Western Digital 500 GB My Book Essential 2.0 - USB 2.0 External Hard Drive WDH1U5000N Reviews

• V2.0 Of The My Book Series Is Out - Will It Be More Reliable Than V1.0?

  
  By A4PWQEAZ49RO8 on 2007-11-10
  Western Digital has released v2.0 of the My Book Essential external hard drive series, redesigned for late 2007.
  
  The Essential series is the value line from Western Digital's external hard drive product line. Featuring a USB-only connection, the drive is targeted to price-conscious users who need lots of extra storage space, but don't need multiple connectivity options (USB, eSATA, Firewire).
  
  Slightly reduced in thickness from its predecessor, v2.0 is about the size of an epic paperback novel only a few inches deeper. It weighs in around two pounds.
  
  Gone is the green lighted circle which used to represent the power switch on older v1.0 drives - v2.0 uses a blue-lighted vertical drive activity indicator which alternates on and off when the drive is being accessed.
  
  But also gone is the power switch itself. The latest generation of external drives from a variety of manufacturers including Western Digital and Seagate are now omitting them as a cost-saving measure. The My Book powers up upon plugging in the power and/or the USB connector. The drive is configured to power down after 10 minutes of inactivity or sensing the computer has been turned off.
  
  Another substantial change is also becoming common with external drive models - doing away with the standard USB cable and replacing it with a USB-mini. The included cable, around three feet in length, may be too short for some applications, and be prepared to have some longer USB mini connector cables on hand if you want to extend the reach. Seagate has gone the same way.
  
  Setting the drive up takes well under five minutes, from removing the shrink wrap on the box to actually seeing the drive on your desktop. The box comes with a very brief manual, a power cord (with a horizontally aligned transformer which may or may not be a good thing depending on where you plug it in), a USB cable, and the unit itself, wrapped in a protective plastic sheet.
  
  The drive is pre-formatted using the FAT system, which creates a single partition of 465 gigabytes. The FAT file system assures the drive will function on multiple platforms. The drive will prompt you to install some minor diagnostic software and some Google tools you likely already have considered - Google Toolbar, Picasa, and Google Desktop (which indexes your hard drive and uses the Google search engine to help you find files.) For the latter, consider Copernic Desktop Search 2, which is free and offers superior search performance and better tools.
  
  Most Windows and XP users will want to reformat the drive to the NTFS file system, which will support those 4+ gigabyte files FAT will not. You can easily reformat the drive under XP by clicking your way through Control Panel ("->" means you should click on this option) -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Storage -> Disk Management. It takes at least an hour to complete the reformat, and be aware the tools included on the drive will be erased so consider backing them up somewhere else if you care about them.
  
  V2.0's redesign features a very shiny, smooth surfaced external case. I fear it will readily show fingerprints and scratches, so be extra careful when handling it.
  
  As with the earlier model, no internal fan is apparent and heat dissipation is absolutely critical to the longevity of any hard drive. Some manufacturers have skimped on this, such as Seagate with their FreeAgent series which has had a high failure rate, but v1.0 Western Digital My Book drives have also historically not fared well either. Consumers want these devices to be nearly silent, and the tradeoff is product design that omits what is often the single most important component to guarantee a longer drive life - a cooling fan.
  
  Although both series of drives seemed to get equally warm to the touch (but not uncomfortably hot), the single most important concern I have about Western Digital's entire My Book product line is drive longevity and data integrity. The last version of this product had scores of complaints about drive failures, almost always resulting in partial or total loss of your data. Most seemed to either fail during the first week of use or right around the first anniversary of purchase.
  
  Different hard drives, depending on design, can generate more or less heat. It's not possible to tell precisely what model hard drive is being used in v2.0 (and whether it's an upgrade in quality from the earlier model), but perhaps Western Digital will have noticed the relatively high number of drive failures from its earlier product line and has used a different model for v2.0. Time will tell.
  
  Both versions of the My Book series seem to offer adequate ventilation on the top, back, and bottom of the unit. Airflow will be very important to allow the heat from the hard drive to dissipate. In any external case without a fan to move air through the unit, or a heat sink to collect and bleed off the heat from the drive, the temperature inside the case will easily exceed 120 degrees, if not much higher if you reduce or block any of the ventilation holes. The higher the temperature, the sooner your drive will fail.
  
