Use a Western Digital Drive?
Wednesday, January 07 2009 @ 07:30 AM CST

Based on price and a few things I read in the forums here, I'm thinking about picking up a Western Digital 500GB external drive. The reviews on Apple.com are all over the place - more so than usual online reviews. Either it's the worst product ever or people can't get enough of it. I know there are some Western Digital users here so I was wondering if some of the lifespan issues are as common as the reviews would have us believe. Thanks! 500GB MyBook

Re:Use a Western Digital Drive?
Wednesday, January 07 2009 @ 08:24 AM CST

I have usually tried to get Western Digital drives over the years, and always loved them. But most were internal (the external FW drive worked fine too, for 4 years, what I expected.)

Remember that an external drive has more parts (cable, power supply, fan) to go wrong, so it's more susceptible to one bad part making the whole thing flaky. And being external, people tend to handle them rougher, unplugging them and swinging them overhead by their power cord... well, maybe not quite that bad.

I've seen good and bad reviews of the "MyBook", but mostly because there's lots of extra buttons and stuff for PC users, and extra software drivers to watch the buttons for Mac users... and people say DO NOT install any Mac drivers or backup software (lowest bidder wrote that software for them), just use it as a plain external hard drive, and use SuperDuper or Time Machine to back up.

ttfn,
Drakonis

Re:Use a Western Digital Drive?
Wednesday, January 07 2009 @ 08:59 AM CST

I have been using two of these for a couple of years (one for SuperDuper and now one for Time Machine + storage).
One did fail after about a year but was replaced with an upgraded version by Western Digital without a quibble although it took a couple of weeks.
They work fine - I just forget about them.
Len

Re:Use a Western Digital Drive?
Wednesday, January 07 2009 @ 09:51 AM CST

Thanks for your input guys. I was planning on just using it as extra storage for GB files so it seems to be a good fit.

* Post Removed *
Wednesday, January 07 2009 @ 06:44 PM CST

* This message has been removed *

Re:Use a Western Digital Drive?
Wednesday, January 07 2009 @ 07:04 PM CST

I use an old 400GB extern LaCie and have never had any problem with it.
http://www.lacie.com/us/products/family.htm?id=10007

Re:Use a Western Digital Drive?
Wednesday, January 07 2009 @ 08:10 PM CST

I use a couple different Western Digital drives. The 750 is about 6 months old, and I have a 320 that is about a year and a half old. Never any problems. I have a lot of redundant backups on these drives and I also use a Rockstor drive and an Acom. The only external drive I've ever had a problem with over the years is an Iomega. You realize, of course, I've probably cursed myself and if any of my drives fail now it will be because I posted this here.

Re:Use a Western Digital Drive?
Thursday, January 08 2009 @ 01:22 AM CST

I've been using a 160GB western digital external for about 6 months. Not a long time, but no problems yet. Very light use though, I back stuff up then unplug it, and never work directly off of it.

Quote by: Lennon714 Based on price and a few things I read in the forums here, I'm thinking about picking up a Western Digital 500GB external drive. The reviews on Apple.com are all over the place - more so than usual online reviews. Either it's the worst product ever or people can't get enough of it. I know there are some Western Digital users here so I was wondering if some of the lifespan issues are as common as the reviews would have us believe. Thanks! 500GB MyBook