Do I now own 2 x 1TB Maxtor Hard Drive Bricks?

03/29/2009 11:24:00 PM · #1

I know very little about external hard drives but I now have 2 x 1tb Maxtor External Hard Drives that are set up as RAID 1 that are not working. I am operating from a Mac and neither show up as being attached. I have tried doing a disk utility but they do not show up here either. Does anybody have any ideas of what I may do to resolve this problem. (both do make funny noises, almost as if something is skipping when it is turned on)

Both are out of warranty and one was working fine today until it froze. I had been running Time Capsule off it. Could this have affected it when I tried to put data over to it. Three files of photos were transferred over and only one file had photos in it. I tried deleting one file, with the intention to rewrite it but this was when it froze and the only way to stop it was to turn the computer off so it was not ejected properly. It has not shown up since then. Was this enough to break it?

Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions.

03/30/2009 03:02:55 AM · #2

How old are the drives? From reading what you wrote I would say that your drives are bad. However for both of them to go bad at the same time is odd. The whole idea of RAID1 is that if one does fail you still have all your data. Have you tried hooking the external drive up to another computer?

03/30/2009 03:40:36 AM · #3

The drives are about two years old. They went within 3 weeks of each other and yes I have tried connecting them with another Mac and also a windows computer with no success. On any computer I connect them to, they do not show up at all.

Covert_Oddity

Nikon D700

03/30/2009 03:51:46 AM · #4

This might sound a little weird, but try putting them in the freezer for half an hour (in a plastic bag) and attach them after that. If it works get all the data off you can, starting with the most important stuff, it will only last for a little while then they'll fail again.

Apart from that, sounds like they are pretty much dead. It is really unusual for drives to fail at all these days, never mind 2 in 3 weeks. If I were you I would invest in a surge protector for your computer / electronic equipment!

Prof_Fate

03/30/2009 05:07:35 AM · #5

teh only drives i've had fail had been used ones that i pulled from teh computer and left on a shelf for a year or two then wouldn't work when reconnected.

However, the studio I was at last week uses LaCie external drives and they do a lot of work (1000 sessions a year or so) and find that their drives are reliable for a year, less so for the second year and will fail starting on the the third year.

So what they do is every january 1 hook up new drives and stop putting data on the old ones, just use them till those recently shot jobs are done, then they shelve the drives. Since everything is backed up on DVD when shot then again when the job is 'closed' they have basically 2 DVD copies should they ever need to go back to them.

They don't do daily backups...but have never lost any data.

Fisher Price Kid-Tough Digital

03/30/2009 05:15:00 AM · #6

Originally posted by Covert_Oddity:

I've heard of people doing this but it's not a guarantee so I would try and see what happens. Also At this point your data is a loss so I would open the drives and try hooking them up directly to the MB. Skip the USB, or IEEE cables hook them right up. Also I would download a program called GETDATABACK NTFS or GETDATABACK FAT depending on which set up you were using I'm assuming a FAT system but I've seen both, but download one of those programs and see if it sees the drives.

I had a WD drive fail on me not that long ago and 3 machines couldn't see the drive but when I ran the program it picked it up.

Let us know what you find.

Bugzeye

03/30/2009 05:48:47 AM · #7

Maxtor Drives are not known to be very quiet so the noises you are hearing are probably normal. They really get clicking sometimes. Because your comp stopped reading both drives. I would investigate that first. Make sure that you have no conflictions and that your computer didn't disable your USB ports, make sure there is no firewall activity that might be blocking the drives, and if posible try connecting the drives to another computer.

DjFenzl

03/30/2009 05:54:26 AM · #8

I've done the freezer thing a few times over the years - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I'd recommend sticking a dry paper towel in the bag with it to help absorb any condensation that may form while it's in the freezer. In any case at least wait til it's room temp before putting it in the freezer (don't go from hot to straight to freezer).

good luck :)

CEJ

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF-S 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 IS

03/30/2009 05:55:59 AM · #9

The freezer trick only works if there is a data read/corruption failure, not a technical/hardware failure. I used to do it all the time when I was a tech many years ago.

