Hard Drive | 8000 GB Desktop |
---|---|
Number of USB 2.0 Ports | 1 |
Number of USB 3.0 Ports | 1 |
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Western Digital 8TB My Book Desktop External Hard Drive, USB 3.0, External HDD with Password Protection and Backup Software - WDBBGB0080HBK-NESN
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Digital Storage Capacity | 8 TB |
Hard Disk Interface | USB 3.0 |
Connectivity Technology | Bluetooth |
Brand | Western Digital |
Special Feature | Hardware Encryption |
Hard Disk Form Factor | 3.5 Inches |
Hard Disk Description | Desktop |
Compatible Devices | Desktop |
Installation Type | External Hard Drive |
Color | Black |
About this item
- Massive capacity, up to 22TB capacity. (1TB = one trillion bytes. Actual user capacity may be less depending on operating environment.).Specific uses: Personal
- Includes software for device management and backup with password protection (Download and installation required. Terms and conditions apply. User account registration may be required.)
- 256-bit AES hardware encryption
- SuperSpeed USB (5 Gbps); USB 2.0 compatible
- Trusted storage built with WD reliability
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From the manufacturer
Complete Backup
My Book desktop storage comes equipped with backup software(1) to help make sure your photos, videos, music and documents don’t get lost. You can set it to run automatically to your schedule. Just pick the time and frequency to back up important files from your system.
(1)Download and installation required. Terms and conditions apply. User account registration may be required.
Massive Capacity
With up to 22TB(2) of capacity, there's plenty of room to save the massive amounts of photos, videos, and music you love, plus your important documents.
256-bit Hardware Encryption
My Book drive’s built-in 256-bit AES hardware encryption with password protection keeps your content private and safe.
Easy to Use
Start transferring files, saving memories and backing up. Downloadable software(TsCs apply) included to help protect your data.
Compact Design
The My Book drive exudes a confidence reflective of its reliability. You can trust your My Book drive to be the home of your digital life.
WD Quality
Designed to meet WD’s demanding requirements for durability and long-term reliability, we stand by the trusted My Book desktop storage.
My Book | My Book Duo | My Cloud Home | My Passport Ultra | |
Customer Reviews
|
4.5 out of 5 stars
2,611
|
4.4 out of 5 stars
470
|
3.8 out of 5 stars
2,564
|
4.5 out of 5 stars
12,632
|
Price
| $154.99$154.99 | — | $139.27$139.27 | $129.99$129.99 |
Capacity(2)
| Up to 22TB | Up to 44TB | Up to 8TB | Up to 5TB |
Remote Access
| No | No | Yes | No |
USB Ports
| 1 x USB 3.0 | 2 x USB 3.1 | 1 x USB 3.0 | USB-C Ready/3.0 Compatible |
Size
| 5.5 x 1.9 x 6.7 in | 6.3 x 3.9 x 7.0 in | 5.5 x 2.1 x 6.9 in | 4.3 x 3.2 x 0.83 in |
Backup Software
| Included | Included | Included | Included |
Hardware Encryption
| 256-bit AES | 256-bit AES | No | 256-bit AES |
Legal Disclaimers
(1)Download and installation required. Terms and conditions apply. User account registration may be required.
(2)1TB = 1 trillion bytes. Actual user capacity may be less depending on operating environment.
Product specifications subject to change without notice. Pictures shown may vary from actual products. Western Digital, the Western Digital Logo, WD, the WD logo, My Book, and My Cloud are registered marks or marks of Western Digital Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.
