external HD question

[Takeshi]

I will say one thing about the Elements, they are all done by air cooling, they don't have a fan. So if your in a hot and humid area they may not be the best choice, otherwise they work great after you format them to NTSF from FAT.

Hmm, maybe I should try to keep it a little more cool. It's located just under my widescreen, and the TV can get quite warm when it's been on for some time. Although they're far from the radiator and it's not like it's exactly warm in Denmark right now.

Does anyone know of a good/easy cooling solution? No, I'm not going to put a glass of water or anything water on it. That I will not risk.

[kenshin-dono]

Look in the review for it and alot of them say its fat32 and thats the bad part about it other than that its great. lol

hmm looking at that WD page it doesn't outright say it. I read the first few pages of reviews but didn't see mention of FAT32, maybe its further down the review list.

regardless, can it just be formated to NTSF? have you gotten it yet and checked?

lotta good info here

i may just got with a WD since a lot of people rate them decently and its my understanding that inside them all is a friggin WD HD =P

one thing though.. anyone know the difference between their mybook and elements versions?

my book
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=728
elements
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=760

the specs look pretty identical, what gives? Are they the exact same thing but the My book has auto backup programs? Note i ONLY need this to store anime, i dont want/need any kinda softare on these

it says the elements are ecofriendly, i hope that doesn't mean they use some cheap parts or soemthing. Anyone know the diff? i see someone saying the elements just uses air cooling and no fans.. but i see nothing in the specs sheet about that

also if for some reason i decide to go with a Samsung or Hitatchi, can i assume they use their own HD's inside the cases? The Hitatchi line in particular looks decent. Looking at the simple drives and easy hard drives.. trying to tell the difference between them right now

*edit* i noticed some threads when i was googling about win xp not letting you format external drives into NTSF.. is that true? seems odd to me

[Slykester]

NTFS and FAT32 are file-systems for organizing files on the HDD. Don't pay attention to FAT32, you want to format as NTFS (on Windows I'm guessing?).

You are correct, the difference is that the My Book has the additional backup features.

Never had a problem formatting an external to NTFS, although you may need to "initialize" it first. The Elements says eco-friendly most likely because there is a WD-Green inside.

The Elements drive comes "Preformatted for PCs" so you don't need to do anything.

[kenshin-dono]

so think im gonna go for a WD probably. Gonna gofor the mybook essentials

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=728

one thing when shopping around though. the model number on the site is:
WDBAAF0010HBK

but most places i see it at the numbers a bit different
i.e. walmart and bestbuy
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=12517495#ProductDetail
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Western+Digital+-+My+Book+Essential+1TB+External+USB+2.0+Hard+Drive/9467178.p?id=1218109897952&skuId=9467178&st=western%20digital%20mybook

have it listed as
WDBAAF0010HBK-NESN

whats that NESN? im wondering if its some cheaper model or older one or what, anyone know


oh, and this has some stupid smartware transfer stuff i dont want. How do i delete that so i dont have to use it? just manually delete all the files in there or just reformat the whole thing?

*edit* now im confused theres 2 models out there
WDBAAF0010HBK-NESN a mybook essentials
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136395
and
WDH1U10000N a mybook essentials 2.0?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136186

wtf is the difference?? i dont even see the 2nd one on WD website

[Slykester]

whats that NESN? im wondering if its some cheaper model or older one or what, anyone know

I would imagine that those are just reseller product numbers.

oh, and this has some stupid smartware transfer stuff i dont want. How do i delete that so i dont have to use it? just manually delete all the files in there or just reformat the whole thing?

   The VCD is necessary if you wish to install WD SmartWare or if you want to use the Drive Lock feature. If you don't wish to run WD SmartWare or use the Drive Lock feature, you can safely disable the VCD. The VCD can be re-enabled if you wish to use WD SmartWare or Drive Lock at a later date.

That information is from here. Sounds like wiping the MBR will be in order. Although, if you don't want or need the backup features you may want to consider the Elements drives instead.

