- The quality of the included power supplies is partly disastrous. But over the WD-Service [...] I got unbureaucratic, fast and free for these power supplies spare.
- The power supplies of WD Elements 500 GB and WD Elements 1 TB are the same.
- The quality of the hard drives from WD itself is perfectly fine. Hard drives have problems when their power supply is not working properly!
- The supplied standard USB cable is rather short with 1m. When several sheets therefore you need a USB2 hub brings along a sufficiently long cable.
- WD's diagnostic software and the setting tool (downloadable from [...]) only run on newer Windows type (x86 32-bit). SMART is generally not available in external USB disks.
- WD's registration under [...] (required for RMA) asks a questionnaire from camouflaged unnecessary personal information, which is contrary to European data protection law.
The main problems of this insert grade comes from two directions:
- Fanless plates need a proper cooling, otherwise they will be very hot. In continuous operation, the WD is with me no warmer than 20 degrees above the ambient air temperature. If it is so freely on a wooden plate (with me IKEA Ivar), the heat can radiate upwards and heats nothing (such. As another external drive) near the air, it is only slightly warm. If you operate the panel, however upright by leaning against something and she leaves her only 2cm air, then you can then fried eggs frying on it. Who does the latter must not be surprised if the drive crashes quickly, which is not only in WD so that happens guaranteed at each similarly constructed fanless panel in such a case. Who has little space or cooling problems should therefore generally "use drives but on the 2.5" no external 3.5 dodge variants.
- The quality of the dispersion WD-mode power supplies is alarming high. There are power supplies which are not warm, even with continuous operation of the plate, while others remain even hot when the drive switches off (it does when the computer shuts down the USB power or if it is not used for a long time. WD offers a tool enter with which one can adjust this time). From the power supplies from WD that were more than lukewarm, operating all without exception have failed me for less than 8 months! By replacing the power supply also disappeared at a plate all her errors that occurred (if remaining data errors I do not know, see ZFS at the bottom).
Only one of 9 plates showed me permanent errors that could be eliminated, however, by remapping (among data loss). In remappten area the read rate now dramatically breaks a (to 2 MB / s), I'll try for replacement of the board of WD.
Apparently you can reorder the power supplies for $ 10 in WD-Shop (only in America). This is the selling price, the producer price is thus well below $ 5. Wen surprised such problems as yet?
The temperatures indicated by me apply when the power supplies are exposed or hanging, so air cooling is sufficiently available. If you bury them or bundles among other things, then we must not be surprised when they are hot. Without air cooling it is not in a power supply just as well.
A few basics to hard drives:
I understand that someone finds it bad if the disk loses data, but it is perfectly normal for sheets of each manufacturer. An MTBF of 10 years means of 10 panels, each year a mistake! At 120 panels each month you must therefore expect an error. With 500 buyers every week is it anything go wrong with one. And the power supply problem with WD (they are working Hoff finally) makes it much worse.
Serious errors in hard disk show up most in the first few weeks of regular operation (> 80%). Does it through this continuous operation, it usually works for years. This does not mean that one does not lose data because sector errors do occur. A plate has only one chance to make a just becoming defective sector to "remap" when accessing this sector. Happens too late (SMART with Surface scan can help, but is only for internal disks), the disk can not fix the dreaded read error. Once you describe the sector of the fault disappears by the remapping by the board an alternate sectors instead of the defective sector used. Remapping by the access to the sectors but slower.
Unfortunately, it is different with external power adapters. Also, bad power supplies usually operate the first few months, but then drop out (often Elkoschaden). The 2 year warranty covers the WD from Hoff finally. Are power supplies OK, then keep most years. Unfortunately, problems with the power supply (this also applies to internal drives!) One of the main problems, damage the hard drives. Enter into it in more detail here is too little space. Only this: self-repair processes in the disk need more power, and if and power problems are particularly bad!
A few more notes:
I want to expressly warn against cheap USB cables, especially if they are longer than 2m, as these are usually designed by the shield ago only for USB1 or printer. With USB cables must be mentioned explicitly USB2. 3m USB cable best quality can be more expensive commercially than some external hard drives! So do not be surprised that WD may settle any longer cable with a plate in this price segment.
I currently have 8 WD ELEMENTS 500GB in continuous use under Linux. As a file system ZFS is used, which is available for Solaris, BSD and Linux (ZFS-fuse). By zraid2 ZFS is self-healing and eliminates (command scrub) automatically possibly occurring data errors. Unfortunately ZFS is still nothing for normal users.
So who entrusted its data from an external hard drive, do well, which store multiple copies on different disks. 2 plates are not sufficient due to the birth of the phenomenon (this refers to the random confluence of events, ie, for example the simultaneous failure of 2 external hard drives, z. B. by surge such as lightning). You also have to check the data on a regular basis for legibility, because only then do you find out whether they are still legible.
A good Windows tool that accomplishes this, I do not know unfortunately. And this review is too long.
(Produced, now I have the spare power supply.)