2022 Western Digital Corporation or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
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This Item Western Digital 8TB My Book Desktop External Hard Drive, USB 3.0, External HDD with Password Protection and Backup Software - WDBBGB0080HBK-NESN | Recommendations | dummy | dummy | dummy | dummy | |
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Price | $163.71$163.71 | $94.99$94.99 | -14% $149.99$149.99 List: $174.00 | -10% $718.03$718.03 List: $799.99 | $154.99$154.99 | -21% $110.00$110.00 List: $139.99 |
Delivery | Get it as soon as Friday, May 17 | Get it May 20 - 21 | — | Get it as soon as Thursday, May 16 | — | — |
Customer Ratings | ||||||
Easy to use | 4.6 | 3.6 | 4.6 | 4.2 | 4.2 | 4.2 |
Storage Capacity | 4.5 | 4.2 | 4.5 | 4.3 | 4.5 | 4.3 |
Tech Support | 3.8 | 3.0 | 4.0 | 3.2 | 3.6 | 3.2 |
Durability | 4.3 | — | 4.4 | 3.7 | 4.3 | 3.7 |
Easy to install | 4.6 | — | — | 4.3 | 4.4 | 4.3 |
Sold By | Amazon Warehouse | 212 Distributors (blue light serial #'s recorded) | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com | Amazon.com |
storage capacity | 8 TB | 1000 GB | 8000 GB | 20 TB | 6 TB | 4 TB |
hardware interface | usb3.0 | usb | usb3.0 | usb | usb3.0 | usb3.0 |
compatible devices | Desktop | Desktop, Laptop | Desktop PC, MAC, PC, Mac | Desktop | Desktop | Laptop, PC |
form factor | Desktop | Portable | 3.5-inch | — | Desktop | 3.5-inch |
What's in the box
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Videos for this product
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Review of My Book External Hard Drive
Suzette and Jacob
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Product information
Technical Details
Brand | Western Digital |
---|---|
Series | My Book |
Item model number | WDBBGB0080HBK-NESN |
Hardware Platform | PC |
Item Weight | 2.12 pounds |
Product Dimensions | 1.9 x 5.5 x 6.7 inches |
Item Dimensions LxWxH | 1.9 x 5.5 x 6.7 inches |
Color | Black |
Flash Memory Size | 8 |
Hard Drive Interface | USB 3.0 |
Manufacturer | Western Digital Technologies, Inc. |
ASIN | B01LQQHLGC |
Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
Date First Available | October 11, 2016 |
Additional Information
Customer Reviews |
4.4 out of 5 stars |
---|---|
Best Sellers Rank | #98 in External Hard Drives |
Warranty & Support
Feedback
Product Description
The My Book drive is trusted desktop storage designed to complement your personal style with a massive amount of space to store your photos, videos, music and documents. Equipped with password protection and perfectly paired with WD Backup or Apple Time Machine, My Book desktop storage helps keep your files safe.Operating System: Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7, macOS 10.13+.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers like the ease of use, storage space, and performance of the hard drive. For example, they mention it's simple to use, has a significant amount of storage, and works well. That said, some complain about the noise and bootability. Opinions are mixed on value and quality.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers like the performance of the hard drive. They mention that it works well, is easy to setup, and has no issues so far. Some say that it's great for game libraries and that it can be used everywhere.
"It works well on Windows and Linux operating systems. No problems so far with installs or performance. A good basic use hard drive." Read more
"...I copied them onto one of these drives. It worked so well that I bought a second as the home for the backup...." Read more
"...My Book works fine. Now I will just have to wait and see if it fails. In my case, failure would not be catastrophic because it is just a backup...." Read more
"...It really seemed more like an interface issue than a hard drive issue...." Read more
Customers like the speed of the computer drive. They say it's fast, allowing them to work faster. They also say it transfers pretty fast and has plenty of storage. Some say it has blazing-fast performance for a hard disk. Some customers say it is easy to use, quiet, and reliable.
"...Astounding performance for a hard disk. Comparable to a WD black drive. It does run a little hot under load (in the enclosure) - around 59 celsius...." Read more
"...It comes formatted in exfat for compatibility, reformatting to ntfs was quick with no problems. I am pretty sure this is a 5400 RPM drive...." Read more
"OK or GOOD / Good to Know:1. Speed-- not great, but certainly sufficient, if you undertand this is a 5400 RPM mechanical drive that..." Read more
"...As a nice little side note, transfer speeds have improved dramatically on NTFS for the bulk of small files...." Read more
Customers are satisfied with the storage space of the hard drive. They mention that it has a significant amount of storage, it works well for storing and allowing a quicker working ability while sorting. Some appreciate the nice balance of storage and speed. Overall, most are happy with the product's storage capacity and speed, and recommend it as a good backup hard drive or external hard drive for its excellent capacity and price.
"A good backup hard drive, lasted me about 3 years...." Read more
"...This is the second time I’ve purchased this exact model.Terrific backup." Read more
"...The 8TB for backup storage has been very useful...." Read more
"This is basically just a SATA 3.5 HDD in an enclosure. It has 8Tb of storage and is a great solution for long-term storage...." Read more
Customers like the ease of use of the computer drive. They mention that it's simple to use, easy to connect, and install. Some say that the drive literally installed itself.
