Western Digital My Book Essential 500 GB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive
by Western Digital
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Our Price: $159.98 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $69.00 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Western Digital My Book Essential 500 GB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive
Customer Review: I don't understand the bad reviews
Summary: 5 Stars
I have one of these external hard drives, I received it as a gift, and I've been using it for almost two years. I connect via a USB mini cable, I run Windows XP OS.
I haven't had any problems whatsoever with this hard drive. It's been working since I first plugged it in. Take it out of the box, plug in the power and connect it to the PC. I've stored large files on it even in the FAT mode. I keep ebooks, videos, movies, music and pics on it, and I use it every single day.
I have no problem with the speed of downloads and transfers, and frankly I can't understand anyone who does. The only possible conclusion I can come to, is that some people are so used to instant gratification that any delay is intolerable. *Shrug*
I've had no problems with the computer acknowledging the drive, it operates quietly. But then again I have mine set up on a wire rack that doesn't impede airflow around the unit. There are airflow vents even on the bottom of the casing. I can touch it right now and it's cool to the touch. If you've got one set up on a solid surface you're blocking 1/3 of the cooling vents. I suggest investing in a small wire rack. They're cheap. It may not be sexy, but your external hard drive will thank you for it. And if you care more about how it looks than your data. Well what else is there to say?
Maybe all these people with horror stories just got bad units. It happens. There are lemons in any kind of manufacturing. But I can assure you that I will be buying another one of these units to back up the one I have just in case. If you're that concerned about your data, back up your stuff on DVDs or CDs as well, and keep them in a safe location.
There are no guarantees in life and that includes technology, but I've been very pleased with this hard drive. As much as I use it, you would think that if it was going to fail it would have failed already. But everything we buy does age and wear out, so before the next year is up I will be buying a new My Book to replace this one before the one I'm using wears out.
Having said that, I'll say this. Recently I discovered, to my shock, that good shills, and bad shills, haunt review sites and post good things and bad things about products. This disgusts me. The whole point of reviews is to get information from other people about the product.
I've seen competitors write crappy reviews and the seller shilling with good reviews. The only reviews I trust are my own because I don't spend enough time doing reviews to know who is who, I'm sure a great majority of other people don't either.
Amazon needs to make people reviewing these products sign an agreement that they don't work for the selling company or a competitor and prosecute those who violate the agreement.
I've gotten to the point where I don't trust the reviews here on Amazon. I just find someone I know that has one and I ask them about it. It's too bad corporate America can't produce products good enough to stand behind and feel like they have to put their employees online to tout their products.
If the flipping product is good, you don't have to shill it. And I'll die a thousand deaths before I buy any product I find being sold in that manner. And I won't buy anything from a competitor that uses dirty underhanded tactics to undermine someone else's products.
After all if a company engages in that kind of behavior, how are they going to treat their customers?
Customer Review: It's outlasted two Laptops now
Summary: 5 Stars
I kid you not, I've had mine since Spring 2006.
I've been searching Amazon.com for a smaller External HD (because the external power source, while necessary is inconvenient for Laptop Users XD) and was shocked the majority of reviews left for Western Digital were negative.
Let me tell you, I don't do anything special with my Hard Drive: I've dropped it twice and the room I keep it in can get dusty at times. Before I got the Hard Drive in my current Laptop replaced last Fall, It was always connected to the computer (because I installed and ran programs of the External Drive). Prettymuch it was always on when my computer was and unplugged/disconnected when it wasn't being used.
No Power Surges, no Transfer Problems, nothing.
...Considering my current situation I guess that makes me a pretty lucky guy!
I've got about 75GB left on it now and like everyone else who said so, the included software is useless. Just Copy + Paste.
The included software has two fatal flaws I found while testing it: As long as the encrypted files are transferred to another WD Hard Drive, it can be decrypted and accessed. The "best" part is, no real skill is needed. The other, more obvious flaw with it is it "binds" to your computer. If, say you use multiple computers or your OS changes (Upgrade, etc.) it won't decrpyt the files.
Just do yourself a favor and reformat the drive as soon as you get it. It's my understanding MAC users have to do this anyway but do it if you use the Windows Family. You want to have FULL access to everything your Hard Drive, more so if you're going to back up alot of things in one go.