Time Machine...this may actually be part of the problem. When you hook a drive up to a Mac it asks you if you want to use it for Time Machine. If you say yes, the drive is set-up to work directly with Time Machine - one folder, no partitions...not save individual/random files - needs a partition separate from the backups. If you told it to use it just for Time machine then saved individual files on it, it is quite possible the format is corrupted. If you are going to use a Time Machine drive for file saving as well, I believe the system needs to know this at the time of installation so the proper format can be applied - separate partitions for files and backups.

NOTE: I am no expert and very new to Macs. But I did do a lot of reading on the Time Machine function since I had major hard drive data loss on the last system I owned.

Message edited by author 2009-03-30 10:06:36.

eckoe

Canon EOS-5D Mark III

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

03/30/2009 07:25:37 AM · #10

In my experience, when an external device fails, it's not necessarily the drive itself. It's often the electronics between the HDD and the system.

Buy a new external enclosure (About $20or so US Via NewEgg) and pull the HDD out of one, into the new enclosure, and I'll bet that it functions, do the same for the other drive, and your setup will likely work fine again.

goinskiing

Canon EOS-6D

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

03/30/2009 07:26:21 AM · #11

Originally posted by eckoe:

Yup, what I was going to suggest as well.

03/31/2009 06:43:32 PM · #12

Many thanks for all your suggestions.

I did try the freezer without success.

Originally posted by CEJ:

I did set it up for Time Machine but being new to it I have probably set it up the wrong way. If I could get access to it from the computer I would re format it and try again, but it is not showing up anywhere.

I am sending them off to have them looked at because I don't know what to look for to try the other suggestions.

Once again, many thanks for all your help and suggestions

03/31/2009 06:54:44 PM · #13

Did you try my suggestion?

michaelmonn

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM

03/31/2009 08:55:20 PM · #14

this doesnt really help at all now... BUT after time machine fucked some things up for me and i repartitioned and formatted my drives i started using superduper (from shirtpocket.com) and since then i have decided that it might possibly be the best program i have ever used. i HIGHLY recommend it as a backup program. it operates smoother and WAY more reliably than time machine. a basic version is available for free and an advanced version for 25 bucks ( i would pay 50+ for it). it does the job and it does it VERY well. even creates bootable backups so you can boot off of your external on any other comp and have everything right there (instant restoration upon failure). i know that this doesnt quite solve your current predicament BUT it provides away to prevent this from happening again if it really is time machine fucking things up (which may very well be the case.. TM is buggy). its also something to think about because even if it is a hardware problem, TM isnt as reliable as it seems and in my mind is therefore unsuitable for dependable use and backups.

04/01/2009 12:41:04 AM · #15

Originally posted by Dirt_Diver:

Originally posted by Covert_Oddity:
This might sound a little weird, but try putting them in the freezer for half an hour (in a plastic bag) and attach them after that. If it works get all the data off you can, starting with the most important stuff, it will only last for a little while then they'll fail again.

Apart from that, sounds like they are pretty much dead. It is really unusual for drives to fail at all these days, never mind 2 in 3 weeks. If I were you I would invest in a surge protector for your computer / electronic equipment!

I've heard of people doing this but it's not a guarantee so I would try and see what happens. Also At this point your data is a loss so I would open the drives and try hooking them up directly to the MB. Skip the USB, or IEEE cables hook them right up. Also I would download a program called GETDATABACK NTFS or GETDATABACK FAT depending on which set up you were using I'm assuming a FAT system but I've seen both, but download one of those programs and see if it sees the drives.

I had a WD drive fail on me not that long ago and 3 machines couldn't see the drive but when I ran the program it picked it up.

Let us know what you find.

Yes I did try pulling it apart - I figured that since they were out of warranty I had nothing to loose. I didn't get as far as hooking them up to the motherboard as my knowledge doesn't extend this far, but having said that I am getting somebody that knows how to do it to try your suggestion tomorrow for me. They were both running off a power surge board but I have replaced these with one that goes to battery backup for a couple of hours since the original surge board didn't prevent the hard drives from turning off without being closed down properly.

Thanks again for your help and suggestions

Message edited by author 2009-04-01 04:46:36.