Western Digital My Book Essential 500 GB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive by Western Digital
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Digital camera reviews of Western Digital My Book Essential 500 GB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive
Digital camera Review: Beware - My Book drives fail if left on 24/7
Summary: 1 Stars
I'm an experienced computer technician with 20+ years of on the job experience. I am a firm supporter of Western Digital internal drives, and have always used them. When the My Book drives were released several years ago, I was enthusiastic that a low-cost external drive solution was available from my preferred hard drive vendor.
After years of using these drives in both a professional and personal capacity, and after having the last of my 5 personal My Book drives die today, I felt compelled to write a review warning people away from them.
In my workplace we had been using My Book drives exclusively for the last 4 years. Over that four year period, more than 50% of the drives we deployed for use in backup solutions died. We would always RMA the drives (they would usually fail within a year), but the replacements would also fail eventually (with a recurring fail rate of about 50%).
All 5 of the drives I have purchased for personal use have failed. The last drive to die was the one that died today. It's one month out of warranty (1 year). While WD might very well replace it (they have excellent customer support), I am throwing it away and giving up on the My Book line for good.
While I will continue using WD internal drives (they perform flawlessly over many years), I must strongly advise people to NOT use the external My Book drives, especially when using them in a 24/7, frequent write capacity (like backing up or transferring large amounts of data). There must be some inherent flaw in their design. Strangely enough, I have had great success with the Western Digital Passport line of drives. Those I can recommend highly. I have 3 of them, all over 2 years old and subject to frequent use, and all are performing flawlessly. I have also deployed many of these drives in a professional capacity and have yet to have a failure. The fact that the Passport drives are self-powered is a great added bonus. You have been warned!
Digital camera Review: Beware of Heat
Summary: 3 Stars
I just bought this version of My Book. I had the previous version (with the circular light.) It died after about two years, but my poor usage probably shortened its life. I had a computer crash about four months ago and the little program that powered down the drive on shutdown was not reintalled. This meant the drive was on continoulsy for four months. The drive was also placed horizontally (it had rubber feet on two sides). The new dirve has rubber feet on only one side, so you place it vertically. Perhaps the horizontal position makes the drive run hotter. The new drive doesn't need a small program to power it down, it shuts off when the computer is turned off.
Heat is the issue with all of the these drives, because fans are noisy and add cost users simply will not buy a product that is superior.
I have placed the drive on two short wood sticks so that more air can flow through the device. (The bottom vents are sort of blocked.) I hope this will lengthen the life.
The instructions are also not the best. (I use karen's Replicator for backup and not their poor choice.)
I bought the device again, because I would rather deal with the devil I know rather than the devil I do not know.
Digital camera Review: Broken
Summary: 1 Stars
Had this drive for sometime and worked with no problems. Then a couple of days ago, the blue light keep flashing every 3 seconds and the whole drive is not recognized by the computer anymore. I had maxed out the storage drive. There is probably 400 GB of data on there and no way for me to retrieve it. If you know how to solve this problem please contact me via email to [...] thanksDigital camera Review: Buy Garbage, Get Garbage
Summary: 1 Stars
This was my second, third, and forth Western Digital (MY BOOK) Drives that failed. My second Drive (MY BOOK 500 GB) died after 16 months of service. It was out of Warranty and I lost a good amount of work on it. I replaced it with this drive (Western Digital MY BOOK ESSENTIAL 500 GB) which died 7 months after service. This drive was in fact under Warranty. I sent it back to Western Digital at my shipping expense, and received the replacement today. Guess
The replacement drive failed to power up, was not regained on two computers, and this one needs to go back. Western Digital may have covered the warranty, but how could anyone explain sending out a dead drive for a replacement? How?
Do yourself a favor, read the reviews here on Amazon, Look at the SEAGATE drives and pick something with not only a better warranty, but better service, and reviews. Western Digital only warranties its drives for one year, Seagate hands you a five year warranty.
Digital camera Review: CHeAp!! = Not Very Good... slow read... SLOW
Summary: 1 Stars
Very slow drive.... Works okay but try burning data or a video.
You get read errors at half the alloted speed.
When you click on the drive to access it takes a few seconds to recognize.
I have had 3 of these and they are all slow. When these first came out they were not this slow and didn't stall when accessed..
What Happened??
I guess we'll see what seagate can do to make these drives better.
Not Recommended for burning discs or saving important data