TOM B : is this new or used?ANDREW L : I bought two drives, both were packaged as new. I already have two similar drives, making a total of four. The serial numbers of the ones I just bought showed one with a larger number in the S/N, suggesting it was a newer lot, and one with a smaller number, suggesting it was from an older lot. One internal drive died in the "older" unit. Made me wonder if the "older" one was a refurbished unit? Adorama referred me to Western Digital. I contacted Western Digital requesting an RMA -- however as I had put sensitive data on it, I did not want to lose control over a damaged drive, and so requested a replacement without a return, and noting that I would shred (yes, they can be shredded) to failed unit. Western Digital has a policy to allow such an RMA without a return to protect sensitive data. I filed all the paperwork, but have not yet received the replacement in several weeks.
I bought replalacement internal drives, just in case, so I used the one that I had, and the new, expected one from WD will be my next spare.
I suspect that if I update the firmware, available from Western Digital, that the performance of all drives will be the same -- I have not yet done that.
Long answer, but given the serial numbers and the drive failure, I thought the longer answer more useful. Bottom line? I would recommend a buy. If the serial number begins with a "1" it's older, if "3" it's newest (my interpretation). I would suggest updating the firmware before you put any data on it. Adorama is the only place that I've found these drives that use Firewire. Both Adorama and Western Digital's customer service were excellent.ANDREW R : The item in this product listing is new (not used or refurbished)
RONALD F : Is this a good back up drive for photos and can it be used with a second drive?Marie R : how can I tell whether I have a usb 3.0 or 2.0BRUCE P : You can have as many drives as you have USB ports. You can also use a USB Hub to increase the number of USB ports but you lose the sleep function usually. However this drive is somewhat long in the tooth because most of the up to date drives are USB 3.0 and not USB 2.0. Maybe if you have Firewire 800 port it would be competitive, otherwise this drive is slow to today's USB 3.0 computers. I will not buy any more USB 2.0 drives.PATRICK C : Yes. My favorites are my 3TB Western Digital. What I backup are my photographs.STEVE K : I use it to back up large video files, and a second drive to back up the first drive. I usually leave them both turned off, but you must unplug it to do so or it will constantly turn back on. Quiet though.TANYA S : I use this drive for photo back up all the time. I actually have 3 drives. The 2nd drive is duplicate backup and the third for time machine. I hope this helps!BRYAN B : I have a couple of WD travel drives that are a couple of years old, and work fine for storage and moving files around. I cut video with my G-Tech drives though. I have 4 of them 2 are E-Sata. They have never failed me.
