whether these drives (or all drives universally) spin in the same direction? Ie. when looking down onto the platters (pcb underneath) does anyone know whether the platters should be spinning clockwise or counter-clockwise? Knowing this might allow me to optimize my twisting technique."
The dead drives Ive torn apart were older but they all spun clockwise.