  As with all USB external drives, the time spent transferring files back and forth will be much longer than experienced using an internal hard drive. The My Book series is best suited as a backup method to store copies of your important data in case one of your primary hard drives should fail. When powered down (which happens when the drive has not been accessed for around ten minutes), there will be an additional delay when attempting to access files from it, because the drive will need to spin-up (allow around 5-10 seconds for this).
  
  As to the product's quality and longevity, as this is a new product line there is no easy way to guarantee whether this will prove a completely reliable product. But historically, external drives of all kinds tend to live shorter lives than internal drives, and Western Digital's warranty for this model remains one year. For $25 you can extend the warranty for two additional years from Western Digital's website.
  
  But remember, it doesn't matter how long the warranty lasts if your data is gone because of a drive failure. No warranty will cover the costs to recover data from a failed drive (which can easily exceed $1000 with no guarantee of success). Do not rely on any hard drive to protect your most precious files alone. Every hard drive fails eventually. Instead, consider using the My Book Essential as a hard drive backup of your primary drives. Or if you need to rely on an external drive for day to day use, consider purchasing a second unit and using that to backup the first in case catastrophe strikes.
  
  You can also prolong the life of your drive yourself by keeping it cool. I have a small inexpensive desk fan set on low blowing across my stack of external drives which does a good job. I also keep papers off of the drive, away from the sun or any heat vents.
  
  Also pay attention to the sound your drive makes - it can be an early indicator of imminent failure. A whining or grinding sound (like a power saw off in the distance) is a clear danger sign. Loud clicking sounds when the drive is accessing data should sound a red alert that your drive is about to die. And should you encounter "delayed write failures" or other errors increasing in frequency as the drive ages, you should begin planning its replacement. Unfortunately, sometimes drives suddenly fail with no warning, so please create a backup strategy today before you lose up to 465 gigabytes of your files tomorrow.
  
  Let's keep our fingers crossed that Western Digital has corrected the flaws from the first version of this product line. It's too bad the power switch is gone and they've switched to the less common USB-mini connectors, but as long as it keeps my data safe and secure, I can live with the changes.
  
  
  

• Use Appropriately!

  
  By A3QWG9BH061WE6 on 2008-05-21
  I have two of these, and I use them for backups. I do not consider them to be reliable enough for use as a primary drive - backups only!
  
  Consider the previous negative reviews in the proper context. The previous reviewers who used one of these drives as primary storage without backing up were asking for trouble. If your primary or backup drive fails, just replace it. Hard drives will fail unexpectedly, but that's why you make backups, right?
  
  There's no guarantee that an external drive (like this one) will be any more reliable than your primary internal drive; indeed, the 3-year warranty internal drives are probably somewhat more reliable than the 1-year external drives, so use an internal drive for backup if you can. However, these drives are very convenient as backup media... just don't have unreasonable expectations.
  
  hth!
  
  

• Not a fan

  
  By A3KPKKHHZABPWR on 2008-06-03
  I just got this drive two days ago and already I'm not a fan. I bought it for two reasons: backup and video editing.
  
  The two nice things I have to say about it: It was a good price ($100) and it does hold files.
  
  Previously, I had an HP 160 GB external hard drive that I was retiring simply because it was full and I didn't want to erase the existing data.
  
  First, I made the mistake of installing the software that comes with it. My advice: don't. It's not that great, the backup software is a trial version, it's s-l-o-w, and something in the install messed up my add / remove programs utility.
  
  Second, in comparison with my old 6-year-old external drive, it's S-L-O-W....really, really slow.
  
  So, I'll be looking for something better.
  
  

• Works very well with Dish Network DVR

  
  By A3OS0M2L2MMTK on 2007-11-15
  My only planned usage of this external hard disk drive (HDD) is attached to my Dish Network ViP622 DVR. The set up was very easy, following directions to connect the drive with the supplied cables to power and to the Dish DVR USB connection. I kept thinking that the cable needed to be able to push farther into the back of the DVR, but trying it anyway, it has been working fine.
  
  After hooking the HDD up to the DVR, I navigated to the DVR menu to Manage USB Device and it displayed an error dialog box with the Dish phone number I needed to call to activate this service ($39.99 fee). I called the number and went through a series of recorded message menus to activate the service, never talked to a real person. I did have a phone line hooked into my DVR, and within a minute or two of hanging up, I was able to continue on and let the DVR format the drive.
  
