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From: sorensen@athena.mit.edu (Alma G. Sorensen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware,comp.unix.aux
Subject: Maxtor drives: Summary of comments
Message-ID: <1991Jun25.160432.6591@athena.mit.edu>
Date: 25 Jun 91 16:04:32 GMT
Sender: news@athena.mit.edu (News system)
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Lines: 36


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