Do you trust sending a defected hard drive back to the manufacturer ? - GoFuckYourself.com

Slick · 04-11-2005, 10:29 AM

I bought a 250-gig Matrox 16-meg buffer hard drive a couple of months ago, but the damn thing just crapped out on me last night. I immediately went out and ordered another drive because I do most of my work on the system it was in.

I'm kinda worried about sending the drive back to Maxtor because it has a lot of my important data on it which worries me a little. I suppose that they get in drives all the time and have a system so information stays secure. What do you think ?

decrypted · 04-11-2005, 10:52 AM

they wont try to backup ur data at all dude
if u wanna do that get urself a program called "get data back" and if ur lucky u will be able to recover some of it to another drive
Other then that they will plug in ur drive, say fuck it its broken and send u a new one

disregard · 04-11-2005, 10:52 AM

Your data's already gone. It's not their job to replace your data, just your drive. If you want your data recovered, you need a data recovery service. Expect to spend $800 to $2000 depending on the quantity of data and type of drive.

Lesson: Make Backups.

Fukeneh · 04-11-2005, 12:10 PM

i dont think they even look at the data, plug it in. see what the problem is, try to fix it or toss it in the trash. dont be so paranoid

rickholio · 04-11-2005, 12:19 PM

If you're that concerned, and assuming the drive is not so totally hosed as to kill all write ability, there's a program called Secure Delete available. You burn it on CD, run it on the computer you want 'gone', and give it a few hours. The idea is that it'll destructively overwrite sectors in such a way as to make it difficult to impossible to recover any older data using residual magnetics.

I don't recall where I came across it in my travels, but I do have it on a CD that I could probably make an image of, if you'd like.

StuartD · 04-11-2005, 12:21 PM

yeah, don't worry too much about it. If it's dead, they'll send you a new one and that'll be the end of it.

Mango · 04-11-2005, 12:46 PM

No worries at all; they aren't interested in your data and just want the old disk back so that you can't get two for the price of one. As soon as they receive it, it will be thrown away...

d00t · 04-11-2005, 01:19 PM

western digital = problems

Slick · 04-11-2005, 01:43 PM

Thanks for all the comments guys, I appreciate them. I now feel better about sending it back. The one I ordered should be in tomarrow. I guess that when the defected one gets replaced, I'll just raid it with the other.

I hope that this will be just one bad experience here. I ended up going with another Maxtor, this time it's the 300-gig since NewEgg didn't have the 250-gig in stock. I really wish that I could go with another brand like WD, but I love that 16-meg buffer.

rowan · 04-11-2005, 07:15 PM

See if Maxtor has a util that can low level format the unit. This is different to a DOS/Windows format, it's like a factory preparation.

My 2 year old IBM drive crapped it with 10%+ of sectors suddenly going bad. I figured it was a head crash, but I did a low level format anyway to ensure that no one could read the valid sectors still. After the low level format the drive worked perfectly! It was a firmware error that caused the crash, not a hardware fault. Since the drive apparently works I can't return it, but I can't use it either since that firmware bug could crop up again at any time.

04-11-2005, 10:29 AM	#1
Slick Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Houghton, MI Posts: 7,338	Do you trust sending a defected hard drive back to the manufacturer ? I bought a 250-gig Matrox 16-meg buffer hard drive a couple of months ago, but the damn thing just crapped out on me last night. I immediately went out and ordered another drive because I do most of my work on the system it was in. I'm kinda worried about sending the drive back to Maxtor because it has a lot of my important data on it which worries me a little. I suppose that they get in drives all the time and have a system so information stays secure. What do you think ?

04-11-2005, 10:52 AM	#2
decrypted Confirmed User Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: future-assassin.com Posts: 370	they wont try to backup ur data at all dude if u wanna do that get urself a program called "get data back" and if ur lucky u will be able to recover some of it to another drive Other then that they will plug in ur drive, say fuck it its broken and send u a new one __________________ Konrad - ICQ 59416956

04-11-2005, 10:52 AM	#3
disregard Confirmed User Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 118	Your data's already gone. It's not their job to replace your data, just your drive. If you want your data recovered, you need a data recovery service. Expect to spend $800 to $2000 depending on the quantity of data and type of drive. Lesson: Make Backups. __________________ house o' fart

04-11-2005, 12:21 PM	#6
StuartD Sofa King Band Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Outside the box Posts: 29,903	yeah, don't worry too much about it. If it's dead, they'll send you a new one and that'll be the end of it. __________________ This is me on facebook This is me on twitter

04-11-2005, 12:46 PM	#7
Mango Confirmed User Join Date: Aug 2001 Posts: 474	No worries at all; they aren't interested in your data and just want the old disk back so that you can't get two for the price of one. As soon as they receive it, it will be thrown away... __________________ SponsorReport.com : the MASSIVE SPONSOR TEST PROJECT. 100% neutral and verified submissions only. Launched April, 7 - Get your FREE T-SHIRT NOW ! We will send our webmasters to YOUR sponsor with YOUR referral ID

04-11-2005, 12:10 PM	#4
Fukeneh Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Location: Location: Posts: 1,245	i dont think they even look at the data, plug it in. see what the problem is, try to fix it or toss it in the trash. dont be so paranoid

04-11-2005, 12:19 PM	#5
rickholio Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Nor'easterland Posts: 1,914	If you're that concerned, and assuming the drive is not so totally hosed as to kill all write ability, there's a program called Secure Delete available. You burn it on CD, run it on the computer you want 'gone', and give it a few hours. The idea is that it'll destructively overwrite sectors in such a way as to make it difficult to impossible to recover any older data using residual magnetics. I don't recall where I came across it in my travels, but I do have it on a CD that I could probably make an image of, if you'd like.

04-11-2005, 01:19 PM	#8
d00t Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: In your mind Posts: 3,766	western digital = problems

04-11-2005, 01:43 PM	#9
Slick Confirmed User Industry Role: Join Date: Feb 2001 Location: Houghton, MI Posts: 7,338	Thanks for all the comments guys, I appreciate them. I now feel better about sending it back. The one I ordered should be in tomarrow. I guess that when the defected one gets replaced, I'll just raid it with the other. I hope that this will be just one bad experience here. I ended up going with another Maxtor, this time it's the 300-gig since NewEgg didn't have the 250-gig in stock. I really wish that I could go with another brand like WD, but I love that 16-meg buffer.

04-11-2005, 07:15 PM	#10
rowan Too lazy to set a custom title Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Australia Posts: 17,393	See if Maxtor has a util that can low level format the unit. This is different to a DOS/Windows format, it's like a factory preparation. My 2 year old IBM drive crapped it with 10%+ of sectors suddenly going bad. I figured it was a head crash, but I did a low level format anyway to ensure that no one could read the valid sectors still. After the low level format the drive worked perfectly! It was a firmware error that caused the crash, not a hardware fault. Since the drive apparently works I can't return it, but I can't use it either since that firmware bug could crop up again at any time.