Western Digital WDG1SU5000 My Book Premium ES Edition 500 GB USB/eSATA External Hard Drive

List Price: $267.60

Features:

• Form Factor - 3.5" x 1/3H
• Dimensions WxDxH - 2.23 x 5.63 x 6.78 inches
• Weight - 2.9 lbs
• Interface - USB 2.0 / eSATA

Customer Reviews:

Great Features, good support, questionable quality [Posted on 2008-05-22]
This drive has some great features like dual interface and auto power down. It worked as soon as I plugged it in (USB) and worked for just over 11 months before it died. I found that it would work for a few minutes after being powered up and then fail. I was able to erase it and WD sent a new one. I paid to send back the old one but they have a deal with UPS that saves a little over a buck. The new one didn't work at all. I just sent it back and they are sending another. It was great while it worked and they did make warranty replacement easy but the quality is not what I expect from WD. With the new drive I'll have only a 30 warranty.

Don't Buy A plug-in external [Posted on 2008-06-17]
I bought this drive and it taught me a lesson. I planned to use it with my laptop but since the drive needs it's own power supply it's not very mobile. I should've gotten a USB powered drive instead. If you want more storage space for your home, just buy an internal and have your kid install it. Also, WD's SATA enclosures are terrible. They bend the SATA cable at 90 degrees which causes guaranteed failure. So if you have one of these and it no longer works, take the HDD out of the enclosure and put it in your PC. You should be able to get your data. (Doing that will probably void your warranty)

Failed after 9 months. [Posted on 2008-07-21]
The title says it all. Worked flawlessly for 9 months (had it mated with a Tivo series 3), and then failed. The Tivo drive tests say that it is suffering from read errors.

The drive warranty is only one year. That says a lot about the product, but fair enough. So, I go to the Western Digital support site and enter the serial number. It says the drive was manufactured in 2006 and I need to provide a purchase receipt to get warranty coverage. A hassle, but again, fair enough. So, I find my Amazon receipt online, save as PDF, upload to Western Digital support site and... nothing. No response except an email saying they have received my message. That was 10 days ago. I again send an email. Again, no response. Perhaps they are trying to wait out the warranty. Anyway, given the hassle, I can't recommend this drive.

Stay Away!!! [Posted on 2008-07-23]
This drive failed after 2 months of use. Lost all data. Won't go near any WD My Book product again.

3 Dead Drives in 18 Months [Posted on 2008-07-25]
We bought two of these drives 18 months ago. Within 6 months, one was dead - bad drive sectors, 300gigs of data lost, and it wouldn't even let me reformat to try over again. I received good customer service, and a new drive. Three months after the new drive arrived (9 months after purchase), the second original drive died, same problems, data lost.

Now, 18 months after we first bought the drives and a year after this new replacement drive was sent, IT dies too! Again, bad sectors, windows fails to write, ALL 300GIGS OF DATA LOST.

I bought this drive when Amazon had it available, but I will never buy a Western Digital brand again. After being burned THREE TIMES, I'd be a fool to trust their products!

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