I was looking for a good external hard drive to store all of my games and movies on and was wondering if the Western Digital My Book 1TB drive was any good. I'll be buying from another store for a cheaper price though.
I ave the 2TB version (2x1TB drives setup as Raid1) and whilst it seems to do the job well, the `eco mode` is a bit too `eco` and seems to spin the drive down far too quickly and I cant find anywhere in the controller software to prevent it - windows settings dont seem to touch it - hopefully if you are on Mac you might have more luck.
I have two WD externals. They work well however have discovered I prefer a drive with it's own on/off switch. These turn on and off with the computer. If you plan on only connecting them for backup purposes then that's not an issue.
Have 4 of them and never had a problem. Never, ever go with a Seagate Free Agent, tho. Had one and it failed very quickly. After googling it, discovered it frequently has issues.
I have a Seagate 1 TB in a Velocity enclosure (version 7200.12) as well as two 500GB Seagate drives (v7200.12). The Seagate version 7200.11 is the series that has issues (google will bring up many issues with this version) so if you decide to go Seagate, check the version.
I also have a LaCie external drive which has worked well for me (it's only 320 GB though).
Have 4 of them and never had a problem. Never, ever go with a Seagate Free Agent, tho. Had one and it failed very quickly. After googling it, discovered it frequently has issues.
There was one version of the FreeAgent that did have some serious problems, most significantly the 500GB FreeAgent (not the Extreme). They don't all have those problems though. I have two of the 1TB Extreme drives, and they have been rock solid reliable.
Have 4 of them and never had a problem. Never, ever go with a Seagate Free Agent, tho. Had one and it failed very quickly. After googling it, discovered it frequently has issues.
My experience has been the opposite. I bought a WD MyBook for my wife's Mac and it had nothing but problems. We exchanged it for a 500Gb Seagate Freeagent and have not had any trouble. I have a 750Gb freeagent and it also has run without any problem for about 10 months now.
I think whatever you are looking at, you will always find someone who has had a bad experience or 3 with the product and says not to buy it. The obvious solution is to save your data on punch cards and store them under your mattress.
I have a 1 TB version of the external WD for about a year now and the only problem I have had is that Windows seemed to loose it every now and then and I would get a backup failure message in the morning. I would check my drives and the WD would not show up. I ended up solving the problem by assigning a permanent drive letter to it. Have not had an issue since.
I have the 1Tb version as my back-up and it has served me well since I got it. Just sits there out of the way and does its thing while I do whatever I want. Doesn't spin excessively nor does it intrude into anything it shouldn't. I will be purchasing another soon for other dedicated purposes.
I bought one. Crashed when I tried to load a heap of data on (backing up my photos). Contacted wd and they told me to try a few things, if they didn't fix it, take it back for replacement. New one has not yet skipped a beat so I am putting the first one down as an unlucky bad drive, which I have found all brands have.......
I heard that the WD SmartWare software that comes with the drive MUST be used to access the drive. Is this true? In other words, if I have another backup software, I wouldn't be able to use it with this drive. Is that true?
I heard that the WD SmartWare software that comes with the drive MUST be used to access the drive. Is this true? In other words, if I have another backup software, I wouldn't be able to use it with this drive. Is that true?
I have three WD Externals connected to my PC and have not used any of the software that came with them. So, as Shannon said - "No". You're good to go. :-)
I heard that the WD SmartWare software that comes with the drive MUST be used to access the drive. Is this true? In other words, if I have another backup software, I wouldn't be able to use it with this drive. Is that true?
No.
No is correct. In fact, I tried the Smartware at first on my new 2TB, found it miserable to use, and it was a bit of a pain to get rid of it.
I have the 2TB WD MB half full now, plus have a 1TB that is full, and three 500 GBs all fairly full.
I have used the WD MyBooks for a few years. I have 3 sets of 320GB full, two 500's that are 10GB from being full, and 2 1TB drives going in at the turn of the year. I (knock on wood) have every one of them I have ever bought still in use.
Thanks. I'll probably go with the WD. How does one get "rid" of the software they have? I may use it, I don't know, I'd like the flexibility to use the drive as I wish with any other software package out there.
Thanks. I'll probably go with the WD. How does one get "rid" of the software they have? I may use it, I don't know, I'd like the flexibility to use the drive as I wish with any other software package out there.
The software comes on a CD. The drives are bare. You can start using them immediately as just plain old extra drives.
