Maxtor Ultra Hard Drive Kit - Hard drive - 80 GB - internal - 3.5" - ATA-133 - 7200 rpm - buffer: 8 MB

Comment: I picked up this hard drive to replace an aging smaller hard drive. I have in the past purchased Maxtor drives and used the Max-Blast software to transfer my files to the new drive and never experienced a problem. This time the software seemed to be lacking. Windows XP would not boot to the new drive once the swap was made. I needed to replace the old drive and download a third-party program to do what the Max-Blast software was supposed to do. The transfer of system files to a new computer is integral to the easy use of a new hard drive. I can't recommend something that requires the user to purchase additional items for use.

Comment: The Maxtor L01P080 7200 RPM 80 GB Hard Drive does what it says it does. When you get the box and open it, there are clear instructions for whatever purpose you intend to use it as, i.e., primary or slave drive. It tells you all jumper settings and walks you through the installation. I use it as my primary drive, sending my Western Digital OEM to the slave position. A lot of people have a problem with the unit, whether this drive or any other, due to technical inexperience. However, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to install this since everything is mapped out for you. One thing, it helps to have your original PC manual handy for removing/replacing/adding a hard drive. But if not, you can always look up your machine on the Web or call your manufacturer. Maxtor has live tech support to answer your questions if you have any regarding its products and they will walk you through the entire process if necessary. Of course, they won't take responsibility for you voiding your warrenty by opening the case, but that's expected.

Now, for the drive itself. It's not overly priced and delivers a solid, quiet and fast file accessing performance. I installed it, used the Maxtor CD Install Kit (which is recommended over using Windows Partitioner or FDISK for good reason, the Maxtor disk formats the drive to the companies standards because using Windows to format the drive will decrease the overall speed and handling of the unit), and had it up in about 30 minutes because I had to switch the drive placement inside the PC.

Once installed, the CD Kit will show you how to (and you can also do a Flash tutorial on Maxtor's website) transfer your data from your old disk drive, format new, make it a slave, et al.

Upgrading from a 2001 Western Digital drive I found the 8MB cache to be quick and I didn't have to wait but a mere few milliseconds when clicking on files, opening projects and loading programs. There's plenty of space to do your favorite video editing, storing video files, music or whatever you have to put on it. Of course, with this drive you'll get faster and noticeably so, however, please keep in mind that the hard drive is what it is -a hard drive - not a CPU, so if you are running a PII or PIII 1Ghz and below, any lag will generally be the processors fault, not the drive.

For the money, you can't beat the reliability and speed of this HD.

Note: Jumper settings. If, or when you remove your old hard drive, please look on that drive for specific jumper settings as they are not universal. Almost all drives list the specific settings to make it a slave or whatever you use it for, right on the top. If not, remove the drive, or find out what drive it is and contact either the manufacturers website and/or call them.

Comment: in fact mine hasn't completed its imminent hard crash yet...it just burns for 30 minutes then quits...

no excess heat anywhere in the case...no software bug...it's this HD...

i won't rag on them totally, they have almost decent externals...except they don't vent well...

"it's been a good HD and now it has to die..."

z

Comment: I just purchased the Maxtor 80GB Internal Hard Drive and I have to say it's great! VERY easy to install, VERY FAST and quiet as well. If you are looking for a hard drive for extra storage and not too expensive then this is the one! Very pleased with the purchase!

Comment: I bought this drive for a custome built computer. I have used a few maxtor HD's before but I havent used one in any of my own computers. This hard drive worked for about 4 months. then my computer started crashing randomly. I thought it was because I had a virus (and incident with Kazaa) so I tried re-installing XP. During installation, setup said that some files wern't installed but i could go on and run XP without some. After installation the computer still randomly restarted. a few days later when I booted up, I headrd a horrable grinding noise and my comp quit working all together. Yes it was the hard drive all along. dont take chances with maxtor. western digital has much more stable and dependable hard drives