Western Digital - 1Tb 7200 Rpm 16Mb Ext Hdd
by Western Digital
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List Price: Our Price: $74.99 You Save: $195.00 (72%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Western Digital - 1Tb 7200 Rpm 16Mb Ext Hdd
Customer Review: Perfect for use with Dish Network DVR 722 receiver
Summary: 5 Stars
This Western Digital My Book Essential 1TB drive deserves every one of those 5 stars. I have used this drive for 2 purposes: One for the usual purpose of backing up information from a computer and also as an external hard drive extension for the Dish Network DVR 722 receiver. With both of these uses, it worked flawlessly.
I am going to focus on how it works with the Dish Network DVR because more and more people are buying external hard drives for this purpose and not many (if any) had reviewed this particular size when I purchased mine a month ago so I was unsure of how it would work. Dish Network states that the maximum external drive size that will work with their receivers is 750GB. That is typically true, except in the case of this Western Digital My Book. The reason for that is simply because most 1TB drives actually have 2 drives within one case. The MyBook only pulls from one drive inside of its case that does hold 1TB. The DVRs can not recognize 2 drives at one time, hence the reason anything that uses such technology isn't usable. I have now been using this My Book 1TB drive with the DVR for over a month and I have had zero problems sending recordings to the hard drive or from the hard drive back to the DVR. You can also access your recordings on the hard drive and play them from there, delete them or do anything with them that you would normally do on your Dish Network receiver. You will notice a very slight delay when accessing recordings on the drive due to the fact that it has to process information much like a hard drive on a PC would. Hooking this drive up to your receiver and getting it to work is very straightforward and simple. All you do is connect the USB 2.0 cable into the back of the hard drive and then into the back of your receiver. You will be prompted on screen to setup your new storage device and from there you just follow directions. Do keep in mind for those of you interested in expanding your DVR storage and purchasing this external drive that there will be a one time fee with Dish for $39.99 to activate service allowing you to use such storage.
This drive, whether you're using it for your PC, Linux, Mac or your DVR is extremely reliable, quiet and fairly quick at processing information. I highly recommend this drive to anyone who is considering it! I hope this review helps you.
***Update*** I have now been using this external hard drive for over a year and it still works flawlessly. I am so thankful I made this purchase since a couple of the Dish Network DVRs have failed but I had backed up any recordings that were important to me on the MyBook so nothing meaningful was lost. I could not recommend this purchase highly enough.
Customer Review: Poor customer support, but a very good price for the amount of storage.
Summary: 3 Stars
This unit worked just long enough (2 days) for me to transfer a significant amount of data to it. Then I got the blue screen of death on my computer. It wiped out the hidden partition on the internal hard drive in my Dell computer. That was a nightmare in itself to find a solution for. I searched bulliten boards and contacted customer support, but after 5 long days of hard work trying to find a solution I give up. Bulliten boards showed lots of problems, but no solutions. Customer service conclusion, the drive is either defective or there is a compatibility issue. If this unit has compatibility issues with Dell computers, they should say so BEFORE you buy it. I have a Simple Drive that has worked flawlessly for months and never had a problem. I would never buy another product from this company. Seeing the large number of poor reviews here on Amazon should have been a clue.
I finally figured out what was wrong with this unit. Hopefully this information will help some other poor soul as customer service probably won't be much help. This unit is sensitive to power failure while running. You have to make sure you use the safe disconnect feature on your computer before unplugging. I am storing recorded video on this hard drive that I play on my TV via a USB port on my Phillips 5992 DVD player. Once I re formatted the drive in FAT 32 format the problems of crashes when it was disconnected disappeared. It took about 3 days for my old ME machine to reformat this massive drive. It should probably have been partitioned after reformatting as it takes forever to load the directory on the TV screen through the DVD player. It is however quite fast at loading the directory and files on the computer.
I have to say it is probably OK for the advanced computer user, but I would not recommend it for a novice due to the poor customer support. I would definately reformat the drive to FAT 32 to make it more stable. There is not a noticeable difference in speed when the drive is reformatted to the older FAT 32 format, and it makes the drive much more stable. You can find freeware programs to format the drive in FAT 32, and I believe the drive comes with a FAT 32 format program.
The drive has worked fine and been dependible for the last year. The 3 stars is because the technical support was not there. How frustrating to have something new you are not familiar with and have to do your own troubleshooting. This unit was cheap for the amount of storage you get. If you need a backup drive with a lot of space, and are sure you will not be disconnecting it it is a good deal for the price.
Customer Review: Great, Classy Drive. Bad Ju-Ju mimeo Software
Summary: 5 Stars
Let me preface this review by stating that I have been using computers at work and at home since 1986, so am no beginner. My Western Digital 80GB External Hard Drive--purchased in 2003--was acting a bit wonky lately (red activity light going on frequently, at random, locking up certain programs), so I queried Western Digital Support, and they said it may be going out, and to definitely BackUp my Data. I chose the WD My Book 1Tb because it had plenty of room, was aesthetically pleasing, and had good reviews. After a week of heavy usage I can report that the drive is Super--Treatment is nicely done, and it is very quiet. Some people don't like the Blue Light, but it is the same Blue color that is inside my SONY 400 DVD Changer, so I am used to it, and actually find it calming.
