HARD DRIVE, 500GB MYBOOK COMBO EXT
by WESTERN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES
|
List Price: Category: CE See more product details |
|---|
(Click here)
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of HARD DRIVE, 500GB MYBOOK COMBO EXT
Customer Review: The good, the bad, and the ... really bad
Summary: 1 Stars
I've often wondered how many people review things on amazon when they first buy them. Had I done so, i'd have posted only the good, and would have forgotten by the time it got really bad.
The good:
When I first purchased 2 of these, my first run to a customer went fantastically well. I copied the files via windows explorer to the drive, which showed up in My Computer under windows, as you'd expect, and presto, no problems.
The bad:
- Sometimes the drive won't turn off by the power button on the front. Sometimes it will. It's like my 2 year old child. It's got an unreasonable and emotionally uncontrollable reaction to what you do.
- Customer support is crazy. Crazy! I spent a long long time explaining my problem, what i'd done to solve it, the steps I took and provided a screen shot - only to wait a day and get an automated response - which had nothing to do with the problem, and i'd already reviewed prior to submitting the question because they force you to - and the "person" who responded proceeded to provide feedback and steps that did not address the issue, solve the problem or leave me with the impression that he understood what he was doing.
- The first backup performed with their software took overnight - that's fine, it really was 300GB of uncompressed data on a windows drive - but when it was done, it wasn't - their backup software puts it's own "restore" binaries in the directory you created at backup time - and for this one, it didn't. It seems the backup software is unable to backup when you input over 50GB of data at a go. The workaround, though, is to break it up into smaller chunks. PITA when you have a system for "filing" within your windows directories, but livable considering the bigger PITA to backup to DVD :)
- The drive makes not so nice sounds when shutting down. Yes, it's a known "issue" - they say it's not an issue, but when you shell out a lot of money on your drive, your heart stops for a moment when you hear a painful clicking sound. You know, the sound your drive makes a day or two before it stops working. Yup, it's that one. For what it's worth, i've had the drives on for roughly a month without a problem - but you should be aware that it'll be a little strange the first time you hear it.
The really bad:
- The backup software refuses to work. The problem I have is that it wasn't predictable in how it chose to .. stop working. I installed the drive, did a backup. That overnight backup. Which failed. The next morning I did the backup in smaller chunks and when i came back from work, sure enough it was fine. Great. I performed more backups over the course of a week. No problems. Last week I launched the software, selected the folders i wanted to backup, even selected the files - and the software insists on telling me "Please select the files to be backed up". Nothing changes this message. I'd removed the drivers/software, rebooted, reinstalled, uninstalled just the backup software, reinstalled - it doesn't matter - it just simply refuses to work.
- The diagnostic tool that their website and their techical support people will tell you to use is useless. When you launch it, it does a SmartScan - which, if things are fine, it says "Pass" and you think "great". The problem is when it says "Info unavailable" - what does that mean? You check the help files, right? There's nothing in there that mentions what it means - or mentions it at all. So I reviewed the responses I got from technical support - which provided me a link - and the information in the link simply reiterated their software help info - which was useless. I'm a self service junkie. I don't want to call you. I don't want to email you. If I have a problem, I want to read the manual, or your website, or your forum. While I don't really believe i'm the first to have a problem with their backup software, I absolutely refuse to believe i must have been the first one to ask what "info unavailable" means. Help me help you help me! :)
I think for me the issue is now trust. I think the data on the HD is fine - but considering the application stopped working out of the blue - who's to say the application in each directory I made a backup of on this drive won't stop working too? It works today, but there's no telling if it'll work tomorrow. Yes, I could manually copy the files - but when you're backing up 2TB of data, incremental backups really are the way to go. Another potential workaround is to purchase another vendor's backup software. Which i've done, and not yet tried - but this is wholly not the point. Don't shlep cheap and buggy software off, charge $25 more than the version of the product without it, and market it as "backup software that provides the world in gold" - that's just wrong. And frustrating.
As a result, I won't be buying this drive again. I highly recommend you don't either. There are plenty of competing products on the market already, and if you're going to buy someone else's backup software - you might as well buy a hard drive from a vendor that invests in competent online and software support. After all, as of today, what were you spending that extra $25 on?
Customer Review: Mac users beware!
Summary: 2 Stars
This review is from the perspective of a Mac user. I am guessing that, for the most part, this is good product for PC users... but I think there are some things that Mac users need to know before they purchase. Things that Western Digital fails to mention in their product descriptions, and even in their user manuals.
