Western Digital WD Elements 1.5 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive

5 Responses to “Western Digital WD Elements 1.5 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive”

1. E. Huntley
   March 3, 2010 at 11:23 am

   This product is very user friendly and delivers excellent value for the price. I would recommend this unit to anyone looking for a compact storage unit that is well built and competitively priced.
   Rating: 5 / 5
2. W. Shepard
   March 3, 2010 at 1:03 pm

   I really like this hard drive after reading all of the reviews on it, I decided to go ahead and give it a shot. It’s really quiet and was easy to setup once I got it connected. I didn’t want to send this HD back but, the transfer rate was a bit too slow for my needs. I would start out at about 10 or 11 mbps and it would drop down to about about 8 or 900 kbps. I was using a USB 2.0 port and I didn’t think it should take 20 or 30 mins. to transfer a 40 mb file. It was being transfer from my computer’s HD. I looked online for the Black Friday sales and saw that another retailer had a WD 1.5 TB HD for $119.99 that has firewire, USB 2.0 and eSATA connections. I jumped right on that deal and sent this HD back. Amazon was really great as they paid for the shipping with Amazon Prime account. I received my credit for the return the sameday it was received. I actually didn’t even know I had my credit until 2 days later when I went to check on it. Great product, just not what I needed. I wish I could trade the metal casing. I am happy with my WD My Book Home Edition, 1.5 TB drive.
   Rating: 4 / 5
3. Mark B.
   March 3, 2010 at 2:24 pm

   I was originally going to get a 1.5TB Seagate drive from WallyWorld until I saw the buzz on this drive at Amazon. For the same price I’m getting a 1.5TB drive in a black metal case with removable/replaceable rubber boots that slide securely onto the ends of the drive.

   While I’m not expecting a fast drive due to the USB 2.0 interface it has a usable capacity of 1.38TB. When getting an encryption estimate via TrueCrypt it would take about 2 days to encrypt using three chained algorithms (AES-Twofish-Serpent). So I figure I’ll rig it to my desktop while I’m at work so that it can be secured.

   But the huge selling point for the drive is that it’s encased in a black matte metal enclosure with two plastic end pieces providing ventilation, the blue LED light and the ports for the power and USB connections. The drive does have the feel of a metal brick while having a truly spartan yet elegant design.

   As for the ports it has a USB 2.0 Type-B connection and a 12V port. The drive ships with both the USB Type-B to Type-A cable and the 12V power adapter. It would’ve been nice if the drive drew less power so that it could rely upon a 5V power supply and run off the USB bus. So the drive isn’t very portable since it does need to be tethered to a power outlet. More than likely this is a standard 3.5″ form factor with all other necessary interfaces hidden away within its enclosure (the drive has an adhesive seal that, if broken, voids the warranty so I won’t be able to peek into the drive at the moment). The enclosure itself is bolted together with flush-mounted Phillips-head screws on the bottom of the drive.

   Still, for archival backups and a very solid metal design, this is the best deal at the moment for 1.38TB of storage. I’ll revise my review if the drive unexpectedly dies. I’m still pleased with this drive so far that I may buy two more and hook a friend up with one.

   UPDATE 2009-12-01:

   This all-metal model is now out of stock. It’s a shame though because it is by far superior to the newer plastic-encased model. I’m glad to have bought another one before it went out of stock.

   I read some reviews of similar 1.5TB WD external drives and I feel much better in this purchase. The drive does not come with any additional software or a driver CD-ROM. It was pure Plug’n'Play bliss on both my desktop and netbook systems. The desktop runs Win-XP pro and the netbook runs Win-XP Home. Both systems recognized the drive with no problems at all. There’s something nice about checking out the free space and having all that free space available.

   Aside from the base-10 space marketing of this drive it is what it is. There are no hidden partitions or even any proprietary software to install. Use your favorite file manager and just copy to and from the drive.

   I’ve mentioned the slow TrueCrypt time estimate. For full disclosure that estimate was taken from my Acer netbook the drive was attached to at the time. The processor in my desktop rig is much more powerful though I have to do some benchmarking from it in regards to comparing raw TrueCrypt processing on it versus the Acer netbook. If that’s the case then then USB 2.0 throughput in regards to encryption is the lesser of bottlenecks to be found.

   Needless to say I’m very pleased with this drive. I only wish there were more of them in stock.

   UPDATE 12-07-2009:

   I was able to encrypt the drive completely with TrueCrypt via my desktop. Due to the mechanics and the crypto overhead (AES-Twofish-Serpent) it took 32 hours to encrypt. But then it is 1.36TB of space. Right now I’m copying files from the unencrypted 1.36TB drive to the encrypted one. It’s gonna take a while over those USB 2.0 ports.

   These drives do stack nicely. The rubber boots really do keep them stable and allow the air to flow around them. These are classic drives. They will be missed…until I find another reseller.
   
   Rating: 5 / 5
4. Jason
   March 3, 2010 at 2:36 pm

   I have two 1 TB element drives and now a 1.5 TB element drives. The other two have held up well. Generally runs cool. The removable rubber bumpers help the drive run silent. After 8+ hours of transferring information onto the drive, it was only warm to the touch and has cooled off remarkably fast. This is significant to me as it will be a media drive stored with other home theater equipment.

   Read transfer rate of my 1 TB element drives was 20 MB/sec. Transfer rate of my 250 GB WD My Book Essentials was 29 MB/sec and it requires a higher rated power supply. Transfer rate of my 1.5 TB elements was 32 MB/sec.

   Comes with a 1 year warranty (2 years for Europe). I would probably feel better about this drive if WD had a little more faith in it to back it, but since I’ve got backups of everything, I’m not as concerned.
   
   Rating: 5 / 5
5. Easy-G
   March 3, 2010 at 3:21 pm

   This is the way an external drive should be made. It feels solid like a brick. The metal case doesn’t flex or rattle when you pick up the drive. The front and back end pieces have ventilation holes and are made out of plastic but they go well with the metal case. The ends have a non-slip silicone type rubber boot stretched over them. The drive is small for a full size external drive. It comes formatted with fat32 but can be quickly converted to NTFS by using the “convert [drive letter]: /fs:ntfs” command at a DOS prompt. There is no software of any kind included with this drive (I prefer this). Windows shows the drive space at 1.36TB. The drive has one blue activity/power led in the back next to the USB connector. While the drive has no power switch, it will power down when you shut down your computer or disconnect the USB cable. The blue led will turn off to let you know the drive is off and safe to move. The speed is acceptable for a USB drive.

   I find it odd that I couldn’t find any information about this drive on Western Digital’s website. If you type “elements” for the drive name, it will pull up the new model which is a big black ugly piece of plastic. The new model also comes in a 2TB size which this model does not. It would be a shame if they discontinue this metal case model.

   As is, the drive must lay flat because the sides are slightly rounded. It would be nice if WD included a small plastic stand to hold the drive up on its side. The power adapter is compatible with my older 120GB & 250GB WD drives. At $127, this is a great external hard drive!
   Rating: 5 / 5