Western Digital My Book Studio II - 6 TB (2 x 3 TB) USB 2.0/FireWire 800/400/eSATA Desktop External Hard Drive Review

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(More customer reviews)I have been using the WD Studio II 2TB on my 2008 iMac OSX 10.5.6 for two weeks. Connection: firewire 800. Today, it did not mount when I booted the computer.
Checked the WD Website Knowledge Base.
Discovered two things:
1. Knowledge Base Answer 1697: "This issue is caused by the external hard drive's built in auto on/off functionality not correctly receiving a command from the computer system to wake from a power saver mode."
Why does the auto on/off functionality not correctly receive the command from the computer system? WD goes on to suggest installing their WD Drive Manager.
Well, WD Drive Manager is already installed, how else could a user have arrived at this impasse to begin with?
And then they suggest to dismount the drive. How do you dismount an unmounted drive?
2. Knowledge Base Answer 1680: "This is an technical limitation between the FireWire interfaces on the Macintosh computer and the external hard drive."
By "the external hard drive" WD means THEIR brand of external hard drive. I have never had this specific problem with any other brands of external hard drives connected to my Macintosh computer.
When is WD going to fix this "technical limitation" that they have built into their Studio II external hard drive? I would say, that is a pretty serious "technical limitation."
1680 goes on to explain the workaround solution, essentially a routine disconnecting the power cable and reconnecting. Nice.
My hope is that this entire situation is the result of following the apparently misleading instructions shown in the Studio II manual: chapter 7, "Turning Off/Disconnecting the Device."
Since "Auto-off" is the first entry in this chapter, it leads the user to believe that this is the preferred way to operate the drive. Guess not: as it turns out, the hidden "technical limitation" of the firewire connection will eventually cause the problem I have described. I suppose I can't rely on "Auto-off." Use "Safe Shutdown" only, even though the instructions in the manual differ from the instructions presented in WD Knowledge Base Answer 976!
And, speaking of conflicting instructions, compare WD Knowledge Base Answer 1386 with the Auto-off instructions in the manual.
Based on all of this information from WD, conflicting and otherwise, my guess is that the Auto-off feature is problematic (at least with Macintosh computers) because of firewire "technical limitations" caused by the WD external drive design. This fact, if it is a fact, should be expressed clearly in the manual.

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WD\'s My Book Studio Edition II dual-drive external storage system for Mac offers performance for creative professionals. Includes up to 6 TB of storage, RAID, quad-interface, user-serviceability, a 5-year limited warranty, and is compatible with Apple Time Machine.

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ioSafe Solo 500 GB Fireproof and Waterproof Desktop External Hard Drive with 5 Year Data Recovery Service SL0500GBUSB205YR (Silver) Review

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(More customer reviews)Pros:
* Reasonably priced considering what you are getting (fireproof, waterproof, theft protection)
* Includes a way to bolt the drive down for theft protection
* Gives peace of mind - protecting my code (I'm a programmer) and other valuable data
* I emailed the company with a question about encryption and got a fast response that answered the question
Cons:
* Only USB 2.0 interface - could be faster with USB 3.0 or eSATA (future update?)
Other:
* Unit weighs about 15 pounds
* Requires external power supply
* Must register within 7 days with ioSafe
* My 2TB unit uses a Hitachi HDS722020ALA330 hard drive
* Can buy DRS (data recover service) extensions/upgrades to 5 years
* Check the videos (YouTube) on the Internet to see what this thing can take
* I use mine with my Windows Home Server and backup the shares and backups to it
* Encrypting data on the drive may make data recovery more difficult in case of disaster
* I bought a unit with 5 years of DRS and it shipped out as two seperate packages - the HD with 1 year DRS and a DRS upgrade to 5 years


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Like an aircraft black box for your data, the rugged desktop ioSafe Solo external hard drive brings fire and water data protection to a price range that everyone can afford. With capacities from 500GB to 2TB, the ioSafe Solo can safely backup precious digital family photo albums, MP3 music libraries and video memories from not only primary hard drive failure but from natural disasters as well.

