Musical Maxtor

[mujjuman]

i want to ask if people were leaving their computers turned on for long periods of time....

[bigdir]

Sigh. Here I am in the long list of poor souls. What a thread!

Yes, I accidentally tripped over my USB cable and sent my Maxstor OneTouch II 300GB to the floor. It wasn't a large drop, but alas it was giving me the dreaded musical beep. I have since opened up the USB casing to find the Maxtor Diamondmax 10 inside. I have tried all the recommendations on this site - tapping it, twisting it and then... just hopelessly whacking it. Now it no longer beeps and I figure the PCB has packed it in.

I have been tendering with the thought of replacing the PCB board by purchasing one from:
http://www.softcom.com.my/Maxtor_Latest.htm
I assume it will get me back to square one. Or possibly further?? Has anyone had any luck fixing this problem from purely a PCB board change or does this involve major surgery?
I need to hear some more success stories to give me hope!

Please keep this thread going - it appears to be the only resource about this issue on the entire Internet (or so Google tells me).


Thanks in advance!!!!!

[ScottW]

There are some suggestions in this thread like freezing the drive, tapping the drive while it's spinning up, opening the case, etc. Sometimes it will come back to life long enough for you to get your data off. If not, then you could consider a data recovery company if you have important data on the drive. If you don't have important data on the drive but you just want a new drive, send it back to maxtor for replacement if it's under warranty. I could be wrong but I don't recall anyone saying that the PCB was to blame (unless you can see that the PCB is visibly damaged) and I think you'd have a hard time finding a replacement PCB even if it was to blame.

[bigdir]

Hi Scott - Thanks for the reply. You name it, I tried it. Freezing, spinning and tapping. I read through this entire thread numerous times just in case I missed something.

I was hoping that someone would have feedback about whether they managed to get their drive going after opening it. A number of people have said they seemed to get it working but never had the final verdict.
If I can avert the necessity for expensive data recovery, that's where I want to be.

The reason I now suspect the PCB is that the drive is no longer beeping. This seems to imply that something I have done has really stuffed things up.

I am keen to hear any more stories. Would be great to have a pictorial of the surgery if anyone has dared Certainly may give me the courage to try it myself

[mujjuman]

my last resort was banging the crap out of the drive before sending it in to maxtor for warranty. they sent me another crappy drive that died in the same way so now no more maxtor for me.

i dunno how theyre doing now that they merged with Seagate.

[bigdir]

Hi mujjuman,

Warranty isn't so much the problem as retrieving the data. I called Seagate support here in Australia today and they used the ol' "go to a data recovery company" line, which I expected. I tried to see if they are able to at least supply any old drive that they must get back under warranty and offered to buy one - no luck there.

I suppose I just wanted some experienced advice on what could possibly be the matter. Seagate basically said the beeping was a "hardware issue" (thanks) and suggested there was pretty much no hope. Not sure if I'm willing to believe that given some of the success stories here. It seems that it's a jammed motor/platter as far as I figure. I mentioned this thread and had around 30-40 people who have had their Maxtors fail and he replied "40 failures are nothing compared to the number of drives we manfacture.." Fair call, but I'm sure for every story you get on here, there are 40 more untold.

[mujjuman]

yeah i agree. half the people would just say "omg wtf my computer is beeping" and either trash it or take it to one of those computer shops.. they wont know wtf is going on so they just get a new HDD and install Windows, charge them $600 and send them home. the other half will call the computer "geek" in the family or the neighborhood and he'll just say "bad HDD, get a new one" and walk away. so these things will get unreported.

im sorry the company was no help to you. what are doing now? just getting another drive and just forgetting abot the lost data?

[bigdir]

mujjuman, it is my mission to now find out how to recover my data. I am going to see if I can find a Diamondmax 10 for sale somewhere and try my luck replacing bits.
If anyone knows of where to find these models (preferrably in Australia) then I would be most grateful.
I will update the forum with any useful findings...

[DJScotty]

Same problem but now a little different. My maxtor one touch is now out of the case and has been spinning very quietly for 45 minutes. The problem is where is the drive letter and my files? When I try to do anything to access it it starts beeping. I'm a dj and i need these by thursday night. If I can access them, I have a wd 250gb to put them on.

[bigdir]

DJScotty, from a number of Maxtor faults that I've read about, a spinning drive but no data can mean the PCB board (the circuit board on the back of the drive) is not working.

If your drive just "disappeared" from Windows without any signs,
there are a few things I would try in order of increasing difficulty:

1) Is your USB drive just not being allocated a logical drive in Windows? Go to Start->Run->compmgmt.msc and see if your disk appears (if Windows is making a "dink" sound when it's being plugged in, then that's a good sign).

2) Now it's out of the case, plug it directly into a PC's IDE interface. Is it recognised by the BIOS? Yes? Then get a number of utilities such as SpinRite to retrieve your files.

3) Replace the PCB board. You'll need to find a matching PCB board from somewhere like the same drive or http://www.softcom.com.my/Maxtor_Latest.htm

Hope this helps.