Now, for the Bad Ju-Ju mimeo Software. I installed it the first day, and liked it. Not much slowing of the Computer operation, and it seemed to work as advertised. I liked how it worked in the background, and was easy to set up. That was last week. Yesterday, after six day's usage I opened Quicken and my last two weeks of activity had disappeared. I had to re-enter it all again. What a hassle. I also printed a check and the printing was very small. I checked my settings, and they had not changed. The next time I opened Quicken it would not open at all. I removed it from the mimeo AutoSync Program, opened it from inner Quicken backup files, and all was well again. I just wasted a frustrating hour repairing a program that had given me no problems in 23 years of usage and many variations. So mimeo AutoSync was definitely to blame. Today I tried to open an important Spreadsheet that I have had for 6 years, and Windows said it no longer existed. It didn't. Poof! It just disappeared. It wasn't among the program's files, and it wasn't in the mimeo BackUp folder either. It was in both places yesterday. Today...Gone. Searches of all drives could not find it. I checked all my other Spreadsheets and an even larger and more important Spreadsheet was also gone. Poof! I cannot afford to lose data like this. I spent many hours rebuilding those two spreadsheets, and I know it was the mimeo Software that did it. I told them so when I uninstalled both programs, and it queried me on their site. All is smooth again with my computer, and I will be researching other BackUp Software.
In short, the My Book 1Tb USB Hard Drive is a beautiful Dream to behold, but the mimeo AutoBackup and AutoSync programs are Nightmares to avoid. Buy this Drive--you won't be sorry. Use the mimeo Software at your own risk.
Cheers,
DannyOh
Customer Review: This has been way better than my other hard drives
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought a 2TB version of this at my local Best Buy about 8 months ago and I am very happy with my purchase. For one, I have never installed any of the software on it (and I've actually deleted the folders containing that software) and it works basically like a plug and play. It ejects fine (unless I have Windows Media Player open, as my library is based from the hard drive, in which case I have to restart my computer...minor issue), it works well and it does exactly what I want it to do.
Pros:
*Works without the software that's included
*In 8 months I've never had a problem adding or deleting anything
*Works with Vista, XP and 7 (so far that's all I've tested)
*My favorite thing: It's formatted as Fat32. That means that any movie, t.v. show, music or photo that put on there is viewable/listenable through an X-Box 360 or a PS3 via connection through a USB port on the system. It even plugs into my parent's HDTV and you can watch things from it. I really like how compatible it is.
Cons:
*The unit is pretty heavy for a hard drive but the outer case is made of plastic. I don't feel like this hard drive would take traveling well. However, I do not intend on traveling so it's perfect for me.
*It's hard to keep clean as dust will make it into the vents on the top. I use an air duster to get in there but I know eventually it'll cake so bad I won't be able to clean. I hope this doesn't mess with the electronics inside.
As for the firmware, I haven't had any problem with it so far and my laptop has run the gambit from XP to 7. I have had no freezing problems, ejection problems, it only created one drive slot in My Computer and the unit stays relatively cool. It gets a little warm if you leave it running and working for awhile (I can watch about 3 hours worth of t.v. streaming videos from the X-Box before it gets warm enough for me to want to turn it off) but it's never been alarmingly hot, even after 8-9 hours of continued usage.
If you're looking for a simple back up hard drive that's compatible with all things Windows (I haven't tested on a Mac yet so I cannot judge there) that's reliable and worth the money, I'd get this item. I've got the 2TB which isn't available here on Amazon but if you need one that big, I'd suggesting finding one of these that is that big. I've got over 1TB of movies, music and t.v. shows and I feel safe and secure in leaving them on this hard drive (although don't get me wrong, I do keep a back-up :D ).
Customer Review: Quiet and Fast but bundled software is 30 Day trial only
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought one of these a month ago at Costco for about $200 after a coupon. I bought it on the spot with little to no research trusting that if I didn't like it, I could return it. So far that hasn't been necessary since the drive has met and exceeded my expectations after a few gremlins plagued the initial installation.
This is the 3rd WD HDD I've purchased. Historically, I've had problems with faulty WD products, particularly the 160GB portal HDD which I had to return twice because of bad sectors. I did not feel confident that this product would be any less troublesome and it seemed I was correct during installation. It refused to recognize the Desktop it was attached to, restarting everything always turned up different results. Sometimes I could get the devices to see each other only for them to lose the connection a few minutes later, other times I had no luck whatsoever. Finally, after approximately 20 attempts, the HD started working. I was about to return the device right before my last try. I tried this on several PCs with both USB and Firewire connectors and the same results so I'm convinced the HDD was at fault.
The drive is very quiet, more so than my internal HDD. I have it connected via Firewire, which is the fastest conventional external connection.
READ TEST:
* 5000 files (300 MB total) FireWire was 33% faster than USB 2.0
* 160 files (650MB total) FireWire was 70% faster than USB 2.0
WRITE TEST:
* 5000 files (300 MB total) FireWire was 16% faster than USB 2.0
* 160 files (650MB total) FireWire was 48% faster than USB 2.0
There is an eSATA connection available, but I don't have the connector on my PC. It would provide even faster transfer speeds.
The Memeo backup software bundled with the device is 30-Day trial only and not worth purchasing IMO. Although surprising that the software was trial based, I have other solutions and primarily use the device not to duplicate files but to store files apart from my PCs.
Aesthetically, it's neat and attractive with a matte black on metal finish. It has a white LED indicator light bar on the front which provides an interesting light show to externally indicate its current status. Nice functional little detail but I'm not always clear on what each animation means.