Maxtor L01P200 Internal 7200 RPM 200 GB Hard Drive Reviews

• Great Hard Drive

  
  By A1JUFEK4258SE3 on 2004-04-19
  This is a great drive. It's fast (about twice as fast as my other 2 and 3 year old 7200rpm drives) and it's silent and seems to be reliable. It's also at a great price for the capacity, and it's Maxtor, a trusted name in hard drives. I got the ATA card with mine, but I used another Silicon Image card I purchased previously (it has the same features but gave less problems, my computer took longer than it should to start up with the Maxtor ATA card). The MaxBlast software worked perfectly and never gave me any trouble. All those giving bad reviews because of the software or lack of card need to stop complaining. The point is, the actual hard drive is great, and you won't go wrong purchasing it. I like it so much, I decided to purchase the 160 gig version to replace two of my other hard drives.
  
  

• Warning: What you see is NOT what you get!

  
  By A1LYIVCIGOOEJN on 2004-01-24
  DO NOT BUY THIS ITEM IF YOU EXPECT TO GET THE ATA/133 CARD WITH IT!

  Tech specs at Amazon.com for this Maxtor L01P200 7200 RPM 200 GB Hard Drive specifically state that it comes with a "Maxtor Ultra ATA/133 card for Windows". That was my sole reason for buying this particular 200 GB hard drive instead of any other.

  I clicked the button at Amazon.com to purchase from J&R Music & Computer World since theirs was the primary "Add to Shopping Cart" button for this hard drive. Since it was to be a Christmas gift, I also paid for expedited shipping. That was on Dec. 8, 2003. It finally arrived January 13, 2004 - so much for the "expedited" estimated delivery date of Dec. 11-16 -- and so much for Christmas!

  The Maxtor box that finally arrived from J&R looked exactly like the one in the Amazon picture. It even had the same item number on a sticker on the box: L01P200. However there was no ATA/133 card. I called J&R and their customer service rep was confused, agreeing that their product is advertised as having an ATA/133 card in the box, but that theirs don't have the card in the box. However J&R agreed to put in a parts order and ship me the card since it was advertised as being included. (By the way they also stated they would refund my shipping since I paid for expedited and it took 5 weeks to arrive.)

  A few days later I received a phone call from J&R stating that they changed their minds, they would NOT ship the part since theirs didn't usually come with it anyway. Then they apparently decided to think it over a bit and said they would call me back. They never did. I called today to check on the ATA/133 status and was firmly told that the issue was closed; they will not ship the card and the most they can do is issue a $15.00 refund (and no shipping refund either).

  So I paid $211.63 (including shipping) to J&R Music & Computers through Amazon.com for a hard drive missing the advertised but required ATA/133 card, which took 5 weeks to get in the first place. Now I will have to pay at least an extra $40 (plus shipping) to buy the necessary ATA/133 card separately. Even with the "$15.00" refund this turns out to be a very expensive hard drive.

  All I can say is this: Never again will I purchase anything computer-related here again. I'm going back to Pricewatch from now on. At least with the merchants there you get what you order, and have real recourse if you don't.
  
  

• Always been satified with Maxtor

  
  By A2X8KN82L07RSK on 2005-02-08
  And this one is no different. I had purchased a 160GB Samsung to start building my new PC. I took this drive home only to find that their partitioning software that you have to download from their website did not even work. Instead of searching the internet for third party software to do this, I took the drive back to the store and got the 200GB Maxtor instead. Installation was simple, I just popped it into my PC and it was recognized immediately. I installed the Max Blast software and the drive was partitioned, formatted and ready to use in less than 5 minutes. NOTE: Your registry has to be modified to be able to recognize drives larger than 137 MB, but the Maxtor software does this for you.
  
  I will always buy Maxtor from now on; great products with no BS.
  
  
  

• BIOS update needed for older computers

  
  By A1YK1HO4QSN1Q2 on 2003-10-20
  We have a Gateway computer purchased around 1998/9 which I have recently upgraded to Windows XP. During the update it did tell me that I needed a BIOS update but everything else was working fine so I had not sought that out.