[kenshin-dono]

ya your right thats the designation for the NA market

Blea thanks for that link man. What do you mean by wiping the MBR? would i have to reformat the whole HD or what if i got that one?
theres a reviewer here
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Western+Digital+-+My+Book+Essential+1TB+External+USB+2.0+Hard+Drive/9467178.p?id=1218109897952&skuId=9467178
that claims the software can not be gotten rid of o_O

I may want to look at that elements one . it sounds like the mybook essentials will be a hassle with all the software. one thing though i dont see the elements on newegg or most places

i do however see this

WDH1U10000N a mybook essentials 2.0?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136186

what is that, the older version of the current mybook essentials? i dont get the difference. I linked the 2 above
WDBAAF0010HBK-NESN a mybook essentials
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136395
and
WDH1U10000N a mybook essentials 2.0?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136186


hell it looks like none of these are fan cooled. Are there any decent ones out there that are? im not even sure how you can check i only found out these werent by looking at some reviews. Glancing at a samsung storysstaion
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152178

personally had good experiences with sammy products in the past and i hear their HDs are decent. wonder if that ones any good

[sdedalus83]

You aren't going to kill a hard drive by seeding from it or from downloading to it, at least not any faster than using it as a system drive.  Neither of those tasks are anywhere near as hard on a drive as pagefile usage, especially if the page file is on the C: drive.  It is a good idea not to download files, especially torrents, to the same partition you store them on in order to prevent fragmentation, but seeding from the storage drive won't create those kinds of problems.

[ReyBrujo]

Last week I bought two MyBook of 1TB each, since I was getting bored of backuping to DVDs (not only things I download but stuff I work on). It is hard to keep almost 1200 DVDs sorted (I do two copies in case one of the DVDs fail before the year). Right now, I am using a DVD copy for backup and the external HD for archiving. So far, the HD works (I formatted it as ext3 under Linux). Note that 1TB require almost 100gb of reserved space, so you will obtain only around 910gb out of it.

Not sure about the difference between the MyBook and the Elements, though.

The complains you mention are likely to happen if you install the software that comes bundled. Unless you are going to use incremental backuping, I doubt you will use it.

[Slykester]

What do you mean by wiping the MBR? would i have to reformat the whole HD or what if i got that one?

My understanding is that there is a firmware and software component. By wiping MBR I meant simply removing all existing partitions (brute force), but I suppose you could use the included software to simply disable the feature.

one thing though i dont see the elements on newegg or most places

HAI!

hell it looks like none of these are fan cooled. Are there any decent ones out there that are?

As long as the drive stays within safe operating temperature spec, around 55-60 C for those drives, the enclosure doesn't need to be fan-cooled. Your alternative is to buy a drive and enclosure separately. I would be worried if I bought a fan cooled enclosure from WD for data storage. If that fan wears out, you're pretty much screwed.

edit: ...

[kenshin-dono]

which mybook did you buy? thats what im not getting theres 2 versions

WDH1U10000N
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136186

WDBAAF0010HBK-NESN
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136395

it seems the first number is rated fairly well while the 2nd one i havent seen many ratings on and the ones ive seen are not good. And from what ive seen, at least on the 2nd one listed the software is PRE-INSTALLED and i dont think you can just delete it. Cant seem to figure out the deal with the first one so im curious which you have and if you were able to get ird of the software (unless you actually use it) I really dont want to waste space and time with backup software, im just saving anime straight to it

The elements doesn't have any bs backup software does it? maybe that would be the best way to go, though i hear they're fat32 but i should be able to manually format that to NTSF i belive

[ReyBrujo]

which mybook did you buy? thats what im not getting theres 2 versions

WDH1U10000N
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136186

WDBAAF0010HBK-NESN
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136395

it seems the first number is rated fairly well while the 2nd one i havent seen many ratings on and the ones ive seen are not good. And from what ive seen, at least on the 2nd one listed the software is PRE-INSTALLED and i dont think you can just delete it. Cant seem to figure out the deal with the first one so im curious which you have and if you were able to get ird of the software (unless you actually use it) I really dont want to waste space and time with backup software, im just saving anime straight to it

The elements doesn't have any bs backup software does it? maybe that would be the best way to go, though i hear they're fat32 but i should be able to manually format that to NTSF i belive

If you are asking me, I bought the first one. It doesn't have a power button, it is turned off by disconnecting the USB cable. It has around 500 mb of sofware for installing, including documentation and software for installing (demo versions and Google stuff). As I mentioned, I just recreated the partition and reformatted it. I should try to connect it to some Windows computer to see if the software is preinstalled in ROM (which is the only way you cannot uninstall it, believe me, no program can survive fdisk).

