Western Digital My Book Essential Edition Hard Drive - WDG1U2500N
Western Digital My Book Essential 250GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive

I used this drive few times during the past two years. It is dead now. I never exposed it to high temperature or anything that could cause a damage. It is very unreliable drive.
 
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It was a good and quiet drive while it lasted. I used it for extra storage, so it stayed spun down more than 80% of the time yet it died after 16 months taking all my data with it. I had backed up most of the data from this drive to tape. I still lost some data that had not been backed up yet. This was my first experience with Western Digital drives. I had not heard good things about Western Digital in the past and had stayed away from it. My experience reinforced my perception of WD and I would stay away from it.
 
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Everything was exactly as stated, great service and an excellent product. I have been buying from Buy.com for several yrs and swear by them. Only had one problem and they handled it with perfection.
 
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Drive worked out of the box, though wasn't quite as easy to set up to share as it was to use for a single system. Unfortunately it died about a month into use. WD support was willing to replace the drive, but all I wanted was my data back. Unfortunately I just moved files, not backed them, so I was looking at $600-1000+ from one of WD's partners. Stupid me, yes, but I'm never going to buy a WD product again -- unless I've won the lottery and can afford an expensive doorstop.
 
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The unit work good,easy to use,great price.I like it.Also I'm happey the BUY.com service and Price.
 
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Shipment was fast and setup was a breeze. Fast drive and easy to move between computers for backups, etc.
 
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Excellent drive
 
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Works great, had no problems hooking it up. Just be advised it does not come with back-up software. I was able to use my Iomega software on this hard-drive, though. Good value for money.
 
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Works very well. Great value so far.
 
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...that I bought two. I really like this external HD. The best thing about it is that it turns on and off with your PC. This makes it work just like an internal HD but for people who don't have room for a second internal HD. That's me!
 
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I was looking for a unit that I could use to travel to cleints to fix their computers. I was careful with this unit, but it broke after less than one month. WD sent a replacement, although I had to pay for shipping, and now I just use the unti as my personal backup. It is a good backup machine, but make sure you don't move it much.<br><br> Dave<br> <link> <A HREF="http://www.yourdomain.com/">
 
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This hard drive is so so easy. Plug it in, attach the USB cable to your computer, and it's working almost before you can blink. I hooked it up late one night to save some crucial work I'd done that day, and in about a minute it was going and I had my work saved. Honestly, opening the box and unpacking the items was fast and uncomplicated but even that took longer than getting this working. I recommend BIG TIME.
 
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I think it seems to be working fine and doing what I need it to do, however, I was disapointed that the ext. hard drive didn't come with software that could be used to make a back up copy of an internal hardrive (something like Norton Ghost).
 
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pretty much as plug and play as it gets--just pull it out of the box, plug it in, and windows will recognize it. The formatting that others have mentioned is pretty easily explained by WD's online manual. It turns on and off with the computer which is a nice feature. My only complaint is that I use it to store mostly media files and sometimes it pauses in the middle of my music while the HD starts spinning/reading.
 
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Drive exceeds expectations. Receipt from Buy.com was fast and trouble free as usual. The Western Digital My Book takes up very little space for such BIG Performance. Overall this was a very pleasant shopping experience.
 
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I can't be happier about this product! All I had to do was just install the software and that was pretty much it.The hard drive already comes with its own software/drivers pre-installed so setup was a breeze. Now I have a dependable source to back up all my files, music, and pictures. Strongly recommend this product to everyone!
 
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I bought this item because I needed something like it badly and quickly, despite extremely mixed reviews on CNET.com. Now that I've used it for about two weeks, I don't know what the complaints are all about, or what expectations the buyers had for it. I can't imagine anything being easier to use: connect the power, connect the USB cable, and voila', it was up and running. The only thing I might complain about is that occasionally (maybe three times since I've had it, and I use it for hours at a time) it shuts down and disappears from my Windows Explorer listing of drives. Once I needed to re-boot my computer, the other(s) it reappeared after a few minutes of looking for it in "Install hardward" from the Control Panel. I haven't had to re-install it. Given the price and huge (at least for me) storage capacity, I think it's great.
 
