http://img432.imageshack.us/img432/9638/maxtor9cr.jpg
WTF, it's a <9ns drive!?
anyone having crappy performance with Maxtors?
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http://img432.imageshack.us/img432/9638/maxtor9cr.jpg
WTF, it's a <9ns drive!?
anyone having crappy performance with Maxtors?
yeah it isn't overly uncommon
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search
Yeah :eek: I hadn't even noticed anything but I just ran it- 18.7ms? WTF
ya i have 2 maxtors that perform poorly as well
Glad I'm not the only one!!!
I tried diabling NCQ and that didn't help, I reinstalled NF4 drivers and that didn't help either.
I emailed their tech support asking for a new firmware.
This is annoying, it was an expensive drive which is slow :slapass:
I hate to be the one to tell you this but their Atlas line are the only drives of Maxtor worth buying...Quote:
Originally Posted by lawrywild
Anyone with a seagate drive or WD drive with NF4 want to run HDtach for us? To get a comparison
edit: BTW if maxtor sends you a new firmware, be sure to upload it here ;) Thanks
edit2: I'm gonna email them too.. the more inquiries the better with these big companies
Sure, but I heard they're really stingy with releasing the firmware... :(Quote:
Originally Posted by Repoman
I ran it on my Seagate 2mb cache 80gb ATA which is sorta broken/dodgy but it works for storage and not OS and that did 15ns!?
make sure you mention your using Ultra-D, NF4 with all latest drivers and upload a screenshot of HDTach and put a link in the email ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Repoman
here are my 2 raptor 150's in raid 0:
http://s2.supload.com/thumbs/default/raptors.jpg
and here is just 1 raptor:
http://s2.supload.com/thumbs/default/1raptor.jpg
that completely kills our drives :eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by Grinch
LOL...:toast: :woot: :clap: :banana:
I got a response already.. needs all my drive info and brief system specs
didn't you do it through the form on the site?Quote:
Originally Posted by Repoman
that asked for all my details..
what email did you use, I'll try it aswell
Yeah I did it through the site, I filled it all in but he needs more info, like the "TLA" and current firmware revision.
edit: I ran another bench of HDtach to get a screenie for the support guy, and got 14.6ms :confused:Quote:
Before we can process a firmware request, we will need the following information:
*Serial Number (S/N) of drive
*full TLA from drive label
*code from drive label
*system specifications, including motherboard model, and controller chipset
*brief description of the issues you have been having with the drive
edit2: Just kidding, back to normal now with a healthy 18.1
hmm :confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by Repoman
I reran a couple of times and it went to 20ns, still VERY crappy..
20ns, that is super fast :p:
edit: here is some graphs of my 74gb raptors in raid-0
quick test
http://img49.imageshack.us/img49/938...sthd6fc.th.png
longer test
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/7...sthd2ln.th.png
work pc intel based raid-1 w/ 100gb WD pata's
quick test
http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/162...rkhd1ii.th.png
Got my update :D I will back up my music collection and flash, if it works I'll upload it here.
kool, is it BANC1G20?Quote:
Originally Posted by Repoman
Yeah, but it didn't fix the problem. Still 18.6ms :confused: Tried to upload but it says invalid file. Oh well
BTW I didn't even bother backing up, I figure my whole collection is on the MP3 player anyway and it's not like it would screw up
you sure you are plugged into native sata and not sil image?
hmm ok so forget the firmware.. help me search google...Quote:
Originally Posted by Repoman
so far we've tried
- Changing SATA and IDE controller drives to windows stock. X (I just tried that)
- Update Firmware. X
- Activating SMART. X (but seemed to increase boot speeds slightly)
I also found someone who said on other topics to try removing all other devices and trying, I'll try that in a sec.
Neither of us have sil image with our lowly ultra-d'sQuote:
Originally Posted by Grinch
Anyway one thing that's always concerned me is this-
http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/6...led21nn.th.jpg
Do you have that? I'm wondering if my drivers for the chipset might not be installed correctly. BTW I told the Maxtor guy that the firmware didn't help, he told me they've done all they can and I should make sure the controller is up to date.
those are the stock Intel ones which I loaded a couple of minutes ago and made no diff.Quote:
Originally Posted by Repoman
Just install latest NF4 drivers (6.70)
or right click them --> Update drivers --> no windows update ---> updated from list/specified loc. --> chose the ones :)
btw is the Maxtor your windows drive? how many times does the blue thing complete a bar? mine usually does it in 6-9.. (usually 7 or 8)
If you installed the nVidia storage drivers, it wont say "standard primary IDE controller" etc.