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Buffalo Technology DriveStation Quattro 2.0TB (4 x 500GB) Desktop External Hard Drive FireWire Combo with TurboUSB2.0 HD-QS2.0TSU2/R5 (Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)This Buffalo external hard drive is easy to install and provides a lot of memory for backing up photos, movies--anything of importance. It also has a small footprint, which is nice since all of our work stations are so full of other electronics. At some point your computer hard drive will fail, but having this Buffalo will allow you to restore your valuable documents and photos in no time. And, 2 TB goes a long way. I highly recommend it!

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2.0TB DriveStation Quattro USB 2.0 & eSATA Combo External Hard Drive w/TurboUSB.

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2TB G-safe Raid Storage Review

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(More customer reviews)Finally, an excellent solution to my large file redundant back-up needs! With hot-swappable drives, G-Safe allows me to keep a pair of true RAID copies on-site and also use a third drive (bought separately) that I can rotate and keep at an off-site location. I have another G-Safe used for other projects, and it's been working flawlessly for over 2 years. I'm just glad this new larger 2 TB storage format is available for system-wide back-ups. Perfect for Mac Time Machine back-ups, video, photographs, and anything for which you really can't afford to lose a byte. Per GB, it's very reasonable cost for the storage safety you need. Only possible critique: cooling fan is a couple dB above my desk background noise; otherwise fine. Looks great, too.

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Hitachi G-SAFE 0G00240 Hard Drive Array 0G00240 Hard Drive Arrays

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Glyph GT 050Q - Hard drive - 2 TB - external - FireWire / FireWire 800 / Hi-Speed USB / eSATA - 7200 rpm - buffer: 32 MB - black powder coat Review

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(More customer reviews)Pros:
1. Very well built / durability. Best I have seen.
2. Has a power button
3. Love the power supply. Best I have seen.
4. Lots of connections (Esata, Firewire 800, Firewire 400, USB)
5. Large cache size (32 mb)
6. Lots of space for storage
7. Powers down when not in use
8. Great durable carrying case
9. Best warranty I have seen (3 year warranty and the first 2 years comes with data level 1 data retrieval, the only warranty that I have seen that comes with any free data retrieval and includes overnight replacement)
10. The company overall has a very good reputation and is pretty much the only hard drive manufacturer that is approved by Digidesign
11. From what I've heard, Glyph has very good customer service (though I have not dealt with them yet)
Cons:
1. NO USB CABLE?
The only cables that are provided here is the power cable, Firewire 400, and Firewire 800 cable. WHY NO USB? I realize the main purpose of this drive is for pro audio or video programs which require fast connections such as Firewire or ESata, but what if you want to connect this to a computer that doesn't have firewire? You have to buy the cable elsewhere. This is the ONLY DRIVE I have seen that doesn't include a USB Cable.
2. IS IT 5900 RPM or 7200 RPM?
On the back of the box where the serial code is it says "5900 RPM". WHAT??? It's advertised as a 7200 RPM hard drive almost every where I looked. I bought this hard drive from ADORAMA. When I noticed this it was too late to email them since I did not notice this until I already used and registered it so I cannot send it back. For everyone that is going to buy this, CHECK THE BACK where the serial is. I think I found at least one site that mentioned this being a 5900 RPM drive so i'm not completely certain it is 7200. I will try to research more into this as well.
3. PRICEY
It's the priciest hard drive I have seen.
4. NOT VERY PORTABLE
Though the carrying case is durable enough to certainly work efficiently, due to it's size you can't carry it in a backback unless it has no protection. Every other hard drive that exists (as far as I know) comes in a box with enough packaging that you can put it back in the box and carry it safely in a backpack. This is not a 3.5" drive, it's basically double the size and therefore is not as portable.
5. NOT DEAD SILENT
Yes, the hard drive is silent but the fan is very audible which stays on as long as the drive is in use.
Overall:
The hard drives durability, warranty, and power supply are by far the best I have ever seen which are all things I look for. Also, though I do have some gripes with this drive, I cannot recommend a different product because many other hard drive manufactures / enclosure makers (Western Digital, Seagate, Lacie, HP, Iomega, and even more expensive ones such as G - Tech) have way more design flaws compared to Glyph products. Do I feel safe that I can rely on this drive? Yes. Will I still back all my data onto a separate drive? You bet ya, and I would urge anyone else to do the same because it's a fact that all hard drives die. The question is when.
I put a lot of time into researching and writing this review so I hope this helps.

