Home > Consumer Reviews > Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATAII 16MB Cache 3.5 inch Internal Hard Drive OEM
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATAII 16MB Cache 3.5 inch Internal Hard Drive OEM
See it at Amazon.co.uk for £34.95Average Customer Rating
(4.5 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
Most Helpful First | Newest First | + Share25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
Seems OK
(4 out of 5) by rowan tree on Oct 13, 2008 (Edinburgh, Scotland)Swapped out an 80GB Seagate Barracuda for this Western Digital 500GB baby.
Easy enough to install: Acronis True Image, straight swap, restore the disk image and resize the disk partitions (using EASEUS Home Partition Manager - a free utility).
I don't think it's quite as quiet as the one its replaced but it's not quite Whisper Quiet. That said it's nothing like as bad as a Maxtor I had in a Dell which sounded like someone rattling a bag of marbles.
Being OEM you just get the drive, no cables, no jumpers, no instructions (though you can find them on the WD website itself under Support). It doesn't have a "legacy power connector" something which worried me but turned out to be OK as the power comes via the SATA connection.
Longevity? Reliability? Dunno. Only been in my PC 3 hours so far. But a previous WD Caviar lasted just under 10 years so I'll be optimistic on that one.
Easy enough to install: Acronis True Image, straight swap, restore the disk image and resize the disk partitions (using EASEUS Home Partition Manager - a free utility).
I don't think it's quite as quiet as the one its replaced but it's not quite Whisper Quiet. That said it's nothing like as bad as a Maxtor I had in a Dell which sounded like someone rattling a bag of marbles.
Being OEM you just get the drive, no cables, no jumpers, no instructions (though you can find them on the WD website itself under Support). It doesn't have a "legacy power connector" something which worried me but turned out to be OK as the power comes via the SATA connection.
Longevity? Reliability? Dunno. Only been in my PC 3 hours so far. But a previous WD Caviar lasted just under 10 years so I'll be optimistic on that one.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Excelent value for money!!
(5 out of 5) by V. D. Burgess on Feb 21, 2009 (kent,uk)Got this 2 add to my other 160gb hard drive as i run 2 operating systems on one pc. Great hard drive for the money! great value! and big 500g also i normaly always buy weston digital drives as they are very reliable and quiet. Top buy for the money and i would recommend this to anyone after a new drive.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB SATAII 16MB Cache 3.5 inch Internal Hard Drive OEM
(5 out of 5) by J. K. Groves on Feb 23, 2009 (Banbury UK)Hi
At 10 pence per gigabyte you can't really complain!
I have an existing Seagate drive that is beginning to make unnerving rattling sounds and so I have installed this Caviar drive and activated the backup software that comes free within the Vista control panel to do a daily update copy of all my files.
When the Seagate does finally fall of its perch I will set up a pair of 500GB drives in a Raid 1 configuration but the thought of doing this now and having to re-install all my software before I really have to is just too much!
The Caviar drive installed easily, runs quietly and, so far, "does exactly what it says on the tin." Time will tell!
At 10 pence per gigabyte you can't really complain!
I have an existing Seagate drive that is beginning to make unnerving rattling sounds and so I have installed this Caviar drive and activated the backup software that comes free within the Vista control panel to do a daily update copy of all my files.
When the Seagate does finally fall of its perch I will set up a pair of 500GB drives in a Raid 1 configuration but the thought of doing this now and having to re-install all my software before I really have to is just too much!
The Caviar drive installed easily, runs quietly and, so far, "does exactly what it says on the tin." Time will tell!
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Good drive, shame about the packaging
(4 out of 5) by Mr. K. M. Sullivan on Feb 20, 2009I ordered this drive and it arrived quite quickly (I did pay for express delivery). The packaging of the drive was terrible. This is a 3.5" OEM drive, so comes in a plastic bag. Amazon then packed it into a large cardboard box about 12" cubed and for added proctection added a single sheet of brown paper. The drive was then able to rattle around inside the box! Amazone even package books better than this and they are not easily damaged electronics. Be very careful if you decide to buy this drive or any other OEM drive from Amazon - I'll certainly not be making that mistake again.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Does the job!
(5 out of 5) by Neil Gatland on May 2, 2009 (west Sussex, UK)I bought this hard drive to replace the SATA drive on my PC that crashed. It was very easy to install, my PC recognised it straight away and I was able to build the PC.