Western Digital WD5000KSRTL Caviar 500 GB SATA Hard Drive Reviews

• Be careful

  
  By A7235SXGM0AXU on 2007-01-27
  I have had three of these drives fail in the past six months. Two were on a Mac G5, one was on a Linux system.
  
  On a positive note, Western Digital has a very efficient replacement policy.
  
  If you are still shopping, I would strongly recommend spending a little more and buying an enterprise-class drive. If you have already purchased this drive, you should stop what you doing and back up your data.
  
  

• Shhhhhhhhhhhh....

  
  By A3IOW3B21MCANN on 2006-11-28
  Not only is this drive much faster than my old IDE drive with 8M cache, it is as quiet as can be. In fact, if I didn't see my screen updating, I'd think the drive was dead it's so quiet! It's almost night and day the difference in noise!!!
  
  

• Excellent Hard Drive for the Mac Pro

  
  By A2L0F2T1DLTNT8 on 2007-07-01
  I purchased three of these for my Mac Pro Quad Core desk top which I purchased at Amazon. One 500Gb is set up as stand-alone/backup hard drive and Two 500Gb are set up as a RAID. They installed very quickly without any issues at all, are fast and work well with a Dual Processor Intel system, and are super quiet. I emphasize how quiet they are since I've had many Maxtor brand hard drives which while are quite reliable as well, but, seem to vibrate annoyingly at a frequency that resonates through the PC case. These WDs are in fact much quieter considering that TWO of the 500 GB SATAs plus another stand-alone 250 (comes with the Mac Pro for OS/boot drive) and a 3rd 500 Gb WD SATA drive of the same model (a total of four installed) are all installed and running so quietly. There's no noise or vibration to hint that 4 of these are inside the Mac Pro case. Read and Write performance on both the RAIDS and stand alones has been excellent. Highly recommended.
  
  

• disappointing

  
  By A1MAH9ECB5UX17 on 2007-02-15
  I bought 2 of these drives to set up a RAID1 array (mirror) and one of them continuously has errors, causing the array to be degraded. I called tech support and they said these drives do not support RAID. Big let down, I have to go for the server version which will end up costing much more.
  
  

• WD 500 GB SATA

  
  By A1W13R26SX6ASM on 2007-05-25
  This hard drive rocks! It replaced an old WD 120GB EIDE hard drive. I now have 2 HDs on my computer, a Seagate ST 250GB and my new one the Western Digital WD 500GB, both SATA. From switching the computer on, it used to take about 4 minutes for XP to come up and use the explorer with the WD120 and 3 minutes with the ST250. The WD500 does it in under a minute! But it is not only the fast I/O. It also got a 16MB cache for lightning fast lookups. I thought that was going to be useless. I was wrong. The cache totally blew me away. It is unbelievable how fast this hard drive brings stuff up by going to the cache first. I give it 2 thumbs up!
  
  
• Blazing Fast
  By A3H6U98NUZLLKB on 2006-05-10
  This is an excellent hard drive. It is blazing fast! You know that Western Digital is a name you can bank on! Get one for yourself.
  
  
• Really fast and quiet
  By A1T0A7D1KKU6K5 on 2007-01-27
  I buy this drive to replace my old IDE hard drives, this is a very fast and silent drive, and it includes the SATA cable with Secure Connect, this is a great product.
  
  
• Replaced 4 of 4 < 1 year
  By A1GZL3PAT67N2Y on 2007-12-30
  WD replaced first with WD5000AAKS, second replacement, WD5000KS.. Be sure to register your drives with WD when you get them. One remaining drive (not replacement) making recurrent sound of winding down but no obvious performance problems. Ran WD boot CD diagnostics (short version) on each drive before 2nd drive went bad but nothing showed up. 22-JAN-08 number 3 died today. Still have noise. Mar-08 4th and last drive died. Replacement noiser than ever. Noticed these replacements are "recertified". No more Western Digital for me.
  
  
• Fast and Great Hard-Drive
  By A3VNBL03CGL5V0 on 2007-07-31
  I bought this hard-drive to replace an older 160GB that was failing. This 500GB Western Digital works Perfect with Windows Vista Ultimate, I say this because I am using it right now. I can Multi-Task with No Problems at all! I listen to my Big iTunes - what I call my jute box music player, I have two Browsers running and a online game running, and this hard-drive keeps up with everything Great! Plus this is the Quietest hard-drive I ever owned!
  
  My System is a Dual Core Pentium D 2.8Ghz and I have 2GB RAM. I use a Diamond Viper X1950 PRO ATI Radeon 512MB video card.
  
