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Thread: An Education with Western Digital USB Hard Drives

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    Orca Whisperer N1LAF's Avatar
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    An Education with Western Digital USB Hard Drives

    First of all, anyone with the Seagate FreeAgent, 5 year warranty USB drives... They may actually last a year or less. If they click a lot, think about replacing it before total drive melt down. I was lucky, all data saved before it started to have major problems. The 1.5TB drives are the worst.

    Interesting that the Seagate FreeAgent USB powered small drives are so problem free. I now have two, and have had the first one for couple years, been trouble free.

    I replaced it with a Western Digital Essentials. Only if I know then what I know now, would have saved me a lot of hassles. An hour long phone call with Western Digital, and I got it. It was in front of me all the time at the Western Digital website.

    I picked the WD Essentials because I thought it was a quality level higher than WD Elements. Essentials has a strong backup software suite, and it isn't really suited to those who are looking for simple storage. With one WD Essentials, works fine. But the WD Essential software/hardware prevents you from accessing more than one Essential drive at a time. Confirmed by WD.

    The WD Elements is the simple drive, no backup software. It is slightly cheaper, and not a quality difference with the Essentials. You can have more than one Elements drive connected at a time. WD also stated you can have multiple Element drives with a single Essentials drive.

    The WD drives are quiet, do not click like the Seagate Drive. It will be a year before I can recommend them (experience with drive needed)

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    Coconut King n0iu's Avatar
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    According to http://www.blackfridayad.net/best-buy-black-friday-ad/ (scroll down to Hard Drives), BestBuy will be selling the Seagate 2TB FreeAgent GoFlex External USB 2.0/3.0 Hard Drive for $89.99 on Black Friday. So I am guess you won't be buying one, huh?
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    Pope Carlo l NQ6U's Avatar
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    I have had bad luck with Seagate drives. I only buy WD now. Not that I buy drives very often anymore.
    All the world’s a stage, but obviously the play is unrehearsed and everybody is ad-libbing his lines. Maybe that’s why it’s hard to tell if we’re living in a tragedy or a farce.

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    Forum Addict n6hcm's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by n0iu View Post
    According to http://www.blackfridayad.net/best-buy-black-friday-ad/ (scroll down to Hard Drives), BestBuy will be selling the Seagate 2TB FreeAgent GoFlex External USB 2.0/3.0 Hard Drive for $89.99 on Black Friday. So I am guess you won't be buying one, huh?
    i will (if i don't have to be in line at a best buy store). i don't do that waiting in line crap for consumer goods. this isn't cold war era eastern europe ...
    "... and another thing about you democrats ... you all believe in science!" -- denny crane

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    Silent Key Member 5-25-2015 W1GUH's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by n6hcm View Post
    i will (if i don't have to be in line at a best buy store). i don't do that waiting in line crap for consumer goods. this isn't cold war era eastern europe ...
    Oh, man! Why do you hate capitalism so much? Think of ALL THE MONEY that those stores spend on advertising and coming up with just the right come-on to get people to line up outside, clamoring to get in! We should ALL be totally willing, nay EAGER to thank them for spending all that money and helping 'em out by showing up early (extra points if you wait in line all night) so they can maximize the return on their investment. [sarcasm off]
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    Snarky Dick ka8ncr's Avatar
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    I just bought a WD Essentials 2TB drive at Costco for $119. It was the only >1 TB drive that I've seen at Costco that says it will support a reformat to a different file format and function. The Seagate passport drives will, but they're sub 1 TB. The Seagate 1 TB drives and above as well as the HP drives explicitly state on their packaging that the format must be NTFS. I take that to mean it won't work formatted to something else.

    I've had all sorts of problems with USB drives as of late. I've been shopping around for NAS frames although I hate the thought of network backups.

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    Orca Whisperer
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    Quote Originally Posted by ka8ncr View Post
    I just bought a WD Essentials 2TB drive at Costco for $119. It was the only >1 TB drive that I've seen at Costco that says it will support a reformat to a different file format and function. The Seagate passport drives will, but they're sub 1 TB. The Seagate 1 TB drives and above as well as the HP drives explicitly state on their packaging that the format must be NTFS. I take that to mean it won't work formatted to something else.

    I've had all sorts of problems with USB drives as of late. I've been shopping around for NAS frames although I hate the thought of network backups.
    Why are you averse to network backups? Any reason in particular?
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    Snarky Dick ka8ncr's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by KC2UGV View Post
    Why are you averse to network backups? Any reason in particular?
    I should say in my home situation. I don't want to backup over a wireless link, especially the flock of portable devices. We use network backups at work and there are few problems, but I'm not keen on rewiring the house to gigabit ethernet. The only place that there's wired ethernet is my kid's rooms.

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    Forum Addict n6hcm's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ka8ncr View Post
    The Seagate 1 TB drives and above as well as the HP drives explicitly state on their packaging that the format must be NTFS.
    show me. i've never seen anything of this sort.
    "... and another thing about you democrats ... you all believe in science!" -- denny crane

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    Pope Carlo l NQ6U's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ka8ncr View Post
    The Seagate 1 TB drives and above as well as the HP drives explicitly state on their packaging that the format must be NTFS.
    So, they don't want their drives used in Mac or Linux boxes, then? Seems kind of silly to me.
    All the world’s a stage, but obviously the play is unrehearsed and everybody is ad-libbing his lines. Maybe that’s why it’s hard to tell if we’re living in a tragedy or a farce.

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