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I have only used this product a couple of times. As other reviews have said, you do need to reformat the drive if you plan on using it as a back-up with the Windows XP utility, but that is pretty easy. A large back-up of 100GB is painfully slow, but if you let it run over night it is manageable. The device itself is a little larger than I expected, and slightly noisy, but my PC is loud so that is not too big of deal. Overall, a fair value for the money.
 
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This 250GB External HDD is extremely east to use. All you have to do is plug it in and start transfer data into it. I was using USB 1.1 and it took forever, but it worked fine. You should have USB 2.0 when you want to transfer a lot of data. USB 2.0 is much much much faster. Overall, great product for a awesome price!
 
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Paid only $$$ for this incl. shipping. Arrived in only 3 days. Simple to install, just plug in power and USB cables, no drivers or other software to install. Only had to format to NTFS. Best part is it powers up & down w/your PC, no feeling around the back of the drive for the power switch as on other ext. drives. I'm just bummin' I missed out on the free (after rebate) Norton Ghost that was on sale last month!
 
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Bought two of these to be used among 4 computers. Completely mindless to install, plug it in, 20 seconds later it's ready. Automatically comes on when computer is booted, suspends itself automatically after 20 minutes. Push button to power off. Nice long two piece power cord with brick in the middle. (No lost outlets on UPS)
 
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Works great, easy to install, no problems.
 
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After purchasing and installing many of the External USB drives for my clients for use with backup software, I have narrowed down my two favorites. This is the one I purchase most often. My clients like the look and quietness, while I appreciate the speed and stability. Some of the other External drives I've tried have lost connection on some systems that are more particular than others. Older Dell computers (in general) seem to be more picky than others in this regard. The only thing I would change is to have them formatted using NTFS as 95% of the computers on the market currently use it and the stability gain is worth it, instead of catering to those few left that are still using FAT32.
 
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-Great value for the money, with sale and coupons, we got this item for $90. -Quiet, nice package, easy to install, easy to operate, and I have not even installed the backup software yet. -Great investment for the new digital age, keep your photographs safe, the one thing you will not be able to replace or borrow from someone else, like MP3/MPEG files. -Read some reviews/blogs on re-formatting the drive to NTSF, when the drive ships, it is default formatted to FAT32.
 
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Highly Recommended, cheap and great.
 
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This product is really easy and useful for my purposes. I simply formated the drive in NTFS, moved over my 10 Gb of photos and 40 Gb of songs and instantly gained almost all of my main hard drive space back. Although I keep everything on Cd for backup in case of catastrophic failure, this product is just fantastic for home data storage.
 
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This hard drive was very easy to install and setup. I use it for daily backups and have no complaints. I would recommend this unit to anyone looking for a backup solution. It is very nice looking and very well built.
 
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Has been in use for a couple of weeks now and have had no problems. Using as storage on a WIN2000 PC, plugged it in and started using right away. Very quiet and takes up hardly any desk space.
 
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The drive is easy to setup, fast to configure and works well. If you need some extra disk space, this drive will foot the bill. It connected to both XP and 2000 with no drivers. When the computer shuts off, the drive shuts down as well, a nice feature.
 
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Although this is my first external drive, I decided to go with Western Digital based upon good reviews of their internal drives. First of all, this drive is VERY easy to use. Basically, all you need to do is plug it in and connect it to the computer. I chose to change the file system to NTFS. This too was a breeze. The speed and transfer rate seems excellent. I have absolutely no complaints about this product. I have purchased one for work and one for home. A friend of mine recently purchased this drive and he also is very pleased.
 
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A great addition to my computer system. Enough storage for years. I will use it to store my drive images and archives. It's a plug and play. Just plug it in and enjoy!
 
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Now that I have one of these external hard drives, I don't see how I got along without it. I use my computer for freelance work; now everything is immediately backed up and available to my secondary PC if I have to bring down my primary machine for a service or, worse, if it actually should fail.
 
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The hard drive works great. Plugged it in to a laptop running windows vista home premium, the OS recognized it, installed the drivers, and it has worked flawlessly for about a month now. I use it to store everything, pictures, DVDs etc. I would like it to work like an internal HD, but usb 2.0 has its limits. Other than that it is a good external drive.
 
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I've had it about 2 weeks and it works really well. I have a Mac and all I do is drag and drop into the icon on my desktop and, very quickly, it appears in the HD folder. Very easy and I didn't have to reformat anything. So far, it all works seamlessly and quickly. I would definitely recommend this HD for Mac users. Really nice to have for backing up photos especially.
 
