- Average user rating: 1.5 stars out of 83 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
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42 out of 50 people found this review helpful
1.0 stars
"Western Digital Confirms HUGE Problems"
Pros: Small and Fairly Light for 500GB
Cons: Western Digital Confirms Power Off Problems
Summary: Western digital call agents confirmed that these drives have some "unusual" problem where they power off repeatedly and unexpectedly without the user initiating the power down and in the middle of use.
The first call agent got a "senior manager" who then claimed that it's only happened to "one or two drives" but that there was a dedicated support agent for this specific problem with this drive -- this seems highly unlikely as the support agent wouldn't have any work to do.
The level two support guy also said that this dedicated support agent couldn't call me back until tomorrow because he was so busy on calls -- where do they get these people? My three-year-old daughter can make up a more internally consistent fabrication than this guy.
He asked me not to take it back and to instead wait a day or two to have a call agent explore the issue with me. I told him that if they were going to compensate me as part of their support staff, I'd do it, but otherwise they should try to hire a few extra people to test these things before they ship them.
Unless you too want to volunteer 20 hours of work for the Western Digital support department, don't buy this drive.
- 9 replies to this review
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Bad product, even worse support. My My Book Premium 500GB external does not work anymore and makes a 4 series of clicking sounds when powered on. Called support to see what my options were regarding getting it fixed.
The only option was to pay $14.95 to speak to their tech support. Since I'm pretty sure that it's a issue with the drive's hardware, I asked if I could send it to them to get repaired. He said no. There are no options to have it repaired. I'm pretty much stuck with a very expensive paper weight.
I asked if their product has a history of problems and he responded by asking if the external drive was connected when I restarted the computer. When I said yes, he informed me that this is very harmful to ALL external drives, and is the likely reason that mine broke. I've never heard of this before and have owned 2 other externals that still work, one of which is a WD passport.
Bottom line, will NEVER EVER buy a WD product again. -
The drive worked fine for several months, and now I am praying I can get all my data out of it. It just decided not to work, and now sometimes I can see it, sometimes I can't. Even when I get it going, it only runs for about 45 minutes before crapping out again.
There has to be better products out there. Don't buy this one. -
I have a similar problem, I am on my second drive, I usually buy WD drives and put them in my own cases. I bought this one because I found a good deal and it fit better in my briefcase. Never again, I can't open up this case or I void the warranty. If I build my own I can swap cases and figure out if it is the drive or the case.
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This thing has crapped out at 21 days; now I have to figure out how to recover the files on it before I take it back - and how to erase them! I don't want our data floating around out there for some enterprising geek to get ahold of...I'll never touch another Western Dig product; we also own a SimpleTech...works great!
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I bought this drive and attempted to run it on three different systems (XP and Vista). As soon as I connected it via Firewire or USB the whole system slowed to a crawl. I found the technical support to be very poor - long holds and tech guys who have poor command of English. Often I couldn't understand their questions. I am taking it back for a refund. Nice concept - bad product.
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I bought one of the 320 premium books... and it would not work consistently with my computer. I found out what the problem was... the unit requires 20% more power than the power supply that they put in the package! This is not good. When the unit is starved for current, it simply goes to sleep ( software crash). If you are in the middle of a backup then you are totally in an unpleasant situation. This is the only way I know that Western digital will fix the problem is by me going public with it... yes I did return the unit for a refund.
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Got tired of waiting on the phone to talk to someone. Submitted email via their website, 4 days ago, no answer.
Lucky to find this post, I am taking mine back, never again will I get western digital. -
The drive turns off after about 5 seconds afer it was turned on. I bought it from BestBuy but it is over two weeks so I cannot get the refund. It could take a while for me to get the RMA, would cost me to send to WD and would probably get a inferior product again. I would not buy anything from Western Digital. Don't buy it.
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Hello, I've been on the net all day looking for a fix for my 500 gig "book". I've found many articles from people who have lost their data. Now I too have lost all my data after using this drive for only 2 weeks. Do not buy ANY Western Digital Products! This is the second drive, first drive from them was internal. I just can't believe this from one of the leaders in hard drives.
Where to buy
Western Digital MyBook Premium Edition 500GB External Hard Drive:
$279.99
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$279.99 | Yes |
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