Western Digital 250 GB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive with Dual Option Backup

by Western Digital

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 12.8 x 6.4 x 7.9 inches ; 2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 6 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0006FQI8C
• Item model number: WDXUB2500JBNN
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 27, 2004

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

High-speed storage, conveniently placed buttons and easy-to-use backup features make the 250 GB WD Dual-option external USB drive an ideal solution for that much-needed additional storage and a perfect place to back up your valuable data, music, photos and movies.

Features

• Dual-option Backup -- choose how and when to back up your data, automatically or on-the-spot
• USB 2.0 interface -- high-speed connection for maximum throughput
• Front-mounted power button -- equipped with WD’s exclusive Safe Shutdown feature that ensures all data has been safely transferred before shutting down the drive
• 7200 RPM rotational speed
• Preformatted; simply plug it in and go
• Designed for near-silent operation with WD’s whisper-quiet hard drive
• Fast, easy connection to PC or Macintosh computers
• Cool, heat-dissipating case
• Stands vertically or horizontally
• Stackable

Applications

• Back up your existing hard drive
• Archive the music stored on your MP3 player
• Add plenty of space for digital video capture and editing
• Save and organize your digital photo collection
• Back up your valuable data from notebooks
• Easily share files between computers
• Add virtually unlimited storage with multiple external hard drives

System Requirements

PC Users

• Available USB port
• Windows 98SE, Me, 2000, XP

Macintosh Users

• Available USB port
• Mac OS v9.2.2 or Mac OS X v10.2.8+

Kit Contents

• 250 GB USB 2.0 external hard drive
• 6 foot (1.8m) USB 2.0 certified cable
• Software CD including Dantz Retrospect Express backup software
• AC adapter with power cord
• Vertical stands
• Feet for horizontal placement
• Quick Install Guide

Product Description

High-speed storage, conveniently placed buttons and easy-to-use backup features make the WD Dual-option external USB drive an ideal solution for that much-needed additional storage and a perfect place to back up your valuable data, music, photos and movies

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Competent bundle, December 3, 2005

By 

H. Lam (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Western Digital 250 GB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive with Dual Option Backup (Personal Computers)

A USB external hard drive is something everyone should consider purchasing these days, because it makes backing up and transferring large files convenient and easy. Western Digital's 250 GB USB External Hard Drive with Dual-Backup Option has approximately 232 GB of space actually available for use after formatting. For maximum compatibility across different operating systems, the drive comes pre-formatted with the FAT32 file system. However, since FAT32 is limited in capability and performance, most recent Windows users should first format the drive with the NTFS file system. The USB connection one uses also matters for performance. I get a transfer speed of about 1.3 gigabytes per minute when my Western Digital drive is directly connected to my computer's USB 2.0 port. Some USB 2.0 hubs may actually throttle performance. I get a transfer speed of about 222 megabytes per minute via my Edge USB 2.0 Hub + Memory Card Reader.

The included backup software, Dantz's Retrospect Express 6.5.342, is licensed for use on up to two computers, and is decent for light backup and restore functionality, but not more. While Retrospect Express has good automated scheduling capabilities, its slow data compression speeds make it impractical to backup large files or a large number of files in a timely manner. Of course, Retrospect Express can speedily back up files without using data compression, so it depends whether one thinks the 232 GB of available space on this hard drive makes data compression irrelevant.

Retrospect Express's disaster recovery feature is also too time-consuming to use. Retrospect Express does not create a System Recovery CD, but an ISO image that must be separately burned with additional software (such as Nero or Roxio), as Microsoft Windows does not include ISO image support. Further, Retrospect Express' System Recovery procedure requires the re-installation of both Windows and Retrospect Express before using its System Recovery CD in concert with one's backup files to recover the system image. As a result, one may consider the purchase of a disk imaging utility (such as Symantec's Norton Ghost or Acronis' True Image) for system recovery well worth the additional investment.

Western Digital's 250 GB USB External Hard Drive with Dual-Backup Option is a competent bundle. Check your prices before you buy one though; sometimes it may cost less to separately purchase a hard drive, USB external hard drive case, and more functional back-up software.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Backup---> "**UPDATE** Horrible Backup", November 10, 2005

By 

Red Coupon (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Western Digital 250 GB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive with Dual Option Backup (Personal Computers)

After knowing to steer clear of the inherantly buggy external software, this drive fits my use as raw data storage point perfectly. I'm about to buy my second one, despite even MORE negative ratings than were around when i first bought one. It looks good, runs quiet, is very plug and play savvy, and works well as an extra storage point since i have 2 internals and 2 externals to hold movies i am editing.

**UPDATE**- Well reading my nice review abve, i guess those negative reviews were there for a good reason and i just got lucky for awhile. My HDD died, inexplicably, and i was luckily able to recover the data by tearing the case to shreds. I rarely used it, so i'd say it survived maybe 800 spin-ups at best. Ridiculously unreliable, STEER CLEAR!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars External hard drives are unreliable, but I've found success with this one., March 19, 2006

By 

Barry Hott (Great Neck, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Western Digital 250 GB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive with Dual Option Backup (Personal Computers)

This is my second external hard drive. My first one was a Maxtor 200gb. The problem I had with it was that it could only be disconnected in a certain way, otherwise it would give an error and actually require to be formatted. I know what I'm doing when it comes to computers, and this was the only way I was able to get the drive to function again. Fortunately I was able to recover all my data using data recovery software. I've determined that the only way to use external hard drives for data backup is to have two external hard drives: one to store data on, the other in case of emergency, to recover the data to.

This Western Digital external hard drive is excellent. The feature that drove me to buying this drive was the power button that doesn't allow the drive to shut down until it's done transferring. The drive speed is terrific and the setup was absolutely incredibly quick and simple.