Home > Consumer Reviews > Western Digital Caviar 40GB UIDE100 7200rpm

an excellent hard drive and very simple to install the software with it is simple to use....I used it to change my old hard drive to be the slave and my new one to be master. it will automaticly allow all your old data to be transferred (takes about 30 mins) and you dont need to reinstall windows. a bargain

I wouldn't consider myself an expert on the installation and partitioning of hard drives but I found it so easy to partition and copy the contents of my old drive including my O.S easily into my new drive. All in a few easy steps which I was walked through by easy to follow instructions on the software disk. Performance wise the drive is a lot faster than my previous 4 Gig 5400 and of course a lot quieter. Excellent! Very happy with it completely . A must for those like me who aren't computer science graduates.

I decided to order the WD Cavier 40 GB because I felt I could trust the brand and I had read many good reviews of this product. On delivery, I was presented with a good supply of information on installing the product and also a single diskette comprising of useful software and drivers. Installation was a breeze, the instructions (in form of poster or book) were easy to follow and once I had connected it to my PC, the software supplied did the rest (minus a few Enter taps here and there). Setting up partitions were easy. I particularly liked the option of copying essential files from my secondary (previously primary) hard drive so I could get started with out installing Windows again. All in all, I am very satisfied with my new hard drive and I look forward to filling 40 GB's of space with as much useless junk as I can find!

The drive came with instruction booklet, installation disk, cable and screws. Configuring and connecting the device was a piece of cake, as very detailed instructions ensured that even the most computer illiterate of us could do the job easily. The floppy disk containing the installation software detected both new and existing hard drives, and knew which was the new and unformatted drive. Options allowed either partitioning and formatting automatically or manually, or copying the existing drive - very useful if you want to use the new drive as the system disk without re-installing Windows and all your software. Formatting was extremely quick, and after rebooting, Windows recognised the disk with no problems.

The drive was so quiet in use that I could hardly hear it, and access was fast.

Summing up, the drive was easy and very fast to install - the quickest I've ever done. The instructions are clear and precise - though seemed a little daunting at first glance. The unit came complete with 40-pin 80-conductor EIDE connection cable for faster operation for those with a computer that supports Ultra ATA/100.

I hardly know a thing about computers, especially the inside of one. It was quite tempting therefore to take this Hard Drive down to a local store to have them fit it for me, but I thought I'd give it a go first. Following the instructions made everything so easy, my confidence in fiddling with the inside of computers has certainly improved! This drive is much, much quiter than my old one, and quite fast too (but it should be seeing as my old drive was 5400, and this is 7200) Definitely worth buying if you're a novice.