"It works well on Windows and Linux operating systems. No problems so far with installs or performance. A good basic use hard drive." Read more
"...It was an easy setup!" Read more
"...It has an average sequential read and write of 160 MB/s.2. Easy to set up...." Read more
"...I give it high ratings for it's ease of setup and initial performance. I was very impressed with the speed of file transfer to and from this drive...." Read more
Customers are mixed about the quality of the computer drive. Some mention that the Elements drives have been phenomenally reliable, and are of good quality. Others say that the drive failed in less than a week, and is not reliable.
"...No problems so far with installs or performance. A good basic use hard drive." Read more
"...chkdsk wont work and dirty bit sets you to read only on every file on drive. If your not using xfat you might not have to go to this length...." Read more
"...These My Book and Elements drives have been phenomenally reliable. I have the RAID pair versions, too. Love 'em all!..." Read more
"...Time Machine not syncing...." Read more
Customers are mixed about the value of the computer drive. Some mention it's good value for the money, with a nice 8TB capacity. They also say it'd be highly recommended for the capacity to price ratio. However, others say it failed after many months and was a waste of time.
"Good size and price" Read more
"...out of all these drives only one has failed (so far)...." Read more
"...Highly recommended for the capacity to price ratio." Read more
"...point is 10 more than the comparable Seagate model but this is worth the extra $10. I've had issues with seagate in the past...." Read more
Customers are dissatisfied with the noise produced by the hard drive. They mention that it makes the occasional HDD sounds, and can vibrate. Some say that the drive has an extra low rumble and a funny short squeal.
"...chipmunk noises and sounded normal, but it made somewhat of a funny short squeal whenever I torqued it a bit, so I thought some severe damage must..." Read more
"...1. You may receive a fairly quiet drive, or you may get a slightly noisy one...." Read more
"...One nice thing about the air filled drives is that they are silent, whereas the helium drives can be noisy...." Read more
"...However, drive is making noise. None of my old ones did...." Read more
Customers are dissatisfied with the bootability of the drive. They mention that it causes their computer to not boot up, and that it prevents the PC from booting. Some customers also report that the drive does not initialize under disk management.
"...6. Depending on your BIOS and other settings, your Windows PC may NOT boot properly if one of these WD external drives is connected and on at boot..." Read more
"...Idle spindown triggers way too quickly, especially considering spinup isn't quick (even for a 7200rpm drive, I think)...." Read more
"...Any files you store on it will disappear, and then you have to restart your entire system to find them again...." Read more
"I'm an IT specialist. If you connect this drive and your computer won't boot and stalls, try one of 3 things.1...." Read more
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Top reviews from the United States
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But here's what I have to tell you about this one... I was house-sitting for a good friend over the 4'd o' Jeely holiday this year. They have an old Weimaraner whose getting up in years, so she's not much trouble, but last Christmas they got a new maltipoo who is CONSTANTLY all over that poor old dog with her ridiculous puppy energy! As usual, I set up my headquarters with my work laptop (much newer and way more powerful than my home laptop) at their dining room table with the power cables for both the computer and the hard drive running over to the wall. It's never been a problem before.
Early on in the week, I had an inkling that I might not want to have the power cables hanging off the table like that this time, but I didn't do anything about it right away. Well, the next day in the early evening, I was standing near the table. There was a sudden rustling and the dogs tore between the table and the wall, and I heard a loud, reverberant CRAAAASH!!!! It took a couple seconds for the sound to completely die away in their large, open house. I immediately knew what it was. Sure enough, as I looked at the hardwood floor, it was indeed my hard drive that had slammed against it. I was so P.OOOOOOO.d!! I've had the drive since February, and there was almost 6 Terabytes of data on it, which, as you probably know, represents a significant time investment just in getting that data on there, to say nothing of what was involved in actually collecting and producing said data! But as it is an external USB drive, I knew it was spun down since I hadn't been at the computer for a while, and I fully expected the drive to be functional when I plugged it in. I've dropped drives before. Especially inside a plastic case, not spinning, they can take a VERY HARD drop and still work flawlessly for years. I've done it before.
