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Western Digital Elements 500GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive
 
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Western Digital Elements 500GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive

by Western Digital
3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (134 customer reviews) More about this product

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Technical Details

  • Plug and Play Storage
  • PC and MAC Compatibile
  • Western digital's legendary performance and reliablilty
  • USB 2.0 Connectivity
  • Compact Metal Case
  • Easy to set up,Easy to use
›  See more technical details

Product details

  • Product Dimensions: 21.9 x 15.4 x 4.4 cm ; 998 g
  • Boxed-product Weight: 1.8 Kg
  • Delivery Destinations: Visit the Delivery Destinations Help page to see where this item can be delivered.
    Find out more about our Delivery Rates and Returns Policy
  • Item model number: WDE1U5000U
  • ASIN: B000OS54TA
  • Date first available at Amazon.co.uk: 25 Mar 2007
  • Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (134 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 12,356 in Electronics & Photo (See Bestsellers in Electronics & Photo)

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Product Description

Box Content

  • External 3.5" USB 2.0 hard drive
  • 6 foot (1.8m) USB 2.0 certified interface cable
  • AC adapter with power cord
  • Quick Install Guide


Manufacturer's Description

The Elements USB 2.0 external hard drive is a fast, easy, reliable way to add more storage to your PC or Macintosh. Simply plug it in to a USB port and start saving or backing up your photos, music video and files. It's pre-formatted for immediate use. The compact, durable metal case provides extra data protection.
See all Product Description

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Customer Reviews

134 Reviews
5 star:
 (57)
4 star:
 (11)
3 star:
 (9)
2 star:
 (12)
1 star:
 (45)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.2 out of 5 stars (134 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
67 of 70 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great and updated!!, 24 Jun 2007
Bought this from Ebuyer a while ago and I'm really happy with it. I had bought other WD external drives before but only the "MyBook" drives and although these are nice looking and stack well, they don't keep the drive very cool with the plastic housing. This drive has a nice rugged aluminium housing which conducts the heat pretty well, causing it to dissipate. Which is a good thing. It has a rubber cap on each end of the drive to reduce slip and give it a bit more protection.

The transfer rates are pretty good for USB 2.0 and accessing it with lots of smallish files (15mb-30mb) contained on it doesn't take too long although it isn't fast but this is pretty normal. The cables are pretty good quality and fit snugly. As was said in another review there is no on/off switch but unplugging the USB lead turns it off and it doesn't have any ill effects.

All in all this is a very good drive and a lot cheaper than buying an internal drive and housing. It does come formatted in FAT32 but this is for compatibility issues and is normal for most external drives, especially the Western Digital drives. Formatting the drive to NTFS doesn't have to take hours as long as you check the "Quick Format" check box when formatting, this does the same as a full format for new "clean" HDD and only takes a couple of seconds using XP or higher.



***UPDATE:***

Bought another one of these for a backup of all my MP3 files and other things (just in case), got it for the nice price of £74 (it's gone up now) and thought I had a bargain. I do but a nice surprise is that this seems to be an updated version of the drive and has a power switch now. That makes me happy and a little more reassured that I can keep it all plugged in but switch it off when not in use.

Hope that's useful to someone, unfortunately I can't see anything on the box that indicates it is an updated model, nothing different from my other drives box, I'm just assuming that the newer batches are coming with a power switch now.
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33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Not a bad little drive., 16 Feb 2008
By Michael Lawrie (Cambridge, England.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
In all this isn't a bad little drive. I noticed a previous reviewer mentioned that this drive got a little hot, but it's nothing compared to the plastic cased drives. This one comes in a nice solid aluminium case with nice rubber wrapped ends for protection and "non slippiness" and the case does a good job of dissipating the heat.

Compared to the My Book drives also by WD, this drive is a dream. It's not the fastest drive in the world I will admit, but it's one of the more reliable ones.
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92 of 97 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Does what it says on the tin, 4 Jul 2007
By B. Pearson "TS1" (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Bought this hard drive as it was the one of the cheaper Western Digital drives around. Recognised by WinXP straight away. Reformatted to NTFS in about 60 seconds. Tip. In WinXP format, tick the Quick Format option. This works OK on a new bare drive and takes a lot less time than a full format which would be more appropriate if the drive contained confidential data. The drive looks good, has a substantial feel to it and is quick. The case gets mildly warm, but will not damage a delicate surface thanks to the silicone end shields, which also serve as a non slip "stand" for the drive. Very pleased with the purchase.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Possible solution for power supply failures:
I left my power supply plugged in but not attached to the hard drive for ~ half an hour, and remarkably, the green light came on fully and the power supply then functioned as... Read more
Published 10 days ago by J. GALLAGHER

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic
I've been using this hard drive nearly everyday for the past year & a half and have never had any problems with it. Read more
Published 15 days ago by Ms. SH Powell

2.0 out of 5 stars Oh hell what a journey
It's wasn't hell-bad as a product. but the 'customer services' was. that being, there wasn't any.
I lost the cable on a train, silly me. and wanted a simple replacement. Read more
Published 1 month ago by A. Mobbs

1.0 out of 5 stars Beware power supply
Wait till your power leads pack in for the stupid din connectors , you cant find em anywhere and they wont help !!!

transfered to new boxes and data screwed up ,. . Read more
Published 1 month ago by A. Thompson

5.0 out of 5 stars The BEST!
I got this more than a year and a half ago and it works brilliantly. Yes it does make a small noise when writing to the drive, but who cares? Its so tiny, you won't notice. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mr. G. R. Thomson

1.0 out of 5 stars Gutted. AVOID.
Wished I'd read Amazon reviews before buying this!!!
Power supply has died. It was very cheap but I would never buy another
Published 2 months ago by Ohfo

1.0 out of 5 stars Unreliable garbage
After repeated failures which involved losing data as I had to wipe the disk clean each time, I purchased another, cheaper, smaller, more reliable disk (although with less... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Dopamine Ranger

5.0 out of 5 stars Sturdy and reliable
Been using one of these for a year now and it has been 100% reliable. I've just ordered one of the 1TB units and I'm expecting more of the same. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mike_UK

1.0 out of 5 stars Flawed
Searching across the webb you soon realise this kit is flawed. Western Digital must now be aware of it. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Nippysweety

1.0 out of 5 stars Avoid
Whilst the hard drive itself is not bad. The power supply is utter garbage. Runs very hot! So watch were you place it. the average life span of the power supply is 3 months. Read more
Published 5 months ago by A. W. Hackett

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Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
power pack 9 11 days ago
Reformat ? 4 1 month ago
how many usb ports required? 1 February 2009
Windows ME and Vista 0 January 2009
Linux Fedora 0 December 2008
Vista Compatible? 3 November 2008
Anyone connected this to an Xbox? 0 October 2008
Data Recovery! 0 July 2008
Lead included? 3 July 2008
Apple iPod 1 July 2008
Can it be used for Ps3 1 April 2008
USB 1.1? 2 March 2008
› See all 16 discussions...  
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