Western Digital My Book Essential 500 GB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive
by Western Digital
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Our Price: $143.49 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $69.00 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Western Digital My Book Essential 500 GB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive
Customer Review: mine doesn't work at all
Summary: 1 Stars
Hello. I bought this drive(not from Amazon) because I found one close to home and I could look at it and touch it. It seemed well put together and I had been looking for a backup, so I bought it.
Got it home and did everything the install guide said to do. Opp't out of the google toolbar and the 30 day trial and hooked it up. Seemed to start up fine but I was locked on the 30 day trial thing, so I said to myself, I change that in a minute, I'll let it download first.
Well, then it said my files were to big, I got that worked out, I thought, and started download. 24 hours later nothing had happened! I also couldn't access the internet. Well, I says, I'll just safely shut it down, disconnect and reload and see what I've got. As soon as I disconnected I could get onto the internet but as I went to reload, nothing happened! couldn't access manual or any part of the drive.
I wrote WD an email but have gotten no response eccept for the email verification. This is one of those things that to me it is much more hassle and expense to deal with WD so it is just sitting there on the shelf doing nothing.
After this experence, I told WD that I would be hard pressed to even think of one of their products again. Also after this I wouldn't dare use it as an internal drive.
My way in the past to deal with this kind of garbage is to take a sledge hammer to it put it in it's box and mail it back to the company.
Yes it cost me to mail but it also lets me blow off a little steam.
mightymike
Customer Review: More trouble than it's worth
Summary: 2 Stars
I bought one of these, and used it for several months, and liked it so well that I bought a second identical one.
These drives are supposed to spin down and go into sleep mode after a period of inactivity. The first drive did that just fine, UNTIL I got the second drive. Now both of them spin down and spin back up again immediately, with much noise and blinky light action. Off and on and off and on, forever. EXTREMELY annoying and distracting.
I spent approximately six hours total (over several days) on the phone with Western Digital tech support. Their final conclusion was that I needed to use a utility (which I downloaded from their site) to shut the drives down manually. This utility works, but only after several tries. Once the drives are shut down, I can only access them again by unplugging the drives physically, plugging them back in again, then waiting a minute or so while they start up.
It should be noted that the first drive I bought had been going into sleep mode perfectly. When I added the second, BOTH drives fail to go into sleep mode. And the original drive never goes into sleep mode anymore, even without the second drive installed.
As a result of all this, I have two drives which make great long-term storage, but are unusuable as additional hard drives to be used in real time. The latter is what I need, not the former. I'm out the money, and I still need some external drives I can USE.
BEWARE!!
Customer Review: It works until it doesn't. Then you're up the creek.
Summary: 1 Stars
As 110 out of 613 people have noted so far (over 1 in 6), this useless product WILL fail without any warning, cause or notice. Whatever positive things can be said about it (it's small, it started out performing, it doesn't make much noise, it has lots of capacity) pale in comparison to the HUGE fault that it's a defective piece of crud. This external hard drive was meant to be a backup for my regular computer, which is far older. And yet this turd failed within a short time, while my computer plugs steadily on. It will cost hundreds to thousands of dollars to (attempt to) retrieve the data on this lemon. Since the main goal of an additional hard drive is to store and access data, this lump of crap should get a zero, not even a "1". Various repair facilities have told me "all hard drives fail at some point", and nothing lasts forever. All the same, with the care given, it should have lasted FAR longer. This turkey was kept on a desk, there was no motion, let alone droppage, no abuse, nothing put on top or near it to block vents or in any other way to interfere with it. I wish I could suggest another specific product, but I don't have enough experience with other brands like Seagate or Iomega, who along with W.D. ("Western Digital"=W.D.="Wretched Disappointment") appear to be the big three hard drive makers, to do that. Good luck with something else, but avoid this monster.Customer Review: My Book Essential 2.0
Summary: 5 Stars
I have installed a number of these units on client's machines (Mac and PC). They work out of the box just fine. If you will be using on a Mac with Time Machine you will need to reformat the drive. Read the following:
http://www.macworld.com/article/132140/2008/02/timemachine2.html
I only purchase the drives with USB 2.0 .......I don't need firewire or the backup software that comes with different flavors of the My Book drives. The USB only drives are less expensive and work just fine.
I will pass this on and it may be of interest. I have read recently that some people have had problems with external drives in general ......failing, can not read etc. This is not specific to the My Book drives but all manufactures. If you open the device and remove the drive to test in an external enclosure or slave to a desktop, you may void the warranty. The catch: when returning the device to the manufacture you may be charged and exorbitant fee to retrieve the data off the drive or transfer to a replacement device.
If you have a little tech. ability you may wish to purchase a bare HD and enclosure and build your own system. Each will be warranted separately and the drive can be removed and tested in another device if problems occur. That is how I will be purchasing from now on.
Customer Review: Useful external for BASIC backup needs
Summary: 4 Stars
I have just had this product for a short while, but already have found it extremely useful. As you can see from many other comments, there is a high rate of failure over the long haul. However, i contest that this hard drive is extremely useful for basic backup.
Look into this product if:
1. You are looking to stick some excess documents on a hard drive and not access them all the time.
2. You are not computer savvy and would like something with ease of use.
3. You are interested in purchasing a secondary backup disk.
4. You need more basic document or file storage (Not streaming video, etc.)
Do not look into this product if:
1. You are looking to host a website from it and have a high access rate.
2. You wish to stream movies or music from it regularly
3. Any other use that involves high bitrate and long term acces
The drive is external, using only USB 2.0, so though it is fast, it is not an internal. Don't expect it to be that fast. It also is small to conserve space. The more you use it, the hotter it gets. Hard drives, like all electronics, fail with too much heat.
If you want a good, cheap external, this is the one ofr you, but realize that you get what you pay for.