Well, imagine my horror when I didn't even get a drive letter when I plugged it back in! This detail becomes important later. It spun up and made its little chipmunk noises and sounded normal, but it made somewhat of a funny short squeal whenever I torqued it a bit, so I thought some severe damage must have occurred! My heart sank a bit, but I wasn't TOO mortified, because I still had this drive's primary at home. This drive was used as a backup, and it's also the one I take out in the world when I want to have my personal data with me, wrapped securely inside my clothes in a suitcase, or in the backpack I wear as a kind of digital Go Bag that I take to work every day. It was nearing 11 p.m. as I somewhat nervously made my way home about 15 minutes away to pick up the primary. I started thinking about what could go wrong. I could have a car accident. ANYTHING. This pair of drives basically contains the last two years of everything I've recorded (I'm a sound guy and I play the sitar live, sing in my church choir and basically record my entire life, as well as events of friends and others, LITERALLY almost 24/7), all my photos (I'm a photographer and take thousands of photos per month), a videographer, with hours of footage casually captured, and sometimes not-so-casually, and many other collections of data from all over my life.
I am a VERY data-intensive person and have been for most of my sentient existence. I'm also a programmer. I've been backing up for a few decades. I have a suitcase full of old hard drives that must weigh at least 100 pounds. Yeah, I don't have a third geographic redundancy for all my data, and I'd be pretty screwed if my house burned down, but hey... I am easily WAY more backed up than 99.999% of people in the world. So as I came home to get the main drive, my biggest worry was just getting it backed up again before something else could happen. I decided to do the backup, using the work laptop, to a new 8 TB My Book drive, which I had already had one-hour rushed to me at my friend's house via Amazon PrimeNow. (I LOVE that service!!!!) This is because the work laptop has USB 3 ports and the copy would go MUCH faster than on my home laptop, the venerable old Qosmio that I've had since 2010. Yep... it's still going strong and I still love it. But sadly, it only has USB 2 ports (until I recently added a PCMCIA USB 3 adapter which you can read about in another of my reviews... yes, I said PCMCIA!!!).
I got home and picked up the 6 TB (ALSO WD My Book) hard drive for which the 8 TB drive was the backup. Here's where I will shamefully admit that I have a LOT of stuff on that drive that I never even copied over to the new 8 TB drive, just because I never did, I guess out of sheer laziness. Even when you're slightly paranoid like me, you can get complacent when things just work and work and work for years. So I was a little nervous about all this. I toyed around in my mind with thoughts like "What if I plug it in and it just doesn't work?". NAAAAAAAH! What are the odds? I was just using it the day before. And I've even used it on that work laptop before. Everything's going to be fine!
Well, wouldn't you know... I got back to the friend's house with that drive and plugged it into the laptop, and a popup dialog came up with some weird drive letter saying it needed to be formatted to be used!!!!! I almost lost it!!! I brought up the Disk Management app and it looked like it had 3 RAW partitions on it instead of the single 6 TB properly-formatted one that should have been there! Something somewhere had gone VERY wrong!!! To this day, I don't know what happened to that drive. I started asking myself why I didn't simply do the smart thing and fire it up at home and just do the backup there, slowly and safely. But I knew I was stuck at this remote location for a week and would want to babysit the whole process, so that's what drove my decision.
This may sound ridiculous to most people, but this situation threw me into a serious existential dilemma. I have spent my entire life capturing recordings of sound, video, photography, EVERYTHING. I'm 51 now. I've been at it for decades. I was facing the possibility of just having lost all my recordings of my church choir for the past two years... all my live sitar performances... two years of amazing photographs from all aspects of my life and places I've been and experiences I've had and people I know and those whom I have randomly met and photographed. Two years of that 24/7 recording of my life I mentioned before. Yes, I literally carry a Sony stereo sound recorder with me everywhere I go and it records my entire life!
In that space and time, I started questioning what was the point of my entire life if it was this easy to lose so much data that I had spent so much time and effort capturing and preserving and supposedly backing up.
I am fortunate in that I have lived as a somewhat social hermit for most of my life. Even when I was married for seven years (1995-2002), people accused us of just being TWO hermits living together. I like to be alone. There's only so much of being around other people that I can take before I have to retreat back to my fortress of solitude. But that can be very lonely, too. And that's why I love capturing life in so many ways, because I am alone enough that I am amazed to see people and nature and life and the world around me. I feel compelled to record it. Then I can study it and re-live it in microscopic detail when I am alone... a kind of detail that most people don't even know exists. In the past few years, I have returned to a life with faithful Believers around me, after 35 years of having walked away from my faith in God and Christ.
Jim, the husband of my church choir director, is a data recovery specialist. (Holy Spirit at work here, right?) I called him and told him my dilemma. I drove the new 8 TB drive and the 6 TB drive over to him. I talked to him and his wife, my great brother and sister, about what if I don't get this data back? I've been having crazy thoughts about why I even do all this? Should I go off and become a monk? Should I pour myself into the sitar and just forget about recording things ever again? Should I call up the girl I've been madly in love with for over two years, who is unable to even fathom a desire for an intimate relationship (think of a female version of Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory) and just propose to her? Did I even want to continue to live??? I was in a crazy kind of way!!!!