  A big advantage to me was the design of the My Book HDD's, they automatically stop the HDD after a period of time unused. When you go to use the drive, there may be a delay for the drive to start up, but this is acceptable to me knowing that in the long run this should make the drive last longer for my type of usage. I do not have to worry about separately turning on and off the HDD.
  
  I read reviews of older models of My Book, some people had issues that sounded to be related to overheating, so I avoided doing too much data transfer at one time. I had hundreds of Gb's to transfer in programs on my DVR, but did the transfer in smaller chunks. It takes a long time to transfer a large amount of data, and you can not use what is on the HDD while the transfer is happening, so I would suggest this method.
  
  The HDD has been working well for my intended purpose. The DISH DVR does a reasonable job of using the USB Device feature. It is a separate area of the menu system to get to the USB device recorded programs, which is a small pain, but worth the effort. If you find yourself wanting more room to record addtional DVR programs, this is a very good option to consider.
  
  

• Clicking Sound of Death

  
  By A3TIGN86RW2SCD on 2008-04-24
  These are totally unreliable. I've had two die within the last year. Stay away! You've been warned.
  
  
• Avoid this product, their warranty is useless
  By AFBBPILVJE6I2 on 2008-07-24
  I purchased one of these units last December for use as expansion space to hold music and photographs. It failed 5 days ago, unable to "be seen" by either my Mac or Windows computer; it worked one day, failed the next without being touched or moved; in other words, no physical damage to it by me. I had about 40 Gigs of data on this 500 Gig drive.
  
  Suspecting either the power supply or USB-to-PATA interface card, I contacted Western Digital(WD) to see what I had to do to recover my data and have the defective unit repaired or replaced. I suspected that the drive itself was probably OK because of the nature of the failure to be seen at the interface. They told me that IF I tried to open the unit and recover the data from the drive, that that action would "void my warranty". Only if I paid one of their "preferred partners" [a minor fortune] to open the unit and recover my data to DVDs would they honor the warranty on their obviously defective product. If I had them send me a replacement unit, and subsequently returned the original unit in a "tampered condition" [i.e. I opened it to get at the hard drive to recover my data] they would then charge the retail price [$169, more than the current Amazon price for a NEW one] to my credit card. No person in their right mind would ever use this "warranty", so, in effect YOU HAVE NO WARRANTY for Western Digital products, unless you are willing to throw away your data or pay more than the price of a new drive to recover the data which THEY should have recovered for you in a repair department and sent back to you installed on a new drive. They obviously would rather just toss you another empty made-in-Thailand drive, or intimidate you out of using the warranty you paid for, than operate a proper repair service at US labor costs, to help you recover your data.
  
  So, AVOID THIS PRODUCT LIKE THE PLAGUE. Buy one of the many Amazon "external hard drive enclosures" and a separate hard drive from Maxtor, Hitachi, Seagate, or other manufacturers who support their products; then, if the enclosure fails, you can open it up without "voiding the warranty" and recover your data if the drive itself is OK.
  
  I went ahead and opened this defective unit, removed the hard drive and installed it on a desktop computer as a SLAVE drive, and am now copying the data to the main drive on that computer; nothing was wrong with the drive, only with their controller, as I suspected. I will buy an empty external enclosure from Amazon, and reuse this drive until it fails. I will also never buy another Western Digital product, because their warranty policy and customer service attitude STINKS. You can decide if you want to buy from this company at your own risk.
  
  
• My Books Are The Worst!
  By A25A7OGUN8M8LM on 2008-04-25
  Completely unreliable product and HORRIBLE customer service is what you get when you buy one of these overpriced paperweights! After only a year my PC no longer recognized the drive and since it was no longer under warranty, My Book customer support would not help me one single bit unless I called the tech support line that charges you a fee! Now all the data I have on it is lost forever and it just sits on a shelf collecting dust...you know...kind of like an actual book.
  
  
• Do not buy this - you may lose data
  By A24WTLSOZZ876F on 2008-07-25
  Don't buy this if you think your power will ever go out, or you might pull the plug.
  
  My hard drive was getting full. I had lots of family photos and music files and various other stuff. So i bought the Western Digital 500GB My Book and 'moved' 62G of files onto it. A week later I go to find something and there are no, zero nada files on it. I do notice that the drive letter shows that there is only 420GB free. First help person says, did you ever unplug it. Sure I say, afterall it's a hard drive like the one in your PC you should be able to turn off power. He says oh your data is gone then!!!!
  
