My 160 gig drive is just about to quit on me, or so says Maxtor Powermax. I first figured it out today, after doing a complete format of my drive and re-installed Mandriva 2005LE and Windows XP. I first noticed that something was wrong when my linux didn't want to mount a couple filesystems at boot up and couldn't repair the errors. This tipped me off, because XP was fine, booted no problems.

So I checked it out, downloaded the diagnostic software from my disk's manufacturer (Maxtor Powerblast) and it told me that my drive is about to fail, and I should backup all my data before it dies. Wow, so I check out the warranty to see if i'm still covered, but it looks like it wore out in february! argh! *laugh*

So what I was wondering what could be the cause?

I've been formatting and partitioning like mad the past few weeks, as i've just found linux and i tried literally a dozen different distros before settling on Mandriva 2005LE. Could all that be the reason why my drive has just crapped out on me?

Thanks for reading,

Not likely, it is probably just a coincidence.

purelithium: Some makes of hard drives are not as reliable as others.

Next time, try a Western Digital or a Seagate and be sure to test the drive with the manufacturer's diagnostic software before you use it.

i hope it didn't seem like this was a new drive, as it's about 3-4 years old and was used by a small business before me. I was given it as part of a junked computer

I haven't had much luck with seagate in the past, as a 30 gig barracuda I had went south about 6 months after I bought it. And I haven't had much experience with WD, although I do recall I had a 120 mb disk by them a long time ago, back in Dos days....

Seagate and Maxtor drives are slow and they use more CPU resources than Western Digital and IBM/Hitachi. I prefer Hitachi drives because they are the fastest. Western Digital are also as good as IBM/Hitachi. I recommend both Western Digital and IBM/Hitachi for desktop or workstation systems.

Partiitioning and formatting multiple times does not reduce the life of the hard drive. I think the previous owner set the drive into stand-by which does reduce the life span of the hard drive significantly. For your new hard drive never, never put the drive in stand-by or sleep mode. Always have it at full throttle.

Hard drives are fragile so handle them as you were handling radioactive material. I have a hard drive lasting over a decade which is a Western Digital hard drive in an 80386DX-40.

And the newer “black” Western Digitals are exceptionally quiet in addition to being very fast. Also, if you get the OEM WD drives, they come with a 3-year warranty. It's beyond me why people pay more for the retail WDs that only come with a 1-year warranty.

WDs have been my favorites for a long time.

Looks like I'll be getting a WD or Hitachi when I get a replacement for my 160. Thanks for the help, everyone!