  I installed this drive, which is definitely not for the faint hearted - had to remove the fan, undo some of the CD Rom connections and then extract the bracket with the other hard drive first and then install the new hard drive and put the whole jugsaw back together again - definitely the hardest installation, or most nerve wracking, installation I have done yet. Still, all worked fine and I followed all the set up instructions.

  My compuer only recognizes 32GB. Obviously I want the whole 200GB I paid for.

  Went to Gateway.com and downloaded a BIOS update which refused to run. Called Gateway and was eventually told by them to tkae my computer into one of their stores as the BIOS update needs to be done correctly or I could wreck the whole computer and need to buy a new one. OUCH!

  So, 5 hours later I still only have 32GB and now I have to drive to a Gateway store to update that.

  I am sure this drive will run fine once I have the updated BIOS as the 32GB is running very well. So I think the drive is fine but if you have an older computer, check your BIOS. I am not sure I would do this again. Willbe happy once it is installed though.

  The week only service from Maxtor didn't help as I work during the week and it would have been nice to have had one of them there to talk to during this installation which I had to do on my only free day - a Sunday.
  
  

• Silent, reliable, great capacity... what else ?

  
  By AV5EJUVNNSM8K on 2003-11-22
  I purchased this Maxtor drive and took advantage of a great rebate. Also got a UltraATA/133 card in the bundle.
  Warning : not all boxes contain this UltraATA/133 card !!

  I can understand the frustration of not being able to access the entire 200GBs of the drive because of an old bios. But it is exactly the same problem for all drives, regardless of the brand. That's not specific to Maxtor. My PC (Athlon XP 1800/Gigabyte GA7DX, W2K) worked just fine. The installation is simple, but I may not be the best person to judge since I assembled my PC myself. Installation of a HDD is pretty standard. If you find it difficult, all drives will seem difficult to install. For this one, having a floppy to do the primary install is good because if you start from scratch, the floppy always works. The CD-ROM is sometimes more difficult.
  
  What I like the most ?
  - Performance is simply excellent
  - Capacity is, I think, very good and is currently the range that offers the best price per gigabyte
  - The drive is very quiet !
  - The bundled ATA/133 controller card allows me to get the full performance for the 3 disks I have
  - Capacity allows me to backup my entire 10G system disk frequently, which is nice.

  In short : an excellent drive, but the competition is so tight with other brands that you can probably rely purely on the price to make a purchase decision. Go for the biggest rebates...
  
  

• Review is for the MaxBlast Software
  By AIU93YMNWEKI7 on 2004-01-25
  Over the years I have had more than one system brought to its knees by the 'MaxBlast' partitioning software. DO NOT USE IT.

  If your OS (Operating System) cannot properly partition and format the drive to full capacity, then seek out one of the third-party programs that does it properly (e.g. Partition Magic).

  If the problem is with the BIOS (and not the OS) then upgrade the BIOS. If there is no upgrade (mfg out of business) then do not get a drive larger than your current BIOS supports.

  For those souls who bought this package expecting the ADVERTISED (still as of 24 Jan 2004) ATA card to be included then if it is not complain to your State Attorney General's Office of Consumer Protection. AMAZON is, or at least used to be, a Washington State company: WA has one of the strongest Consumer Protection offices in the country & it would be worthwhile contacting them, as well as the Better Business Bureau. If a company is going to advertise something then the company should sell what it advertises - anything else if fraud. Amazon is usually good about resolving these sorts of conflicts - do not know why they apparently are not doing so with this one.

  Maxtor drives are not my favorites, they are not as durable as many (I have a Maxtor 40GB external USB drive dying as I write this) but they are OK for the money (they are CHEAP) - but the MaxBlast Software is simply a time-bomb waiting to blow up for system.

  Avoid the Blast.
  
  

• Beware the Maxtor MaxBlast 3.0 software
  By AOEL2H9FGXVHC on 2004-01-21
  WARNING: Maxtors warranty claims that they are not responsible for any data loss experienced by using their software to upgrade to the new drive.
  
