MAXTOR External Cases Cripple Other Manufactures Drives?

[baylejs]

Incriminating information that you should know about Maxtor external drive enclosures:

If your Maxtor external drives fails, do not replace the drive with another manufacture's drive mechanism or it apparently will be permanently crippled to a 128GB size limitation.

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This from http://forums.storagereview.net/inde...howtopic=22403
Is it "OneTouch II" ?

If yes then it's a known issue now. I just talked to data recovery people yesterday and they said it's just so when you put another manufacturer's drive into OneTouch II, then it will be automatically set to maximum capacity of 128GB. Additionally, also the "SetMax" command will be disabled with it, so it is not even possible to set the drive back to its original capacity. It is not related to this WD3200 model, not even to WD drives, as they said it was happened with all other companies (except Maxtor) drives put into OneTouch II. The only way to restore the original capacity was using very special cracking tools only data recovery companies have access to. But as they said, they have still no idea why these things with OneTouch II happen as this was also a brand new first-time experience for them. May-be here on SR forum are some more knowledgeable people from Maxtor or Data recovery services who can give some more advice... That's all I know now, I have no more ideas.

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This from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Host_Protected_Area

Some vendor-sepecific external drive enclosures (Maxtor) are known
to use HPA to limit the capacity of unknown replacement hard drives
installed into the enclosure. When this occurs, the drive may
appear to be limited in size (e.g. 128GB). In this case, one must
use software utilities (see below) that use READ NATIVE MAX ADDRESS
and SET MAX ADDRESS to change the drive's reported size back to its
native size.
=================

And of course the support line at Maxtor is totally useless:

> Thank you for your email inquiry.
>
> Unfortunately, this is not something that we support.

> We have no software of making the case to be able to see the full
> size of the drive. Sometimes replacing the drive will cause the
> enclosure to be only able to see 128gb of the drive. We have not
> way of fixing this it is the way the enclosure was designed.

I am waiting to see if Segate has some utility to fix their drive back to the full 250GB capacity. Any other ideas?

thanks,

jeff

[JDV]

Great warning, as I think those one-touch drives have gotten popular. Whatever possessed Maxtor to do this is beyond me. is it possible that Western Digital could assist? I presume they could reflash the firmware of the drive and/or do a low-level format of the drive. This isn't a data recovery issue, per se, it is a harware-war, ti seems. Maxtor's credibility has gone up and down over the years, but this seems like a new low.

Joe VanZandt

[baylejs]

YUP, i'll never buy another Maxtor. Unfortunately i have 1.5TB of Maxtor drives just waiting to fail. Maxtor support was totally usless, saying only that they do not support drive replacement in the external enclosures. As for my crippled drive, courtsey of Maxtor, which is a Seagate 250GB ATA/100. Seagate support has been of no help either. (actually they are one in the same now since they acquired Maxtor). I will try to get a RMA number and just return the damn thing as defective or sell it on ebay where some bright techie will get a great deal, that is if they can reflash the drive.

The only suitable resoltuion now would be a class action, given the number of similar incidents. I don't have time to deal with that but hopefully someone else will and I'll be glad to join in.

Oh wait, there is one. Yea.... http://www.lorisklar.com/maxtor.htm

cheers,

jeff

[baylejs]

Another interresting point of view on the subject.

http://www.binaryfeed.org/blog/2003/12/01/maxtor-sucks/

[Zeitkind]

had the same. Dead Maxtor OT II, no warranty left. So I put a WD 250GB RE in the enclosure --> crippled to 128GB.

But I was able to reset the HPA with MHDD* back to native capacity. I wonder what they smoke @ Maxtor. Must be great stuff..
The enclosure has an Oxford 911 chip, so there is no real reason to do such bad things. Never, NEVER will I buy anything from Maxtor again.

*h**p://hddguru.com/download/software/mhdd/mhdd32ver4.6iso.zip
You need a PC to use it.

[Zomb]

Welcome to the world of Maxtor "friends". Fortunately I found a way to repair my Seagate disk after the malicious work applied by the Maxtor enclosure. You need to get a PC and the bootable image from http://www.hdat2.com/ burned to CD-ROM. Attach the drive via IDE and read the FAQ on the web site, search for Seagate. Boot with this CD-ROM, run hdat2 on the command line. Do what the FAQ says. You need to really power-off between switching the LBA mode, otherwise the Seagate drive refuses to set the HPA, but after the power-cycle the drive does accept the new HPA setting, and after that HPA is reported to be removed and you can access the native capacity again.