  I tell him that there must be something on there taking up that space but he doesn't understand me so i ask him to escalate (we're dealing with India now). Finally after several hours and requests to escalate since I know there is data on there, I get a very smart person who understands right away what i am saying regarding only 420GB free, must be data on the drive. He has me run some sort of scan and it finds all my files!!!! Whoohoo right?
  
  Wrong, it just finds the data, and gives them new filenames like 000001.chk, 000002.chk, 000003.cha and so on for 30,000 files or so. The help desk guy then sympathises and recommends some software, you can purchase, that will go through all the files and put the correct extensions on them.
  
  So hour and days later i have 3,000 .txt files with no names, and 2,000 .jpg files and 5,000 .ppt .... and so on. Now i get to open each one and name it appropriately.
  
  Do you want to go through this experience? If you have no fear that your power will ever go out, or you'll accidently pull the plug then go ahead, buy it.
  
  I do own a Maxtor exernal for my other PC, 2 years now, multiple power downs and no data loss.
  
  
  
• Learn from the mistakes of others
  By ALQT1NJRZ5W06 on 2008-07-30
  My WD MyBook 500GB lived for just over a year (just long enough for the warranty to expire) before beginning a slow decline toward total death. Luckily I had time to get my files off in time. Admittedly, my experience is with the version 1 of this drive and so you may cling to the hope that the new version 2 drives will be better, but consider this... how long is the warranty on the new version? Still one year. So if the people who make it have no confidence that their drives will last much more than a year, then should you trust your data to that same drive?
  
  Look through these reviews at the number of us who have had our drives fail with only a year or so of use and learn from our mistakes. Don't trust your data to a drive that isn't warrantied for at least 3 years. It's not so much about the warranty itself; it's what the length of warranty tells you about the quality the manufacturer designed into the product. In an industry where a 3-5 year warranty is the standard, I should have recognized the one-year warranty on this as the red flag it is. So should you.
  
  
• Two of these have failed in the past year - STAY AWAY!
  By A1J7HDHGY9UQ1X on 2008-03-23
  I got one and my dad got one - both have failed in less than a year. Stay away from this piece of junk.
  
  
• Totally Junk Guys.... Never buy this one... u will loose all ur data
  By A376V9YM73H71Z on 2008-04-02
  Dont buy this Western Digital Products... I lost all my data... Never suggest to anyone to buy this product.....
  
  WORST customer care I have ever seen......Not at all knowledgable....
  
  
• Great price for the amount of storage.
  By A1BUCZYFGGKIMH on 2008-03-13
  This is the second Western Digital HD that I purchased and I am very happy with the ease and speed of transfers.
  
  
• Great drives
  By A3PL67IRKI2NW9 on 2008-04-07
  I have used three of these, two 250's and 1 500, and they are great and I love them! I have never had a western digital drive fail on me in 15 years of using them! Great company!
  
  
• DONT BUY IT!
  By A363PRCOHM25BF on 2008-04-12
  DO NOT PERCHASE!!!!!!!!! I wasted my time with this product had to send it back to Amazon twice. If you want something that works go buy a Iomega 500GB UltraMax Desktop Hard Drive and had no problems with it. I transferred about 200 GB in less then an hour and a half.
  
  
• I don't understand the bad reviews
  By A3OVGORKGD7BQ6 on 2008-07-30
  I have one of these external hard drives, I received it as a gift, and I've been using it for almost two years. I connect via a USB mini cable, I run Windows XP OS.
  
  I haven't had any problems whatsoever with this hard drive. It's been working since I first plugged it in. Take it out of the box, plug in the power and connect it to the PC. I've stored large files on it even in the FAT mode. I keep ebooks, videos, movies, music and pics on it, and I use it every single day.
  
  I have no problem with the speed of downloads and transfers, and frankly I can't understand anyone who does. The only possible conclusion I can come to, is that some people are so used to instant gratification that any delay is intolerable. *Shrug*
  
  I've had no problems with the computer acknowledging the drive, it operates quietly. But then again I have mine set up on a wire rack that doesn't impede airflow around the unit. There are airflow vents even on the bottom of the casing. I can touch it right now and it's cool to the touch. If you've got one set up on a solid surface you're blocking 1/3 of the cooling vents. I suggest investing in a small wire rack. They're cheap. It may not be sexy, but your external hard drive will thank you for it. And if you care more about how it looks than your data. Well what else is there to say?
  
