Well, I really blew it this time. About a month ago I replaced my 120
gig hard drive with a new 200 Gig Maxtor, model # 6B200P. In
violation of my common sense, I did NOT keep the old drive as a
backup. Well, the new drive went belly up last week - it wouldn't
even spin up. Some of the stuff on the drive is easily replaceable,
but many of the pictures of my Granddaughter cannot be replaced.

I requested an advance replacement from Maxtor, and when it arrived I
tried to repair the bad drive by swapping the electronics boards. I
verified these had identical part numbers. This had a limited sucess:
The new hda does not spin up with the old electronics board; the old
hda DOES spin up with the new board. However, the drive does not
properly report it's size. The new drive reports it is 203.9 Gig; the
new electronics board with the old hda reports it's size as 250 Gig,
then generates POST errors.

At this point I can restore the electronics boards to the proper hdas
and return the old drive to satisfy the terms of the advance
replacement, since I have not altered anything. The last option I am
considering is a part which appears to be a SST Serial flash chip. It
should be possible to swap these between boards if I unsolder with
chip-quik, but I'm not looking forward to it.

Does anyone have any experience with these drives, or any advice to
give?

PlainBill