Turn off Hard Drive Acoustic Management

The Intel Application Accelerator will do it:

http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df-external/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=663&lang=eng


I have also heard that the Hitachi Feature Tool will work on other brands of hard drives, and may work on Maxtors:

http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

If youhaven't already, go into the BIOS when your machine starts up.  It's usually accessible by hitting the delete key or F2.  In there you will likely find an option for setting the characteristics of the hard drive, including acoustic management.

Regards,
James

Knoxzoo:

I used the link you gave me and it did not take me to a file.  So I searched for setacm.exe on the web and found it at Zdnet I believe.  I put it on a DOS Boot Disk and ran it.  Then I received the message “This program must be run under Windows” so I booted back to Win 2000 Pro and ran satacm.exe.  It extracted some files including amset.exe.  Then I ran amset and it searched for a Maxtor drive but could not find one.  Maybe the setacm.exe I used is not the same one you were referring me to.  Do you know if there is another place I can download it from?

Seehear:

Thanks for the tip, but my BIOS did not have that option.

Never mind, I figured it out.  I put the extracted (amset) files on the boot disk, rebooted into DOS and ran the amset.exe again and it worked.  It will not work if run from the Command Prompt in Windows.

'T'would seem I left out a step or three.  Apologies.  Must be getting older.  :-)