To those who play World of Warcraft, you can run the game plus all the Addons you want from this. Doing the Math, the combined size of The Base Game and the Three Expansions is just under 50GB (The largest group of files are the files that give you present-day Azaroth at 12GB!) so this wouldn't be a bad investment for that purpose alone.
About half my files are for my Zune (roughly 325GB worth of Music and Video) and with my current situation, this baby has kept me from going insane. While I understand the overwhelming majority of you have had bad experiences with anything WD (and I am in no way trying to insult you), it's like cars and burritos: Their effect varies from person to person.
Customer Review: Had it for 2 years now, travelled the world with it and dropped it many times...still going strong
Summary: 5 Stars
This is not my first WD external drive and it won't be my last. I have had several and they all perform perfectly. This particular drive traveled the world with me; well over 130K sky miles internationally and I have not had any issues with it. It is almost to capacity and no boot issues ever. I have full on dropped it on several occasions, such that I had to re-seat the cover and there is now a tiny bit of the plastic cover rattling around inside and still no issues. It boots up every day without ever giving me any issues; formatted FAT32 and I have never had to reformat and I have never lost data. I, of course, have redundant backups of my data but for durability and ease of use with most systems this a solid drive.
Bit of tick noise and then a short high pitched whirl noise when the disk is first being read. It's normal, as other brands also do this, and doesn't continue once it's moving there is just a hum noise. I won't lie it's not whisper quiet but it's never given me any issues. Although, I am sure there are quieter drives out there.
Due to size and nature of the drive it needs an external power source. If you're looking for one that plugs and plays on 2.0 USB only try the WD Passport drives they need no external power supply and work great.
Note: I have had issues with aftermarket USB cables that are "portable." By portable I mean the ones that are under tension and you pull on both ends and it coils itself around a spring mechanism making it all neat and tidy. For some reason my WD drives do not like to work with them, even though these are properly rated. The drives are recognized by Vista or XP but when you try to access the data Windows asks you to reformat the drives. I would try a non-coil cable first before taking such drastic steps.
I am so impressed with WD that I purchased their VelociRaptor 10K RPM drives for my tower. They run in RAID 0 and I have never had problems with them either. I just purchased the WD 1TB Essential, hopefully that will prove just as reliable...it does seem a bit quieter.
Customer Review: My Book Essential 2.0
Summary: 5 Stars
I have installed a number of these units on client's machines (Mac and PC). They work out of the box just fine. If you will be using on a Mac with Time Machine you will need to reformat the drive. Read the following:
http://www.macworld.com/article/132140/2008/02/timemachine2.html
I only purchase the drives with USB 2.0 .......I don't need firewire or the backup software that comes with different flavors of the My Book drives. The USB only drives are less expensive and work just fine.
I will pass this on and it may be of interest. I have read recently that some people have had problems with external drives in general ......failing, can not read etc. This is not specific to the My Book drives but all manufactures. If you open the device and remove the drive to test in an external enclosure or slave to a desktop, you may void the warranty. The catch: when returning the device to the manufacture you may be charged and exorbitant fee to retrieve the data off the drive or transfer to a replacement device.
If you have a little tech. ability you may wish to purchase a bare HD and enclosure and build your own system. Each will be warranted separately and the drive can be removed and tested in another device if problems occur. That is how I will be purchasing from now on.
Customer Review: Works great with Macs and PCs
Summary: 5 Stars
I lose those little keychain jump drives every three seconds, and when I can hold on to one, I always fill it to capacity within a couple of weeks. This thing is small enough to tuck out of the way when needed, or put in a messenger bag or other shoulder bag. I backed up my hard drive, and continually add photos and large presentations, and it's nowhere near full. I did a dollar per byte ratio in my head when I was deciding between this and the other options, and this won easily. It goes seemlessly between Macs and PCs to which I connect it without me having to 'install' any added software. Let me stress: I've NEVER had a problem with it and I've connected it to at least a dozen different PCs which were managed by lots of different people... I suspect that those with trouble might have their own computer and its configuration (something Mac owners rarely worry about) to blame. This thing has been reliable for well over two years and I'm glad I bought it.