So Jim tells me not to worry and that he'd look at it. Sometime the next day, he was able to call me up and tell me that all the data was still there, and that he was copying it to the new drive. Incidentally, he only has USB 2 ports on his recovery machine, so it was a several day process!!!! I razzed him about that a bit. But you know... he got all the data off that drive and onto the new one... the new WD My Book 8 TB drive, the PrimeNow page of which I think I'll also post this review to so it will be backed up!! :-)
He couldn't figure out why he wasn't able to fix the partition table, even though his software recognized it as a single NTFS partition and was able to fully recover the data without any hiccups. It's still sitting on the floor of my room here. I don't dare reformat it and recopy the data to it until I have fully backed up the data from the new 8 TB drive to yet another drive. (Yes, here I am weeks later and I am just now starting that process! Hence I still have the 6 TB acting as a KIND of backup for now.)
So, I mentioned backing this stuff up to yet another drive. "And what drive might that be?" you ask. Why, the OTHER 8 TB WD My Book drive that got slammed on the floor! That's the reason for this huge 5-star review. Remember I mentioned that when I plugged it in I didn't even get a drive letter? That really struck me as strange, because the drive letter usually still shows up, even if the drive is completely trashed. It will simply give you a bunch of errors and data failures when you try to access it. It really seemed more like an interface issue than a hard drive issue. Having nothing better to do while I waited for my data to come back, I had disassembled the 8 TB drive from its plastic case, thinking maybe there was some issue with the circuit board that connects the drive and its SATA interface to the outside world with a USB interface. I disconnected the little board and re-seated it to the drive and jiggled the plug in the connector, all to no avail. The drive still didn't come up on the computer.
So several days later, the day I was done house-sitting, Jim announced the copy was finished. I picked up the drives. When I finally got home, I plugged the new 8 TB into my laptop and it came up and there was all my data, as promised. What a relief! Next, I took the dropped drive completely out of its enclosure, still not convinced that it was dead. I mean, even the brand new 8 TB drive that I had just bought made that funny little squeal when I torqued it a little bit while it was spinning, so it was a completely normal sound!
When you own a ton of drives like I do, you have a lot of bare ones that came out of tower computers, or even some that were taken out of external drive enclosures. They are much easier to manage that way, and take up a lot less space. But you have to have a way to access them, and one way via a hard drive bay. That's a device that lets you plug a bare hard drive into a slot and it interfaces to your computer via USB or maybe eSATA. Well, I halfheartedly plugged the drive into the bay and turned it on, and what do you know... good old Drive P: came right up on the computer as if nothing had ever happened! It's still going like gangbusters. 5-stars, my friend! I lost NOTHING during this calamity. Yeah, I have to admit, I even had a bunch of stuff on this drive that wasn't backed up anywhere else, too. But I consider a lot of that to be expendable because it's more of a time investment than a life investment. It's stuff that can be retrieved again from elsewhere.
The moral of this story is this... and I know this full well, of course, as do a great many of you... BUT... ONE BACKUP of important data is NEVER enough! Think about it. If you lose your backup, or your primary for that matter, then you are down to ONE COPY. And if something... ANYTHING... goes wrong with that... you are in the same boat as all those people you have shaken your head about over the years who didn't even bother to have ONE backup and lost everything.
The only real backup is AT LEAST TWO backups, and one of those is tucked away in a safe, remote location. That way, your house can burn down and you still don't lose anything, except for the stuff you created since you last updated your remote backup, which you have to do from time to time, of course, preferably not in the presence of the third drive, since you don't want all three of them to be together at the same time. You never knew when disaster will strike, right? Look what almost happened to me!!!
This is just a silly review of a hard drive on Amazon, but these drives contain years' worth of the very product of my life. And I am here to tell you that I trust them and I count on them and they have not let me down, even when under extreme duress.
What more do you need to know?
A quick postscript here... before I went to get my drives back, Jim had asked me to grab some dinner for three at a local Italian restaurant as payment for this service (he usually charges people $500 for this kind of recovery!). His wife had had a foot surgery recently and they were depending on friends to bring them meals for a time. When I got there, they had set up their formal dining room with their best china and a bottle of white wine. We ate like royalty that evening. That's the power of friends and the power of faith!
