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Don't use Western Digital My Book External Hard Drives
Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 8:54 pm
by kb420
Mine crashed yesterday. I had close to 200 gigs of files on it. They are all gone, and all WD is going to do is send me another one.
I've only had it for 3 months.
Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 9:10 pm
by jrathkopf
i actually have all my stuff on the western digital firewire/usb2 drive..anyone else have this problem?
Re: Don't use Western Digital My Book External Hard Drives
Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 9:13 pm
by nagal
kb420 wrote: They are all gone, and all WD is going to do is send me another one.
Sorry but that is the warranty ever hard drive manufacture is going to offer.
Re: Don't use Western Digital My Book External Hard Drives
Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 9:32 pm
by Sales Dude McBoob
nagal wrote:kb420 wrote: They are all gone, and all WD is going to do is send me another one.
Sorry but that is the warranty ever hard drive manufacture is going to offer.
Except
one!
Re: Don't use Western Digital My Book External Hard Drives
Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 9:37 pm
by nagal
Sales Dude McBoob wrote:nagal wrote:kb420 wrote: They are all gone, and all WD is going to do is send me another one.
Sorry but that is the warranty ever hard drive manufacture is going to offer.
Except
one!
Thats interesting they offer that, I am very surprised. Of course there are a lot of ifs in that warranty but it is better than, you're screwed

Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 9:41 pm
by jer_mcclain
RAID 1 is your friend
Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 1:15 am
by longjohns
Hmm I just bought one to use for backups -
but hopefully that is on my side because it will be only used occasionally to back up files, and other than that will be sitting in a box wrapped in a plastic bag... so not much wear and tear
Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 1:19 am
by longjohns
But I did just lose a hard drive over the weekend, my first failed drive!!
I can't be 100% sure, but I think it was also a WD.
All my other disks are Seagates
Could have been worse, I think mostly my Itunes library on there, which is 99% backed up in several other locations
Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 2:17 am
by aqua_tek
yikes! I have a mybook too
keeping my fingers crossed that this doesnt happen to mine.
Re: Don't use Western Digital My Book External Hard Drives
Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 3:55 am
by donnydonny
kb420 wrote:Mine crashed yesterday. I had close to 200 gigs of files on it. They are all gone, and all WD is going to do is send me another one.
I've only had it for 3 months.
If those files were of any importance to you, (i.e. session files/folders) you would've had them backed up on yet another drive.
Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 5:40 am
by woodie
I read somewhere....I think at
www.NewEgg.com - that those external drives are like super secure to get into - in case you need to break it open and put another drive in it. I've been sticking to separate IDE drives + external enclosure as I'm always using one of the enclosures to test other IDE drives...like the ones on family computers!
I have 5 or 6 - less than 200GB WD drives around here and they've all been excellent.....except one of them and this one is noisy as hell - I think it was made in Malaysia. I don't have it out, but looking at the specs before of the 2 drives that are the same - they were made in different countries and the Mfg. code was different.
On the Seagates (and the WD's) - do some good homework at
www.NewEgg.com in review sections of each of the products = VERY HELPFUL!!! I read they have some quality issues going on from different plants and I concluded the drives from Singapore are the most reliable of the bunch. Not sure how much truth is in that, but if you're anal like me - then you'll want to do some homework on that. I'm too many times bitten....triple shy now.
I'm actually re-evaluating my Backup SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) and I need to purchase a few more drives as I've been too busy and lazy to fart with it....but I know I gotta do it soon....I'm riddled with bad luck.
I like the sound of RAID 1 (mirroring), but I can't decide whether it's good to have both drives in 1 enclosure - for safety reasons in case the damn thing is 1) plugged in and gets fried by a lightning strike 2) gets dropped 3) gets stolen, etc.... I'm still trying to figure it out - so much cool technology, but yet so confusing! OR....a laptop drive and don't have to fart with an adapter! USB 2.0 is fine for backup esp. when you have a slick solution like this that does incremental backups:
http://www.2brightsparks.com
NAS solutions sound cool too....

! the thought just hit me:
HD 1) a true backup copy - once or twice a month (no incremental) - stored somewhere safe - preferably off-site
HD 2) daily incremental backup - Source -> Destination only (files deleted on Source...also deleted on Destination).
Hmmm....I'll have to sleep on that, but I think that'll cover my ass and won't have to worry about DVD copies.

Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 12:55 pm
by SubFunk
yupp, plenty of trouble around myself with western digital and lacies.
that said no HD is really secure, best however are glyph.
Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 3:40 pm
by MR Coogs
Yeah glyph are great - at being grossly overpriced.
I've heard that a lot of these bargain drives/enclosures are actualy refurbished/returns.
Better to buy your own enclosure and a brand new drive.
Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 5:58 pm
by benj_sp
I've used Western Digital drives for years. I bought a MyBook (FW 320Gig) last year and it's been great, and I just bought a second MyBook - a FW800 500gig one.
No problems, great drives. There will always be mechanical issues with a percentage of drives, that doesn't mean that they are all garbage.
Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 5:58 pm
by feyshay
They're also quite loud. I can hear one from across the room (even when it is not working).