Almost But Not Quite: a Guide to Western Digital 500GB Hard Drives

Almost But Not Quite: a Guide to Western Digital 500GB Hard Drives

The first thing you'll notice about reviews for Western Digital 500GB hard drives is that Western Digital users are Western Digital fans and this is no mean feat for any company. The positive comments are fulsome and easily outweigh the negative remarks which tend to be of that variety which are less complaints rather than suggestions for improvements.

Among the negative, most fall into that category of advice to Western Digital to upgrade their customer service. This particularly references the paucity of information on their website and the ambiguous terminology used by tech support though there is room to infer that the latter may be deliberate in lieu of long and complex explanations. While making these observations, however, reviewers also point out that a lack of website information is of little account while their devices are working effectively and that the long and complex explanations are easily available online if users take the time to Google for solutions.

Some observations swing both ways, reflecting the preferences of the user rather than the adequacy of the device's features. With regard to the 500GB Western Digital My Book for example, one reviewer noted that its fatter, bulkier construction took up precious office space while another considered the greater weight a virtue because, unlike its lightweight rivals, it didn't get pushed around the desk but stayed where it was put.

Positives for the My Book range include such features as the on/off facility that automatically synchronizes with the on/off modes on your PC. This means that, unlike other hard drives, the 500GB Iomega My Book has no hard power button that stays on until manually switched off. The device also has a power-saver feature in that it will go into sleep mode until needed.

The original 500GB Western Digital My Passport was a big hit with fans, lauded for its tiny size, very light weight, quiet drive and secure USB connectivity. Later models, however, introduced Smartware software which caused an influx of negative responses and one has to wonder, along with Western Digital fans, what the company was thinking. As one reviewer noted, "If you want the poster child for how to "update" a very good product into something that is virtually unusable, this would be it".

To their credit, Western Digital quickly responded to the criticism by providing a FAQ on their web site that explained how to disable the smartware option. Future models, however, would be better off without the smartware software as a compulsory feature and a FAQ on their website explaining how to install it if desired.

In conclusion, Western Digital 500GB hard drives almost got it right but then went too far in a case of trying to please all of its consumers all of the time by providing all smartware software as standard. They will be better served in the future by following a different motto: less is more.

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