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I got this to use to transfer data from my old computer to a new one. You need to follow the instructions closely (as with all new items) and you will not have any problems. I chose this over the Belkin cable and it has worked out fine.
 
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All of my computers have had Western Digital hard drives and they all work great.
 
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Holds a lot. doesn't make noice. pretty compact... I like it overall. The transfer rate is a bit slow but it still goes pretty quick...
 
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I am completely satisfied with WD. It doesn't need any installation or software,easy to use,good looking,not so heavy, has a on/off switch which some of the other ext hard drives do not have and the transfer rate is fast as well.Most of all the service of buy.com is outstanding,I ordered the product in the morning and they had the product shipped same day and I got the delivery by next day afternoon.I am surely going to come back and buy more stuff from buy.com.
 
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I bought this the first time after having to reset my hard drive back to the day I took my new PC out of the box. I run all my software from this external hardrive now. It is so good, I bought one for my office laptop. Now I don't have to worry about loosing critical data ever again. Easy to use right out of the box!
 
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I chose the free shipping and it arrived in 2 days. Very excited about having a backup place for music and photos. Google search also nice incentive. I hope I never run out of space, but if i do, i'll just get another one.
 
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I have been using a Maxtor external hard drive for the past few years which was fairly good. But when I purchased this WD My Book I immediately noticed an improvement in both speed and ease of use. It is not as bulky as was my smaller 120 GB Maxtor and this 250 GB drive is a cinch to use. It came with a FAT32 partition and all I had to do is change it to NTFS and format it and voila it was ready to go. I highly recommend it. If it is no longer in stock I am sure the 250 GB Premium My Book should be just as capable but with extra bells and whistles.
 
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I needed to backup my videos, pictures, recorded TV, and warez. The MyBook was a good option. It's very simple to use. All you have to do is plug it in, and your computer will recognize it. If you want to get technical, you should convert if from FAT32 to NTFS, but that's easy to do with the support offered on the WD site. I wish it was faster, but the speed has never affected me. When I backup all my stuff using Allway Sync, I typically leave the room. I highly recommend this as a simple backup solution.
 
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Great value in this product. Fall down easy to setup and use; just plug it in, format it, and use it as another drive. It's not the fastest, but it's USB, so that's to be expected, and it's fast enough to serve as a secondary or backup device.
 
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I love the portability, ease of use and the value is outstanding. I have all my software and documents in one place and if my computer crashes again I don't have to worry about loosing all my stuff. I have told all my friends and family now I'm telling you!
 
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Set up was easy and unit performs extremely well for backups and MP3 storage. Quiet operation is a bonus. Works great with no issues in Vista Ultimate.
 
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As always, ordering from Buy.com is as easy as pie. The item was delivered in a couple of days. This external HD is great for the money and it took less than five minutes to get it going...fast, small and quiet---5 out of 5.
 
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I don't have any other external hard drives to compare this too, but I found this one very easy to set up and reformat to NTFS. It's also very portable - not as small/light as a mini, obviously, but if you're not carrying a bunch of other bags with it, it's completely doable to cart it around. When I got it, it was selling for $97 including shipping and I received it in 4 days. I don't think that can be beat. Am very happy with it!
 
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This external HD was exactly what I was needing for a back up device. Could not beat it a $100!! Effortlessly setup. Only had to format to NTFS then presto instant back up drive.
 
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Plug it in and then just drag and drop all your files. Truly, the easiest upgrade I have ever done to any computer. The amount of space for the $ isn't bad either.
 
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I have heard several times lately of friends who have lost their hard drive and everything on it. I don't know about anyone else, but I would go crazy if I lost everything on my hard drive...pictures, videos, music, plus a load of resources I use in the classroom I am teaching. For less than $90 I was able to backup my files and can even transport them to school, laptop or anywhere else they might be needed. The unit is very user friendly...easy to setup. After my purchase just two weeks ago, I have already recommended the product to several people.
 
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This item is really easy to use. I'm currently using it to back up music and pictures from my desktop. I have also transferred some files over to it to free up some space on my desktop hard drive. I saved $50 compared to what Staples sells it for. I highly recommend it.
 
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