Western Digital WDG1SU5000 My Book Premium ES Edition 500 GB USB/eSATA External Hard Drive by Western Digital
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Digital camera reviews of Western Digital WDG1SU5000 My Book Premium ES Edition 500 GB USB/eSATA External Hard Drive
Digital camera Review: Great Features, good support, questionable quality
Summary: 3 Stars
This drive has some great features like dual interface and auto power down. It worked as soon as I plugged it in (USB) and worked for just over 11 months before it died. I found that it would work for a few minutes after being powered up and then fail. I was able to erase it and WD sent a new one. I paid to send back the old one but they have a deal with UPS that saves a little over a buck. The new one didn't work at all. I just sent it back and they are sending another. It was great while it worked and they did make warranty replacement easy but the quality is not what I expect from WD. With the new drive I'll have only a 30 warranty. Digital camera Review: Terrible product; decent support, though
Summary: 1 Stars
My first drive worked properly through USB for a few months. While it worked, it was typical for an external drive. Though it has a capacity gauge on the front, it didn't work very well and required a system tray program to function at all. To me, the system tray is hallowed ground which should be inhabited by completely necessary programs only, e.g., the virus scanner. If WD wants to put a gauge on the drive, it should work without eating up my RAM and CPU time.
Then, I purchased an eSATA to SATA cable so I could use the faster transfer capability of the SATA interface.
The first cable didn't work at all.
The second cable worked, but after a few days, there were terrible data problems with the drive. Disk Check would run every time I booted up, scan the drive for several hours, and throw out large amounts of data. Of the files that were left, some of them were corrupted and unusable. At this point I sent in a support ticket and received an advance replacement (they send you a new drive, then you send them the old drive in the same box). I didn't attempt to use the eSATA cable with this drive, fearing that the implementation was buggy somehow. I should also note that Western Digital does not pay for the return shipping of the broken drive, which in my opinion is idiotic (I have returned iPods, two Nintendo DS consoles, laptops and monitors to various companies and have NEVER been charged for it). What they offer you is a $1.50 discount off of $7.99 UPS Ground shipping. Ridiculous.
After two months, the USB interface in the second drive completely failed. The drive could no longer be recognized in Windows XP or Vista on two different computers. I complained to WD support a second time, requesting that I be sent an internal drive instead, as I have rarely had problems with WD internal drives. They refused to accommodate this and offered an upgrade to the 500 GB My Book Home Edition. Although that model has a FireWire interface (my PC has no FireWire port), is slightly smaller than the Premium ES edition, has a different capacity gauge light, and has slightly updated software, I see no tangible benefit from "upgrading" to it. I am merely hoping that this model does not have the USB connection flaw, and I can see from other reviews here on Amazon that I wasn't the only one with this problem.
At first, when the second drive died, I thought it was completely gone, but when I read other comments on this site, I saw that only the USB connection was unusable and the data might still be intact on the drive. So, I tried the eSATA to SATA cable again, and it worked, allowing me to quickly transfer all its data to a second replacement drive. I then deleted everything, not bothering to check if the eSATA use had corrupted the data again. The data on the new drive seems to be OK, but I haven't checked it all yet. I'm hesitant to use the eSATA to SATA cable with it, either.
Western Digital was always very responsive to my requests for support, but aside from the previously mentioned return shipping nonsense, their e-mail responses usually take anywhere from one to five days, the first response being automatically generated and useless. Also, their warranty is a year from the original product purchase and is not renewed if you get a replacement, which means that the original drive could have failed anywhere in the first 364 days and I would have been covered, but this new drive only has four months before I'm screwed if it fails.
All this trouble combined with the fact that I know others with non-WD external drives that have never failed mean that I will never buy a Western Digital product again. I am crossing my fingers and hoping that I don't have problems with the third drive, but that doesn't mean they won't happen.
Digital camera Review: Drive Failed after 7 months. >:(
Summary: 1 Stars
The drive worked flawless for 7 months then started to die. First the USB interface started getting errors then completely failed. I switched to the eSATA connection to get my data off which I was able to then it started to give me problems as well. I was very lucky to recover my data off this drive. It's still under warranty so I will get a new one, however I am forever skeptical about their external Mybook series drives. I have always owned Western Digital hard drives and they have never let me down and have always given me countless years of use. I recommend staying away from the mybook series hard drives until WD gets some of these flaws worked out. Their internal hard drives are excellent and have never failed me. Better luck next time.
Digital camera Review: Excellent
Summary: 5 Stars
Dealing with as much media as I do, I really needed the extra disk space on the go. This hard drive is an superb choice for high volume mobility. Note: the computer MUST be off to disconnect eSATA.Digital camera Review: Works Great, then Dies leaving you scrambling, shame on WD!!
Summary: 1 Stars
I've had this for a little over a year, notice only a one year warranty comes with it. PLEASE do not store anything you really don't want to lose on it. I had about 250 gigs stored from my photography company, luckily I run more than one machine. It died, oh, it comes on and the USB port shows something there, but the device is clicking like a tap dancer on speed. Try to use one of WD's data recovery preferred partners with price starting at $595.00. I will be moving up to a more reliable brand after I try to get all my stuff off of this dead one. THANKS WD!!!