Peripherals forum: Maxtor One Touch II 300GB problems

We are investigating this type of issue for these drives. Have you been able to resolve the vanishing drive issue? Our e-mail is lawbook@aol.com. Thank you.

I had the same problem with my disk only few days after the end of the warranty period, as if the disk was programmed to fail after 2 years. Seagate Maxtor Support was not helpful... They do not repair disks they replace disks. They proposed a service to recover data. When I checked the disk I discovered that it is not dead and is still running but there is no way to access it from Windows XP it has just disappeared. I tried different USB and FireWire ports and repeated the tests using another PC. No use the disk has just disappeared. I decided to open the disk. I removed the cover (2 screws) , freed the disk (4 screws) and then disconnected the IDE connector of the disk. I newly connected the disk to the PC using an external conversion cable USB-IDE ATA while keeping the original power supply and immediately the PC was able to recognize the disk. I recovered all the data. The problem appears to be originated by the USB/FireWire connection card.

I have been finding this problem with many different makes/models of USB/Firewire external drives, including the Maxtor OneTouch series, and the WesternDigital MyBook series, and several IDE2USB conversion kits. The problem is consistent on PCs running Windows 2000/XP and on Mac running OSX(only tested on Intel versions). I would assume the problem to be consistent on other OSes also, but have not tested. So far, in every case encountered, I was able to "reattach" the drive with the following simple procedure.

1. Disconnect all cables, including power, from the external drives (or converter/adapter if using a kit). No need to shutdown the PC.
2. Wait for one minute. (If you are in a hurry, you can try it sooner, but I have found the 1 min. "circuit cooldown" to give me consistent results in all my tests. Both the drive AND the conversion circuit need the "cooldown" for best results.)
3. Reconnect cables to the drives, connecting the power first.

Your drive should be re-detected, and come back online.

Notes to chained firewire users:
1. Chain the drives together AFTER connecting power, but BEFORE connecting to the PC.
2. If your PC uses the 4-pin 1394 connector (many laptops), I recommend you not chain your drives. Results are inconsistent and unstable. Only chain your drives if ALL cables involved are standard 6-pin to 6-pin cables.

One instance I encountered involved a Mac with two MyBook drives chained and RAIDed together. The user was complaining that the drives were recognized by the OS, but several folders containing the previous days work were missing. Following this procedure corrected that problem as well, and restored all work.