Western Digital My Book Essential 1.5TB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive WDBAAF0015HBK-NESN

Pros: cheap

Cons: cheap, after 2nd day it sported a read / write rate of less than 1 mg/s . don't bother calling WD their tech's have little to no knowledge about their products. After an hour of trying to explain what read and write were , I was told if i did not like it, send it back and buy another brand.

Other Thoughts: that was the smartest thing he said the whole hour

Pros: Easy install.

Cons: Resource hog. Does backup about every time I start to use computer instead when idle. First boot of computer both AV and Backup software take over the computer for about an hour and computer is all but useless to use. Everything else is slowed to almost a halt. Tech support told me you can only use this with the enclosed software. I had to kill the on-line backup because of resource hog. I could not use computer with it installed. and not with other software. Sorry I bought this.

Pros: Lots of space. Cheap.

Cons: Very big. Feels flimsy. Only has USB connection. Isn't housed correctly in it's case (the connection ports weren't aligned correctly).

Other Thoughts: I had this hard drive for a while and decided to take it with me on vacation. After one ride in a car for a few hours it is now totally broken.

Pros: size
price

Cons: none for my usage

Other Thoughts: I simply used this drive to store VHS video files to since I had just converted a bunch of old home movies to DVD and didn't want to delete the files. So, the included software wasn't a concern at all but I still very easily shut it off by updating the firmware and what not.

Pros: terrible

Cons: this doesn't work. I tried 2. They took back the new one and sent me a refurbished one without telling me ahead of time it was going to be refurbished. It wouldn't even stay on for more than 2 mintues.

Other Thoughts: I got one that didn't work and returned it. Apparently, when they send a replacement for a defective new drive, they send a refurbished one! They do not replace your new drive with a new one! The next one wouldn't even stay on for more than 2 minutes at a time, regardless of where plugged in. Huge waste of my time, energy, and money. I will never buy from this company again. I think it is dishonest to send out refurbished drives to replace new ones.

Pros: -It hasn't failed in over a year
-No problems with HD media playback or network file transfers

Cons: -The software, but for my usage its a NON ISSUE

Other Thoughts: -The complaints you see about the software are SOMEWHAT accurate.
-I used to use these drives off a laptop being used as a htpc (running win7 ultimate).
-For most of the life of these drives (I have 2, though purchased at a big box store because they were on sale) they have been attached to a WD TV Media Player and for the past year a WD TV Live Media Player. In this set up I haven't had to deal with the software complaints you hear about. The drives have performed perfectly for 1yr+, no bad sectors, regularly passes S.M.A.R.T. tests, and have dealt with TB's of data being transferred to and fro without a hitch. I use them mostly for hd video playback and they perform flawlessly.
-The software can be annoying, but it only adds a sec or 2 to startup time and it doesn't force you to use it. -Mechanically, these drives have been perfect, isn't that what matters?

Pros: nice capacity for price, has good transfer speed

Cons: none. It's exactly as described.

Other Thoughts: Well this is for all those 'Windows Users' complaining about the software included on the drive. If you don't have the knowledge to remove it then don't complain about it. The software is in fact removable and the drive is able to be formatted to many different formats. Use a real Operating System, like Linux, and learn how to take control of your system & hardware.

Pros: Excellent price, speed and reliability

Cons: Smart drive software is annoying and very buggy

Pros: 90 bucks for a 1.5tb EXTERNAL drive, thank you WD for this steal!

Cons: fake con: build in software can be easily removed with the management software

Pros: On paper, it looks like an excellent drive; exactly what I'm looking for.

Cons: Internal PCB was misaligned, making it impossible to plug in either power or USB. It seems there was no QC at all on this unit before it was boxed.

Other Thoughts: I'll be happy to revise this review once I have a working unit, but for now…