Worst drive I've ever bought, completely unreliable, crashes on large file transfers after which, if you're lucky, you have to shut the thing down and let it sit for a while before your machine will recognize it. Other wise you will have to run a disk repair utility or in worst case scenario you'll have to reformat the bloody thing. I've had to wipe mine 4 times so far. I believe the fault lies in the enclosure, avoid as you would a rabid cat. Get an OWC, Phantom Power or LaCie.
@Darrylizer1 Same thing here, it's so irritating. A backup drive should make you feel secure about your files, not stress you out because 9 out of 10 times the drive isn't showing up. This is my second of the kind, and second to fail. Never will I use WD again. Complete waste of £120.
Sounds like you have a dodgy drive. I have 5 external WD drives, totalling 11.5TB of storage space, and havent had a problem with any of the drives at all.
what i do to preserve this gadget is i mostly turn it on only when i'm done w/ a project and then i save it here. so i always work w/ c drive while unfinished. otherwise its always unplugged.
thats the sound of the drive heads reading info they prolly get louder when writing, some drives just do that, I bought a gtech fw400 gdrive 500Gb and it is much louder than yours, similar noise( read/write) but works fine, my suggestion is to place the drive further away and don't sweat it, always have a other back up anyway , just some cheap usb2 enclosure with enough space to store your important stuff..so its copied twice kinds thing,...
ive got 2 of these on my pc manualy formatted them and assigned drive letters and ive had them working non stop for well over a year now with no noise apart from the useual writeing ect but nothing i would call annoying and not had 1 malfunction from them , the pc is on 24/7 and the drives are allways in use either for streaming media to 360 or plugged into the external Westerdigital tv media player and not a issue. these IMO are the far best external drive you could buy for little money
I had one of these. It was a piece of junk -had the same thing happen although it wouldn't read at all after a while. Sent it to WD about a month ago and had a call tonight to tell me that they had no more drives to replace it with and were sending me the the big fat dual drive 1tb version instead.
WD only made a single "Studio" edition, which was originally marketed for Macs anyway. And what you're seeing IS that specific WD Studio edition.
After getting a replacement and using it for almost a year, I think it's as silent as these drives get, although my current replacement drive is marginally quieter than the previous drive (as shown in video).
Some Home Edition external drives came with three connection choices:
Firewire, USB or eSATA connections.
If anyone has trouble hooking it up with eSATA, try updating the drive's firmware from the Western Digital web site...following ALL the firmware update instructions to the letter.
Many people have stated they no longer had difficulties with eSATA after the firmware update and said the drive was silent and as fast as an internal drive.
I don't like this drive at all. It was a pain to get it to work properly via esata. Also, sometimes it disappears from the drivelist and then i have to turn it off/on.
But worse, After almost one year of usage it starts to become noisy. It sounds like the good old ball bearing disks which became super noisy once they got older.
Hi beatthedrum7, I heard somewhere that if you go into Windows and manually assign your external drive a letter, it should no longer disappear from the drivelist. Hope this helps.
I bought a Western Digital 1TB external hard drive studio edition in May then last week it stop working. I could hear the drive spinning but it didn't start up. So I placed it in the freezer for a few hours then plugged it in and it WORK!
WD is going to send me a replacement so I moved all my data from the drive.
so whats you think about getting the home edition kuz im thinking ot buy it next month for sure to store all my music they say that apple is ok buy it dies too at my opinion all hard drives either way is gonna die but i been hearing about wd is the better bran rite now
I have a WD MyBook too (500 GB).
It produces the same noise, sometimes the computer doesn't even recognize it...
And I hate that it creates some kind of virtual CD drive on my computer!
I'll never buy WD again, that's for sure.
WolfLamborghini 3 weeks ago
@WolfLamborghini
Oh, and I forgot to mention that if I shake it a little (when it's turned off), everything rattles inside! So disappointed...
WolfLamborghini 3 weeks ago
WD........ piece of shit (^_^)b
AM3N665 9 months ago
FUNNY SOUNDS LIKE A CAR ENGINE.LOL
PALKEYNO3 11 months ago
U might of put to much porn on it lol
andrdarl111 1 year ago
Worst drive I've ever bought, completely unreliable, crashes on large file transfers after which, if you're lucky, you have to shut the thing down and let it sit for a while before your machine will recognize it. Other wise you will have to run a disk repair utility or in worst case scenario you'll have to reformat the bloody thing. I've had to wipe mine 4 times so far. I believe the fault lies in the enclosure, avoid as you would a rabid cat. Get an OWC, Phantom Power or LaCie.
Darrylizer1 1 year ago
@Darrylizer1 Same thing here, it's so irritating. A backup drive should make you feel secure about your files, not stress you out because 9 out of 10 times the drive isn't showing up. This is my second of the kind, and second to fail. Never will I use WD again. Complete waste of £120.
crazydaniel71 1 year ago
Sounds like you have a dodgy drive. I have 5 external WD drives, totalling 11.5TB of storage space, and havent had a problem with any of the drives at all.
iftibashir 1 year ago
gr8BobJ, it's just the actuator arm accessing different tracks of the disk. Mechanical drives make mechanical noises. Perfectly normal.
danwat1234 1 year ago
what i do to preserve this gadget is i mostly turn it on only when i'm done w/ a project and then i save it here. so i always work w/ c drive while unfinished. otherwise its always unplugged.
