Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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428 of 435 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Solid (and heavy) like a rock :), January 13, 2009
This is, by far, the most robust external hard disk I've ever owned. And, when I say solid, I mean almost 3 lbs. solid (I didn't put it on a scale but it feels that way), 100% metal casing, likely to survive a building collapsing on top of it. Given that I bought it for backups, not for travel, I actually like it this way. I like it very much.
It's probably helpful to enumerate the features I feel are worth being aware of before one buys it (and I shall answer any additional questions if you drop a comment, to the extent that I can):
# Heavy, solid build, almost bullet-proof enclosure.
# 8"x4"x1" rectangular prism (these are not exact measurements but I'm confident it's close.
# USB port for data transfer, cable included.
# External power supply.
# Silent run - you can't hear it spinning unless you place it close to your ear.
# Cool - after one night of uninterrupted operation it was barely warmer than room temperature.
# Not a speed demon but I backed up 50GB in something like 20-30 minutes.
# Formated as FAT32.
# Comes with no software but it was instantly recognized by both Vista and my PS3 (more about that later)
# There is no manual to speak of - and no manual is needed.
# One year warranty.
# 30-day free tech support during the warranty period where the clock starts running after the first call to WD.
# Lacks the (to me annoying) carnival lights that some other drives have these days - only one blue LED, on the back, blinks when read/writes are performed.
I can't think of anything bad to say about this device. I went for the 1TB size because I wanted to back up several smaller computers on it and my 320GB PS3. For a stress test and if you are going to use it with XP or Vista you may want to reformat the disk as NTFS - Microsoft will be spinning your disk for many, many hours and, if you bought a dud, chances are it will stop working during the 10-12 hours format process. Or, you can check the 'fast format' option and the formatting will be done in less than one minute.
After the overnight test was passed, I partitioned the disk into 4 using Vista (no problem whatsoever) and I formated 3 of them as NTFS and one as FAT32 (get FAT32FORMAT off the Net because Microsoft's utility does not work on a 300GB partition). Backups ran flawlessly with Microsoft's backup interface and backing up the PS3 was incident-free too - it instantly recognized the FAT32 partition and I have a nice PS3 backup now.
I highly recommend this drive as a backup device that does not travel a lot.
P.S. - if my review seems to be coming from someone who uncritically gushes over little gadgets, do check my other reviews of electronics or my reviews in general. I am trying to be as objective and as factual as possible and, in this case, I believe, we have a good, solid device that fully meets expectations.
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117 of 121 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Solid, simple, quiet, cool, efficient, value, January 14, 2009
Aragorn's review is spot-on.
Plain and simple.
No-nonsense looking, matt-black finished, metal case.
The texture of the finish is high-quality: very fine, yet industrial.
It feels really solid.
While not an ultra-portable, I actually feel more secure carrying it around than my other lighter enclosures.
I would say it is 'substantial', rather than 'heavy'.
No fancy and flashy LEDs to distract from its purpose.
That one blue LED at the back does it job without fuss and works very nicely for me, thank you very much.
Note that no sync, encryption or backup software is supplied.
Take a look at My Passport Elite if that's what you need.
Quiet and cool.
While not absolutely silent during access (and especially on start-up), you'd be hard pressed to hear it otherwise.
The one way I can be very sure it is spinning at the moment is to put my palm on it to sense the tiny vibrations.
It gets only warm to the touch after long and heavy access.
Power efficiency.
No power switch to bother with. Just connect power adapter and USB cable.
It powers up automatically when connected via USB to a running computer, and auto shuts-down when disconnected.
When connected, it auto spins-down after 10 minutes of inactivity and auto spins-up when accessed again.
These are out-of-the-box with my XP and NSLU2 devices (uNSLUng 6.10 firmware on flash drive).
No need to install any utilities or write spin-down scripts.
Great value.
I am getting a second one to backup the first one serving its duties as my always-available network storage and server (via the NSLU2).
Amazon's price for this is extremely competitive, and I do love buying my gadgets here (with Prime and no-hassle returns, you can't go wrong)
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76 of 78 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good value for the money, January 8, 2009
I bought the Elements 1TB external hard drive and hooked it up. It was ready to go out of the box. It has a small footprint and looks rugged. Note that my drive came formatted with the FAT32 file system - that limits the size of files you can store on the drive to under 4 gig. This is an issue only if you have large files (I have some huge home video files that exceed the FAT32 size limit.) I reformatted the drive using NTFS and that took care of the problem. If you need a USB 2.0 external, this one is a great value.
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