Don’t buy Maxtor Shared Storage II at Pat’s Point of View

Don’t buy Maxtor Shared Storage II

Published April 12th, 2008 in Ramblings

Well the title of this post says it all really. Regular readers may remember my comments on protecting the digital home, regarding my efforts to find a NAS solution for my home Mac network. Ironically, my chosen solution did little to live up to the title of that blog post, because the Maxtor Shared Storage II drive I purchased didn’t protect me at all.

A few months after purchasing the device, and having made it the centrepoint of our network with all documents, music, video copied onto it (and getting iTunes, iPhoto etc to use it as the library), I did one of my not so regular backups on the USB drive. Immediately following the backup the NAS drive died. It was no longer accessible via any means and was blinking error codes on it’s LEDs. It couldn’t even be turned off by the power switch.

I called the Seagate tech support, located in the Philippines I believe, and was shocked by the absolutely pathetic level of support I received. After asking some fairly useless questions I was told “Oh the drive faulty. You have to replace it”. Ahh, ok, what about all my files? Surely there is something I can do besides give up? No was the answer. There was further discussion but it’s not worth repeating here. Let’s just say Seagate were of no help whatsoever.

So I kinda freaked out. Had I lost everything? I had files from personal web development projects, video and photos going back many years (including of my brand new daughter!). I couldn’t believe that was it, all gone, nothing I could do to rectify the situation. I later learned that many other people have had similar (or worse) problems with these drives and received equally little help from tech support.

The next thing I did was to check the backup I had just done. I plugged the USB drive into my laptop but it wouldn’t read it. I tried Windows and OSX. No go. (I later learned it uses an Ext3 filesystem which is why I couldn’t read the disk). Freaking out a lot now, what good is a backup if you can’t use it? The trick is that you are meant to restore the backup onto the same device, so I would have to buy another Maxtor NAS.

I went into action mode. I called Harris Technology where I bought the drive from and they suggested I would have to use a data recovery service to get my files back. Some of you may remember I asked for suggestions on LinkedIn. Got some quotes, looked like I’d have to pay anywhere from $700 to $1500 to recover the data, and there were no guarantees. But I had a hunch that if I replaced the Maxtor Shared Storage II under warranty I could just restore the backup and be OK. It would cost nothing if it worked, but if it didn’t I would lose the data on the NAS drive and not be able to recover it. (Remember at this stage I didn’t know if the backup was even any good)

I took a gamble and did the warranty return. This happened several weeks ago, and in the time since I had purchased it they had stopped making the 320GB Maxtor Shared Storage II. The closest replacement was the 1TB dual disk version. Luckily I talked to a great guy in HT’s tech support who gave me a cash refund because the 320GB was out of production, and I put this money towards the 1TB unit (which had dropped in price substantially since I went shopping for a NAS solution).

I took the 1TB device home, plugged in the USB drive and the backup restored without a problem. Awesome! I had all my data back and now had RAID 1 (eg data mirrored onto both disks) “protection” for only a few hundred dollars more than I originally spent.

The other day, however, the new device stopped working in an eerily similar manner to the first one. OMG how crap are Maxtor drives? Same story, couldn’t connect to it at all and couldn’t turn it off or reboot. When I called tech support about the first drive, they had told me to unplug it from the power, but that seemed to kill it completely (as it wouldn’t even turn on after that). So I didn’t do that this time, I just left it the way it was.

I was really pissed off by this time, because I had not done a backup from the 1TB drive yet. I had been busy with work and a new baby. So anything we had done since the new drive would be lost, including quite a few photos and many hours of edited video! And I might not be able to get any of this back. I called one data recovery place that had been recommended to me, Payam in North Sydney, and I talked things through with a really helpful guy whose name I can’t remember. He was great, plenty of answers and knowledge of these rubbish Maxtor drives. Additionally, they quoted a fee of $400 (if they could recover the data) and would do the work locally, as opposed to many data recovery companies who ship the disk interstate if not overseas. So I had one option.

My other option was to accept I had lost everything since the last backup, replace the 1TB drive under warranty and restore the backup. But when I did some research into problems with the drives (as I should have done in the first place) I found that they are a complete disaster. Take a look at the comments on Amazon and Crunch Gear. I agree with many of the commenters, I can’t believe they can get away with selling such shoddy products! It was also rather disheartening to read the Seagate Community Forums, where there are many tales of woe and sadness. Lots of problems, very few answers.