[mkonrad]

I have the same issue Maxtor one touch enclosure and seagate barracuda 320 gb drive.
Only that I had 5 years worth of portfolio work (photos) on the drive and now can only access a handful of them.
Is there a way to recover the full capacity without format/ loosing everything?

[Zeitkind]

Changing the total space (native capacity) with those tools _shouldn't_ alter the data on the drives, but well.. I hope you have a good backup anyway..

[Old Hopking]

Drive crippled - but successful data recovery. Still looking for a hint to flash the enclosure chipset.

Have used an enclosure of a Maxtor XT5000 (250 GB originally, the blue plastic case with black edges).

Had the same issue last week and I'm glad to find some hints here. I've installed a Hitachi HD previously used in another enclosure and already full of data and it has also been 'crippled'. Will try the mentioned Hitachi Drive Tool to fix it using my old PC (sometimes still useful).

But, for anyone else: After that, I've installed the HD in an other up-to-date enclosure (brand doesn't matter) - and was able to rescue all the data on the drive (running Mac OS 10.4.10):

Mac Os Command-I (Info) said:

Kapazität (Capacity): 128 GB
Frei (Available): 4,77 GB
Benutzt (Used) 673 GB.

Hope the terms in English are correct, as I'm using a German OS version, but I think you'll get it. Apparently, all data is still there and accessible (unlike as with HD installed in the Maxtor enclosure). Please note the paradox (negative) difference between 'Capacity' and 'Used'!

Don't ever attempt to fix the drive using the Hard Drive Utility or other third party software. Don't change anything on the drive, don't save new data on it. Having the drive installed in the other enclosure I've been able to copy all the data to another drive. But still hoping to rescue my HD itself, won't like to throw it away.

If anyone out has a working hint (or a link to a hint) how to flash the Maxtor enclosures firmware, I would appreciate very much...

[zuvis]

I have the same problem. Maxtor onetouch dv 5000 enclosure crippled my Hitachi deckstar 500gig drive, and I have no idea how to get my files back..
Does anybody know how an I get my files back on a mac os as I have no PC only mac.
Trying boomerang now, maybe it will find something...

[roccitman]

Hey Group--

Using the boot diskette image (took me 2 hours to find a floppy) here: http://www.hdat2.com/download.html I created a bootable disk and following the instructions in Question 6 here: http://www.hdat2.com/hdat2_faq.html.

Make sure and either print the instructions out or have them up on your Mac

Good luck.
-roccit

[Frans Hals]

Maxtor 3000DV crippled Samsung 400GB downto 128 GB.

Downloaded bootable CD-ISO image
http://www.hdat2.com/files/hdat2iso_4_53.zip
stuffed the HD in an old PC and followed the instructions (see above).

First I had problems to remove the HPA. Had to change the LBA mode from 48 to 28 to be able to de-cripple it (don't worry if your commands abort, the FAQ explains this case).
Thanks to Lubomir Cabla, who made this wonderful tool.
Goodbye Maxtor, forever.

[robmichael]

Hey all,

I have an original OneTouch with a 250GB drive that's on the blink. I first tried a 500GB Maxtor ATA/100 drive, clipped as everyone else has described. I've been using the drive with FireWire this whole time. I thought it might be an ATA/100 limitation, so I bought a Hitachi 320GB ATA/133 drive & had the same problem. After discovering the HDAT2 tool, I was able to restore the max capacity, but only while the drive was attached to an IDE cable. I've never been able to make HDAT2 work with USB or FireWire.

So, I fixed the 500GB & the 320GB drives, then decided to partition & format the 320GB Hitachi using PartitionMagic in DOS while the drive was attached via USB (I fixed the drive using an IDE cable, then stuck it back in the enclosure). I booted into XP Home & viola, drive appeared normal in Windows Explorer, PartitionMagic & the XP Computer Management console. I turned it off, plugged in the FireWire & I was back to the 137GB/128GB limit. I would imagine the FireWire vs. USB problem would translate over to the Mac as well. At least for now I can use the drive at full capacity using USB. I'm off to researching the FireWire driver for the Maxtor Personal Front Panel Storage device to see if there's a better driver out there that won't have the HPA/28-bit LBA limit.

Rob