  
• WD Caviar SE16 500 GB SATA Internal HD
  By A3JBE6PWGRV8KQ on 2007-11-05
  The price for the capacity is great. Shipping was also great. I ordered three of these to upgrade my file server. Their data rates were excellent but one issue I had was that the SMART status from speedfan and passmark deskcheckup says that the drive performance is less than optimal. This is the same for all three drives. I am not so surprised about WD as I am always skeptical about them. Well I will have to wait and see if they fail or not. Luckily my data will be in a RAID 1 configuration.
  Remember to check the SMART status of your drives when you receive them.
  
  
• This harddrive is awesome!
  By A25OZSBOKM27KR on 2007-11-06
  I purchased this harddrive in order to have more space for my music and pictures. it is very quiet and also very fast. I use it as my new C drive now and I did not expect just a fast harddrive to accelarate my system this much. Booting and picture browsing so much faster now - even though I copied the files from my old C drive 1:1. It also comes with a SATA cable. I can highly recommend this product.
  
  
• quiet and fast
  By A74AFUK3Y7TLK on 2007-11-25
  This drive is very quiet, and very fast. I am using it in SATA 150 mode since my motherboard doesn't support 300 speed. So I can't comment on how much faster it would be.
  
  
• Better than OEM mac drive
  By A1BSLYSNTVL1UH on 2008-01-19
  I purchased this hard drive for a MAC PRO to use as a spare or back up drive. After using it this way I came realized the the drive seemed to function faster and quieter than the OEM toshiba drive in the MAC pro which was also a 500GB SATA 300 drive. I made this drive the primary drive and relegated the OEM drive as the secondary. I am so pleased with the speed at which this functions and its silence. I have also used Seagate Baracuda drives of similar specs and find this drive to be the winner among the three I have tried.
  
  This drive is a little more expensive than the Seagate but I think worth the price if you are looking for a break from the usual distraction of hard drive noise.
  
  
• Great drive, not so great manual
  By A12A39SWSAOZWT on 2007-06-23
  I purchased this drive to replace a failing external LaCie 250GB drive.
  So far so good, the drive works well, silent and fast.
  I just had a hard time getting it online. Actually, the installation manual was not very helpful.
  I had to use the F2 setup screen to enable the 2nd internal hard drive. It was disabled as a factory default and nothing in the manual nor on WD web site was pointing in that so simple setting problem.
  BTY, WD web site has only 10 FAQ and the customer support is open only during US business hours, so for me, it is hard, I can do this only after business hours. I am working you know.
  Once over it, everything went smooth, The initialization phase was surprisingly fast for such large drive (set up as slave).
  I still give it a good price quality ratio. If I go installing internal stuff, I have to be kind of a geek.
  
  
• Western Digital 500 GB SATA Internal Hard Drive
  By AJTBJJENV3YS9 on 2007-07-19
  I added this SATA disk drive to new desktop PC. This system is using Windows Vista. Although I have only had this drive for a few weeks, it seems to be working well. I have used the drive for video capture and editing. My only surprise was that I needed to purchase a $5.34 cable to convert normal 4-wire power to SATA power. If I needed another hard drive I would purchase this same drive again.
  
  
• good stuff could have been faster
  By A1MUX5XOG8I8IH on 2007-09-14
  All I have to say is I order 3 hard drives and 2 from newegg and 1 from amazon and dang, I got my newegg parts for 25% cheaper and 2 days earlier then amazon and I order on the same day! Amazon is a great site with a lot to offer but I just have to let you all know who's reading reviews for this product.... it is cheaper elsewhere
  
  
• Quiet, Inexpensive
  By A21J5X6RCEXA6F on 2007-10-05
  I replaced my old drive with this and it is sooo much quieter. It is just the drive so you'll need the SATA cable. It runs very well so far. As far as temperature, it runs around 39 C which is several degrees cooler than my old one in the same spot in the case. Its quite a value for that price.
  
  
• I'm sold on SATA!!
  By A37QUQPYFMR9Y9 on 2007-12-26
  Strange title, I know.
  
  I come from the old days of required jumper settings and IDE cables. It's been years since I touched the inside of a desktop tower so this was a total shock to my system. BTW, it's a Dell Inspiron 530. It already has a 500GB drive, which I've effectively filled up, which was why I bought this drive...to store some of my extra stuff, but also to act as a backup location for my laptop.
  
  Installing the drive was a snap. Dell set this tower up to accommodate this type of drive. Just slide it into the HDD1 bay, use the WD SATA cable into one of the slots on the motherboard - just like HDMI, actually - and then give it power. Its assignment showed up in the BIOS right away. That's the hardware side. I left the jumper off (Default), and it's perfoming fine.
  