It does it in 3 1/4 bars lol.. but that is on a severely cut down installation with nlite. I also sampled XP64 and it loaded in 2 passes, but didn't support my network card..
Anyway I have installed the nforce4 drivers :confused: Do you have to install the IDE part?? On dfi-street they always say to NOT install the IDE drivers.
Here is my Raptor 36 GB and Seagate 250 GB
I have had some problems with the Maxtor drives, but they stopped about a week ago, because the drive set on fire :slap:
:lol: :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Leverpospade
Anyway just installed the IDE drivers, no difference. Except windows did load in 2 bars :woot: probably just a one time thing though.
Anyway looks like at least my drive isn't TOO bad, 15.4ms compared to 18.6.. though that 22ms, ouch.. I will keep looking for solutions, let me know if you find anything
would having a partition on the drive slow it down a lot?Quote:
Originally Posted by Repoman
http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/show...8&postcount=25
did you install using the floppy? I didn't...
I'm going to load a backup software, move image over to my seagate, write 0's to my disk (never done that before but restores it to factory) using TMod's bios CD and then format and copy the image over... TOMORROW lol :p:
I don't know, I have 3..Quote:
Originally Posted by lawrywild
What do you mean by "install by floppy?" the firmware? If so I used a bootable flash drive for that
And LMK if the write 0 thing works OK, If I were you after you write the 0's, do a fresh install with just one partition, test, see how it does.. rewrite the 0's and then put your image back on, retest.
I don't know if that's worth the trouble though, seems to be a problem with maxtor drives in general :confused:
PS what drive do you have? I have 6B250S0 diamondmax 10
I think what he is refering to is using the floppy as in F6 to load drivers for chipset...as if you were going to raid or something? :toast:
Maxtors are the spawn of evil.... I just lost my third last weekend :slapass:
I will never ever buy another Maxtor in my life.... ever! :fact:
Got a WD and used it to recover some of my data from the Maxtor and I'm loving it already... I'll get the Maxtor replaced by a WD tomorrow too... :)
And this new WD responds a hell of a lot better then the bloody Maxtor.. so if you can.. dump it..
Yep, you are correct :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Grinch
yeh but whilst I was sieving through google results, there were also tons of issues with WD Caviars and Hitachi 16mb drives.. The only brand I fully trust atm is Seagate.. but this drive is 4 months old (yes it has been like his ever since I switched it from my P4C800-E (ICH5))Quote:
Originally Posted by NightCrawler
I got a reply bak from Maxtor and GUESS WHAT!, the usual "run Powermax", like jesus christ how stupid are these tech support, cmon... they must know it doesnt support NF4 by now!! :slapass:
not sure if it counts for anything but heres my maxtor score
and my DFI eXpert has some problems with it at times.
ok, I re loaded my image and wrote 0s. (one big partition now)
still the same, although my PCMark score increased :confused: ( XP startup went from 8.2mb/s to 9.2mb/s)
Well just for comparison I just ran the quick tests on my drives, max200 sata, max250 pata, wdraptor74gb, all on the same system, nf4 ultra-d.
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/6605/max2006yl.th.jpg http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/5...x2505gy.th.jpg http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/9024/rap745oh.th.jpg
Diamond Max 10's are known drives to be a lemon on the NF4 chipset :(
And I`m hearing it just after byuing couple Maxtors :(Quote:
Originally Posted by JasonDTM
Well actually I haven`t experienced any speed looses with them in RAID0.
btw if`ll use third party HD controller will this help me to skip NF4+Maxtor issue ? Anyone tryied it ?
not sure tbh, after reading through tons of threads, its not just NF4..Quote:
Originally Posted by Cooper
apparently it's EVERYTHING APART FROM ICH5!!!!???? :mad:
Hmm
So you mean Intel has some influence on HD manufacturers to make them develop products which are faster on Intel`s chipsets ? Or they just don`t open something Intel knows to other players ?
