TVBlogReviews.com

Unreliable storage devices! (2009-06-29)
I have purchased 3 Western Digital My Book external drives in the past 3 years. Two have already failed! Do NOT waste your money on this brand! They suck! I am now looking at other brand names to preserve my data!

Designed by idiots (2009-03-31)
There is only one thing you need to know about this drive. When using the eSATA interface, hard drive S.M.A.R.T. data will not be passed to the computer. The SMART data is a method of data collection that you can use to monitor the behavior of the drive and most importantly, observe warning signals that the drive may fail. This is not an error on my part, even the Western Digital diagnostic software fails to obtain it - see submitted picture.

To observe the SMART data, one must turn off the computer, connect the usb then restart. I am not aware that this is a hot swappable drive and if it is - one would need a motherboard with SATA ports that support hot swapping.

One star for being idiots.

Best thing really, buy a hard drive oem, and buy your own enclosure (with a fan!). Be about the same price.

I will be taking this apart and putting the drive into an external enclosure I will be buying.

If you value your data dont buy this drive. (2009-03-22)
This was a real waste of money. I usually like western digital drives so I bought this one. One problem is that the drive will just power down for no reason in the middle of transfering or backing up data So this means that you will corrupt usually the data or the drive itself POOF data gone. The only way to successfully use this drive is for moving small amounts of data over a long time which is time consuming. PLUS if the drive does fail (and it will in a short time) if you want to get customer support you have to pay 14.95 to someone to tell you to send the drive back for a replacement if its still under warrenty(dont worry you will be under warrenty becuase the drive fails within a few months). Then they will send you another one.. WHY? Why do I need you to send me another drive so that I can put MORE data on that one only to have IT FAIL? Do your research if you dont believe me go online and look at all the people who complain about how bad this drive is. Dont buy one unless you dont have alot of important information to back up.

Installation has me baffled (2009-03-15)
I tried to install this on my PC (XP system) yesterday and have been totally put off by the un-intuitive software. It's my first external HD, which I expected would work like the internal ones. I wanted it to copy the current files all at once, then update them automatically as I changed or added to them on the desktop. The installation via usb2 was a mess. It asked me to install all this extra software but I don't know what the device itself will do without it. There was no helpful information about actually putting the device into service once installed. The website had an additional set of downloads. Some installation failed, some spun endlessly and seemed to have loaded but who knows? I updated my service pack, clicked my heels together, everything it told me to do. Very frustrating. I am ready to pack it back up and send it back.

Great drive - don't install the crapware (2009-03-12)
Drive is quiet and has a great auto shutdown to standby feature. Be careful during installation not to install the extra (and unneeded software).