[ale] OT: HW failure

[Frank Z.]

> 
> if it is a Maxtor drive we will have something in common.
> 
> Maxtor exchanged _FOUR_ of mine over three years...
> 
> preston

Not to start an OT 'get down on Maxtor' thread (yeah, sure ;), I get 
the impression that they haven't changed much in QC over the yrs. Back 
when they made 540MB hds, when that was the latest cat's meow by 
pushing the DOS/BIOS/etc limit, I went through three exchanges of those 
myself. Haven't bought one since and never will (albeit freebies of any 
size I have never turned down ;). I still to this day read a lot of 
anectodal negative stuff per their perceived failure rates. I have to 
wonder if even part of what I read is true, what kinds of failure rates 
does Maxtor actually have, and if they really suck, how are they are 
still in business with all the bad 'press'? (Answer: cheap?) Is there a 
non-commercially affiliated site that quantifies brands of hds as to 
MTBF etc?

Seems I've personally had pretty good luck with Quantum, and Seagate in 
general hasn't been too bad.
-fgz