So I decided there and then that there is no way I am going to buy another Maxtor product ever again.

I rang Harris Technology again and explained all this. It must have been obvious from my tone that I was not going to accept another replacement. The same fatal problem had struck two different drives in almost as many weeks. So they said I should be able to get a cash refund under warranty, again. I could use this money to buy something decent this time.

My first course of action was to retrieve the backup. Having learnt that the backup drive was formatted as Linux Ext3, I set about finding a way to read that. I’m no Linux expert so I don’t have a spare machine sitting around for such an occasion. Some research uncovered some suggestions on how to read Ext3 under Mac OSX, but I had no luck with these methods. Windows being more popular, I thought I’d give that a try and came across ext2fsd, a software tool that would let me read the drive in Windows XP. And the terrific guys at Payam also suggested Knoppix, a Linux distribution that runs off a single CD, turning any computer into an instant Linux machine. I also found that I could run Ubuntu in Parallels on my Mac. Three solutions that would let me recover the backup files, with a bit of fiddling (OK quite a lot).

(Knoppix rocks by the way, dead easy to create, just download the CD image and burn it. It read the Ext3 drive no worries at all. And Ubuntu running in Parallels is also quite cool, but did have some issues with seeing the USB drive. I didn’t fancy the idea of ext2fsd but it actually turned out to be the easiest approach.)

As for my new storage solution, well I am now very wary of NAS—these consumer products are just not up to scratch and the Mac support in the Maxtor drive wasn’t great anyway. So I thought I’d get an Apple Airport Extreme Base Station which as well as giving me faster WiFi and better Mac-ness, would allow me to plugin any USB drive and make it a NAS device. To go with this I was going to get a LaCie d2 Quadra 320GB USB drive as these are recommended by Apple and have a great reputation. Or if I did want to buy another NAS device, I could get a LaCie Ethernet Disk mini. Either way, I would continue to use the Maxtor USB drive to backup.

You may notice I said I was going to do this. In preparation for returning the 1TB Maxtor Shared Storage II device, I had to turn it off. First I thought I would unplug it from the network, as many people in the Community Forum were suggesting the problems stem not from the hard disks, but from the firmware and/or network interface. After doing this I unplugged the power. I then thought for laughs I would plug it back in and see what happens, after all it couldn’t get any worse. To my astonishment the drive booted, rejoined the network and was fully functional. I immediately ran a backup onto the USB drive!

I am now in quite a strange situation. Technically I can’t return it under warranty since it’s working, but I don’t trust it even as far as I could throw it (which wouldn’t be far). I guess I’ll do very regular backups and wait for it to fail again, which I can’t imagine will take very long. At least I have a new solution planned for when it does.

So at the end of the day, it’s been rather stressful, but possibly not as bad as it seemed. I would still recommend that you do not buy a Maxtor Shared Storage II, or any other Maxtor product. Besides the critical problems described here, I could also comment on other features of the device that I find less than optimal, such as the poor administrative interface and overheating issues, but I can live with those as long as the thing works properly.

I bet they call me up now and try to convince me they make good drives :) Ahh the power we wield in the blogosphere!

See what people are blogging about: NAS, network storage, Maxtor Shared Storage II, ext3, data recovery

Popularity: 35% [?]

24 Responses to “Don’t buy Maxtor Shared Storage II”

Feed for this Entry Trackback Address

1 Anthony Apr 14th, 2008 at 3:55 pm

I also had the same issues you faced, I went threw 4 devices before i said F it…I baught a Linlsys NAS Caddy Threw 2 500GB drives into it and went that rout, its been great so far 8 months with no issues where the MAXTOR was 4 in less than 2 months, and the best thing ablut the Linksys NAS is its built on NT so if the NAS Device Fails the data is still Descoverable…
2 Pat Apr 14th, 2008 at 4:53 pm

Thanks for the tip Anthony! I looked at the Linksys product you mentioned, but thought Maxtor was more reputable. I’ve definitely changed my mind.
3 Mike Apr 21st, 2008 at 11:08 pm

Maybe you should look into online backup, check out Mozy. Or maybe setup a RAID, that way if a drive fails you just plug in a replacement and the system rebuilds itself.
4 Pat Apr 22nd, 2008 at 9:56 am

Hey Mike, I have thought about the online backups before, but to be honest I don’t like not having my own data (and the fact that someone else could do who knows what with it). But I will admit it’s probably more reliable and convenient.

