 Western Digital 250 GB USB 2.0/Firewire Hard Drive with Dual Option Backup and USB Hub home electronics. |
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Western Digital 250 GB USB 2.0/Firewire Hard Drive with Dual Option Backup and USB Hub
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List Price: $279.99
Our Price:
$213.74
You Save: $66.25
Features
• ??Includes DantzA RetrospectA Express backup software
• ??Instant addition of massive data storage capacity for PC or MacintoshA
• ??Dual-option backup--automatic or on-the-spot
• ??USB 2.0 hub with two ports; one conveniently located on the front for easy connection of USB peripherals such as a keychain drive, printer, keyboard, or mouse
• ??7200 RPM rotational speed and 8 MB cache* for maximum storage performance |
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Western Digital 250 GB USB 2.0/Firewire Hard Drive with Dual Option Backup and USB Hub Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥ |
Hard Drive crashes happen, so lets be realistic
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I'm currently using this device as an add-on drive hooked into another WD NetCenter 250GB drive, which is plugged into my network via ethernet. Was up and running in about three minutes using the NetCenter software. I've also used it hooked directly into several Mac laptops and my Mac desktop through Firewire 400.
Hooked up via Firewire 400, the drive is blazing (although if you've got Firewire 800 ports like some G4, G5 and high-end PCs, you probably want to explore other external storage options). Using USB 2.0, it was about half as fast as Firewire 400.
I've not had any problems with this device, but I can see where one would HAVE problems. The issue is this - these drives are parallel ATA drives using an IDE-to-Firewire bridge. Generally speaking, if these drives suffer a breakdown, the Firewire bridge is usually the culprit. Having worked at a company that manufactured drives like this, I've seen many a customer get angry over lost data.
Lets be realistic here. Crashes happen. There are multiple reasons why - maybe you forget to unmount the drive before you yank the Firewire cable. Maybe your house has poorly regulated voltage or is prone to voltage spikes. Maybe you are rough with your equipment. Maybe you've got an AC-DC transformer sitting too close to the drive. Whatever the case, you can't be too careful with your data.
But whatever happens, you can't get mad at the manufacturer for losing your data. If you fail to back-up your data to another medium, like DVD-Rs or CD-Rs or better yet, a tape back-up system or level-5 RAID, then losing your data is your own fault and no one elses. Yes, this drive is labeled as a "back-up drive", but no drive is 100% reliable. If your data is THAT important, you'll take the proper steps to back it up.
As to complaints about Western Digital's customer service...again, that's par for the course. No drive manufacturer is going to accept the blame for losing your data. They'll do their best to get you a functioning unit, but expecting them to pay for data recovery services is ludicrous. Places like Drive Savers often charge upwards of $4000 for recovering your data (utilizing a static-free clean room where they transfer the hard drive platter to another unit). Its extremely complicated and labor intensive.
Anyway, that's my two cents. Having worked in this industry, I'll tell you, if everyone got what they wanted, you'd be paying three times as much for this stuff. As it is, Western Digital is much more reliable than other external storage manufacturers. |
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