1. Speed-- not great, but certainly sufficient, if you undertand this is a 5400 RPM mechanical drive that probably is not going to meet the promised read/write speeds all (or even most) of the time. But this is fine as a backup drive; just realize that if you are backing up several TB, it may take quite a bit longer than you'd expect.
2. Format: Some of these WD drives come formatted as exFAT instead of the usual NTFS; if you use Windows, you MAY want to read up on the difference, and you may want to reformat the drive to NTFS before doing anything else; otherwise you will lose even more storage capacity due to the way exFAT works. If you use Mac computers, you'll want to leave it as exFAT.
3. Drive going to sleep too soon (can take a long while to wake back up); a bit aggravating, but there is a way to change the sleep time in the "WD Drive Utilities" software. You can choose from 10 to 90 minutes before sleep kicks in, or turn the auto-sleep off entirely.
4. Software: If you don't pay attention, you'll wind up installing extra 'cloud' software that you may not need. I don't want the drive to connect to the Internet and mystery servers constantly, nor do I want to create yet another 'account' online or give out my personal info-- so I chose not to install that stuff. It's up to you. I install only the 'WD Drive Utilities' and 'WD Security' software. You also do NOT have to use the included backup software, if you choose to use something else.
5. In Windows, "Safely Eject" usually does NOT work with these USB-connected drives. I have to go into Windows services and manually stop the 'WD Drive Manager' service FIRST, in order to safely eject these drives. Your experience may vary. However, you can choose to simply shut down your computer instead, and optionally unplug the drives (this also should re-encrypt them, IF you have encryption turned on).
6. Depending on your BIOS and other settings, your Windows PC may NOT boot properly if one of these WD external drives is connected and on at boot time.
7. Encryption; optional, but there if you want it. Be very careful to write down your password in a safe place.
Note: Once you un-encrypt (using the password you set) in order to access your files, there is no button or command to instantly turn encryption back ON, which is a huge oversight; however, if you shut down your computer properly, they should re-encrypt automatically. If you can manage to 'Safely Eject' them (see 5. above), this will also re-encrypt them.
NOT GREAT:
1. You may receive a fairly quiet drive, or you may get a slightly noisy one. The larger capacity drives get a few more complaints for noise, typically. Placing the drive on a rubber mouse pad or similar surface may help reduct the noise considerably!
2. Poor ventilation case; idiotic design makes it run hotter than necessary--but to date has not crashed due to the unnecessarily high temperatures inside. I point a small fan at the drive during longer backup sessions.
3. Some WD drives use SMR ("shingled" magnetic recording) technology, which means that file erasures and writes can take longer than with traditional drive technology (CMR or Conventional Magnetic Recording). CMR is always better, performance-wise. It's difficult to get a definitive answer on which specific WD drives are CMR versus SMR, so do your research if you plan to use your drive for anything beyond basic backups.
BAD:
1. Stated capacity is a lie; you'll only get about 90% of the promised TB. Unfortunately, this is true for WD and nearly all other manuacturers as well.
Example: If you order 18 Tb, you'll only get ~16.3 Tb actual.
Be prepared to order a size "up" to get the amount of storage you actually want.
No, this is not because WesternDigital (WD) and Windows or other operating systems measure a "thousand" or a "byte" differently; it's because WD purposely misleads customers on the capacity; they could state the ACTUAL, REAL capacity in Windows TB, instead of their meaningless fake measurements. They choose instead to lie and mislead customers, and have been doing this for decades--as do nearly all manufacturers of hard drives.
2. Not packaged safely or appropriately. We had to stop ordering hard drives from here because the drive (in original WD box with a little bit of cardboard inside) always arrived in a huge shipping box with NO padding whatsoever, so the delicate drive has been slapped and tumbled around for thousands of miles on its journey to us. Hopefully your experience will be better. There are simple, well-known industry padding/packaging standards for shipping hard drives; we've never seen them followed here.
Top reviews from other countries
Reviewed in Canada on December 29, 2023
Update: No issues found with win 10. The partition in win 10 is same as of win xp...ntfs.
Thanks.
Reviewed in India on March 15, 2018
Update: No issues found with win 10. The partition in win 10 is same as of win xp...ntfs.
Thanks.
The drives are running well and are quiet. Read and write speeds are on par for mechanical drives and are faster than the Seagate equivalent.
Happy.
Reviewed in India on May 11, 2018