As for setting up RAID as you suggested, to do it well costs way too much. The low-end solutions such as the Maxtor are just not good enough, so you have to go for a more expensive solution, I may as well run a full server.
5 Nick Apr 25th, 2008 at 1:46 pm

Hey Pat. I also have a Maxtor Shared Storage II 500mb for about 5 months without any problem. I did return the the original unit for having a noisy fan out of the box but the drive itself (while being basic in function) has worked without a hiccup.

As for other NAS solutions the DLINK DNS-323 seems to be a solid performer for just over $200 on ebay. You will need to but 2 drives for it setting you back another few hundred dollars.

You could still return the Maxtor drive as being an intermittent device and receive your refund.
6 Pacey May 1st, 2008 at 1:07 pm

Pat, thanks for the report, I was just about to buy one of these based on my experience with Seagate hard drives, which I have always found to be outstanding and never had a problem with.

It looks like this box is a different story however, so I’m opting for the Netgear ReadyNAS duo.
7 Pat May 1st, 2008 at 1:22 pm

No probs Pacey. I guess you’re not a Mac users if you’re going for the Netgear. I do like the look of that device, but since it doesn’t support Macs I didn’t consider it. Make sure you have a good look for reports of problems with the thing before you buy it!
8 Jimmy Payne May 21st, 2008 at 5:51 am

Very good, I have had three go trash and they wont atleast admit it. Nice ;;;;;;;
9 Pat May 26th, 2008 at 9:36 am
An update on the situation. The NAS device has been working well since the last incident, running pretty much constantly. I put this success down to the cooler ambient temperature now that we’re heading towards winter.

Then all of a sudden it started flashing an error code on the front LEDs. Anyone who has one of the 1TB units will probably be familiar with this code: green orange orange orange orange. This apparently means “filesystem error”. Oh joy.

By this time the device was inaccessible again, neither by HTTP or SMB/CIFS. And I couldn’t turn it off using the power button. Nothing much had been written to the drive since the last backup, so I felt I had nothing to lose. I couldn’t hear the disks spinning so I pulled the power plug. This is a wonderfully satisfying action, especially when accompanied by the (internally spoken) words “die you bastard, die!”.

Plugging the power back in and booting it revealed a working device but the error code was now green orange, indicating a RAID sync problem. Reading the support forums this appears to be quite common, but someone has found a solution. I followed the instructions and was able to rebuild the RAID 1 array by re-adding the disk that had got out of sync. It was surprisingly easy and other than the array rebuilding, took a matter of minutes.

So I now have a solution to the two most common issues:
1. if the drive goes nuts, disconnect the network, wait for no disk activity, and then unplug the power
2. if one of the disks gets out of sync, login and rebuild the RAID array
What else can go wrong?
10 Peter May 28th, 2008 at 11:21 am

I couldn’t agree more. More specifically, the problem is worse when dealing with Digiworld. My Maxtor 500GB lasted weeks and was returned for repair/replacement. The diagnosis was to take one week. 8 weeks and counting, 5 phone calls and requests for return calls unanswered, I am told by the Sales Mgr that repairs are the responsibility of the technician, as is customer service and satisfaction!
11 Pat May 28th, 2008 at 1:08 pm

Hope things improve for you Peter. What was the specific problem you had with the drive?
12 Peter May 29th, 2008 at 12:38 pm

Thanks for your help. The problem is pretty simple. The disks would not spin although mains power was supplied at the cord. I have advised Seagate, as Digiworld still haven’t returned promised calls. The unit was registered and there is no issue of warranty; just indifference by the retailer.
13 Craig Mortimer Jun 13th, 2008 at 4:47 pm

I have had the exact same problrm with a Maxtor 320 now they want me to send it back with business accounts information on it. I thought it was strange the way they said it must be faulty so quick over the phone.
14 Pat Jun 13th, 2008 at 4:52 pm