  Next, the software side. Vista Premium picked up the drivers right away and got them installed. Next, Disk Management, initialized the disk, then set up the simple partition. Total install time was about 15 minutes, give or take a few minutes.
  
  As a side note, if you have a home network and you're not performing scheduled backups of your primary computer's data, you need to start, and this drive is a great way to get this done.
  
  
• Caviar 500 GB SATA Hard Drive
  By AVBPUVUTBNQ1Q on 2007-12-27
  Western Digital WD5000KSRTL Caviar 500 GB SATA Hard Drive Only one word describes this drive. Excellent. Just plug in and drive is ready. I am using two of these drives in D-Link DNS-323 in RAID 1 configuration.
  
  
• amazon sent me an open-box unit
  By AM7N3NYNP6SQZ on 2008-02-07
  Amazon sent me a drive that appears to be an open box unit and I'm returning it tomorrow.
  The retail box has no shrink-wrapping and has worn spots. The opening tab was too easy to open (you know what I mean about those cardboard tabs being hard to open on a new box, right?). The drive is inside a static bag that is scotch-tape closed and the cut line is jagged like scissors were used instead of the thing being wrap sealed (or cut straight). Who knows why the drive was returned, I certainly don't want to find out.
  Other things I buy from Amazon get a little banged up from shipping and I can take that, but this one is unacceptable. Atleast they do have a good return policy.
  
  
• The Way of the SATA
  By AD0J5KK4WQXNS on 2008-06-24
  There are many reasons to get the internal Western Digital WD5000KSRTL Caviar 500GB SATA. The first is that for economy you get more GB for your money. Drives half the cost of this model provide much less than 50% of the storage space. Some might say that the 500GB is experimental and to go with a solid 200MB drive, but the 500GB stability has shown failure rates no more or less than those models. To top it off WD have really taken the drive market by storm. I once owned an array of Seagates (and still do and am happy with my 200GB drives). The Seagate Barracuda has always been a dependable favourite, but Western Digital Caviar SATA should be given a test drive.
  
  The whole point is that hardware compatibility standards have actually made that overnight leap. Many users will be looking to the Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor about this time. In turn this means seeking out a motherboard like the Intel DP35DP or one designed for Core 2 Quad chips. When you engage these mobos you will be hit with new standards. These mobos force you to drop PS/2 connections (unless you get adapters) and the 3.5" Floppy is officially extinct with them. While they can handle IDE they are really built SATA drives. Cue the Western Digital WD5000KSRTL Caviar 500GB SATA. It is a monster drive, 0.5TB in one. With two of these you automatically have 1TB. That is phenomenal. While 1TB WD SATA drives exist, the stable ones are the 5400 Rpm and the 7200 Rpm version is cutting edge and so at your own risk. I would get this 500GB model and make your next buy the 7200 Rpm version of the 1TB drive, but do wait so that WD deliver on the same stability as this 500GB model. Eventually you will have a system with 1.5TB.
  
  So essentially what we are looking at here is not just getting a new hard drive but probably a new PC. For those who already run SATA then they get a massive storage device to add to their system. For those who are wondering what to do with a new PC the key is to eliminate IDE and go with a SATA system. This also means getting a SATA DVD-RW while you are at it. It will be SATA all the way.
  
  Those who want to combine IDE drives and SATA are in for headaches unless they have experience. Another possible nightmare is that XP installations won't recognize SATA drives without a driver that is usually installed via 3.5" floppy... and yeah, these aren't supported by some Intel Core 2 Quad mobos. Vista handles it no problem so you can see where this is all going. These are the kind of forces at play. So when you look at a drive like this you need to see a much bigger picture that is the Vista, SATA, Core 2 Quad direction. Either that or you need some experience with SATA/IDE hybrid setups.
  
  Pros:
  Western Digital
  Stable
  Fast
  0.5 TB in one drive
  Perfect for Vista
  
  Cons:
  Windows XP SATA support on some Core 2 Quad mobos is a nightmare
  1TB 7200 is here already
  
  
• Exactly what I needed...
  By A14SVRI6MZSPQM on 2007-07-05
  SATA speed is exceptionally well and I don't know why I didn't go with it in the first place. Western Digital (WD) has been serving me for a few years now (I have a WD external hard drive which rules).
  
  WD is the way to go if you want a reliable hard drive to last you and their warranty services are great as well!
  
  
• It works!
  By A1DYMUT1UBHDBA on 2008-01-12
  The hardware installed easily in about 5 minutes. It took another 15-20 minutes for me to figure out how to configure the drive under Windows Vista... all of which was OK once I found the right screen and learned the lay of the land under Vista. Getting to the right places to have Vista recognize the hard drive, format it, and assign it the drive letter I wanted was the greater challenge, but everything worked without a hitch.
  
