
Okay, I bought this less than a year ago to back up my mp3's.
I have it sitting on the floor, plenty of space around it, not too hot, and I hardly ever even TOUCH it, let alone move it, and it's never been dropped or anything like that. I accessed the files on it maybe a dozen times per month, it was mostly used for back up of old files.
Sooooo.... Suddenly, out of the blue, the other day when I went to add some files to it, (still had like 50 gigs of space open on it), it was not accessible. When I checked on Computer Management it said FILE SYSTEM BLANK. Yeah, that's right, blank. The file system is shot, all files are just GONE along with the NTFS file SYSTEM. In other words, in case you need to have it spelled out for you, this piece of s just effin DIED for no reason.
Even if it's still under warranty (I have not checked yet but I'm almost positive it is not), what good is a warranty when all my files are GONE?
As to what to buy instead, I do not know. Have no idea. I bought 3 Seagates. Two of them are still going after about 2 years, but one of them died just around 1 year, just like this one.
My feeling is that ALL external drives are s--t.
Guess I'll try an Apple TV next. Apple seems to be able to make good storage. You don't hear too much about 80-160 gig IPods dying. Or do you?
In any case, my next drive will not be a WD nor a Seagate.Get more detail about
Western Digital My Passport Essential 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive WDME5000TN (Midnight Black).