Nothing but GREAT!
November 29, 2008
I just love this drive. It's the most handy piece of portable equipment I've had. Use it mostly to carry my virtual PCs around and to have backups when in need. Highly recommend it to anyone!
Very good choise
September 16, 2008
I made a very good choise selectin this portable hard drive. It works without any problem in my toshiba laptop.
Excelent Device
August 4, 2008
Is an excelent device, fast, compact and very very portable, it really expands my laptop hard drive.
The best external back up ever!
July 27, 2008
It is easy to use and never runs out of space as I'm trying to back up my entire hard drive. Well worth the money!
If it requires power boosting for the USB conection why not include it???
July 18, 2008
I bought this unit through the distributer my wife works with.
The price seemed fair. The look awesome. The size sleek! Almost a video ipod size.
When I got home (to my desktop computer), exited to try it out. My Xp would tell me there was something connected to the USB port, but it didn't know what the hell it was. And asked for a driver.
No disk was included with the unit. Just a VERY short USB cable. And some documentation that is mostly warranty and warnings. On regards to installation instructions there where to graphics. One showing what's in the box (already mentioned) and another pointing out where to connect (DUH!). The graphic does show though a LAPTOP, not a desktop computer.
I was stuck, so all I could do was trying WD online support. As with any of these companies it was a trip with a lot of dead ends (you mostly get pages PROMOTING the product, even the ones that read on the link "support"). In the end I actually had to register to get access to the software, I guess because of the encryption included with the unit's apps (in the actual unit, which if in the first place you can't see on your system, then how the hell can you access the apps???). The software I could download?
-Mass storage unit scanning. (read hard drives scanning).
-Sync app.
-Encryption app.
All these require your unit to be visible by the system in order to work! (WTF?)
So... I turned to my wife who was using her laptop at the time and when she conected it it came up perfectly on her system. Total access, working like a dream. She handed it back to me with a look of "do you really know anything about this kind of stuff baby?".
I turned away with a frown of stubbornness and returned to my search. To no avail. In the end I had to leave to an appointment I had feeling frustrated. When I got home, my drive was connected and now it was working properly. I knew my wife had something to do with it. What she had done was that using our local wireless network she had taken the driver from the drive while it was connected to her laptop and transfered it to my desktop where then she proceeded to install the drive properly.
Problem fixed, but not thanx to Western Digital.
Today I get to work and try connecting the drive to my two desktop computers. This time I don't even get the install hardware message from windows, just another message that tells me there's something there but the system doesn't know what it is and it probably won't work properly...
I've connected my drive with a longer cable, since the one included requires the drive to sit on the CPU because of how short it is (about 12") It then connects properly and works fine.
Reading up on other customer's reviews I notice they mention the Y-USB cable a lot, a power boosting option for your drive.
It probably all boils down to power.
So if that's the issue, and not everyone has the benefit of a laptop at hand. Shouldn't a power boosting cable be included with the unit in the first place???????
I'm going out now to get myself a Y-USB cable then.
I give this otherwise perfect product three stars.
