Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 500 GB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive WDG1U5000

Pros: It's got lots of storage and transfers data relatively fast. It's quiet (no fan) and looks stylish. I knew what I was getting into, though, so I'm not complaining about the size and weight. Cons: If you want an easy to pack and move portable, this AIN'T it. Get a USB powered 2.5" drive. The things I didn't like about it and was uninformed when I got it are: 1) the little rubber feet on it like to fall off REALLY easy. 2) There are no pads as it comes to lay it on its side. Sure, it takes up less room, but I keep knocking the thing over. 3) It's a FAT-32 drive. Convert it to NTFS or else you won't be able to store ISO's of ripped DVD's, single layer or dual layer. 4) it comes with pre-loaded software that seems useless for what I bought it for -- Storing digital pictures, music, and ripped DVD's. -- Bottom line, I'm going to have to buy a 2.5" USB powered external for dragging my media to and from work. I REALLY like my friend's passport Western Digital 160 GB USB 2.0 Passport 2.5" External Hard Drive ( WDXMS1600TN ) . A 160 gig would really be the ticket!!! ** UPDATE ** The drive died and took all of the data with it. Got slower and slower, so I started transfering the important data off and it died halfway through the transfer. I am disappointed that it lasted only two hears with light use.

I purchased this drive last year and used it to store my Time Machine backups. It was quiet and attractive looking and served the purpose well. However, it just broke down a mere 2 months out of warranty. Classic. The hard drive had an easy life too, so this is totally unacceptable to me. When I told a friend of mine about the incident, he reported that he has had two of these break prematurely on him as well.

This is the best hard drive I've ever had. It's solidly built, runs completely silently, runs cool, and is at a fantastic cost. I've owned dozens of hard drives through the years and this one is hands down my favorite from my favorite company ever. I bought it over a year ago and it still is perfect. Some things to note however to get the best out of this device. 1) As soon as you get it format it in NTFS using either My Computer>Right Click>Format>NTFS in Windows or if using a Gnome Edition of Linux such as Ubuntu (like myself) open terminal and type 'sudo gpart'. This allows you to store files over 2GB on it such as your DvD ISO backups or back ups of your games. 2) Buy a refurbished or used one. New this product is $300. You can find it all day long on Amazon between $60 and $90 cutting the cost down to almost 1/6 on a good day. 3) Some other customers have complained about this product breaking after prolonged use. This device does have a limited lifespan with write usage. This being said try to put data on it that you want to back up and then set it to 'read only'. This will save you some headaches in the future. It's meant to be a backup drive after all and not one for installing applications on.

I purchased the WDG1U5000 as a backup to my existing iBook and my external 120GB SmartDisk Drive (which I also can't say enough about). I plugged in the 500GB, turned it on, my Mac found the drive and then I dragged and dropped 100GB of music and photos over my USB2.0 (took about 2/5hrs to copy). The process couldn't be easier or for a geek like me, more enjoyable. A great product, a great price and delivery was a snap - as usual, all from Amazon. Update - July 2007 - as time went on my digital capacity expanded and I was soon up to 125GB. When I went to add more music or photos to my hard drive, I noticed that my Mac would only display and allow me to use 149GB of my 500GB drive. I understand it has something to do with the formatting of the drive but after trying my best to fix it and trying to contact western digital multiple times - they offered ZERO help - I had to return it. Amazon was nice enough to take it back outside of policy...& I remain a highly satisfied Amazon customer.

Western Digital has a good reputation, and their products are generally good. But my situaiton was as follows: a couple of DAYS after installing it, I could no longer access it. I went to their support line, and, after a number of tests, it was clear that the product was defective. Amazon only refunds 50% of the value of opened and used products, according to their policy. Western told me to return it to the seller. I explained Amazon's policy, so they had me return to them and replaced it with a refurbished model. So even though I had the product only a few days, I have a used one in its place. The good news is the the refurbished one is working well. If return/replacement issues are significant to you, you might take this into account. New info: I and another respondent have had trouble with the hard drive info being completely lost. Apparently this is not the fault of the unit but the nature of hard drives. Leave it off when you do not need it. Even though it can take the heat, sometimes, when you turn your computer off (or on), a stray static charge can erase the info from your external drive. So use this as a storage drive (backing it up first) and leave it off except when you need it, and then turn it off.