Not my first Maxtor problem
I was hired to fix a problem with a Windows 98 computer which would not boot. When I arrived the first thing that struck me was that the computers were Dell Precision workstations designed for Windows XP. Yet, they were running 98. I have often seen people try to run Windows XP on a computer designed for an earlier version, but never the inverse.
Anyway, after determining that the physical hard disk was the problem I began trying to save the data. I tried using Knoppix on site, but there was some problem with the hardware. I took the hard drive out of the Dell and went home. I attached the hard drive to my Windows XP machine, but Windows explained to me that the drive was not formatted, typical Windows crap. So, I tried Knoppix again. I connected my Seagate external hard drive (which I would highly recommend to anyone as a great backup solution), booted up, mounted the Windows partition (Linux had no problem with the partition), and I was ready to backup. Only one problem, the internal Maxtor hard drive was not ready. The data began to transfer, but then slowed and “stalled”. I tried many additional ideas: cp with another internal hard drive; sharing the drive with Samba; using a low level Seagate disk setup utility, but each attempt failed after a short time. Basically the hard drive would work for a bit, then stop responding (I got the furtherest with cp).
I am going to recommend my client seek out a data recovery specialist. I hate not being able to solve a problem, but since I don’t have time to setup a clean room, a solution is out of my reach. Sadly, not even Linux can repair a hardware problem.