Maxtor 6L160P0 160GB IDE Ultra ATA133 / ATA-7 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

Pros: Fair capacity. Low Price.

Cons: None. Hours ON was high, few start/stops.

Other Thoughts: Tested with Hard Disk Sentinel and there were no bad sectors.

Pros: Cheaper than the better brands at the time

Cons: AVOID! There's nothing better than to re-sell a failed product from a well known Brand.

History: Back in early 2000's... about 2002-2003 ~10 years ago, Maxtor HD's were made with Cirrus Logic chipsets and were very prone to failure. Even the company gave discounts on new ones if the customers returned the dead HD's.

Other Thoughts: Cirrus Logic was great for making VESA Graphics cards but seem to fall short when their technology was used with Maxtor HD's.

Avoid the Maxtor brand HD's and I'm surprised that NewEgg is trying to off-load these things!

Been Home-Building my own Computers since 1998!

Pros: Out the box they turned on and worked correctly. They came unformatted and were surprisingly quite. Using HDTune 2.55 I found no bad blocks. Beyond that I have not used them enough to say if they will last.

Cons: They are SLOW. It took a long time to scan these drives. Granted it was over a USB 2.0 connection, but scanning modern drives of similar capacity does not take this long. Then again I didn't buy these to replace modern drives...

Other Thoughts: These are old drives and do not compare to modern ones, but I didn't purchase them to be fast. They will be re-sold to my customer's that require an ATA replacement drive.

Pros: 160GB
Spun up right away.
Clean
Ships like a new drive (no partition)
$10 discount
Easy to setup as 2nd drive using free Seatools for Windows.
Passed Long DTS and SMART check.

Cons: ATA
Spending time with these old computers that should be put to pasture.

Other Thoughts: Looks like this "Quickview" drive was pulled from a DVR or simular device. Since I am replacing an ATA-6 drive in a really old computer, no worries. 8MB cache.
Plan to transfer Brother in Law's old 40GB drive using free Seagate Disk Wizard later

Pros: I have been looking for a mid capacity IDE disk to replace defective drive in system. Found this disk and it filled the need perfectly. It has been running fine since installation.

Cons: None

Other Thoughts: Wish I had found it sooner.

Pros: This is a follow-up to my 12/14/2012 comments. I subsequently purchased 2 Maxtor 6L160P0 drives in Dec. 2012 and 3 in Jan 2013 after bench testing the original 2. All 5 drive passed bench tests preformed with PowerMax 4.09, a Quantum - Maxtor HDD diagnostic utility. The series of tests were approximately 5 hours for each drive.

These Maxtor 6L160P0 drives did not have any labeling indicating that they were refurbished however SMART data does show that they have been used. All 5 drives bear the original manufacturers label with manufacturing dates in 2005 or 2006, were in excellent exterior physical condition and wiped clean of any pre-existing data.

Cons: NONE

Other Thoughts: People should be aware that SMART (Self Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) values reported by SMART analytic software as well as sophisticated bench tests cannot accurately predict the longevity of any hard disc drive other than whether or not the drive passed or failed at the time it was tested.

For many years dating back to 2001 I had used very affordable reconditioned TDM drives (Magnetic Data Technologies) in my shop with a very high level of satisfaction; however, after the Malaysian flood of 2011 they appear to have discounted this facet of their business. TDM drives were not simply “System Pulls” but rather re-certified and relabeled in a clean room reconditioning facility located in Singapore.

Pros: None yet, we'll see how the replacement does

Cons: See Below

Other Thoughts: D.O.A. on Arrival...Originally bought to get a little more storage on a 2006 Compaq that runs perfect. Put it in and booted from Full OEM Disc ( Error ) So I tried it in an older HP, Same Issue. Tried in 2 seperate runnig computers. Drive will not spinup or be recognized ??? Put both of the original hardrives back in perspective machines, both run fine..???

Pros: This is not a review of this HDD, but a clarification of a previous post. Maxtor DID NOT go out of business. They were acquired by Seagate in 2006. Hitachi's HDD division was acquired by WD last year, IIRC. There is plenty of info about the acquisitions on the web if you care to know the reasons.

There are different reasons for refurbishing a HDD and they are not all the same. Unfortunately, as consumers we do not know what the reasons for refurbishing an individual HDD are. It could be as simple as a bad chip or other component on the printed circuit board and the PCB gets swapped out. It's possibly that "the weak link in the chain" is now the "Strongest link in the chain," but we just don't know for sure.

I've owned several Maxtor HDD since the early-mid 2000's and they are all still working just fine, so overall they all get 5 eggs.

Cons: The 90 day warranty and the uncertainty that goes with it--this is offset by the lower price.

Other Thoughts: If you want a new IDE HDD, then buy a new HDD. WD still makes them.

Pros: See other thoughts

Cons: See other thoughts

Other Thoughts: As a long time Newegg.com customer thought I’d take a bit of my time to help my fellow Newegg customers and provide some missing data (that Newegg failed to provide) for this re-certified Maxtor model 6L160P0 HDD:

General Features:
Model: 6L160P0
160 GB HDD
ATA/133 IDE interface
7200 RPM
8 MB buffer
Maximum Data transfer rate 100-133 Mbps
9 ms average seek time
Native command queuing
CE & UL Approved

The review dated 01/31/2012 that states that the drive he/she received was LABELED "Refurbished to MAXTOR Specifications", by the manufacture might be the refurbisher’s way to make the buyer think that the drive is Re-Certified. If the drive were truly re-certified by the manufacturer it would/should state Re-Certified. I mention this dilemma since other Newegg reviews for other refurbished brands, including Seagate, some buyer’s indicate that the refurbished drive(s) they received appear to be system-pulls that are simply wiped clean and then resold as refurbished without testing for operational compliance. The refurbishing company for this Maxtor 6L160P0 might be Seagate since Seagate bought out Maxtor a few years ago; however, it could easily be an unspecified/unknown third party company. The comment regarding “factory sealed” is irrelevant other than proof that the case was presumable never opened. Never accept a refurbished or re-certified drive where the original manufacturer’s seal has been tampered with.

Conclusion: I might buy one myself to see if it meets the re-certified industry standards. If not, I might if time permits sound off on this review board.

Pros: The drive I received was factory refurbished and factory sealed. It had a complete new label saying "Refurbished to MAXTOR Specifications", with a manufacture date of 2007.

It checks out fine, SMART shows no usage and no issues, and is working fine in a DVD recorder I'm refurbishing.

Cons: It's an older drive and it looks like it's out of stock now.