What's disturbing is that Maxtor's own PowerMax software detects no problems with the drive, therefore won't give me the diagnostic code I need to return it to them. And even if it did, AFAIK I'd only get another useless Maxtor drive back.
Hmm... Well, personally, what I'd do is hook about 12VDC to a few random pins on the IDE interface. That oughta scramble the logic board enough that the PowerMax software will spit out some diagnostic codes. Plus acts of random destruction are fun. Not quite as satisfying as tossing it out a window, crushing it under 5,000 pounds, or impaling a large spike through it, but fun, none-the-less.
Then, hook the drive back up, and jot down the new diagnostic code and send the drive back to Maxtor. You're right that they'll probably replace it with another similiar drive, but who doesn't need more temporary storage? As I read your post, it looks like you've already bought a new system drive. Just use the new Maxtor you get back as a swap partition and temporary storage, scratch disk, and downloads, etc... If/When it fails, you can repeat the above procedure with minimal effort. Cost the company some $$$. ;-)