Now what I just sayd doesn`t mach with whole IBM PC architecture. :confused:
My Maxtor was also 4 months old.... :(Quote:
Originally Posted by lawrywild
So far my WD2500 Caviar SE16 runs great... although I'm questioning the temps.. Everest reports it as 50+°C :confused:
Well considering they got bought out by Seagate, you'll never really have a chance to buy another "Maxtor", although if you buy a Seagate, you essentially will be. :p:Quote:
Originally Posted by NightCrawlerâ„¢
Strangely, I've had more luck with Maxtors in the past than with anything else. The only decent WD drives I've ever had are my 74GB Raptors, which have been flawless.
I also suffer from this stupid situation, i have 3 maxtors in my PC, 2 in RAID and they are running like a turtle....
seagate 4 teh pwn...
This is what my WD pushes through....
http://img128.imageshack.us/img128/722/hdtach1ve.th.gif
I have one more graph to add, just installed a new Seagate 7200.8 300gb drive to test it, nothing changed system wise other than adding the new drive:
http://img45.imageshack.us/img45/5687/sg3000te.th.jpg
So my drives are as follows:
Maxtor 200gb SATA - 120.4 burst, 13.9ms ran access, 54.8 MB/s avg read
Maxtor 250gb PATA - 122.5 burst, 13.6ms ran access, 49.2 MB/s avg read
Raptor 74gb SATA - 126.9 burst, 7.7ms ran access, 64.8 MB/s avg read
Seagate 300gb SATA - 136.7 burst, 15.3 ran access, 57.7 MB/s avg read
So for Random Access the Raptor wins hands down followed by the Maxtors with Seagate having the highest random access out of my drives.
For Burst speed the Seagate wins followed by the Raptor with the Maxtors coming in last.
For Average read the Raptor performed the best followed by Seagate with the Maxtors coming in last.
Not sure if the Seagate being a fresh installed drive with nothing on it making a difference with fragmenation or something but thats the results on those drives from my system.
Why do several drives have these really odd peaks going up and down?
We all know about the result, but is there any solution yet ?
I think it's where large files are stored.Quote:
Originally Posted by NightCrawler™
I think my drops are the areas where my games are
been waiting almost a week now for the diamondmax firmware.. I cant even install xp it's so bad. how long did it take to get the new FW from em? can someone pm me if you know a better address or method of getting it out of em? maxtor support plain blows
I never actually got the firmware coz apparently my current firmware is fine for nf4 :stick:
Maxtor smells, I can't even get an advanced rma because you NEED a powermax code that says the hdd is faulty and you can't even run it on nf4. why don't they just :banana::banana::banana::banana:ing update the dam version!
I HATE MAXTOR!!!!!
interesting reads, I've yet to see anything from other manufactures. while the following doesn't releate at all to your maxtor problems, here is a sampling of what other drives and controllers can do.
This first batch is from my server. Its a Tyan s2892 based on the NF Professional chipset.
First up is the boot drive, Its a 34gb ultra 320 scsi 15k rpm. the controller is a HP 532 storageworks. notice the latency (random access). the spikes i attribute to it being a boot drive and where HD Tach is installed.
http://home.comcast.net/~butterfry/h...32.scsi320.jpg
Second up is a 250gb sata300 NCQ Hitachi. This is where the tests get interesting. Seems there's alot of WD fanbois out there for the perfrormance per buck ratio, my money is on these Hitachis. And no, out of the 100's of these Hitachi's i've installed in customers computers, they don't fail. I think i've had to replace one, and it was because a faulty PSU took out the whole system.
I should put a caviat in here though. The controller the next few are attached to is a PCI-X based SAS/SATA controller. Fairly high end, made by and based on the adaptec AIC-9410w chip.
http://home.comcast.net/~butterfry/h...daptec.sas.jpg
Next up, same controller but 80gb sata300 Hitachi.
http://home.comcast.net/~butterfry/h...daptec.sas.jpg
Again, same: Hitachi sata300 160gb, but slightly older model/firmware
http://home.comcast.net/~butterfry/h...daptec.sas.JPG
Now for something a bit more applicable, This is a 4 way raid 5 on the embeded NF4 sata controller. The drives are identical to the above mentioned 250gb sata300 Hitachi's.
http://home.comcast.net/~butterfry/h...t.nf4raid5.jpg
Truly some interesting results. I wasn't aware that the controller had so much to do with it. Notice the clean swaths on the sequential reads from the Adaptec controller. Fairly expected cpu usage as well for an offboard processor. I guess thats why its a server card, those precious cpu cycles are not wasted.
