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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 (125 customer reviews) More about this product

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2 new from £87.99 1 refurbished from £63.00

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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 (125 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 6,136 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

125 Reviews
5 star:
 (54)
4 star:
 (11)
3 star:
 (8)
2 star:
 (11)
1 star:
 (41)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.2 out of 5 stars (125 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
33 of 33 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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41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Elements 500GB USB 2.0, 21 Jun 2007
By Mr. Warren Gill (Guildford, Surrey United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I bought this to store my photos on after they've been processed on my laptop, well that was the intention, but it's currently in use on my main pc at the moment as a back up drive as the main pc has crashed, so it's holding all my data from that whilst I reinstall Windows XP and there's still loads of room to spare, (it swallowed all 320Gb of data from it!)

Yes, when you get it you'll need a good 2-3 hrs to reformat it into NTFS if you're using XP or Vista, YES it will get a tad warm when in use (NOT HOT!) & YES it's very quiet in fact virtually silent, YES it's quick if you plug it into a USB2 socket.

The only thing that I'm not comfortable about is the only way to shut it down is to either pull the USB cable out or pull the plug on it (there's NO on/off switch or button), just be sure that you let it finish its work 1st though and it seems no worse for doing so.

And Amazon is currently the cheapest place to get this device.
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151 of 159 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars An absolute bargain, 13 Jun 2007
I bought this a few weeks ago from Amazon. It's the cheapest 500GB I could find.
I don't neccessarily think it's the most beautiful drive in the world, but it certainly does the job.
It comes pre-formatted in FAT32, and took a few hours to reformat to NTFS. The case got quite warm in this time, as you would expect for continual drive access.

The Good:
- Cheap
- Large capacity (465GB formatted)
- Has a standby mode:
- Powers on and off with your machine (but it is mains powered)
- Powers down when you do "Safely remove hardware" from XP
- Blue LED for Power/Disk Access
- Not overly noisy

The Bad:
- Perhaps not the fastest drive out there (however it's still quick enough as a major backup drive)
- No separate power switch (I prefer to have one rather than pull the power lead out)

The Ugly:
- Not the most attractive drive imho, but then again, that's subjective anyway

Overall:
- Definitely worth buying: the cheapest 500GB out there.
Comment Comment (1) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

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 1 month ago by A. W. Hackett

3.0 out of 5 stars not bad but, I wouldn't recommend it
The drive itself is good and reliable, and seems like a good buy. However, after about 8 months use my AC adapter failed, the main problem with this is that the adapter is quite... Read more
Published 1 month ago by David A. Czerski

1.0 out of 5 stars Avoid this drive and the other sizes too!
I bought three 500Gb and one 1Tb Elements drives. I liked their appearance and the rubber covers which reduce vibration.
So far I have had TWO power supplies fail. Read more
Published 2 months ago by M. Blackmore

1.0 out of 5 stars Power supply failed.
Worked fine until the power supply failed. Needless to say, I didn't replace with another Western Digital.

AVOID!
Published 3 months ago by Flick

1.0 out of 5 stars Good Drive..Bad Power supply
This drive worked fine until about 8 months after purchase and then the power supply has packed up. I've just ordered a new one on e-bay for £22. Very disappointed. Read more
Published 4 months ago by R. G. Fairhurst

1.0 out of 5 stars Stopped working after 13 months.
I have purchased the device in Feb 2008, by the same time 2009 the device was dead; no power to the device and it is no longer recognised by the PC. Very disappointing.
Published 4 months ago by Hanan Wolff

1.0 out of 5 stars Be careful - power supply problems
The drive works well, but its power (in the UK at least) is provided via a 5-pin DIN-type socket. Why ? Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mr. E. Crimmins

5.0 out of 5 stars 10 Months on, no problems!
Got this drive in April 08, still running great, I have it running every day, backed up entire PC contents with Vista wizard no probs.
Published 4 months ago by A. Conway

1.0 out of 5 stars Power Issues
Had the drive less than two months - got it to free up space on my laptop, store music, and as a backup for my MA work and masters dissertaion. Read more
Published 4 months ago by J. Davies

4.0 out of 5 stars Western Digital Elements 500GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive
Had a few concerns about this drive when I saw some of the other reviews about it, but decided to buy anyway.

Two months on, I can say I'm very very happy with it. Read more
Published 4 months ago by John Paton

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Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
This product's forum (16 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
power pack 6 2 months ago
how many usb ports required? 1 February 2009
Windows ME and Vista 0 January 2009
Reformat ? 3 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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