  Maybe all these people with horror stories just got bad units. It happens. There are lemons in any kind of manufacturing. But I can assure you that I will be buying another one of these units to back up the one I have just in case. If you're that concerned about your data, back up your stuff on DVDs or CDs as well, and keep them in a safe location.
  
  There are no guarantees in life and that includes technology, but I've been very pleased with this hard drive. As much as I use it, you would think that if it was going to fail it would have failed already. But everything we buy does age and wear out, so before the next year is up I will be buying a new My Book to replace this one before the one I'm using wears out.
  
  Having said that, I'll say this. Recently I discovered, to my shock, that good shills, and bad shills, haunt review sites and post good things and bad things about products. This disgusts me. The whole point of reviews is to get information from other people about the product.
  
  I've seen competitors write crappy reviews and the seller shilling with good reviews. The only reviews I trust are my own because I don't spend enough time doing reviews to know who is who, I'm sure a great majority of other people don't either.
  
  Amazon needs to make people reviewing these products sign an agreement that they don't work for the selling company or a competitor and prosecute those who violate the agreement.
  
  I've gotten to the point where I don't trust the reviews here on Amazon. I just find someone I know that has one and I ask them about it. It's too bad corporate America can't produce products good enough to stand behind and feel like they have to put their employees online to tout their products.
  
  If the flipping product is good, you don't have to shill it. And I'll die a thousand deaths before I buy any product I find being sold in that manner. And I won't buy anything from a competitor that uses dirty underhanded tactics to undermine someone else's products.
  
  After all if a company engages in that kind of behavior, how are they going to treat their customers?
  
  
• I would give it a zero, but the system doesn't go that low.
  By A1MX9WWA4B3GI2 on 2008-06-10
  Bought the 750GB version (basically identical), and it lasted almost exactly 24 hours before dying, taking 300GB of my data with it. Warranty choices were:
  1. Open enclosure to get data out (including credit card and passwords), but loose all warranty. Often the enclosure dies while hard drive is ok... but it is a risk. If the hard drive is a problem, doing this creates a beautiful looking, expensive paperweight.
  2. Lose data, but get replacement drive. Bye bye to data, and who knows if they wipe drive properly before recycling it.
  3. Pay professional company to retrieve data. Called one, who wanted $500 minimum.
  
  Best choice? By something that works, and has good support. WD makes poor enclosures (have now lost 2 this week), and offers poor support policies. Buyer beware.
  
  
• Does what I expected, at a good price.
  By A1TBH7Z4RK7PRK on 2008-03-01
  It's a product that does what it is supposed to do, with NO glitches. I copied over 290 GB of MP3's in about six hours, and am enjoying them now. 62,000 songs, all happily living in a plastic book shaped drive. Quiet, pretty, and smart. Like a good woman.
  
  
• Auto shut off is annoying
  By A26SGNYVBP4R7S on 2008-03-18
  Seems reliable, quiet, and fast enough... but i really don't like the auto shut off feature. If you don't use it for 10 minutues it shuts down. When you try to access a file from it again, it goes back on. I could be working on a file, step away for a minute, then come back to it and save... and then it has to spin up again just to save. This takes a few seconds every time this happens, which slows me down.
  
  Also... I am unsure of the longevity of an electronic item which is constantly going on and off. In any electronic device, a surge is sent through the device when powering up. We all know that this process of starting up is what wears electronics out, and decreases their life.
  
  So.... if there is someone out there that knows how to turn this feature off... please let me know. I would love it if without auto shut off.
  
  
• Disappointed after one year, poor customer support
  By A36HIQ9P7ND45Q on 2008-05-15
  I am utterly disappointed with my external drive. It's just been a little over a year since purchase and it has malfunctioned. The warranty expired after a year, how convenient. We phoned technical support. We were offered to be transferred to a phone technician for a fee to help us troubleshoot the problem. After paying the $15 fee, we were in contact with a technician only for him to tell us that we need to replace our drive. No diagnostics, no further questions, no attempts to merely reboot the computer, nothing. The total time in contact with the technician was approximately 5 minutes, and I was placed on hold for at least a minute in between. Now, I will need to fork up an additional $500-plus to recover the data (i.e. family pictures for the last 8 months, most of which were of my newborn son) that may or may not exist on my malfunctioned drive.
  