  TRANSLATION: After having my original (functioning, working) Win2K SP4 system corrupted by the MaxBlast 3.0 software (following all instructions), Maxtor has refused to respond to my complaints in a satisfactory way. The total cost was >20 hours of my time completely reinstalling my system and programs.

  SUGGESTION: Don't use the software provided. Research other hard drive vendors who make similar products but have better warranties.
  
  

• Definitely hit or miss
  By A3M44M02O018YG on 2006-02-21
  I have had three of these hard drives so far, one is years old and works fine, the second lost all data and will not work, the third i put in a computer I built by myself, it worked flawlessly for 6 months, then wouldnt load the OS properly. Its final day in my computer it LIT ON FIRE. While my first one has had zero problems, the second is a fancy paperwieght, and the third is useful for lighting candles...buyer beware....
  
  
• Loud and incompatible
  By A1X634IJYL1UGY on 2005-04-06
  This hard drive has some serious serious issues.
  
  First of all, it's absurdly loud. I own two Western Digital drives and they're barely audible. The intermittent clicking and grinding sounds from this drive, however, ruin the music I listen to and the movies I watch on my computer. I can't stand it. Whoever said this drive was silent needs to have his/her ears checked.
  
  Second of all, this drive has some SERIOUS compatibility issues. In my new computer (Biostar iDeq Athlon 2500+) it would not work unless I set the jumpers to "slave". Otherwise the computer would hang when I booted it up (a DMI problem, the computer said). In my old computer, an Alienware Athlon 1400+, things were even worse. Files would mysteriously disappear and partitions would randomly un-format themselves. The problems would not go away after a BIOS update. These problems are not unique; I searched the web and Maxtor is well-known for having serious serious DMI issues like the ones I suffered.
  
  I don't know what oddballs would recommend this drive over a Western Digital or Seagate. I bought it because the price was right; I now see it was worth the extra $30 or so to buy a drive from a brand I trust. Don't go with Maxtor.
  
  
• Only thing lasted shorter than the drive, was the warrenty
  By AB5N4A5118C7S on 2005-05-01
  Drive was slow to open, and got the "click of death" after 13 months. Maxtor only warrenties for 6 months. Seems they know something you should know!
  
  
• This drive is plug n play and excellent value for the money
  By A224V4NQYDKNH9 on 2005-05-22
  I bought this drive at Staples $130 less $30 instant discount and $30 MIR thus costing $70! It didnt come with a card but my new Dell 4700 can handle drives larger than 137GB capacity. I put this drive into an external USB 2.0/Firewire case I bought from CUSA for $40.
  
  After connecting the USB cable and flipiing the power switch to on, it was recognized instantly by my Win XP Media Center DELL 4700 PC. I used software it came with to set up the drive and it was ready in less than 5 minutes. Total formatted capacity 203GB!! So I have a 200GB external drive for barely $110 less 12% Staples customer appreciation discount this week.
  
  
• Good harddrive
  By A2GIWHL6M8QXY9 on 2004-06-20
  I've had this drive in my system for about a year to store MP3's and videos. I should have backed up all of my files because my old harddrive has failed, and with 200GB of storage, you won't run out very quickly. Mine came with the ATA card, and it was easy to install. It has worked fine, and quietly ever since and I am pleased with the purchase.
  
  
• Stay away from Maxtor Drives (0 Stars)
  By AE1IT64JYGU4O on 2005-07-17
  I would not even give it one star but that is the lowest score possible. This is the second Maxtor drive that failed after just over a year (you think that I would have learned by now.) After crashing a couple of times already, the drive seems to be heading to the death zone after the latest crash. Of course, as another reviewer noted, the waranty is shorter than the short life of this drive.
  
  This may appear to be a bargain but it does not last so it is very expensive in the long run.
  
  I would not use a Maxtor drive even if it was given to me free bacause it is not worth the time I spend on recovery every time it crashes not to mention the unrecoverable data between backups.
  
  Never again Maxtor.
  
