Western Digital Caviar Green 1 TB Bulk/OEM Hard Drive 3.5 Inch, 16 MB Cache, 5400 RPM SATA II WD10EACS by Western Digital
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Our Price: $198.95 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $59.99 (click here) Category: CE See more digital camera details and other models |
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Digital camera reviews of Western Digital Caviar Green 1 TB Bulk/OEM Hard Drive 3.5 Inch, 16 MB Cache, 5400 RPM SATA II WD10EACS
Digital camera Review: Great value and price
Summary: 5 Stars
Can't beat a Western Digital product over the competition, at least in my opinion and experience with two other brands. For just over $100 I got a fast 1tb hard drive that installed in a snap. I plan to get many years use out of this one.Digital camera Review: More on the bare drive
Summary: 5 Stars
I saw the reviews about this being a bare drive, with no screws, cables or anything else and decided it was still for me. I installed the drive in an Antec MX-100 3.5" USB Aluminum Enclosure for SATA Hard Drive, so I didn't need the screws or cable. The drive comes in a cardboard wrapper in a box, with nothing else, not even a sheet of paper with a link to the website. No problem, that's what you're buying.
The one thing I'll remind people who are buying this is that you'll also have to create a partition and format the drive. Again, no problem, just know that you need to do it before you can see the drive. In my case the USB driver installed, but the drive didn't show up as a new drive and it took me a little bit to figure out I needed to create the partition. Formatting the drive was going to take all night, then I decided I would try the quick format option in Vista and it was done in a minute.
I bought two drives and both seem to be running fine and they are quiet enough for me.
As I was walking out to my car with my two new 1TB drives, and I also had my old 300MB drives, I realized I was carrying more storage space than existed in the world when I was born. Amazing.
Digital camera Review: Nice Drive... and advice for Silicon Image SATA controller users
Summary: 5 Stars
I've had this drive running for one day now, and so far it is very quiet and seems to run cooler than the 500GB Western Digital drive that it replaced. I'm planning to replace my other 500 GB WD drives with this one if it continues to perform well over the next few days.
A word of warning for users of Silicon Image (SIIG) SIi3114 SATA controller cards (and perhaps other SIIG cards). When I first received this 1TB hard drive, I got an error. Although my SIIG 3114 controller recognized the drive (i.e., correctly reported the model number), it did not recognize the size, and my machine would not boot. To cut a long story short, I fixed the problem by downloading the latest BIOS for the SATA controller from SIIG's web site. The latest version is 5.4.0.3. In order to flash the BIOS, I needed to use the DOS version of SIIG's BIOS flashing utility (this is also a download from their web site). It is called UPDFLASH. The Windows version did not work for me (perhaps it had difficulty addressing hardware through the XP kernel).
The above problem was entirely caused by my drive controller being unable to communicate with ANY 1 terabyte drive (not just this model of drive). It in no way reflects on Western Digital or on this drive. I've described the solution in the hope that it will save someone some time.
I chose this drive because I was pleased with Western Digital's responsiveness when any of my four old 500 GB drives failed (and they did fail, but usually when they were new). Through a process of returning failed drives, I ended up with four drives that have now worked reliably for between 18 months and two years. I'm hoping for at least as good service from this 1 TB drive.
UPDATE: I've now had four of these drives running for nine months and one has failed. Hard drive failure is something we should all expect and prepare for, and I was again impressed with Western Digital's efficient and painless procedure for getting the drive replaced under warranty. When the time eventually comes to replace these drives (probably a year or two from now), Western Digital will again be at the top of my list.
Digital camera Review: Nice hard drive - good price
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great drive - high capacity and it uses less energy and runs cooler than most competitors drives, especially important because it is used in a multi-drive array.
This is the OEM version of the drive - there is no cable, instructions, mounting screws, etc. included with this drive. If you need those, purchase the Retail drive.
Digital camera Review: No Cable, No Installation instructions, No mounting screws
Summary: 1 Stars
What the Hell!!!!!!!!
This is the first hard drive I purchased that didn't come with a cable, installation instructions and screws for mounting. I can't say whether the drive is any good or not yet until I go spend more money and more time getting this crap that should have come with it. It's especially irritating when I paid a little extra to have it shipped early too.
A "Heads Up" in the product description would have been appropriate.