WD Hard drive Blog

My Passport Elite Portable USB Hard Drives from Western Digital combine a lush, soft-touch finish with a clever capacity gauge, and backup, sync and encryption, and remote access software. Because the drive is powered directly through the USB cable, there is no power adapter to carry. What It Holds*: Up to 91,400 digital photos Up to 80,000 songs (MP3) Up to 8,000 songs (uncompressed CD quality) Up to 24 hours of Digital Video (DV) Up to 140 hours of DVD quality video Up to 38 hours of HD video Buy Here

Western Digital Serial ATA (SATA II), SE 3.5″ Internal Hard Drive 320GB, 7200 RPM, 8MB Cache Buy Here

The sleek CAUP Series features a lightweight aluminum case that can fit in your shirt pocket to take your important data wherever you go. Powered by USB cable alone, it defies the normal boundaries of an external hard drive. Indeed, even as the veritable definition of portability, the CAUP makes no sacrifice in storage space this powerful 2.5 drive is proof that good things come in small packages.

The CAUP boasts exceptional heat dissipation without a fan for near-silent operation. It is also remarkably durable, with state-of-the art shock absorption. The stylish enclosure is constructed of solid aluminum, keeping the hard drive operating at a safe and cool temperature while protecting the data within. Buy Here

As demand for storage continues to expand, the need for more efficient power solutions becomes paramount. WD RE2-GP makes it possible for large scale data centers to increase storage capacity without exceeding available power, and in many cases actually reduce power consumption. WD RE2-GP drives help combat the four major challenges large data installations face - total drive slots, maximum capacity, power allotment, and available operations expense budget - while lowering the overall total cost of ownership.
Customer Review: Nice hard drive
Bought three of these and threw them into a hotswap backplane with another 500 i had laying around. Set them up in a Raid 5 with 1 hot spare.

I’m not sure if i am realizing the energy saving benefits of the variable RPM’s on this drive. My raid controller may not be letting them spin down while idle. Hard to tell. Either way if your dealing with minimal amounts of power in my opinion. Unless your dealing with a data center or your a complete green freak your really not saving alot of watts with these drives. You would be better off spending your money on a energy efficient PSU.

5 year warranty, good cache size, nothing to complain about.

Western Digital has good rma and service. Their advanced RMA lets you get a working drive while they examine your old one. Buy Here

WD RE2 hard drives are the worlds most reliable server-class SATA drives in the market. With 1.2 million hours MTBF, 3 Gb/s SATA technology, and best-in-class vibration tolerance, WD RE2 drives offer the best combination of superior reliability, high capacity, and optimum performance for enterprise applications. Buy Here

2.4GB IDE 3.5″ HARD DRIVE- BULK , AC22400 Buy Here

Pack up your office files and take them home, carry thousands of songs or pictures, and synchronize files between home and office and encrypt everything on the drive for added security. These elegant portable drives are simple to use, light and easy to carry, and require no power adapter - they are powered directly through the USB cable.
Customer Review: WD 320GB My Passport
I have used a couple of these Portable HDDs in the past and everyone of them are still in great shape, and serve their purpose very well. Another nice point to bring up is they do not require a power cable, they are powered by the USB connection.
Customer Review: Great device
Bought for my husband for christmas. He needed one of these portable harddrives. It’s very compact, nice looking with it’s piano finish look, and good quality. Great price for this device. Worth every cent. Buy Here

Cool, quiet and fast. WD Caviar Blue SATA drives offer superior performance and reliability, making them ideal for business and family desktops. Buy Here

Western Digital My Book Pro Edition II dual-drive storage system offers RAID mirroring for extra peace of mind or RAID striping for extraordinary capacity and performance. Triple-interface and a powerful combination of features and performance make this system the storage solution of choice for creative professionals, workgroups, small offices and anyone looking for extra assurance that their data is safe.
Customer Review: Great drive for Time Machine
This drive is what I was looking for as I shopped for a device to use as a Time Machine backup for OS X. The Firewire 800 is what sold me, and I am satisfied with the purchase. I have the drive set up in mirror mode, and it works fine. I’ve had a few system hangups, but that’s due to OS X accessing the drive rather than the drive itself. I installed the software that came with the drive, and it’s a simple solution to set the drive in RAID 0 or RAID 1. I did download the updated device manager from WD’s web site, but it installed a menu bar icon that really seemed to do nothing, so I restored the original software. There is a firmware update available from WD, but I’ve read some horror stories about it and have decided to leave the existing firmware in place. If any drive does fail, I’m really happy about the drive being user accessible. Hopefully, that’s a feature I won’t have to learn more about, though.

Other than that, so far great drive and a great price, too.
Customer Review: Western Digital 1 TB : secure backup, reasonably priced and quiet
Received WD hard drive this afternoon. Installed Retrospect Express and RAID Manager the software that accompanies this hard drive. Backed up the 39 GB accumulated on the Imac G5’s HD… 2.5 Hrs. The fan came on twice while I was in the room with it. The noise level was well within acceptable limits. I have the new hard drive setting about 3′ from my right ear.
Western Digital has gotten some bad reviews in the past for loud fan noise. If this hard drive is an example of the current crop of WD HD’s, then they have listened to the people’s complaints and solved the problem.

The issue of overheating has also been mentioned in past reviews. To satisfy my curiosity I used a digital thermometer to record the temps around the outside of the well ventilated HD case. The range was from 81.1 to 96.2 taken over a two hour period. Most of the time the temperature was in the upper reaches of this range. The fan did not come on during that time period. As a comparison, the IMac G5 ran a maximum of 114.5 for the same period and its fan did not come on either. What this paragraph signifies: GIGO*.
Your estimate is as good as mine. Time will tell if these temperatures are within a range that insures long life to these hard drives.

A side issue is Retrospect Express: After the above backup was completed I had a window showing some execution errors between the originals and the copies. I went through the help menu they provided (CD based).
I will admit that I made a few reading errors; however, the relationship between their suggestions and the windows they provided for action (repair files) were confusing and awkward to use. Eventually ( I won’t say how many hours) I stumbled my way to success. Could I reproduce the sequence that was successful? I doubt it. Suggestion: use the toll free support line and let them walk you through the procedures.

*Footnote: GIGO = Garbage in Garbage out Buy Here

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