This all got me thinking, How about some tests on my workstation? Here is the ULIRaid on my CFX3200. A raid0 array using the sata300 version of the Hitachi 160gb drives.
http://home.comcast.net/~butterfry/h...li.sata300.JPG
Woa! not to good. How about a single sata150 250gb Hitachi?
http://home.comcast.net/~butterfry/h...li.sata150.jpg
crap, the uli blows. But before i pass judgment, i think i need to do some apples to apples comparison. I'll first raid up 2 of the 250gb sata300 in a raid0 on the Adaptec sas card. then bring that over to the NF4, and finally to the workstation to compare results. Should be interesting. Stay tuned.
-Butter
This is from NGO, problem is how to locate the firmware patch :-sQuote:
It seems that there is a serious compatibility issue between some of the Maxtor DiamondMax 9/10 SATA series with an early firmware revision and some nForce4 based motherboards. Some of the effected motherboards are the ASUS A8N series, the DFI LAN Party NF4, and some MSI nForce4 based boards. The problem lies between onboard SATA controller and the hard drive. The workaround is a firmware upgrade for the hard drive. However, we tried to grab the update and for some reason Maxtor gave us a hard time when trying to locate it. For unknown reasons, they are not offering the update on their website. This is a pretty nasty move. The compatibility issue can cause data corruption, random lock ups, disappearance of the Hard disk, and read/write issues which may lead to a serious data lose. If you are experience it, try to look for a certain BIOS update, if you can’t find it, you will have to replace the hard disk or use a 3rd party SATA Controller. Maxtor, you have a website with download section. Use it, instead of giving your customers a hard time.
Oh and here's the test subject. Notice the sas card in the second pic. Its 8pt capable, but i need to find some sas to scsi cables. These tests certainly give me some motivation.
http://home.comcast.net/~butterfry/server/1.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~butterfry/server/4.jpg
:banana::banana::banana::banana: it, I'm getting a new drive.. firmware didn't do it, drivers didn't do it, new board didn't do it (though that's not why I got the new board :rolleyes: ).
What do you guys recommend? I want 250GB, you think Hitachi or Seagate will be better? If Seagate, 7200.8 or 7200.9? Also how am I gonna copy my current hdd to the new one? Thanks for any help :rolleyes:
I use acronis TrueImage to copy. the new versions work with NF4 raid, and of course regular single drive controllers.
As far as the drive performance is conserned, as you can see above, i'm biased :slapass: but you can't beat the bang for buck with Hitachi. Thats my 2c.
I should have made a new post out of all that above. I'm having pangs of guilt for userping the thread. Maybe when i do the 2xr0 tests i'll move it all.
-butter
It's no problem, you're doing all us maxtor owners a favor by convincing us to get new drives. Hope I can nearly break even by selling this
edit: check what I just found- http://www.storagereview.com/articles/200601/250_3.html
gg maxtor :rolleyes:
edit2: nvm, if you read on, maxtor does pretty well. Seems access times aren't a big deal
cool,
Its good info none the less. If my primary results hold up, it really shows the lackadaisical approach desktop board mfgrs take to the hd controllers they try to pass off as enthusiast class. Truly we'll all agree that the biggest bottleneck right now is these antiquated mechanical beasts that we all rely on.
I'll probably move it anyhow so others can see and form an outraged mob to lynch the perpetrators.
-Cory
nice, I'm getting fired up now. I've got a huge selection of 500's 400's and on down from all the mfgrs at the office. (oh the joys of being a system builder) I'll have to bring a few crates home to test out for yall.Quote:
Originally Posted by Repoman
EDIT: Ok, so I've decided to make this a full meal deal. I'm evolving my review/tests over here http://www.flickerdown.com/forums/showthread.php?t=243 for those of you that want to contribute. My plans are to bring home a bunch of different controllers that go across my desk over the next few weeks. I'll be posting a final expose` in a stand alone thread once all the data is compiled.
