I too refuse to every buy a maxtor drive. My roommate and I both bought one each, installed them in each of our pcs, and about 6 months later they both died within a week of one another. I will only get WD now. I have had a WD drive die on me but WD was very quick to send me a replacement. Maxtor gave me all kinds of hassel. I gave up and went out and got the WD 250gig SE with the 8meg cache. Havent had a problem since.