Western Digital - My Book Essential 1.5TB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive

The first WD drive had a bad reset switch and had to go back. The second seems to be OK. I used the XP Control Panel to partition and reformat the disk into 2 NTFS partitions, eschewing the WD setup software. WD gives excellent instructions on how to do this. The supplied backup and setup software appears to be hardwired into a ROM chip; it shows up as a "Device with removable storage" in "My Computer" and probably uses memory. I opted not to install the WD backup software. Another “scary” thing was the “drive lock/encryption.” WD warns that the WD software must be installed on the host computer to unlock the drive and “shared” computers (e.g., in internet cafes and schools) may not allow you to installed the WD software, thus rendering your data inaccessible. If you forget the drive’s password, WD cannot help you. Your data is dog meat. Capacity gauge on the drive’s case in almost useless and confusing. The case is an el cheapo plastic affair that looks and feels like a toy. If you are looking for an archival storage device, this WD drive is more than up to the task.

To use this drive, you only need to pulg-in the cable and connect to a computer. However, this drive came with a build-in, read-only VirtualCD image call WDSmartWare...which you can't remove and it will pop-up every time connect this device. Let's just say. WD went too far for their software. They want to created a friendly and easy to use software is very understandable, but I don't think people like being force to install something in order to use their harddrive. The good news is WD post a fix for this problem on this link http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=3835&p_created=1256946237&p Direct download for windows on this link http://download.wdc.com/smartware/WDSmartWareVirtualCDManagerforWindows-v1.0.7.4.zip This program will allow you to disable their VCD and will not show up any more. The bad news is this program simply disable the VCD, NOT remove it. The space used for the VCD will never being recover. The bottom line is: this is still a good drive to use, it just need some config on the software.

I bought this drive to run though my pogoplug because I didn’t like the setup of the WD world book. Installed fine, but a month latter I bumped the shelf it fell off and bounced down a flight of concrete stairs. With the exception of a broken usb cable and a broken case it looks and runs like new.

Last two reviewers obviously do not know much about drives, or computers for that matter. WD is the most reliable HD manufacturer at this time, title used to belong to Seagate, which is now the worst drive manufactured. The software that comes with the drive is not actually needed. The only thing you need to do is plug in the drive, when it shows up in windows explorer, right click and format in HTFS format. It comes formatted in FAT16, my guess for universal compatibility. I am a PC professional and own a total of six of these drives, three 500GB, two 1TB and one 1.5TB. Not a single problem with any of these drives, in the mean time, I have had two Seagate and one Samsung 300GB all three failed within months of purchasing them. After formatting these drives, they show up as any other drive in the system with their own letters assigned by the system. Just drag and drop or select and either copy or move files to them. You can also use your favorite backup or drive utilities with them.

This drive is great, ive been comparing prices left and right, and found this one to be the pick of the litter. I run a mac (smart humans buy mac) and i wanted to use this Big daddy of a HD to use my Time Machine. I asked the BBuy employees if i can "partition the drive to use for TMachine" and they did not know the answer is YES!, with a simple disk utility visit, and you can split the drive into multiple sections (i think up to 8, but thats foolish) i split mine into two, one for time machine, and one for storing offsite data. Because time machine "wipes the drive clean" before it can do its work, partitioning the drive was the solution. since Tmachine does not need 1.5GB of data WHATS SO EVER. I partitioned mine, 500gb Tmachine and 1TB Offsite Storage. (once it is partitioned, you cannot do it again without deleting all your data... so think in the future... will i get a new computer HD? is the maximum 500 gb for a 2.5?(at a fair price?) answer is yes, and yes. ) overall, i am happy with the unit. it can be a little noisy, and its proprietary software has a lingering icon on my desktop once plugged in.... it will not "unmount" it continues to appear.... even after repartitioning the drive, to Mac Journaled. Buy this drive, for whatever reason, other people had issues. simply exchange the unit and try again. Western Digital is a great company, you may actually have a WD in your computer, at this moment! HD's do not like to be DROPPED,(which may be why people have "issues") so. this is NOT A TRAVEL UNIT, you might as well screw this thing to your desk, because it should NOT BE MOVING. and, think about laying it sideways.... this lowers the risk of toppling over, and damaging the platters. (but this unit, or ANY HD, should remain always out of harms way. because if it drops, go buy a new one, your data is SEVERELY COMPROMISED! Running Early 2009 (one of the first) mac book pro 15 inch 2.53 DC Intel 4GB ram. with ZERO issues at this point.

I bought the 1.5 TB drive to serve as a backup to my 80 GB hard drive. The WD SmartWare program picks from your PC all your non-system files for backup. You don't have to go hunting for the files, it finds them automatically. I encountered several issues with the installation that if you know up front will make this experience so much easier: - this system DOES NOT WORK WITH NORTON. Deactivate any Norton product you have BEFORE and WHILE you are using this product. Failure to do so will result in Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). - connect the device to your PC from one of the rear USB ports. Those are hooked directly to the motherboard; front ones are not and are usually not as fast. - SmartWare does have an update available on WD's website. Download it and save that zipped file to your PC before installing. Keep this in case you get the BSOD because it causes the program to destabilize and will have to be reinstalled. - if you select the Delete All option in SmartWare, be prepared to have to reformat the drive using Windows. For 36 GB backup it took about 4 hours. So far so good. I really liked that the software easily found the files to download. This product is recommended if you know your way around the PC, have time on your hands and can handle the potholes along the way.

Overall I am pleased with the drive. I have used it to backup 4 different laptops and it worked flawlessly on XP, Vista, and Win 7. I did not realize when I bought the system that it does not backup your system files with the included software, but only your e-mail, docs, pictures, videos, etc. Plenty of room on the drive to do that, but the software does not provide that option. I was able to manually copy files to the drive outside of the backup software, so it is probably possible to do a full system backup with different software

great for backing up pc and viewing media with PS3. Have to convert to FAT32 to use with PS3... no big deal, easy to do. I've dropped it a few times moving it between computers and game systems but it still works perfectly fine.