Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 55
 Great bargain at the price I paid December 18, 2009
Richard Burt (Palo Alto, California)
20 out of 20 found this review helpful
My HDD on my Dell that is about five years old started to fail, and I needed a new HDD. But with a computer that is five years old, I didn't want to put too much money into because I will be buying a new computer soon. At $64, including free shipping, this HDD was actually cheaper than some smaller drives.
Before installing the HDD in my computer, I ran Steve Gibson's SpinRite 6.0 program (in another computer) to test the entire disk. It took 32 continuous hours, but not one error was reported. The temperature of the HDD did not go over 100 degrees, and at the end of the test was around 96 degrees. Another older drive that I tested had a temperature that went up to about 112 degrees during a shorter period.
This is a bare disk drive. No mounting hardware or cables are included (other than a packet of screws). No instructions or user's guide is included, but you can download them from Western Digital's website as well as drive management software.
Keep in mind that this is a PATA drive, not a SATA. As I found out when I researched the subject, hard disk drives that used be called ATA, IDE, or EIDE are now called PATA. Newer computers will probably come with SATA drives that transfer data a bit faster than PATA drives. How to tell? The cable connecting an ATA hard drive uses a ribbon cable with 40 wires as opposed to a SATA cable which only has 7 wires; the number of pins on a SATA drive are therefore correspondingly fewer.
By the way, when installing the HDD, note that there is a white jumper on the pins between the power connector and the ribbon cable connector. That jumper has to be removed or moved to a different set of pins in some cases. Conveniently, there is a label on the drive cover that shows the jumper configurations so you don't have to look that up. If your computer does not recognize the drive when you first install it, check the jumper configuration.
Any HDD maker can ship a DOA unit or one that fails quickly but Western Digital has a good reputation, and the price/performance ratio here can't be beat. When I get my new computer, I'll be moving this HDD to the new computer to mirror the new drive as backup.
Western Digital 500 GB EIDE October 7, 2008
D. Sandoval (Los Angeles, CA USA)
15 out of 16 found this review helpful
The HDD worked great the first time and has worked great for a month now. I still have an old motherboard that does not have standard SATA ports and I needed a new larger HDD for my system. I chose this HDD because I wanted an affordable drive with a decent ammount of capacity.
I have it partitioned so that I use a second partition for all program files and data and the first for the OS and certain programs that can only be installed into the primary drive or require certain files be installed in the primary drive ie. CS3. My first partition of 10 GB is running full so if you intend on doing a similar task, go a larger for the first partition.
The drive has worked flawlessly as it should and I intend on using it until it becomes unhealthy, which I hope is a long time.
Easy set up! April 6, 2009
Bill (Sensuntepeque, El Salvador)
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
I have older external HD case not capatible with SATA drives. This IDE drive works fast and flawless. In fact, I have more problems with the newer SATA devices on my vintage Dell XPS M1210 than this IDE device.
Excellent Product, Excellent Price January 2, 2010
Raymond L. Bosch Jr. (Zachary, LA, US)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Excellent product for my G4 Mac. Was replacing a failing drive. Didn't have to re-install anything. Just mirrored my original drive, selected the new drive as the startup drive and disconnected the old drive. Done, functions perfectly.
Just What The NAS Ordered August 2, 2009
Geoffrey Fortier (Seattle, WA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Ordered this drive to fill out the fourth bay in my NAS. It's an older model, that only supports IDE so I was happy to find a decent sized 3.5" drive at a reasonable price.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 55
|
![AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Cable (6.5 Feet/2.0 Meters) [Supports 3D + Audio Return Channel]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B001T9NUJE.01._AA75_PU_PU-5_.jpg)
![AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Cable (9.8 Feet/3.0 Meters) [Supports 3D + Audio Return Channel]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B001TH8UUA.01._AA75_PU_PU-5_.jpg)
