Western Digital WDXE5000KSN 500GB NetCenter External Network Hard Drive

by Western Digital

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 5.1 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000FS4OCW
• Item model number: WDXE5000KSN
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: December 19, 2005

Product Description

From the manufacturer

Easily share photos, video, music, files, and even a printer in your home or office with the WD NetCenter network hard drive. Save, share, backup, print. It’s easy!

Connect the NetCenter to your wired or wireless network to centralize and share pictures, video music, files. Print from any computer on the network. Installation is simple with the WD NetCenter wizard and EasyLink utility that sets up the WD NetCenter as a local drive on any Macintosh computer or PC. Includes EMC Retrospect Express backup and system recovery software -- Easy-to-use and powerful, this backup software includes features such as full system backup and restore, point-in-time restores, file-by-file backup, easy scheduling, encryption, and backup virus protection.

Key Features

• Comes with EMC Retrospect Express backup and system recovery software.
• Includes WD's EasyLink utility to set up WD NetCenter as a local drive on any computer on the network.
• 500 GB capacity.
• Fast 7200 RPM, 16 MB cache hard drive.
• Reliable, cool, quiet operation without a fan.
• 10/100 Base-T Ethernet connection.
• Uses Common Internet File System (CIFS) for platform-independent file sharing.
• Dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) client for automatic assignment of TCP/IP addresses.
• S.M.A.R.T. monitoring of data on the WD NetCenter hard drive.
• Automatic power management when the WD NetCenter drive is idle.
• Kensington security lock connection.

Product Description

Centralize and share music, pictures, and video, data files. Connect the NetCenter to your wired or wireless network to centralize and share pictures, video music and files. Print from any computer on the network. Installation is simple with the WD NetCenter wizard and EasyLink utility that sets up the WD NetCenter as a local drive on any Macintosh computer or PC. Includes EMC Retrospect Express backup and system recovery software. Easy-to-use and powerful, this backup software includes features such as full system backup and restore, point-in-time restores, file-by-file backup, easy scheduling, encryption, and backup virus protection. Automatic power management when the NetCenter drive is idle EMC Retrospect Express backup and recovery software Kensington Security Slot Centralize and share data in your home or office Create private, password-protected folders Back up files from any computer on the network Access files any time, from any computer on the network, even when the main computer is off Connect a printer and share it with any computer on the network Connect another external drive to add even more storage System Requirements - Available 10/100 Base-T Ethernet connection (network adapter, router, switch, or hub port), 10 MB available disk space, Pentium III 500 MHz or newer, Windows 98SE, Me, 2000 Pro, Server 2000, Server 2003 or Windows XP Home, Pro, Media Center Edition, Netscape 7.2, Mozilla Firefox 1.0.3, Internet Explorer 6.0 Web browser, Mac OS X 10.1.5 or later, Apple Safari 1.0.3, Mozilla Firefox 1.0.3 Web browser Dimensions - Height 5.910 x Length 9.440 x Width 2.19 Inches Weight 3.35 Pounds

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid network attached storage, easy to use., September 14, 2006

By 

Mark Pontius "mpontius2" (Irvine, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Western Digital WDXE5000KSN 500GB NetCenter External Network Hard Drive (Personal Computers)

Summary PROs:
--Easy setup, configuration, mapping.
--Acts as a real network server.
--Good self-diagnostics.
--Good speed.
--Bundled backup software does what it should.
--Soft 'partitions' allow creating several drive mappings, without having to set limits on each partition's size.
--Installing software on clients is purely optional.
--Print server is a nice bonus (didn't try it yet).
--Maybe expandable with external USB drives (didn't try).

Summary CONs:
--No RAID (data redundancy) options.
--No automatic data pulling capability.
--Security is questionable (but probably good enough).
--No quota mechanism for soft partitions.
--Documentation? What documentation? Nobody'd ever need more than the getting started sheet anyway.
--I read somewhere that there is a max 500GB total limit of all drives (with current firmware?), don't remember where I saw this though. That would mean that this model is not expandable since it already has the maximum. Also I remember a disclaimer about having to reformat the drive before it can be used here (again I can't remember where I saw that).

Review 9/2006:
I easily installed this drive on my network in under 5 minutes, it was simple plug-n-play once I discovered I had to turn the unit on (oops). Running the installer on one of the client computers pulls up a handy little utility that makes mapping drives easy for newbies, but can be done manually by anyone who has ever mapped a network drive.