I think it says a lot about what Seagate think about the Maxtor products they “inherited”.
15 Jeff Jun 23rd, 2008 at 7:50 pm

Thanks Pat, we’re about to buy that Maxtor shared Storage II so since you mentioned that I lost my interest of buying that storage. I’m thinking now about D-Link DNS-323.
16 Bye bye Maxtor at Pat’s Point of View Jul 5th, 2008 at 6:46 pm

[...] enough is enough. I have finally ditched my Maxtor Shared Storage II NAS drive which I had so much trouble with. I was sick of it screwing up, but mostly I was sick of not being confident that my data was [...]
17 Raul Lucky Jul 6th, 2008 at 1:23 am

Pat,

Just found your blog via Google. I am using one of the infamous MSSII 1TB drives too and am getting the out of sync RAID every once in a while and have to turn off and on the device to get it back working. Also, I just purchased a D-Link DNS-323 from Amazon and will be working on getting that up and running too. I am wondering if reflashing the firmware with the open-source one will give better stability to the system or is the controller just plain crap? I chose the DNS-323 because of its known reliability, the user-replaceable drive and the fact that it gets great support (at least new firmware releases to address issues). However I do use the Maxtor USB/FW drives and am trying to move more towards user-replaceable systems (that do not void warranty). So what are you using now?

cheers,

Raul
18 Pat Jul 7th, 2008 at 1:44 pm

Raul, I’ve decided to go with an Apple Time Capsule, which so far looks good. Getting data from the Maxtor backup is proving time-consuming and a little frustrating, but I wouldn’t have expected anything else.
19 Mike radtke Sep 20th, 2008 at 1:48 am

is there a way to copy the image from one device to another. i have 2 one with a bad HD. i purchased a blank drive and wanted to put the OS on it to get the second running
20 Pat Sep 22nd, 2008 at 10:15 am

Hi Mike

Not sure what you’re asking. If you have a single disk Maxtor Shared Storage II and the drive has died and you want to get the image off onto a second unit, I think you’re going to need a data recovery specialist.

On the other hand if you’re saying that you have a dual disk Shared Storage II with one bad disk and you want to replace that disk and rebuild the RAID array, then that is possible. I read that some people were doing this on the support forums:

http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board?board.id=mss

I’ve not done it myself, but it doesn’t sound too hard. Note it will definitely void your warranty (just in case you are worried about such things).

cheers

Pat
21 Alex Oct 7th, 2008 at 10:07 am

Pat,
Thank god I’m not the only one going out of my mind! My first drive (500GB maxtor shared storage II) failed at 11 months (just inside warranty) and was replaced. 6 months later, this replacement drive has also failed - this time, I’m getting the cold shoulder from Seagate and I also will never buy seagate or Maxtor again.
After having lost my data twice, I can’t take another risk with an inferior product.

Congrats on a great forum
Cheers

Alex
22 Pat Oct 7th, 2008 at 11:11 am

@Alex glad I could help, even if it was just making you feel like you’re not alone. What exactly were the problems you experienced? Did you try to get your data off either of the drives? It was real tough but when I finally gave up on my Maxtor SSII I did get everything off it.

Update on my Apple Time Capsule: absolutely no problems. It has worked continuously for months now, rarely if ever being turned off. No access denied problems, no overheating problems.
23 Jerry Oct 8th, 2008 at 7:59 pm

I have the same problem also. It failed last month with 2OOGB worth of critical company data after only 6 month in operation. Lucky I have backed up all the data into another custom 4x 125GB HDD PC which i dedicated for storage. My friend just had the same problem yesterday. Two thumbs down from us for Maxtor and Seagate.
24 Pat Oct 9th, 2008 at 8:04 am

@Jerry glad to hear you managed to survive the Maxtor Shared Storage II experience with your data intact. Did you build your new storage PC yourself or buy it ready-built?

Search

Latest posts

Old favourites

Where I do what you’re doing now

Code and technology
Creative and multimedia
- Gooding’s Goodies
- The 52nd Floor
Design research
KM, IM and strategy
Misc
- Dilbert
- Indexed
- The Toe
UX, IA and IxD

Pat’s Point of View