Rating: 
Summary: Not a reliable backup-drive
Review: I have had this drive for three months, and a friend bought one at the same time. After a month or so the one my friend bought crashed without warning, without being moved or there being any other logical reason for the crash. It just stopped working, claimed that there was no file system on the disk and the led faded in and out and it made weird noises when he tried to access it. Two months go by and the same thing happened with my disk! It has been in the same place for months, I haven't even moved it!
Rating: 
Summary: Works great, very quiet
Review: I have purchased Firewire hard drives from SmartDisk and EzQuest and the Maxtor is much, much quieter. It has worked flawlessly. The software package it comes with is unnecessary. Under Windows XP/2000, you can just plug in the drive and use it.
Rating:
Summary: Worked flawlessly
Review: I have Windows XP with 80GB of music saved. I wanted the ability to save my music to a separate source in case my computer gives out. I definitely do not want to re-burn all of my CDs to my computer again (this is a very time consuming task). Therefore, I decided to get an external hardrive. This would also give me the ability to hook the drive to my laptop so I can listen to my tunes when I am on the road. I hooked up this drive to my computer and the computer took no time to setup the hardware. I opened up Windows explorer and copied all of my music to the new drive. I also setup the Retrospect program that came with the software and used it to copy over the rest of the information from my hard-drive. It took longer to copy with the program but it was also very simple to use. I unhooked the drive from my computer and plugged the drive into my laptop and it was able to play all of my music without a hitch. I am not a computer person, but I was able to hook this device to my computer and run it without even looking at the instructions. I highly recommend this product for anyone with a similar agenda.
Rating:
Summary: IGNORE THE NEGATIVE REVIEWS - REALLY
Review: I own three of these drives, 250GB, 160GB & 200GB. The 160 & 200 are 7200rpm, the 250 is 5400. Don't get a 5400, it's too slow. The 160/200 also have an 8mb buffer, makes a TREMENDOUS difference from the 250GB model, which only has a 2mb. I use Firewire & Windows 2000, the drives are daisy-chained to each other with no problems. I do format the drives when received to NTFS format, they come formatted as FAT32, this can take over an hour but ultimately worth it. With firewire and probably USB 2(haven't used) these drives are just about as fast as internal drives. I use them for digital editing and burning. The 7200rpm drives are great for digital video/audio and are fast enough to keep up with processing large files or burning to CD/DVD. Just make sure to defragment the drive regularly just like any other.
The Retrospect software is a bit backwards, but works. The one-touch feature is great, though I don't use often. I've read all the negative reviews here, either they bought refurbished drives or bought from a less than reputable dealer, or just plain dropped them. No problems with these drives; I use them daily and intensively. Make sure you have a good Firewire card in your machine also, that helps. I've bought from Maxtor directly and amazon. Also, Windows uses page files to speed up processing/memory. DON'T put these page files on these drives or you will see a slow-down and possible interference with other applications. These drives are a godsend, and I've owned many others over the years, these are indeed the best so far. Highly Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Wouldn't work for me
Review: I run Mac G4 wil OS 9.2.2 and I couldn't get this drive to run well for me - Anytime I tried to copy large folders it would stop part of the way through and say "a disk error has occured" -- I bought it originally to get video from my Sony Camcorder, but imported frames kept coming out solid green and black -- I ran Norton Utilities, tried every trick - but it still wouldn't work well... I read on CNET of similar problems so I returned it immediately....
Rating:
Summary: Run, don't walk, away from this drive!!!
Review: I wish I could give it ZERO stars! I had this hard drive hooked up for less than 24 hours. You heard me correctly. At about 1 am it started clicking and never stopped. I wasn't even using my computer at the time. After that it never mounted again. I could not access any of my files. Some were very important. I called Maxtor directly and asked for help. They told me to erase the drive and it should work again?!? "What about my files?" I said. "You should have backed up," they said. I only had it for one day!!! This was my backup!!! They wouldn't even help me recover any of my files. I could see if this was six months down the road, but one day?? I returned this as fast as I could and will NEVER buy a Maxtor product again with that kind of lousy customer service...
Rating:
Summary: Junk
Review: I wish I had found out about this crappy hardware earlier. My 160GB failed today after ~6 months of use. The outer case was very hot to the touch. The hard drive inside was too hot to hold in your hand. I guess Maxtor forgot about cooling when they designed this. Hopefully I can retrieve some of the data on the drive.....
Rating:
Summary: Awesome When Necessary
Review: If you are storing high resolution digital videos on your hard drive, this is a must!!! I am buying another one! Make sure that you upgrade to high speed USB or use the 1394 firewire for data transfer. It still takes time to transfer 4 gigabyte files, but it is not that bad.... about 7 minutes.
Rating:
Summary: Lost five years of data...
Review: Last week, during the unimaginable worse time (a system re-install), my 5000DV decided to fail. When I finally got back into WinXP, I noticed the drive was inaccessible and would only make clicking noises. Do-it-yourself data recovery tools have not been successful (I've tried many). Needless to say, I was HORRIFIED AND SICK when I realized how much personal data I had lost. So now I will be sending the drive to a professional data recovery service, which charge $1500 and up. Maxtor's web site does list data recovery companies that won't void the drive's warranty. However, had I not ignored the negative reviews regarding reliability before buying, I wouldn't be needing such services now. I've only had my drive for four months.
Rating:
Summary: A real lemon.
Review: Like many others here, my drive performed quickly & quietly, but only for 4 months. Then it tanked, taking 80G or so with it. It was neither dropped, abused, refurbished or bought from a "disreputable" retailer. Moreover, I've done a bit of research & found my experience repeated ad nauseum by dozens of others who have bought this drive. In fact, seems I was lucky to get 4 months out of it; many haven't even made it that long. What's more, Maxtor didn't even ask me for any details before authorizing the return, which leads me to believe they're well aware of what a dog this drive is. My guess is they've made it so quiet by shortchanging the cooling of the drive. Before it failed, the case would get so hot you couldn't touch it. Sad really, as until this, Maxtor drives had always performed well in my experience. The replacement drive is still OK, but I've since bought a DVD burner for backing it up, as I've no faith this one will last either. Back to Seagate, I guess.
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