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kidwithdimples

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 17, 2007
739
0
You can get a more expensive version with firewire if you want...

I have the firewire version and its works well.
 
Eraserhead said:
You can get a more expensive version with firewire if you want...

I have the firewire version and its works well.
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Do they just cost more because of the color?

Also, can you link me to one please? I'm looking for the cheapest one yet a good one.
 
Cave Man said:
I'd only buy a WD drive if Seagate, Samsung, and Hitachi go out of business.
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Why is that? Are they that bad? I've been using a WD 250 GB for about a year for my desktop and it does the job. And those fancy blue light circling around :D
 
kidwithdimples said:
Why is that? Are they that bad? I've been using a WD 250 GB for about a year for my desktop and it does the job. And those fancy blue light circling around :D
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I'm 0/2 on WD drives. One had problems at 11 months and WD tech had me reformat it. It worked fine for 2 more months, then quit completely. They would not honor their 1 year warranty, even though the problem started at 11 months. The other one failed at 3 years. (Truth be told, I have one WD notebook drive that I replaced with a Samsung. It was working well when I replaced it and is now in an external SATA enclosure that I use every now and then.)

I've had three Seagate and four Samsung drives (all my current internals, 2x 750gig and a 1 TB 3.5" and a 320 gig 2.5" are Samsungs) and all have performed without any problems at all. I've only had one Hitachi (IBM) and it work well while for the 6 years I used it (it's now retired). WD won't get another penny of my money - I don't trust them.
 
I have the 250gb model you list, I took it apart and put the hd in my macbook and took the original macbook hd and put it in the passport. Both setups are working just fine
 
Cave Man said:
I'm 0/2 on WD drives. One had problems at 11 months and WD tech had me reformat it. It worked fine for 2 more months, then quit completely. They would not honor their 1 year warranty, even though the problem started at 11 months. The other one failed at 3 years. (Truth be told, I have one WD notebook drive that I replaced with a Samsung. It was working well when I replaced it and is now in an external SATA enclosure that I use every now and then.)

I've had three Seagate and four Samsung drives (all my current internals, 2x 750gig and a 1 TB 3.5" and a 320 gig 2.5" are Samsungs) and all have performed without any problems at all. I've only had one Hitachi (IBM) and it work well while for the 6 years I used it (it's now retired). WD won't get another penny of my money - I don't trust them.
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That sucks. And that's a lot of harddrives you have there, lol. What do you do with all of them?

atthecross said:
I have the 250gb model you list, I took it apart and put the hd in my macbook and took the original macbook hd and put it in the passport. Both setups are working just fine
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Haha.. that's a smart move. I upgraded my Macbook's harddrive two weeks ago from 80GB to 160 GB. I think I'll get the 160GB WD.
 
kidwithdimples said:
That sucks. And that's a lot of harddrives you have there, lol. What do you do with all of them?
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750 boot drive, 750 Time Machine Drive and 1 TB media drive (to serve Apple TV, which has a 500 gig Seagate eSATA drive). The notebook drive is for my MBP, of course. The Mini has a Seagate OEM in it and MiniStack II with a 500 gig Seagate as its boot drive (and for our DVR with Eye TV Hybrid).
 
Cool. Thanks guys!

I'll put the order asap. BTW should I buy it from Newegg or somewhere even cheaper? or I don't get any better deals than that?
 
Cave Man said:
I'm 0/2 on WD drives. One had problems at 11 months and WD tech had me reformat it. It worked fine for 2 more months, then quit completely. They would not honor their 1 year warranty, even though the problem started at 11 months. The other one failed at 3 years. (Truth be told, I have one WD notebook drive that I replaced with a Samsung. It was working well when I replaced it and is now in an external SATA enclosure that I use every now and then.)

I've had three Seagate and four Samsung drives (all my current internals, 2x 750gig and a 1 TB 3.5" and a 320 gig 2.5" are Samsungs) and all have performed without any problems at all. I've only had one Hitachi (IBM) and it work well while for the 6 years I used it (it's now retired). WD won't get another penny of my money - I don't trust them.
Click to expand...

I've had one bad experience with a WD My Book Premium but I have 4 others that work just fine. I really am disappointed with their tech support too, not honoring their 1 year warranty for me (same thing happened: failed HDD within 11 months, got it working for a month then flunked a 2nd time. warranty not covered. That's $249 down the drain for me + the time wasted waiting on their crappy phone support service). The other 4 I purchased are working fine, it's just I'm afraid if any of them flunk on me, I'm screwed.

I love the WD passports. My family has a total of about 7 of them (power brick-less 250GB is sooo awesome) and all of them have done their jobs admirably. The fact that their prices are so competitive make it easy to purchase "for the hell of it." I would totally opt for the firewire "Studio" version. Firewire is sooo much faster than usb (although not as universally accepted)
 
noodle654 said:
Hitachi makes horrible drives...just horrible. I have had 3 desktop drive die and 2 laptops (1 from iBook, 1 from MB) die.
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Well, as I stated, mine was an IBM, which was before Hitachi bought the division. I don't know much about their current drives, thus it's last on my list. Nonetheless, I'm done with WD - simply because of their *****ty customer service policies. I mean, who wouldn't honor a 1 year warranty on a drive that begins to fail at 11 months? Bad business policy, if you ask me. You get cranky curmudgeons like me...:mad:

Eraserhead said:
That's nowhere near a large enough sample size to say anything.
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I understand that, but the way they handled it is what pissed me off. Read the entire post, not just my first sentence. :rolleyes:
 
WD drives have a bad reputation, particularly their MyBook drives that you can access from anywhere. Not only are they unreliable, but they have some sort of built-in anti-piracy that blocks streaming media files in some instances. I don't remember the specifics (because it doesn't affect me), but if you want to check, it's stated clearly on WD's webpage for those specific products.


However, the WD Passport are completely different, and their reputation appears quite good. Reliability of 3.5" drives doesn't necessarily carry over to their smaller HDs. I own a 250 GB WD Passport, and I like it. I chose it over a Seagate because at the time, the largest small Seagate drive was 160 GB, and it cost more than the WD.
 
I've used a few WD Studios (not the one you are looking at) and they work pretty well except they're annoyingly loud. Still haven't found a quiet drive. BTW your macbook only has FW400, and not 800.
 
Keep in mind the studio edition requires a power supply...something you may not like since you're on a laptop. I wasn't necessarily recommending the studio since I use it for my iMac (always at my desk).
 
i have one of those and they are great! nice little blue led that lights up, runs smooth, really slim and great price
 
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