Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 500 GB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive WDG1U5000 by Western Digital
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Digital camera reviews of Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 500 GB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive WDG1U5000
Digital camera Review: Best Hard Drive I've Ever Owned
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the best hard drive I've ever had. It's solidly built, runs completely silently, runs cool, and is at a fantastic cost. I've owned dozens of hard drives through the years and this one is hands down my favorite from my favorite company ever. I bought it over a year ago and it still is perfect.
Some things to note however to get the best out of this device.
1) As soon as you get it format it in NTFS using either My Computer>Right Click>Format>NTFS in Windows or if using a Gnome Edition of Linux such as Ubuntu (like myself) open terminal and type 'sudo gpart'. This allows you to store files over 2GB on it such as your DvD ISO backups or back ups of your games.
2) Buy a refurbished or used one. New this product is $300. You can find it all day long on Amazon between $60 and $90 cutting the cost down to almost 1/6 on a good day.
3) Some other customers have complained about this product breaking after prolonged use. This device does have a limited lifespan with write usage. This being said try to put data on it that you want to back up and then set it to 'read only'. This will save you some headaches in the future. It's meant to be a backup drive after all and not one for installing applications on.
Digital camera Review: Big Bang for the Bucks
Summary: 5 Stars
I have to assume that the folks writing bad reviews of this unit are newbies to PC's or just expect too ...... well nuff said.
This review is of the "Essentials" model, $136 at purchase time. The unit was running within 2 minutes of opening the box. It's attached to a PC that's less than a year old running XP. It's silent and copied 1702 files totaling 582 MB in 2 min 15 seconds. After a 45 min reformate to NTFS (vs FAT-32 it arrived formated for) it's doing fine.
Can not comment on the included software as I did not want it and used the format to get rid of it. It might be helpful to some,but I backup files as necessary and don't need a mirror image. Very good buy for the money.
Digital camera Review: Bulky, heavy, but worked as advertised
Summary: 5 Stars
Pros: It's got lots of storage and transfers data relatively fast. It's quiet (no fan) and looks stylish. I knew what I was getting into, though, so I'm not complaining about the size and weight.
Cons: If you want an easy to pack and move portable, this AIN'T it. Get a USB powered 2.5" drive. The things I didn't like about it and was uninformed when I got it are: 1) the little rubber feet on it like to fall off REALLY easy. 2) There are no pads as it comes to lay it on its side. Sure, it takes up less room, but I keep knocking the thing over. 3) It's a FAT-32 drive. Convert it to NTFS or else you won't be able to store ISO's of ripped DVD's, single layer or dual layer. 4) it comes with pre-loaded software that seems useless for what I bought it for -- Storing digital pictures, music, and ripped DVD's.
-- Bottom line, I'm going to have to buy a 2.5" USB powered external for dragging my media to and from work. I REALLY like my friend's passport Western Digital 160 GB USB 2.0 Passport 2.5" External Hard Drive ( WDXMS1600TN ). A 160 gig would really be the ticket!!!
** UPDATE **
The drive died and took all of the data with it. Got slower and slower, so I started transfering the important data off and it died halfway through the transfer. I am disappointed that it lasted only two hears with light use.
Digital camera Review: Buy another model.
Summary: 1 Stars
I purchased this in June of 2007. It worked very nicely for about 4 months. I had a computer problem that forced me to shut down my computer improperly. When I turned everything back on, I could not access the drive. I got a message saying the drive needed to be formatted. I had a technician access the drive and my files are still there. The master boot record is gone, however. I have to buy another drive to move them to and then format the drive and all should be fine. After I do this, I won't trust this drive again. I will only hook it up when I need to and not leave it plugged in all the time as I was doing. I have had the My Book Essential Edition 250GB for well over a year and have never had a single problem. It is on all the time (and was on when I had the computer problem that caused the 500GB drive problem with no errors to the 250GB drive). It is a very good product. I'd go with two of the 250GB My Books and stay away from the 500GB altogether.Digital camera Review: Buyer Beware
Summary: 1 Stars
I purchased this drive on October 28, by Nov. 15 it was no longer functioning. I purchased the drive to use as music storage -- spent dozens of hours digitizing 400+ albums. the drive became corrupted and impossible to restore without spending mucho dinero. The Western Digital service site is a disgrace. I have owned Maxtor and Seagates, I'll never purchase another WD.