Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

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.

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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

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?

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).

I am a very satisfied customer of these drives. Currently there are 36, yes, thirty six, of these drives hanging off of my Dell XPS - all tied in with USB connections. I have had zero problems with any of these drives unlike the drives from the "famous" French manufacturer. I had around 10 Terabytes of French storage that failed so often I deep-sixed each and every one of them.

I maintain enormous data bases for clients. The data is not subject to being changed and grows only ever so slightly, so it is easily backed up on DVDs. It just needs to be available reasonably fast. Thus these drives fit the bill quite nicely.

Having 11 and a half Terabytes of these drives running in my drive farm without a hitch speaks wonders for these drives. I highly recommend them!

Bought this drive for a bargain price. Works falwlessly with USB2 conenction. Have not used FireWire connection. Comes with both USB and FireWire cables. Builtin USB hub (extra USB port on the drive) is great help because i have only 2 ports on my laptop. No problems whatsoever yet. Have not used the bundled Retrospect software. Also works just fine with usb 1.1 -albeit slower. I did reformat the drive to NTFS (from FAT32) before using it. Highly recommended.

Follow Up:
Three months after the purchase, the drive died on me. Computer doesnt recognize the drive at all so cannot troubleshoot using any disk utikities. Opened a trouble ticket on WD website. My experience was similar to that of "B. America -annodomini1969". Online support is useless. Their first reply was way off and never replied again!! I will try calling and see if I can send it in at least to retrieve data. I would change my rating to 3 stars, if I could.

Follow Up (5/2006):
WD has stringent requirements for shipping back the drive after RMA is provided. it almost feels like they want a reason to reject the shipment. I found those requirements so tedious that I bought a firewire cable and using the drive with it. Fortunately, the drive works with the firewire card. Read the fine print about the return policy. I was capable of backing up data before sending the drive in if I had to, but not everyone is.

Follow Up (10/2007):
Now even the firewire port seems to be dead. I hope it is just the port and not the hard drive. I will have to take the drive out and connect it to my desktop in order to salvage data. I wouldn't buy WD again.

The additional space this drive provides was of primary importance to me. The USB 2.0 provides a quick way to backup important information. At the time, Western Digital was offering a rebate as well, so for the price, this drive couldn't be beat - especially for a reliable name brand. The software that comes with the drive is a bit unintuitive. After spending some time playing with it and setting it up, you shouldn't have to adjust it too often.

I've had Western Digital internal drives before without any problems whatsoever. This big capacity external drive is more complicated to install (much more so than my Maxtor One Touch).

First, as noted in other reviews, it comes preinstalled with the old FAT32 format instead of NTFS. You may have to go to the Western Digital web site to figure out how to reformat. This should have been included on their CD.

Next you're forced to install Retrospect Express 6.5 since the software needed by Windows to recognize the input cable is embedded in Retrospect. I already had Retrospect 7 and this new install erased that better program.

Also included in the forced install is a basically useless icon called WD Button Manager taking up real estate in the lower right toolbar. Turning off the drive by just pushing the Power button once puts you through several screens in this Button Mgr. The only other way to turn off the drive is by holding the Power button for over 4 seconds.

The PDF drive manual on the CD as well as the printed Quick Install Quide are both for 2 separate drives; this dual (USB2 and Firewire) drive as well as media reader model. Their descriptions in the manual were confusing to me; I didn't know exactly which drive I had for a while.

OK, enough of the somewhat unfriendly software. The drive itself, once I got it installed, appears quite satisfactory. The 320 GB capacity is great. No problems at all. The USB and Firewire cables are included (for a change).

This has been a great drive for me, I'm using it to backup home videos and pictures. Anyone keeping their home videos or pictures on their computer should look into buying this drive. DVD-R manufacturers say they'll discs will last 100 years, but I've read reports otherwise. To keep my memories I burn them to disc and then back them up on this hard drive so they are in two places.

The drive is quite, fast transfer rate via USB 2.0. Would highly recommend.

This product was easy to install and to use. I did have to change the hard drive partition to NTFS to match the rest of my system but other than that there was nothing to it. The included back up software, Dantz Retrospect Express, was especially easy to configure and to use. The drive is very quiet and the front on/off button is an inprovement over previous WD drives. I hope to get the same excellent use out of this drive as I have my previous WD drives both internal and external.

Highly recommended.

I have purchased several of these Western Digital external hard drives in the past and was very happy with them. This latest unit has a fully depressed on/off button and will not turn on. Very poor quality over all when compared with similar drives only a year older. Seems like this one was made in a different factory where it was thrown together by clueless workers who didn't care about the quality of their workmanship. I am hoping that the new My Book models from WD will be better made.