Let me begin by saying, this product says it is Mac compatible, but it is obviously designed mainly for PC. Also, the user manual is an obsolute joke. It is only a few pages and fails to go beyond basic install instructions. If, for whatever reason, the automatic install they brag so much about in their product descriptions doesn't work as advertised (it didn't for me!), expect to be on the phone with customer service.
1. First thing I noticed was that on the box (in fine print) it says that the Google software that comes with the drive does not run on Macs. I was unable to locate anywhere where this information is provided pre-order. Okay, that kinda sucks, but it's not really a deal breaker, so I went ahead and opened up the box.
2. Regardless of your OS, the drive won't work properly if it is plugged into a power strip, so your going to have to keep a power outlet open for just this single device. This is just kinda sketchy to begin with, but it also makes plugging it in at your work station that much more difficult. (Not mentioned in user manual)
3. Nowhere will you be informed that the drive is, in fact, not "plug and play" for at least some Macs... In fact I believe it specifically goes out of it's way to imply to be "plug and play" for both operating systems. I thought this was great as I would be able to use the drive to transport my files conveniently from computer to computer (including from my Mac to PCs). This is not true. First of all, on Macs the drive will not be "plug and play" at all. You will need to reformat the drive with disk utility before it will even appear on the desktop (Even though in the directions it claims it will appear automatically after being plugged in and fails to even mention the possibility this won't happen). Once you have reformatted, you will only be able to use the drive on other Macs. Now maybe some of you are saying, "You idiot! Everyone knows that you can't use a hard drive on two different OS!" Well, in my opinion, the description of this product ommits an explanation of the true nature of its OS compatibility, at best.... and at worst, it uses intentionally misleading language.
4. Finally, there was no way for me to know any of this if I hadn't opened the box. This is the important part... If you open the box, Western Digital will absolutely refuse to provide even a partial refund.
Am I saying not to buy this product? No... What I am saying is that Mac users need to be aware that this product is not quite as Mac compatible as Western Digital claims.
Mac users beware...
Customer Review: terrible software, buggy hardware
Summary: 2 Stars
Everyone says how easy the software is to use but I suspect that none of these people have actually tested restoring files using the "WD Backup" software that is included with this product. I found two major issues with the software and hardware so I contacted Western Digital Service and Support just to see if there were solutions that were not obvious to me.
They say their average response time is "one business day." After sending in my questions twice, I receive a reply in about 10 calendar days. Here is what I asked and their replies:
1) I have incremental backups running in the middle of the night. The drive automatically turns on but doesn't automatically turn off (it stays on for most of the day). How do I get it to turn off automatically? Does this feature exist or do I have to manually shut it off constantly? Even when I do manually turn it off, it keeps turning back on during the day even though the backups only run at night.
Their reply: The drive will only power on and off with the computer. The drive will stay on as long as the computer is on.
2) If I'm performing a file restoration and I have multiple incremental backups, how do I restore everything from a particular folder or drive? The backup software asks me to choose a particular day's backup, then apparently only restores files from that particular backup.
Their reply: To restore data, you will need to restore all of the backups, the first backup and all of the incrementals.
I was hoping for more helpful replies than the ones I received above.
I noticed another hardware problem after I turn the computer on from hibernate mode (I'm using Windows XP). The MyBook is on but the files are not accessible. Unplugging the MyBook and plugging it back in seems to fix the problem but this is annoying.
Another issue with the WD Backup software I noticed is that when you "delete" a backup through the software interface, it only deletes the link to the backup, not the actually files on the hard drive. Ridiculous.
All of these are just not acceptable "features" for a product designed to be a backup system. I cannot fit more than one complete hard drive backup of my PC on this hard drive so I must do incremental backups if I'm going to use the scheduler at all, or else I have to manually delete the full backup each time and then start a new one. This is obviously a terrible solution. I think I'm going to ditch this terrible software and go back to using an old copy of Retrospect. I was able to do a complete restore after a recent hard drive failure on another PC and everything was restored correctly (from a different hard drive backup) using Retrospect even though it was a mix of full and incremental backups. That would have been a nightmare with the MyBook and its software.