[kenshin-dono]

tnx rey ya i was asking you. it sounds like if i want a mybook i gotta go with the original one not the newer one im seeing everywhere


takeshi or anyone that has a western digital elements or mybook... whats the speed like on them? i was going to get the elements because im sure it doesn't have any of the bs software on it, but some reviews i read say its WAYYYY slow (someone said 30 mins to transfer 1 gig of data, thats nuts)
i know takeshi said he had an elements 1tb, what about the rest of you WD owners? eithe rhte mybook or the elements though im more concerned with the elemetns

oh and how do i put the fat32 over to NTSF?  do i need to do anything special, or should there be a format option when i right click on it in the computer tray? (running xp)

[vuzedome]

Right click -> Format.

[sdedalus83]

run - compmgmt.msc - disk management

Will give you a lot more control.

[ReyBrujo]

If you have USB 2.0, it should be fast. My computer only has 1.1 sockets, so transfer are slow (around 10 minutes per gb). Somehow, transferring to the external HD is even slower (around an hour for 5 gb). However, I don't really care, since I am not using it for playing back: I make a DVD backup, and then copy what I burned into the hard disk. If I want to watch something, I either keep it in the internal disks or copy it from the DVD. The hard disk is the long term archive (hopefully it will still be alive once 100tb hard disks are common and cheap, so that I can copy it all to there, just like I copied diskettes into CDs and then CDs into DVDs).

[SomeoneElse]

yeah... you know you can convert a fat32 drive to NTFS without destroying the contents in the computer management snap in right?

[Arc-sama]

I will say one thing about the Elements, they are all done by air cooling, they don't have a fan. So if your in a hot and humid area they may not be the best choice, otherwise they work great after you format them to NTSF from FAT.

Hmm, maybe I should try to keep it a little more cool. It's located just under my widescreen, and the TV can get quite warm when it's been on for some time. Although they're far from the radiator and it's not like it's exactly warm in Denmark right now.

Does anyone know of a good/easy cooling solution? No, I'm not going to put a glass of water or anything water on it. That I will not risk.

A very simple way to keep keep things cool is have a fan blowing.  I usual have a fan on almost any time I'm working on my computer.  Only time it's off is during the cooler days of the year.

I use to have a over heating issue at my previous apt and this set up worked for it.

[UrbanScythe]

Well i cant buy internal right now So first i need to ask  How about playing 1080 BD anime on USB external ?  Is it ok?
And i need to know is  WESTERN DIGITAL My Book Essential 3.0 1000GB, USB2.0, 16MB cache, 7200rpm, WDBAAF0010HBK-EESN better extern hdd WESTERN DIGITAL 3,5" Elements Desktop 1000GB, USB2.0, 7200rpm WDE1UBK10000E and why?  (I entering on hdd files very often. I dont care if its noisy or nice looking i just need stable disk to play HD films.)

[xShadow]

This is the hard drive I just bought two or so weeks ago, after doing various bits of research and price comparison:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152179&guid=552ca042fdf34cdeada841bb2e5430f3
So far, it's been reliable, and I haven't had any problems with it. I like its nice, simple design. Looks sturdy and stuff.. etc etc.

Originally, I was gonna buy the 1TB version, but then I realized that this one was only like 20 or 30 bucks more, so it would have been a complete waste to pass this sucker up. It may only be USB 2.0 (as opposed to eSATA and whatnot), but it's Samsung (which I've been hearing relatively good things about), and it has good ratings. I honestly could care less about the speed transfer rates when I'm not really backing that much up to it at the moment, and if I do I have other shit to do while that's going down. Plus, I can still play any games I install to it, straight from it, at pretty much no performance cost (I also watched Macross F 720p off of it, so it seems to be fine with that stuff, too). It does everything I need it to; I've been seeding off of it at a pretty constant rate, as well.

Really, the only con I'd have to point out is that its light is a good bit too bright, even if you turn the thing all the way down. This is easily fixed by putting something under the front side of it. Just fold a few papers or something and shove them in there; since its light is directed downwards, it's really easy block out (without messing up the cooling, mind you).

Not advertising it or anything, just giving you my two cents on what I think a good hard drive is meant to do, I guess. >_>;

[Tatsujin]

^ Avoid samsung anything.

Just go with brand names, stick with WD people.