Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 500 GB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive WDG1U5000
by Western Digital
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List Price: Our Price: $199.99 You Save: $130.00 (39%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $69.99 (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 Edition 500 GB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive WDG1U5000
Customer Review: Died During Its Second Year
Summary: 1 Stars
I have over 10,000 mp3 files (which were already backed up) on the unit. One day, I used Explorer to search for a mp3 by title, and the drive hangs up and the Explorer just gives me a slow progress bar. I click around and the drive gets itself lost. I rebooted and it was fine...until I tried a search. Same thing. The drive hangs up. I can't access the drive. I can't turn it off and on again unless I reboot the computer.
I rebooted, and transferred all of my unbacked-up files to another external drive (Seagate) which worked fine as I was using that drive for storing files I don't often use as well as some backups.
Fortunately, it was still working enough to save everything before I decided to make it into a permanent doorstop.
I'm buying another brand. No more Western Digital.
Customer Review: A good way to waste your money
Summary: 1 Stars
First of all I could not get data to transfer. Uses a program called Acronis to backup. It never worked, not even once. I bought it from the person who set up my computer right before he left on an extended trip to Korea so I couldn't return it. His advice to me was to transfer data manually (drag and drop) which seemed to work okay but was highly impractical and very slow.
Then my computer stopped recognizing it so I can't even do that any more, much less retrieve what I put on there. Basically it was a total waste of time and money. It should not be that hard to make an external hard drive type product to store data in. Manufacturers should be ashamed of themselves for cutting too many corners and not giving us a reliable product. If I could I would give it 0 stars.
Customer Review: Great Hard Drive for a Great Price
Summary: 5 Stars
Western Digital is the Rolls Royce of Hard Drives. I have two 500GB My Book Hard Drives that I use constantly for backing up.
Pros: A sleek looking Hard Drive with an enourmous capacity. Just plug in and you're ready to roll. Utility software is unneccessary to install. Drive switches on and off with your computer. Alternatively you can switch it off manually by pressing the large black button on the Hard Drive's spine. I have kept my Hard Drive's on for 12 hours straight. While the Hard Drive's did become warm to the touch, I failed to notice the over-heating that other reviewers spoke about.
Cons: None really. Maybe the day will come when the Hard Drive will be powered by the computer - so that an extra power supply for each Hard Drive will prove unneccassay.
Customer Review: Works great
Summary: 5 Stars
I use this device to backup both my laptops and have never had any problems with it. I've had it for around two years now (I don't like to write reviews until I've had some experience with a product.)
I like that the drive can be easily disconnected from the power and data cables. Size and form-factor are great for my needs. The unit stays in a sleep-state when it is powered but not connected to a PC. It wakes up instantly when a data connection is sensed / plugged in.
The only thing I haven't been able to do reliably is connect it directly to my router for wireless access but that isn't a big deal to me because I worry about the security of using it that way (even though I keep my wireless network secure, there will always be a hacker smarter than me...).
Customer Review: Thank you WD!
Summary: 5 Stars
What more can I say that you don't already see from the item description? This hard drive was the answer to my dreams. I bough it right off Amazon and have not seen any problems for a week.
Here is the break down.
Pros:
Quiet yet good heat dispersion
500 GB!
Cheap ($170 - the cheapest 500gb HD I found with enclosure included)
It looks cool. Come on the black and green light, it is just awesome.
Lastly, it shuts down automatically when you shut down your computer. I cannot remember how many times I have left my external hard drives turned on all night.
The only fault of this product I though was that it comes with a bunch of programs. What I did and suggest you do the same is just reformat it as soon as you get it.