Customer Review: Very cheap, flexible and reliable additional storage for almost any PC
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a sturdy little unit and has both firewire and USB2. Firewire is very useful if you are ever likely to attach the My Book to an older Apple or happen to have a Firewire port on your PC (so you can keep a few essential USB2 ports free). Technically you can attach this drive to a USB1 but with a 50x slower transfer speed the drive is unusable (a 12 min USB2 file transfer takes 6 hours via USB1 if it finishes at all) - so just get a Belkin USB2/Firewire PCI card (or similar) to upgrade an older PC if necessary.
When you connect the My Book via USB2, software on the external hard drive loads onto the PC and from then on the hard drive is ready to go. It's hot swappable - unplug the cable and the My Book simply powers down (there's a software WD disconnect procedure to ensure data being transferred isn't lost, I have once accidently switched off this independently powered hard drive while moving pictures from a camera and I lost all the pictures on the camera card - fortunately freeware PhotoRec recovered them). The My Book switches on & off automatically with the PC. The circle of LEDs on the front of the My Book tell you whether the drive is on and whether it's doing anything. The unit only seems to be happy standing upright like a book, and it is very stable. I did get a lot of vibration from the unit feeding to the desk and keyboard, when the drive was spinning, but this was cured completely by adding four little stick-on cork feet (not supplied). From then on I haven't notice the drive when it's spinning. The hard drive is great for backup and storing digital photographs or MS Office files, and access time is almost as quick as my ATA66 internal drives. Naturally it's too slow for games, but it gives your internal drive far more space for them. Plus there's no IDE BIOS limitations on disk size (typically 120Gb or even 8.4Gb on older PCs). Unlike the 1TB version, there's no cooling fans, just a lot of vent holes - any noise is just the hard drive spinning. The only delay you really get is waiting for the drive to spin up when it goes into sleep mode. It was very easy to wireless network as well, providing storage for all four home PC's (providing the host PC is switched on) - but it's relatively slow used this way. I've always been a fan of Western Digital (like Maxtor all they only make are hard drives so their web sites are great being only focused on hard drives with all relevant software downloads and manuals very quick to find). If you use the My Book for backup, still make DVD copies of important data though, as if any one steals your PC or lightning strikes nearby, the PC and My Book are likely to go together.
So overall I am very happy with this cheap My Book external storage drive - so much so I'm buying another one for my study PC. Plus it is just portable enough to be dragged off to another PC in the house for occasional fast data backup. Highly recommended.
Customer Review: WESTERN DIGITAL = LOSE YOUR DATA
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought two of these in mid-2007 and less than a year later, found many of the same problems reported all over Amazon and other review sites -- overheating, powering down with no warning (even in the middle of data transfers!), intermittent unmountability. They were used in an average home office with typical usage, with plenty of air circulation to keep cool -- but they routinely glitched, crashed, and became useless not only for daily data use, but even occasional backups.
I ended up buying two new WD Elements drives to replace them, and managed to transfer all the data to the new drives. Those seemed to work great, and they were reasonably priced, so I bought two more Elements drives for additional project archives and music/photo media. Meanwhile, while all four of those were in use, one of the MyBooks completely died and wouldn't mount (after sitting unused for months, mind you), and the second became so glitchy it was pretty much unusable.
But then something downright infuriating happened. ALL FOUR of the new replacement WD Elements drives ended up having problems, too! The power supplies on ALL FOUR of them died within weeks of each other, right after the one-year warranty expired. And get this -- WD wanted to charge me twenty dollars per power supply for replacements (not including shipping!).
Thankfully, it's just the power supplies that are faulty -- the actual drives still work, and my data is still on them, so I bought *one* new power supply, and am now transferring each of those drives to a new Drobo with four 1.5tb Seagate drives inside. After they're transfered, I will wipe them clean, crack open all of the cases, and maybe try to salvage the internal drive units with other aftermarket cases. Ironically, it seems in all of the reviews I've read elsewhere, WD's basic internal drive products are fine -- it's the external cases they make that have problems.
THE BOTTOM LINE: SIX WESTERN DIGITAL DRIVES BECAME UNSTABLE AND UNUSABLE, ALL WITHIN A YEAR OF PURCHASE.
SIX drives, folks. Not just one or two. Over six-hundred dollars spent on totally, completely unreliable products in just about two years. I've heard that second wave of re-engineered MyBooks currently on the market are a much better product -- but I'll never be buying WD drives ever again after this experience. Not only should Western Digital completely get out of the external USB hard-drive business, they should have a class-action lawsuit brought against them.