PLISKEN12 2 years ago
Sounds like you just need to get it a little more gas and it should start right up.
TheBatman1337 2 years ago 5
My brand new My Book elite makes the same noise for the first 10% of the test. Normal.
Tek720 2 years ago
thats the sound of the drive heads reading info they prolly get louder when writing, some drives just do that, I bought a gtech fw400 gdrive 500Gb and it is much louder than yours, similar noise( read/write) but works fine, my suggestion is to place the drive further away and don't sweat it, always have a other back up anyway , just some cheap usb2 enclosure with enough space to store your important stuff..so its copied twice kinds thing,...
it's annoying but ...
djmisplacedmarblesTV 2 years ago
it sounded more like a moped then a car engine.
But i do wonder if it really should sound like that, have you contacted costumer support and asked them ?
btw: that sound reminds me of a broken hard
drive, like the clicking sound
labobo 2 years ago
I have order that drive.
Have you tested the eSATA connection yet?
The64BitGeek 2 years ago
Nope, just been using it on FW800 and USB.
gr8BobJ 2 years ago
Your breath is louder than the hard drive!
ceccere 2 years ago 9
It's ambient noise. Get yourself an ear examination.
gr8BobJ 2 years ago
It's clearly your breath.
ceccere 2 years ago
I have a 1TB essential USB. It is whisper quite and nearly the same as a laptop hard drive.
jihadjared 2 years ago
ive got 2 of these on my pc manualy formatted them and assigned drive letters and ive had them working non stop for well over a year now with no noise apart from the useual writeing ect but nothing i would call annoying and not had 1 malfunction from them , the pc is on 24/7 and the drives are allways in use either for streaming media to 360 or plugged into the external Westerdigital tv media player and not a issue. these IMO are the far best external drive you could buy for little money
dogsbollucks1981 2 years ago
I had one of these. It was a piece of junk -had the same thing happen although it wouldn't read at all after a while. Sent it to WD about a month ago and had a call tonight to tell me that they had no more drives to replace it with and were sending me the the big fat dual drive 1tb version instead.
chris141325t 2 years ago
i'm using the mac studio version which work quiet. very very low noise.
BBnose 2 years ago
WD only made a single "Studio" edition, which was originally marketed for Macs anyway. And what you're seeing IS that specific WD Studio edition.
After getting a replacement and using it for almost a year, I think it's as silent as these drives get, although my current replacement drive is marginally quieter than the previous drive (as shown in video).
gr8BobJ 2 years ago
Some Home Edition external drives came with three connection choices:
Firewire, USB or eSATA connections.
If anyone has trouble hooking it up with eSATA, try updating the drive's firmware from the Western Digital web site...following ALL the firmware update instructions to the letter.
Many people have stated they no longer had difficulties with eSATA after the firmware update and said the drive was silent and as fast as an internal drive.
FunAtSundown 3 years ago
I don't like this drive at all. It was a pain to get it to work properly via esata. Also, sometimes it disappears from the drivelist and then i have to turn it off/on.
But worse, After almost one year of usage it starts to become noisy. It sounds like the good old ball bearing disks which became super noisy once they got older.
beatthedrum7 3 years ago
Hi beatthedrum7, I heard somewhere that if you go into Windows and manually assign your external drive a letter, it should no longer disappear from the drivelist. Hope this helps.
FunAtSundown 3 years ago
mine does not do that
see my vids and find out how to boot os x off of it!
KMCormier 3 years ago
I have 2 of these drives - the pro versions. Neither havenoises like that.
Neverthelss, Im going to build myself a home made cooling solution very soon for both drives to sit on....
iftibashir 3 years ago
try putting it in the freezer...
I had the same problem with my hard drive...
I just got my replacement today, hopefully this one won't crap out on me again.
raggabass 3 years ago
Your hard drive is over heated...
Try putting it in the freezer...
my story:
I bought a Western Digital 1TB external hard drive studio edition in May then last week it stop working. I could hear the drive spinning but it didn't start up. So I placed it in the freezer for a few hours then plugged it in and it WORK!
WD is going to send me a replacement so I moved all my data from the drive.
Note to self...
DON"T EVER BUY A WESTERN DIGITAL HARD DRIVE!
35 days after purchase and it CRASHED!!
raggabass 3 years ago
Mine wasn't overheating, although it's warm even when the drive has entered into standby/power-off with the power supply plugged in.
Working to get a replacement drive at the moment.
gr8BobJ 3 years ago
so whats you think about getting the home edition kuz im thinking ot buy it next month for sure to store all my music they say that apple is ok buy it dies too at my opinion all hard drives either way is gonna die but i been hearing about wd is the better bran rite now
djgrumpy619 3 years ago
I'd assume they all run on the same drives across the MyBook range so it all boils down to the interface.
It might have been an isolated case, the current MyBook Studio that I'm having is running perfectly fine.
gr8BobJ 3 years ago
Send it back, simple.
LinuxGalore 3 years ago
Geez.. of course..
gr8BobJ 3 years ago