Western Digital WDG1SU5000 My Book Premium ES Edition 500 GB USB/eSATA External Hard Drive
by Western Digital
(Click here)
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Photo Product Details
Manufacturer: Western DigitalAudio: English (Original Language)
Model: WDG1SU5000N
Product features:
- Form Factor - 3.5" x 1/3H
- Dimensions WxDxH - 2.23 x 5.63 x 6.78 inches
- Weight - 2.9 lbs
- Interface - USB 2.0 / eSATA
- AmazonBasics IEEE 1394 4-Pin/6-Pin FireWire Cable (6 Feet/1.8 Meters)
- AmazonBasics USB 2.0 A-Male to Mini-B Cable (6 Feet / 1.8 Meters)
- AmazonBasics USB 2.0 A-Male to A-Female Extension Cable (3.3 Feet/1.0 Meter)
- AmazonBasics USB 2.0 A-Male to B-Male Cable (6 Feet / 1.8 Meters)
- AmazonBasics USB 2.0 A-Male to A-Female Extension Cable (9.8 Feet/3.0 Meters)
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Western Digital WDG1SU5000 My Book Premium ES Edition 500 GB USB/eSATA External Hard Drive
Customer 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.
More Western Digital WDG1SU5000 My Book Premium ES Edition 500 GB USB/eSATA External Hard Drive reviews:
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6
Description of Western Digital WDG1SU5000 My Book Premium ES Edition 500 GB USB/eSATA External Hard Drive
With both the popular USB 2.0 and the ultra-fast eSATA 3 Gb/s interfaces on board, the My Book Premium ES Edition external hard drive offers universal connectivity and unbeatable performance in one high-value package. Works with both Windows and Macintosh computers. Includes EMC Retrospect Express backup software.Digital Cameras & Photo Categories