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Western Digital 250 GB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive with Dual Option Backup | List Price: $249.99
Discount Price: $69.99
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Brand: Western Digital
Binding: Electronics
Warranty: 1 year warranty
Features: - ??Dual-option Backup – choose how and when to back up your data, automatically or on-the-spot
- ??USB 2.0 interface – high-speed connection for maximum throughput
- ??Front-mounted power button – equipped with WD's exclusive Safe Shutdown™ feature that ensures all data has been safely transferred before shutting down the drive
- ??7200 RPM rotational speed
- ??Preformatted*; simply plug it in and go
Competent bundle [Posted on 2005-12-04]
A USB external hard drive is something everyone should consider purchasing these days, because it makes backing up and transferring large files convenient and easy. Western Digital's 250 GB USB External Hard Drive with Dual-Backup Option has approximately 232 GB of space actually available for use after formatting. For maximum compatibility across different operating systems, the drive comes pre-formatted with the FAT32 file system. However, since FAT32 is limited in capability and performance, most recent Windows users should first format the drive with the NTFS file system. The USB connection one uses also matters for performance. I get a transfer speed of about 1.3 gigabytes per minute when my Western Digital drive is directly connected to my computer's USB 2.0 port. Some USB 2.0 hubs may actually throttle performance. I get a transfer speed of about 222 megabytes per minute via my Edge USB 2.0 Hub + Memory Card Reader.
The included backup software, Dantz's Retrospect Express 6.5.342, is licensed for use on up to two computers, and is decent for light backup and restore functionality, but not more. While Retrospect Express has good automated scheduling capabilities, its slow data compression speeds make it impractical to backup large files or a large number of files in a timely manner. Of course, Retrospect Express can speedily back up files without using data compression, so it depends whether one thinks the 232 GB of available space on this hard drive makes data compression irrelevant.
Retrospect Express's disaster recovery feature is also too time-consuming to use. Retrospect Express does not create a System Recovery CD, but an ISO image that must be separately burned with additional software (such as Nero or Roxio), as Microsoft Windows does not include ISO image support. Further, Retrospect Express' System Recovery procedure requires the re-installation of both Windows and Retrospect Express before using its System Recovery CD in concert with one's backup files to recover the system image. As a result, one may consider the purchase of a disk imaging utility (such as Symantec's Norton Ghost or Acronis' True Image) for system recovery well worth the additional investment.
Western Digital's 250 GB USB External Hard Drive with Dual-Backup Option is a competent bundle. Check your prices before you buy one though; sometimes it may cost less to separately purchase a hard drive, USB external hard drive case, and more functional back-up software.
Failure [Posted on 2006-03-02]
Unfortunately, my Western Digital external usb drive also failed. I was using it as a photo archive and had not touched it since placing it away in a closet about 9 months ago. For unknown reasons, the drive will not power up at all. Windows seems to recognize the drive being there because it starts the install new hardware wizard each time I plug it in. However, this fails each time and the drive is not recognized in Windows explorer. The drive is recognized as a problem device in the device manager which tells me that the drive is not totally dead. However, I can get aboslutely no other answer from Western Digital except it must be a dead drive. This situation is not unique to Western Digital but it is unique to the computer industry in general. For the manufacturer, it is a win-win situation. They "guarantee" the product and then when it fails all they do is exchange a used product for your used product which costs them almost nothing. It is a lose-lose situation for the consumer when the company gives a warranty that replaces a used drive with another used drive but provides absolutely NO WARRANTY THAT THE PRODUCT WILL WORK AS PROMISED EVER. What good is a used Western Digital drive to me when I have invaluable data to store and I have just experienced a total failure with a new Western Digital drive? For the record, I have just had a similar experience with Iomega. A dead drive was replaced with a used drive that was literally falling apart when received. The noises the replacement used drive made were obviously the noises of drive about to fail. It took two more shipments of a third drive and finally a replacement power supply before I had a drive that even seemed to work.
This situation is rampant in the computer industry. I can not think of one other industry that gets away with replacing your new defective product with a used product. Since this situation shows no signs of improvement, it may be time for government regulatory agencies to step in and start to help protect the consumer from these irresponsible practices on the part of these hardware manufacturers.
External hard drives are unreliable, but I've found success with this one. [Posted on 2006-03-20]
This is my second external hard drive. My first one was a Maxtor 200gb. The problem I had with it was that it could only be disconnected in a certain way, otherwise it would give an error and actually require to be formatted. I know what I'm doing when it comes to computers, and this was the only way I was able to get the drive to function again. Fortunately I was able to recover all my data using data recovery software. I've determined that the only way to use external hard drives for data backup is to have two external hard drives: one to store data on, the other in case of emergency, to recover the data to.
This Western Digital external hard drive is excellent. The feature that drove me to buying this drive was the power button that doesn't allow the drive to shut down until it's done transferring. The drive speed is terrific and the setup was absolutely incredibly quick and simple.
May be tricky to set up, but worth it! [Posted on 2006-04-14]
My Western Digital was a life saver!
When I inadvertently deleted important files, they were all there--on the auto back up.
The back-up wizard is super-easy to set up. It took me 30 seconds. You simply decide what files to back up, from which drive, and stored where, how often, and at what hour of the day.
The tricky part was linking the WD to my computer in the first place. I kept getting a message that the boot devices have been changed. I had to call my computer company, and find out how to enter the system BIOS (ie, power up the computer, and immediately hold down the Delete key. Then use my computer's password.) I went to Advanced BIOS features, and disabled the "Boot other device" option. It wasn't hard, it only took 5 minutes once I knew about entering the BIOS, but it involved a bit of a learning curve.
Like all computer stuff, as long as you follow the protocol, it runs smoothly. With the WD, you've got to turn it on (hold the top button for about 7 seconds, till it lights) before you turn on your computer. When you shut down, you've got to close all apps, then turn off the WD (again, push the top button for about 7 seconds, till it turns off), then close down the computer.
So far--after 4 months--so good.
Works Well, lacks software instructions [Posted on 2007-01-10]
I use it to backup my laptop. When I got a new computer, I couldn't figure out how to copy the old hard drive onto the new one, so I just dragged-and-dropped my data files
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