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The 2TB Quad Interface Hard Drive from Glyph-Technologies is an external hard drive in a GT-050 desktop enclosure. It can connect to your computer via the FireWire-800, FireWire-400, USB 2.0, or eSATA interface. The drive is designed by Glyph for use in professional audio applications.The enclosure is constructed from stainless steel and features tri-laminate sound-damping to help reduce noise. This makes the drive an ideal solution for storage in audio and video production environments.

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Cavalry Storage CADA-SA2 Series 1.5 TB USB / eSATA 2-bay RAID Personal Disk Array CADA01ASA2 - Includes eSATA Kit Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this drive array based on overall reviews for Calvary arrays, and the fact that it was pretty inexpensive. After getting it I was able to determine what chipset and drive manufacturers were used and I'm very happy with the components.
The chipset is Silicon Image Sil5744 and the drives are new Western Digital Caviar Green drives with a 16MB buffer.
I did see a review for the 1 TB model where the reviewer complained about the fact that the drive came configured in a stripe instead of a mirror. Their website and product specs all state that it's configured for RAID 1 (mirror)... but mine was also configured for RAID 0 (stripe) when I got it.
Their manual recommends using GUI mode for RAID configuration and I sent an email to support asking why. The response was that with GUI support you can use the Steelvine software to monitor the drive. However, Silicon Image documentation states that Steelvine will work in a Status-Only mode when RAID is configured using the rotary dial. I definitely wanted RAID 1, configured it using the rotary dial, installed the Steelvine software, and found that I still have the ability to monitor the array and even configure notifications and verification tests.
Other than the fact that the drive came configured for RAID 0 instead of RAID 1 the only other nit-pick I had was that the opening for the rotary dial is small and it's difficult to see the actual numbers. The ones on the case don't match up to the actual numbers on the dial. I found that the only number I could see was the one selected because of the groove in the dial. As a result, I had to try and see what it was on and then count the clicks to set the configuration I wanted. It was set for GUI (7) and they do seem to discourage you from changing that.
Overall I consider these minor issues and decided to give the array 5-stars based on the quality of components used.


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The CADA-SA2 Series offers an unbeatable combination of RAID data protection, 3.0Gbit/sec eSATA speed and a vast storage capacity of 1.5 TB (750 GB mirrored). This dual-bay disk array features swappable hard disks and a built-in RAID controller. The unit arrives preconfigured in RAID 1 to protect your important data—if one drive fails, replace it with an identical drive and the data will automatically rebuild. Leave it in RAID 1 mode for automatic background rebuilding and optimum security for your files, or configure to RAID 0 for increased data reading and writing speeds. Factory default is RAID 1 GUI mode, but also supports RAID levels 0, 1 and 0+1(safe 33/safe 50). Its SATA interface provides a faster boot process and quicker loading of programs and data. Ideal for saving hefty files, video, music, protecting databases or working directly on the drive, it delivers high-capacity performance and data security. The unit is factory pre-configured in RAID 1 and ready to use out of the box. Install the easy-to-use RAID configuration software and the included SATA to eSATA bracket kit to take full advantage of the incredible set of features.

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