  It is GREAT to have a HUGE amount of storage space available on a second hard drive. I am using it to store all my photos, plus backups of data on my primary hard drive. Good product at a good price.
  
  
• excellent quality
  By A23RGQBXFQ9FF8 on 2008-03-24
  I have a Pentium IV HT and I installed it as secondary hard disk, works perfectly.
  
  
• Quietest drive I've ever owned
  By AU8XR7NFMD6YT on 2008-05-29
  The main harddrive in my computer (about 3ish years old. A western digital 250gb SATA drive) was getting full, so I decided to add in a second drive. After shopping around, and reading reviews, I decided to buy the WD5000KSRTL. After installation (which was harrowing. Bios saw the drive just fine, but Windows didn't want to start up. Zero fault of the drive, just a Windows XP quirk according to forums I read) I formatted the drive (took maybe half an hour) and then I was up and running.
  
  I play alot of games, most of which have been bought from the Steam store. The old drive, having been heavily fragmented, was slowing the load times of my games by a pretty high degree. After installing the new drive, I migrated all of my Steam games over to it (a process that was lightning fast, considering it was 10gb or so worth of games. Everything from Counterstrike to Half-Life 2 and Heroes of Might and Magic) and I've come to the conclusion that this is easily the fastest, and the most silent drive I've ever owned. Honestly if I couldn't see the files transferring to the new drive (on the screen) I wouldn't have believed that it was actually in operation. This drive would be perfect for a media center computer (though I'm not using it for that purpose).
  
  There is only one oddity, which might not be an oddity at all. When I looked at the model number on the drive, it was WD5000AAKS. If you take away the "RTL" from the WD5000KSRTL (RTL meaning retail) you are left with WD5000KS, not WD5000AAKS. Reading a few forums, I think this might be an upgraded version of the WD5000KS, though I cannot independently confirm this. Looking at WD's website, the WD5000AAKS seems to be the current model number for this generations 500gb Caviar SATA. A few forums mentioned that the WD5000AAKS is a superior drive, and while I can't speak to that, I can honestly say that the performance I've seen from this particular drive has been spectacular.
  
  Oh and someone earlier said that this box doesn't come with the SATA cable needed to connect this drive to your computer. He is infact half correct. There is no SATA to Molex adaptor included in the box. If you don't know what Molex is, it's the name for the connector that connects computer hardware to the computers power supply. Recently, alot of power supplies have been shipping with SATA power connectors built in (which was the case for me, I got lucky) but if you are using the power supply that came with your computer (from Dell, HP, Gateway etc) you may need to check and make sure you have a SATA power connector on it before you attempt to buy this drive. Unlike alot of drives, this drive cannot be powered by a Molex connector. You may have to buy a Molex to SATA adaptor if this is the case with your power supply. There is however an included SATA data cable, so you won't have to purchase an additional one to install this hard drive (which a few people did unfortunately).
  
  If you are looking for a new drive, that is basically silent, at a good price, this is the drive for you.
  
  
• works great, no problems
  By AKOMABHPCNNHI on 2007-08-19
  
  received this hard drive from amazon, installed it in my pc with the included screws. plugged it in, turned it on, and all worked well. now i have plenty of storage for photos, videos, and other media.
  
  
• WORKS GREAT WITH HP MEDIA VAULT
  By A2TCQVRXA47XQP on 2008-02-17
  I bought it to increase the capacity of my HP media vault. Installation went smoothly and hd works fine so far (about a month now.)
  
  The price was right too (I paid about $120 including free shipping).
  
  
• Excellent hard drive
  By ARRL1MIMDV522 on 2008-03-10
  I have only been using the drive for a few days since I finished my build but so far it is excellent. It is very quiet and is blazing fast compared to the one in my factory built computer.
  
  
• Fine product
  By A2D3GH2HZSL7S3 on 2008-04-26
  I have had absolutely no problem with this hard drive. Works perfectly and is very quiet. I use it as a second hard drive to store all my Logic Pro song files on my Mac G5. I recommend it highly to anyone who wants a good, dependable, and quiet hard drive.
  
  
• Just died 5 months out of warranty
  By A3D3MSM96U9KNN on 2008-06-15
  Drives fail. I know that. Was using this along with a 500GB Maxtor in a 1TB RAID0 array, with a nice cool fan, I might add. It is amazing to me that we accept such short warranty periods for modern hard drives. Their "Customer Loyalty Program" Will offer to sell me a new drive for $97. You must be joking! I'm going to buy a Seagate with a 5 year warranty and upgrade to a RAID5 array so that next time a drive fails I have redundancy.
  
  

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