WD My Book AV 1TB USB 2.0 / eSATA Black DVR Expander WDBABT0010HBK-NESN

Pros: A lot of storage capacity at a decent price.

Cons: Onboard firmware wants to load too much software (including in the system tray); footprint is way too big. Even if you do load all the software it wants you to, it will still behave strangely.

Other Thoughts: The onboard firmware automatically places a Z:\ drive on the computer, the sole purpose of which appears to be to provide you with superfluous software for someone who just wants a place to store data that is external (portable). No WD hard drive I've ever had before (including externals) needed fancy drivers to work. Maybe since this one is 1TB that changes things, but even when I did install all of the software it wanted me to, it still acted weird. When I go into my computer, and navigate more than a level or two into any of my drives, I hear a buzzing noise and then for the next five seconds or so, the computer will not respond to input from the keyboard or mouse. Any clicks or keystrokes made during that time buffer and take effect after the aforementioned five seconds. It happens a lot, multiple times a day. This started pretty much from day one.

After I'd had the hard drive for about a year and a half, it disappeared from among my drives in my computer/windows explorer. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling drivers, and it didn't work for me, although a friend of mine with more tech skill was able to get my computer to recognize the drive again and part of what he did was uninstalling and reinstalling drivers. That happened about a year ago and it just happened again this month. He downloaded updated firmware and "smartware" for it, which I successfully used as a means to get my computer to again recognize this hard drive, although I ended up having to reformat my C:\ drive first.

My friend told me that he saw over 2,000 registry entries associated with my external hard drive, and he believed that it effectively caused the drivers to get pooched, or at least caused degraded performance.

I will grant that this may be the result of user error. I have always left the hard drive plugged in and running, and it sits about a foot and a half away from the back of my computer. Maybe it's getting too hot, though I doubt it. I always left my WD external I got back in 2003 plugged in all the time and it never gave me these problems. But my friend suggested I only plug it in when actively using it, and only use it to store data, as opposed to mounting disk images stored on it for active use (ala alcohol 120). Maybe I was supposed to not have it plugged in under normal circumstances all this time. If so, couldn't WD have said something about it in the users manual? A warning of some kind?

And still, I strongly object to bloated software and drivers. WD used to not clutter up my computer with a heavy software footprint. I just need the hard drive to run reliably. I don't need automated backups, an icon in my system tray, and a drain on my system resources. I don't need registry entries accumulating to outrageous proportions and degrading my computer's performance, but that may be more of a windows issue than a WD one. Still, someobody needs to address it.

I hear WD is still the best. The competition must REALLY suck.

Pros: works with my Fios 7000 series DVR...I didn't have this option for added harddrive until I went with Verizon Fios...I should have done it long ago...BEST cable and internet service ever...If you have this where you live...TRY IT

Cons: Make sure you plug the power into this drive from the wall...wait a few min and unplug then plug it back in...at first it added it to the DVR BUT would not actually record until I powered it up 2 times...

Pros: Worked out of the box with my Time Warner Cable issued Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HDC.

Cons: Broke without warning 3 months after purchase. Currently waiting for a new one from Western Digital.

Other Thoughts: Hard drives, as they hold important data, should never be this unreliable. Western Digital has not had a good history for me - this is the fifth Western Digital drive I've had fail within 2 years of purchase in the last 10 years.

Pros: If you have FiOS TV service this is the model you want. The size of the unit is pleasant to fit in a media center and the storage space makes recording a whole season a breeze.

Cons: It may take two or three tries to refresh your set top to like it. Otherwise none.

Pros: vastly improves the pitiful storage space on my time warner HD8240 scientific atlanta DVR. Why they don't put bigger drives in the things is beyond me.

Cons: immediately caused even my live TV watching to stutter. Unplug external drive, no stutter. I have replaced the internal hard drives before with no issues and I have used external drives way back but time warner updated my box and it wouldn't recognize my old calvary drive any more so I use it for other stuff. The DVR detected and formated this western digital drive just fine but the blasted stuttering will drive you crazy. so I am currently trying to watch all my recorded stuff and rip the thing apart and change the internal drive like I did before I upgraded to this HD dvr on my old non HD unit and I will just use this esata western digiat drive on on my computer or something as it works fine. I am sure its probably a issue with the software time warner is running on this DVR.

Pros: Simple to set up with my Motorola QIP7232-2 DVR, although in my case I had to power down then power up the drive before the DVR recognized it. Will have to wait for life/reliability observation, but for now I will never (I hope!) hear.."I'm running out of room for my shows" from my signif other...LOL

Cons: A little pricey for a 1TB sata drive, but "it's made for DVR's"

Pros: Plugged it into the eSata port on my Motorola DVR box. It was recognized within 15 seconds and operational soon thereafter.

Cons: none so far.

Other Thoughts: I notice that some other reviewers had problems with the eSata cable. In general I find eSata connectors to be quite poor. Make sure your cable is plugged in firmly and does not bend at any strange angles. If your space is tight, then try a right-angle eSata cable.

Pros: N/A

Cons: Bought it to work with Tivo Series 4 and off-the-shelf it does not. It needs to be labeled as Tivo ready in order to be used in Tivo (or so says Tivo Support)

Other Thoughts: I gave 4 star rating because I didn't want to mark the product down since it probably works fine, but I haven't (yet) used it for what I purchased it for.
NOTE: I'll try formatting it using EXTFS format to see if it will work then.

Pros: Very Nice Enclosure. A single tiny LED to indicate power does not light up my bedroom.

Cons: Bad cable.

Other Thoughts: I purchased this for a new Tivo. I already have one of these drives that I purchased over a year ago, connected to an existing Tivo.

Tivo did no recognize the drive at all, I tried a new, spare eSATA cable (purchased at the same time I bought the drive after reading reviews here) and although Tivo recognized the drive, when I tried to set it up it was reported as an "incompatible device."

After 20 minutes on hold for WD support, we confirmed that the drive was good by connecting it to a PC, but the original cable was defective. Tivo support says that they have had problems when used with cables other than the one shipped with the WD Drive.

WD did not have a cable to ship, so they are sending an advanced RMA (they weren't going to pay for return shipping until I asked).

I would have given 1 Egg, but the drive did seem to be working. Bad QC let them ship defective $3 cable and caused me to waste 1/2 a day troubleshooting and on the phone.

Pros: Gives me more space to store stuff on my Verizon Fios DVR. Plug and play, did have to restart the DVR to get it to save programs to the drive, even though it said it recognized the drive without a restart.

Cons: Kind of expensive.