Adjusting the configuration (rename the unit, add soft partitions, check status, etc.) is easy. There is a folder on the server with an html file that directs you to the device's web-based control panel. This was a nice convienience feature, as I'm used to having to type the ip address myself into the browser, which sometimes is hard to remember in this age of DNS addresses.

The built-in diagnostics report (S.M.A.R.T.) is nice in that it reports LOTS of low level statistics (errors, temperature, seek times, etc.) all of which show current value as well as a max and threshold value (presumably triggers some sort of alarm alert). None of this is particularly well documented, but I can guess what much of it means.

I've had a mixed history with WD drives long term reliability (some drives have performed wonderfully for years, others failed within warranty), so I don't really consider the quality to be beyond question, but I'm willing to trust my backup data to this drive. I'd have preferred some RAID capability, but this device lacks that, and I can't find any within my budget that do and still have the flexibility I want.

Speed is good, but my network isn't optimum (with a wide mix of 802.11b and 54G wireless, Gb NICs, 100Mb router/firewall, and 10Mb cable modem), so I won't quote any blazingly fast throughput rates, but I ran data across the network without significant slowdown vs local drive. I run only Microsoft, but there doesn't seem to be any reason Linux or Apple would have any problems with this unit's protocols.

The backup software bundled with the drive looks to do what it is supposed to, but not the most intuitive interface. It took playing with it for 20 minutes before I felt I understood what it could and would do. One machine of mine on the wireless side periodically loses link. This software tolerates that fairly well, and just reports an error occurred, but is able to resume once the link is back up (and you click on the OK button?) without losing any data. The compress data setting isn't on by default, and when turned on then looking at the log, doesn't make much sense. A directory of JPG files compressed by 12%, while My Documents compressed by 0%, according to the log. JPG images rarely can be further compressed, while word files, etc usually compress very well.

For backups, I would have liked the drive to be able to pull the data from the network on a schedule or even a button on the front of the unit, rather than just being a target to write to, but this isn't that big of a deal with scheduled backups and direct mapping of drives as the two main mechanisms.

I chose the networked drive rather than a USB drive, even though my server is on 24/7, simply for the added robustness of not counting on the server not to crash or go berserk.

I am not particularly impressed by the data security features. You can password protect each 'partition' with a username and password. No multiple different user passwords for a shared partition, though. I don't know how tough the encryption is for sensitive data. I don't know how immune it is to network attacks, although it is behind my firewall router so I am counting on that to protect me. No secure erase feature (over-write data before erasing it).

I updated the firmware very easily right from the web based interface. Mine shipped with 1.0.0...x firmware and a 1.1.0...x was available. Why do they need 4 or 5 different levels of sub revisions?

Final thoughts: I like it, and am glad it is on my network, but this is just one part of my data protection plan, which includes keeping two independent copies of everything that I value.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid network drive solution, October 12, 2006

By 

Simon Jessey "nutellaconsumer" (Pennsylvania, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Western Digital WDXE5000KSN 500GB NetCenter External Network Hard Drive (Personal Computers)

I have a fairly typical home network based around a Linksys WRT54GS Wireless Router. I have three PCs wired directly into the router, and a variable number of laptops. After experiencing a hard drive failure on one of the laptops, I decided that I needed a proper backup device.

Installation was ridiculously easy. I plugged the NetCenter into the spare port on the router (Cat 5 cable supplied), connected the power supply and powered the unit up with the button on the front. After waiting for the light to turn blue (looks cool next to a Dell PC), I ran the software from the installation CD on each computer - a process that took less than a minute in each case.

The "Retrospsect Express" backup and recovery software that comes with the NetCenter is awful, and I recommend something like "Acronis True Image Backup" instead. It allows me to run the NetCenter as a "mirror" drive for all the computers that need it (the 500Gb capacity is more than enough for my needs).

The NetCenter is completely silent, surprisingly quick, and perfect for any home or small office network environment. Strongly recommended.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Western Digital WDXE5000KSN right on target, January 15, 2007

By 

T Foley "computer guy" (Wyoming) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Western Digital WDXE5000KSN 500GB NetCenter External Network Hard Drive (Personal Computers)

I purchased this drive, set it up next to my wireless router in my wiring closet in my basement, and that is the last I have seen of it. I use it to make incremental backups of 3 desktops that I have running 24/7 here at home. I do periodically check the backups and do a restore (always a good idea with any backup method) and it works flawlessly. In fact I purchased 2 more drives. I use one at work and the second here at home to archive photo's and music. Drive read/write time might not be as fast as others I looked at but for what I use it for, it's perfect and the price/Gb is right, and so far, excellent dependibility and easy to set up. Give this drive a look.