  
• Cavet Emptor
  By AWB64SOWJOIEU on 2005-12-03
  Learn from my mistake.DO NOT buy a Maxtor drive.Do Not buy ANYTHING thru Amazon!! Their shipping is horrible.I wasn't in a hurry so I didn't use expedited shipping.Maybe if I had it would have taken less than three weeks but I wouldn't bet on it being less than two!!!The drive didn't come with the ata card as advertised and it is already making strange noises after just 2 mo's.Be wise,I found a 200 gig Seagate at Wal-Mart today for $70 and tax.No shipping AND it has a five year warranty!!!
  
  
• Terrible Quality Control
  By A1LTJ3HIN239LG on 2006-07-04
  I've used Maxtors and Seagates for years (and I mean years) on the systems I build. Frankly, I've never had any 3.5 drive fail on me (2.5 drives, yes, -but none of the full sized drives). Well 2 of these drives started corrupting data and anaylsis showed they are rapidly going bad - lots and lots of bad sectors. These 200 GB drives are 3 months and 4 months old and on a system fully protected against power failure. I have small Maxtors and Quantums (6GB), that still run great, though are of limited
  utlity due to their size and speed. Somewhere down the road Maxtor quality control went down the tubes. If you read the reviews you'll see how many people are losing these drives in a short period and how Maxtor seemingly sells more of their refurbished drives than new ones. It is Seagate now for me and its 5 year warranty. At least I can still say that after running Segates as my primary drives on my Macs and PCs, not a single drive has been a prloblem (I'm keeping my fingers crossed). Seaate has aquired Maxtor, but the commitment to quality products hasn't rubbed off. BTW, Maxtor RMA is a hassle. Unless your drive is totally dead you'll need to run the Maxtor druve utility and get the error codes. Even if the drive is smoking and is filled with bad sectors. Maxxtor won't help. Wiothout that code -- no RMA! Obviously you should get another drive -- a Seagate is a good idea.
  
  
• Caution... hot zone...
  By A13R8GNKGUOTPB on 2006-11-03
  Maxtor is typically a trusted name for me, having purchased dozens upon dozens of drives for various purposes during the course of my IT career. So, when I wanted to upgrade my personal portable USB drive (which contains my digital media), purchasing the Maxtor 200GB seemed to be a no-brainer. Let me add that I've used a slew of different drive brands and sizes in a slew of external cases with no issues...
  
  Unfortunately, Maxtor seems to have slipped in the QA department. Typically, if a drive is going to fail, it will fail within the first 30 days. This one did. So did the next one. And THAT was a first EVER in over 10 years in the IT industry. I was pretty much floored.
  
  I found that both failed units exuded excessive heat given the 7200RPM of this drive and both failed after heavy I/O usage causing the heat to increase even more. Now, we all know drives get warm, but this baby (both) were HOT to the touch. Something is amiss in Maxtor factory.
  
  Fortunately, this drive was an active access drive with data duplicated on another drive (also a Maxtor, but 300GB and is working fabulous, with limited heat... go figure) so I did not lose any data.
  
  Given that my 300GB mentioned above, and my personal experience with Maxtor in the past, I'm speculating that the large number of negative reviews indicate simply a manufacturing defect. Move up to the 300GB model, you'll get more space, and hopefully avoid whatever's plaguing Maxtor's 200GB line.
  
  
• Excellent drive
  By A1C8GC9JWFTGSN on 2005-02-21
  I've owned this drive for many months and it has performed flawlessly. It (like other large & fast drives) gets pretty warm after running for a while. If you just make sure your case is well ventillated you shouldn't have any problems.
  
  I've built many systems with many different hard drives and have only had a couple fail. They weren't Maxtor, but it just as easily could have been. If you value your data, either back it up, or go with a RAID system. Failures can and do happen, no matter what brand of drive you buy.
  
  As far as the whiners that gave this drive poor marks, what can I say? Looks like instead of rating it on the merits of the drive itself, they took out they frustration because of either poor marketing, or an obvious case of not reading their own system manual before making the purchase.
  
  Make no mistake. This is an great drive (for PCs built in this century) and when on sale, offers ample room for drive hogging chores, such as video editing and archiving. I highly recommend it.
  
  
• Bought 5, had 3 fail
  By A1Y5IF71BX7URN on 2006-03-13
  What an awful experience. I've purchased five of these drives (from three different sources -- not a bad lot or anything). Within 1.5 years, three of them have corrupted data. I'm tremendously lucky that I've got them in a RAID-5 array and never had two fail at the same time. I was only able to get two of them replaced on warranty.
  