Carry on with your maxtor blasting :P
got a few questions about the scores.
does ur acces time and read speed worsen when u got alot of data on them and when they r put into several partitions?
This depends on a few factors and a few facts about the way drives access data.Quote:
Originally Posted by Starscream
fact 1. the begining of the platter is always a faster access/seek time. This is a phyiscal limitation. simply put, there is more space to cover on the edges of a platter as the circle gets bigger.
Fact 2. When a partitioned drive is near capacity and is fragmented, testing applications like HD Tach are subject to the same. HD Tach reads/writes test files with which it uses for its work. If the file system finds that the data needs to be broken up (fragmentation) then your times will be slower. This leads to the perception that drives are slower when full. This isn't the case, it just has to retreive this file from multiple locations, adding seek time onto your scores.
With those facts in mind, I think it may answer your questions.
-butter
ya it explains :)
i got 3 HDs
1 SATA Hitachi T7k250
a PATA Maxtor Diamond max 10 250GB
and a SATA older Samsung 160GB
the maxtor:
Random access 14ms
Average read 47.5MB
Burst speed 122.1MB
wich is nice seeing it has 2 partitions wich r both fragmented and got alot of data on them.
Samsung:
Random access 13.4
Average read 48MB
Burst speed 124.5MB
i use this one to download its badly fragmented and has alot of stuff onit.
Its my OS HD wich im dissapointed with
a Hitachi Deskstar T7K250
It has 2 partitions onit one has barely any data onit and the other has Windows installed onit.
The windows instalation is fragmented but stil alot of room left.
scores:
Random access 12.5ms
Average read 56.1MB
Burst speed 132.5MB
It looks like you haven't upgraded it to SATA II yet. One quirk of these Hitachi drives is that they're not natively set to the sata 2 spec. IF your drive is new enough you can boot to a downloadable CD from hitachi and change this.Quote:
Originally Posted by Starscream
Hey everyone, I had a chat with greg over at HD Tach (simplisoftware.com) about some of the results I've been seeing.
You guys really need to disable any CnC when testing, and be sure that you've applied the dual core patch if applicable to your system. Seems there is a serious bug in windows that doubles the system clock when benching hard drives among other things. The reported results to HD Tach are exactly double (or 1/2 in access times) what the reality is.
This only applies to dual core or dual socket systems.
-butter
I got 13.2 and 13.4ms random access time on my maxtor DM10 SATA-150.
Here's a pic of a bench:
http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/7343/hdtach7fq.jpg
never had probs with maxtor so far...
Here`s mine Maxtor DM10 Sata 150
http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/4440/hdtach5hc.jpg
And does anyone know what testbed -> HD controller StoragReview uses to compare HDs ?
RPGWiZaRD
What BIOS was on mobo at the time this test was conduct ?
I`m on FX-60 Beta atm.
I your drive partioned ?
Are these last two benches considered slow or normal?
first- normal
second- slow.
If you'll check out the link though, you'll see that even though maxtor supposedly has :banana::banana::banana::banana:ty access times, they still perform like everything else
thread update.
i got powermax to run on nf4!!
I used TMOD's bios cd which has powermax on it and it worked first go.
BUT.. it says my drive is fine :(
so I can't get an RMA :(
anyone know how to make some bad sectors so I can RMA it? LOL :p: (yes I'm serious.. lol)
Using Tony's 704-2bt bios, nForce 6.70 drivers with storage driver installed. The hdd isn't partitioned but when I did that benchmark there was only 700MB free on that drive. :p:Quote:
Originally Posted by Cooper
I've got several maxtors and none have suffered from unusual slow performance, maybe I'm lucky. (My favs are WDs in the budget series tho.)
Well I've read that there might be a firmware problem with Maxtor & nF4, thought it only applied to SATA2 tho.
Run partition magic and change sector size (PM8 can do that on a full hd too) while let Windows screensaver pop up. Yes it can f*ck up sectors since windows froze and I had to press reset, so I guess that's one easy way to do it, change sector size and then restart the comp in middle of the process. Since then I haven't forgot to turn off the #"¤"# screensaver after every format/windows reinstall.Quote:
Originally Posted by lawrywild