  
• 3 strikes WD is out
  By A25KH0G2GXZ4LT on 2008-05-26
  my first one died after a few months with all my information on it. it was still under warranty so they exchanged with me for another, which was also broken. so i called them and they exchanged with me again for another one, which was SURPRISE also broken.
  
  play it safe and spend your money elsewhere. for something you should be able to "put your life on", it is not worth the risk, time, and headache.
  
  
• died after one year
  By A2YXKDIUFOKZ0E on 2008-07-28
  My 500GB drive died after 1 year and makes clicking sounds now. Wouldn't recommend buying WD drives since the warranty is only for 1 yr.
  
  
• Only a one year warranty!!!
  By AMF3YEAAYKJE9 on 2008-08-07
  Do you see any warranty information on this drive? There's a reason for that.....it's only 1 year. I found out the hard way when mine died after 15 months. Seagate has 5 year warranties on their externals. Don't take the chance with a company that won't back it's product.
  
  
• Back up your data on this dog at your own risk
  By A3KMYHC1E69P32 on 2008-04-08
  About a year old, and has failed. Thankfully, this was used purely as a redundant drive, and no important digital pics nor my music collection was lost, as originals were on my main computer. don't count on this piece of garbage unless you have redundancy.
  
  
• Drive is Sub-Par
  By AP410JGN5THS9 on 2008-07-28
  I purchased this drive in January, 2007 and it recently crashed. I expect an external hard drive to last at least two years. My 3 Maxtor drives have lasted longer than that, and this one last a bit more than a year and a half. No excuse, will not buy another WD external drive.
  
  
• same problem as others had
  By AB288J4CYBPJQ on 2008-09-01
  Like everyone else who complained about this product, I had it for about a year now and then suddenly I could not access any data on it.
  
  Symptom looked like this: The drive made a clicking sound, Windows XP could see the drive when USB is plugged in, but could not access the data on it.
  
  The chassis mechanicals were put together in an awkward manner, so it was not easy for me to take it apart. I finally took out the hard drive from inside, installed it into my computer main chassis as a secondary hard drive. Powered it up, and saw the XP operating system detected the new drive and did a scan on it, it then fixed a file system inconsistency error found, and then booted into Windows XP on the computer's primary drive.
  
  The XP could then see and access this secondary drive, and looked like all my data were there. But the plastic chassis was sort of ruined when I opened it, so I'll keep it as an additional secondary internal hard drive. Had it been easier to take the drive out, I could have still used it as an external. Oh well, I am just glad that I didn't lose the data.
  
  Other people who had the same symptom may want to check and see if this would rescue their data.
  
  
  
  
• 500 = 465?
  By A3SQYDMMG317SK on 2008-03-01
  I purchased this unit and installed it on my windows xp system to find that the drive only shows 465gb rather than the advertised 500. It may be my mistake or my NTFS, but this seems a bit like false advertising either way.
  
  
• Works Great
  By A2ENCRJTV1Y3D1 on 2008-05-27
  Easy setup and it's been working great. I'm using it for progressive backups (daily) and for some video storage. Great product.
  
  
• Great External Hard Drive
  By AA90JZ4T35UC on 2008-06-03
  Product worked as advertised. No complaints at all. Hard drive is smaller than expected, is quiet, and does not get overly warm. Hard drive turns on and off with PC, which I think is a nice touch. I use this product for video editing; it works like a charm. Recommended.
  
  
• Sturdy, good drive
  By A2G3R8LLTCZECF on 2008-06-09
  This is a good hard drive. I use it for movie and music storage. Haven't had any problems with it. My eight year old son dropped it accidentally off a table onto the carpet (about a 2 foot drop), and it still works fine.
  
  
• Horribly Slow with Vista
  By AUT9HSLT32RGJ on 2008-07-10
  I bought the 500 GB My Book at Best Buy for $99 and expected it to perform like my older IO Gear external drive. I was horribly disappointed. While Vista recognized the drive immediately, it took over an hour to copy a 10 GB folder using a USB 2 connection. That's simply unacceptable. I should have checked the other reviews here and at Cnet to see how bad this drive is. I have had several WD drives in computers over the years and never expected them to produce a product that would perform so poorly. My advice would be to pay a little more for another drive.
  
  Update 8/13/2008:
  I plugged the drive into an XP machine and it worked fine. The speed problem seems to be isolated to my laptop with Vista Premium. My drive is version 2.0. When other reviewers say, "I can't understand the bad reviews" it points out how inconsistent the quality is with this product. I certainly can understand the bad reviews.
  
  

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