THE ONE I BOUGHT WAS DEFECTIVE &NOISY! AND FRIED THE DRIVE IN A DAY!
Please advise. I laid out a lot of money on a 3.5" Maxtor 200GB drive
(DiamondMax10, PATA 133, 8 MB buffer) and an AMS Venus 5.25" hard drive
enclosure with USB 2.0 and Firewire connections (model# DS-2512C).
I bought them both on newegg -- the latter by accident as I meant to
push the button for the AMS Venus 3.5" model but on newegg the order
goes into the system immediately and can't be fixed. Another problem
with newegg is they only accept returns, even of defective products,
within 30 days from invoice -- since I live overseas but shipped it to
NY, I got it delivered too late to return.
The Venus enclosure was clearly problematic to begin with: (1) the fan
made an enormous amount of noise, which was way too loud for me to
comfortably use; and (2) very weird: the side of the USB cable that
plugs into the Venus enclosure (the B male) simply did/does not plug in
all the way (like it does in printers or the like)! The USB A male end
that plugs into the computer plugs in fine, but the looseness of the
connection with the external enclosure means that sometimes the
computer stops recognizing it because the cable gets loose. This is not
a problem with the particular USB cable, because I tried it with 2
other excellent USB 2.0 cables with USB A male and USB B male
connectors I have from Belkin and GoldX, respectively, and neither fit
in any better - they just go in approximately half-way and stop!
Worse, after I transferred some data onto the Maxtor drive when I
finally (temporarily) got the computer to recognize the drive, I tried
hours later -- when the case was cool and had been off for hours -- to
read some of the data from the Maxtor drive. It worked for about 20
minutes, at which point the drive + enclosure stopped working, despite
still being cool to the touch. When I unplugged the Venus (universal)
power adapter, though, IT was extremely hot and made a slight sizzling
type sound when removed from the electricity. Needless to stay, I had
a technician come next day and test the Maxtor drive itself, and it was
fried.
Bottom line: I will try to get Maxtor to replace the drive under its
warranty. BUT I will clearly need a new external enclosure and
desperately need advice to find one that will (1) work reliably,
obviously, and most important (2) keep the Maxtor cool enough while not
having a fan making noise -- Venus claimed their fan was quiet, but a
technician confirmed (when it was still working) that it was the fan
and not the hard drive making all the noise.
I've seen some aluminum 3.5" enclosures with mesh sides which claim to
keep the drive cool via the combination of the mesh venting and the
aluminum -- such as the StorTecc PM-350U2-MCB Black 3.5 Inch Slim
Aluminum USB 2.0 External Enclosure advertised at
www.dealsonic.com/stpmbl35insl.html -- but I'd appreciate educated
advice before I drop another bundle!
Thanks in advance,
Tami
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