sorensen@athena.mit.edu (Alma G. Sorensen) (06/25/91)
Thanks to the many respondents for my request to inquiries about Maxtor. Here's my summary: I received 4 positive comments about Maxtor and 7 negative comments, and two that were both and perhaps the most revealing. Those who were negative were quite negative: "I'd never buy a drivve from Maxtor again" was typical. They cited repeated failures within months; one said he had eight drives all fail in eight months or less. Those who were positive stated they'd had drives for years without problems. Only two people specifically talked about the LXT-340, which is the drive that APS is selling for $1189 external/$1099 internal. One user said that prerelease versions were buggy but that the third iteration seemed better; another said he bought the APS drive for use under A/UX, and couldn't get it to work. Tracked the problem down to the drive, and APS swapped it for him and the second drive works fine. He also reported that APS claims many people are using the LXT-340 without problem under A/UX. Perhaps most typical is a user at AT&T who reported ordering 20 drives, had 7 dead within days, got replacements, and they all work fine. (He didn't say what model.) So what am I going to do? I think I'm going to risk the LXT-340 from APS: the two year warranty and APS's reputation for good service are enough to tilt me in favor. Still open for comments, Greg Sorensen sorensen@athena.mit.edu
IO91461@MAINE.MAINE.EDU (Tom Nezwek) (06/26/91)
The LXT-340s is really a miniscribe designed hd. It was part
of miniscribe's 4th generation R&D that never made it out the door.
When Maxtor bought Miniscribe's assets, It got all the R&D work on
these new 3.5" drives now made by maxtor under the model LXT. I bet
big money that those people with problems, all had Maxtor's 5 1/4"
full-height XT series. They, I am told, are available refurbished
in imense quantities because their MTBF is more like 1,000 rather than
150,000 hours. I have owned an LXT-340s for about a month with no
problems. Its faster and much quieter than the quantums. (I've had
many great quantum drives in the past!) I get 1.45meg/sec from my
LXT-340s which might qualify it as a "SCREAMER"...
-Tom