  Don't touch this drive (or probably any other Maxtor for that matter) with a 10-foot pole. You will get burned.
  
  
• worst quality I have ever seen.
  By A35L9FX31FOPV5 on 2006-07-06
  In the last few months I bought 4 maxtor harddrives from different places, and i must say that i agree with Mr. Robert Bornstein, at first I didn't have any problems with them but 3 months later I started havening alot of problems with 2 hard drives... don't buy maxtor..
  
  
• Just plain horrible ..
  By A1K40H3KI5BITM on 2006-07-16
  First thought - no one should be able to write a review on a hard drive until it's a year old. If that were the rule, you would see almost no positive reviews for these new maxtor drives. Purchased 5 drives over a one year period and have had three fail. Maxtor replaced those without any issue, except that the replacement drives (which were refurbished) also failed within 3 months. Quite and fast mean nothing if you end up losing your data. BTW - each drive had dedicated cooler fan and pc's were on UPS so there aren't any excuses. There's a reason why these drives have one year warranties. Beware.
  
  
• Great price for a very able 200gig drive
  By A22B76ZM4CLC9X on 2005-09-05
  This drive was too good of a price to pass up when I needed more room for pictures and videos; I was actualy a bit leery about this purchase, given the size of the drive at this price, but I have been very satisfied. The drive installs easily enough for those not afraid of taking the cover off the computer, and should work with most computers.
  
  
• Not my first, not my last
  By A2ZU4L8XD8B8JA on 2006-06-24
  I've been buying Maxtors for years now and have had them come through earthquakes in CA, a move half way across the country, and being carted around in two hurricane evacuations. Other than during severe weather, they run 24/7 and are usually retired because of size, not failure. I know nothing of Maxtor's customer support as I've never needed them.
  
  This one is running like a champ, quiet and fast. Seems to run hot but pretty much every computer component these days is putting out a lot of heat. Good ventillation is a definite must.
  
  
• Maxtor warranty is NOT 6 months! Its one year!
  By A3LYWTXM1E18PM on 2005-08-08
  Some one has their facts wrong -- I have used Maxtor drives for years without issue..
  
  
• Hit And Miss It Just Depends
  By A1JAZQDYEEDQSX on 2006-01-27
  Was reading the other reviews and saw someone say that maxtors are crap and its the 2nd time hes had problems with a maxtor product and if my mother where here she would agree with you as she has come aross a bad maxtor harddrive and she refuses to try there product again however from my stand point i bought my first maxtor harddrive back in November of 1999 a little 20gb harddrive and in fact i still have it in my old computer and still runs great in march of 2003 i picked up a 80gb maxtor and it still runs prefect and thats why im picking up another one either 200 or 250 today =) but like the topic title says it just depends from harddrive to harddrive like how the one harddrive was handled during shipping does varys and the users them selfs , you know that 50% or harddrive failure is caused by miss handling of the product and 40% fail because of miss use / abuse of the product and well the of 10% have the bad luck of buying a lemon harddrive and i do feel bad for those who have had that bad luck really as everyone has had to go through with one product or another. @ the guy thats 0 for 2 well my advice try again lol i mean im 2 for 2 hoping to make it 3 for 3 =D
  
  
• Where is the zero star option
  By A2VD1KOM7TZGFI on 2006-06-04
  If you like to fry eggs on your hard drive, use Maxtor. If you don't like the heat, get out of the 'Maxtor' kitchen and get yourself a real hard disk like Seagate or WD. I work in the IT field and cannot count the number of dead Maxtors I've seen over the years. I doubt very much that Maxtor uses TQM, Six Sigma, or the Toyota way to produce their inexpensive HDD's.
  
  

• Viking - Memory - 128 MB - DIMM 168-pin - SDRAM - 100 MHz / PC100 - CL2
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• PNY 256MB DIMM PC133 SDRAM Memory
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• Lexar Media JD256-231 256 MB USB 2.0 JumpDrive

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