Western Digital 320 GB USB/Firewire External Hard Drive with Dual Option Backup

by Western Digital

Product Details

• Item Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 5.4 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00092CKA2
• Item model number: WDXB3200JBRNN
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: March 24, 2005

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

320 GB, 7200 RPM, 8 MB Cache

WD’s high-capacity USB 2.0/FireWire external hard drive includes a USB 2.0 hub, buttons for automatic or on-demand backup, and a convenient front-mounted power switch. Includes backup software.

With two ways to back up your data, automatically or on-demand, WD Dual-option Combo drives are the ideal solution for saving your valuable pictures, music, video, and data files. They feature both USB 2.0 and FireWire interfaces and include a USB 2.0 hub with front and rear ports. A convenient power button activates Safe Shutdown, a WD-exclusive feature that ensures all data has been transferred before shutting down the drive.

The drive is an ideal solution for much-needed additional storage and a perfect place to back up your valuable data.

Key Features

• Dual-option backup – choose how and when to back up your data, automatically timed or instantly.
• Includes both USB 2.0 and FireWire interfaces -- a choice of high-speed connectivity options for maximum flexibility and throughput. Tip: The FireWire port delivers the highest connection speeds.
• Built-in USB hub – Easily connect peripherals such as a digital camera
• 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
• Dantz Retrospect Express backup software
• 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
• Kensington security lock connection

Ideal For

• High speed backup of important documents and images
• Extra storage for your computer
• Backing up your existing hard drive
• Archiving the music stored on your MP3 player
• Adding plenty of space for digital video capture and editing
• Saving and organizing your digital photo collection

System Requirements

PC users:

• Available USB port and/or OHCI-compliant FireWire port or adapter
• Windows 98SE/Me/2000/XP

Macintosh users:

• Windows 98SE/Me/2000/XP
• Mac OS v9.2.2 or later; built for Mac OS X v.10.1.3 or later

Kit Contains

• USB 2.0/FireWire external hard drive with USB 2.0 hub
• 6 foot (1.8m) USB 2.0 certified cable
• 6 foot (1.8m) 6-pin to 6-pin FireWire cable
• Software CD including Dantz Retrospect Express
• AC adapter with power cord
• Quick Install Guide
• Vertical drive stand
• Feet for horizontal placement
• Preformatted for Windows. Simple Mac formatting instructions included

Product Description

The WD Dual-option Combo Drive with USB 2.0/FireWire interfaces provides instant add-on storage for a PC or Macintosh. It has a USB 2.0 hub with front and rear ports and a convenient front-mounted power button with a Safe Shutdown¿ feature. Dual-option backup buttons let the user choose automatic or on-the-spot backup. With 7200 RPM rotational speed and an 8 MB cache, the WD Dual-option Combo Drive is ideal for backing up valuable data, music, photos, and movies. The horizontally or vertically placed Combo Drive has a Fluid Dynamic Bearing motor for near-silent operation. Dantz Retrospect Express backup software is included.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars So far the drive is problematic., September 10, 2005

By 

B. America "annodomini1969" (East Stroudsburg, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Western Digital 320 GB USB/Firewire External Hard Drive with Dual Option Backup (Personal Computers)

Received the drive last week from Amazon. Overall, it's a simple solution to backing up data and in my case, storing nearly 10,000 mp3 files (legit) ripped from my CD collection.

Here is where I am having an issue. The drive MUST be formatted for NTFS for any realistic use. This is a general action for any NT and up user. It comes FAT because users of FAT probably have no idea what NTFS is or have a specific requirement for it.

The BIG problem is the actual 320 gigs, which formats down to about 300 gigs. The drive WILL NOT accept more then 105gigs of data before giving the "disk FULL" error. I moved it to my work PC that is also running XP SP2 and it gave me the same error near the identical mark of 105gigs. I just contacted WD customer support and I'll follow up with their recommendations. Obviously, to rule out the >4 GB FAT limit, even if I am using NTFS, there are no files exceeding 100mb.

Something is not right... I will edit and follow up as I get more information.

--------------------

Follow-up as promised.

The issue seems to be the way information is handed off to the drive via the OS. The error is generated between the USB driver and the drive itself. The full 300mb are there; it's just hit and miss when doing large transfers. I used Norton optimizer to place all my mp3 files at the end of the drive and the problem seems to have cleared for now (luck?). Maybe it's how and where the incoming data is written to the drive? I don't know. It does seem to be driver related.

Now to discuss WD tech support. In the initial trouble ticket, I clearly stated the problem and wrote very specifically as line items, "The drive was formatted to NTFS" and "No files exceed 4gig and there are no files larger then 100mb". Their reply suggested I format my drive to NTFS because FAT will not support files larger then 4 gig. I wrote them back as per their system instructions. It appears they abandon my ticket since the reply time has been seriously missed.

It's apparent that WD is in the business of selling drives and not supporting them.

CCNP/CCDP/CISSP
Certified Instructor

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great Drive - Backup Software is a Joke, August 15, 2005

By 

Matthew Walsh - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Western Digital 320 GB USB/Firewire External Hard Drive with Dual Option Backup (Personal Computers)

The drive was easy to install and works great both with USB as well as fire wire connections. It does power itself down after 10 minutes of inactivity and this is not configurable. Not sure why they couldn't make this optional. I would just assume leave the drive spinning and think this makes a drive last longer. Would give 4 or 5 stars for the drive.

The backup software they ship has good features and although a little confusing overall offers better capabilities than with the windows backup utility. HOWEVER, there is a documented issue that the backup software causes the drive to become disconnected from your computer part way through a backup basically making this software useless unless all of your backups are very small. The documented fix for this is to disable the windows recovery feature. There is no warning about how this turns off one of the great recovery features in Windows XP and in my mind this is not an option. It appears that this issue only exists in the lite version of the software but I was not willing to pay for an upgrade to fix this issue. Also there are many verification errors (10 or more) in each backup making me question the integrity of the backup. Why even include backup software if it doesn't really work?

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fair Value, August 2, 2005

By 

CMD "CMD" (VA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Western Digital 320 GB USB/Firewire External Hard Drive with Dual Option Backup (Personal Computers)

After having my Maxtor give me the 'click-click' of death, I swore of that brand and delved into Western Digital largely on the fact that my Dell has a WD internal drive, and their much publicized quality issues seem to be behind them.

It's only been 3 or 4 months but the drive is fine. It works, is as fast (or slow) as advertised.

Here are the negatives:

* At install my computer recognized the hardware, but couldn't assign it a drive letter. I had to right click on my computer, go to MANAGE, and then Disk Management and manually assign a drive letter. That's pathetic in this day and age of plug and play. It took me about 45 minutes to figure this out, all for no good reason.

* Dantz Retrospective. Somehow this company has cornered the market as the software for external hard drives. And its LOUSY! To describe it as poor would do a dis-service to poor things that work, but not well. Dantz will backup your drive, but to get it scheduled is incredibly tough and time consuming. Also it will not just back up your hard drive, but rather puts all the files into "catalogs" which are logical representations (of several gig sized) of your data. I believe it will work right -- but you can't verify this. (As opposed to having a file structure like your C:\ Drive, all you see is "Catalog 01" and you have NO idea what is inside -- you are trusting that it the software worked and your data is in there in case you need to restore. These have been issues with Dantz for years and they have yet to address it. Any hardware that has DANTZ is automatically docked several points. No software would be better -- as I manage my backups by hand.

In summation: Good drive, sloppy setup, horrible software. (But still much, much better than MAXTOR -- do NOT buy a Maxtor even if its free).