Western Digital My Book Essential (External HDD) - Reliable?

I'm looking to buy a new external hard drive, and after reading through reviews on Newegg, I'm not so sure what I should get. Most of them have little to no reviews at all and the ones that do have a decent amount of reviews are completely mixed. This is the best one I've found, in terms of specifications and reviews: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136749

The thing is, I've heard some pretty bad things about Western Digital drives recently. People say they've been failing at very high rates. Someone even said up to 70% of the new drives die early on, although there was no evidence to support this. I've been using the same two Western Digital external drives, heavily, for almost 10 years now and they've never given me any problems. Are newer WD drives really unreliable, or would it be safe to go ahead and purchase this?

 

I've heard people mention "avoid WD green drives". Apparently the blue and black are more reliable. There was also a string of failures with Seagate drives that I'm aware of. I have two WD external drives but neither is used extremely hard.
Wait until someone else weighs in.

 

Hi

Best drive I can recommend is linked at the end of my post. Reasons are, it's in a VERY good casing, and has been very reliable for me. I've transferred lots of data to and from it, packed it in bags and taken it places, and it's not that expensive... plus at 1TB capacity, can't beat it.

And nevermind, they don't sell it anymore... instead they have one that's less expensive and has USB 3.0:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822149191

Anyway, the Toshiba drive I have has definitely proved itself.

EDIT: If you're looking for a full size external hard drive, this may or may not be what you want...

 

Edit has expired, so new post:

What I do when purchasing a hard drive from Newegg, is always narrow down the search to what I want (drive capacity, etc.) and then filter by highest rated, and go from there. It seems hard drives that were good 3 months ago end up being bad 3 months later, and there's different drives that are good.

I've never been a Seagate fan, bought a Seagate FreeAgent Pro (desktop external), it failed within months.

Edit: And buying a drive with few reviews is risky, in my opinion. I always opt for things with 10+ reviews with at least 4 eggs rated by most, and I always read all of the reviews.

 

Yeah, that's usually what I always do. What I want is a USB 3.0 interface, because 2.0 is just too slow for transferring big files, and at least 2TB. Narrowing it down to that leaves me with a decent selection, but none of them have 10 reviews and 4 stars.

The highest rated one is this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822324043 (Edit: and apparently it uses a 5400 RPM WD green drive inside of it)

I've never even heard of that company before, though. The Western Digital drives are the only ones with a good amount of reviews, and like I said, they're all mixed, averaging about 3 stars.

This is a lot more complicated than I thought it was going to be...

 

Some other opinions and recommendations:

Recommendation....External Hard Drive

 

When I worked in retail based on the returns rate, I found the desktop external WDs to be (at best) average. Their fatal flaw is a lack of air flow. If you're using the drive for recording and playing back video (or any other use where the drive spins constantly for hours on end) this is not the type of drive I'd go with.

The most reliable drives are usually those marked "RAID" or "Enterprise". They're designed to handle more heat and constant use in a server enviornment where they may essentially be spinning 24/7.

It also helps to use an enclosure with a built-in fan. Although a tiny bit louder, this gives added protection against the drive overheating.

Here's the setup I would go with:

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Barra...0641AS/dp/B002RWJHBM/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

http://www.premiertek.net/products/enclosure35/HT-318-U3-BLK.htm

Note that both the drive and enclosure are SATA III (6GB/s max speed). WD doesn't list their specs; however given the price I suspect it's only a SATA II (3GB/s max) drive inside.

Granted, it's only 2TB and more expensive than the WD; however when you consider the time and hassles involved if a drive dies, it should be worth the extra bucks.

 

If I were going to put together a SATA III and USB 3 drive/enclosure combo from Newegg, I'd get the following for the enclosure:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817707227

and the following for the drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533

 

Ahhh, I see you want 2TB in a drive. Then the only real choice is the following:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148506

 

Same model as Amazon. Although NewEgg is good, I've become a fan of Amazon since they have the same return policy (30 days) plus pay return shipping/insurance if you have to send it back.

 

Hmm... didn't know Amazon paid return shipping, good to know!

 

They do, so long as you buy it directly from Amazon (not one of their third-party vendors).

Amazon offers free "super saver" shipping on orders of $50 or more; they also have "Amazon Prime" available for $79.99/year. The Prime membership gives you free two-day shipping on every order (even under $50) or a $3.99 per item option to upgrade to overnight delivery. If you buy online frequently the memebership may pay for itself in just a few orders.

 

Cool. Super saver shipping doesn't work for me, but the Prime membership is something I might look into. Still, best thing I've heard so far is the free shipping for returns.