Western Digital Elements 2TB
Western Digital Elements 2TB Review
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Buy the Western Digital Elements 2TB through Amazon
A friend of mine was looking for a PS3 external hard drive and went for the Western Digital Elements 2TB. He called me round for a coffee and showed me his new purchase happily attached to the PS3 console. I was so impressed with this 2tb external hard drive that I had to write a review about it.
Western Digital Elements 2TB need to know information
Of course the Western Digital Elements 2TB is not just designed to be compatible as a PS3 external hard drive, it can be a used with Macintosh and PC too.
Out of the box, the drive is pre-formatted for Windows systems as NTFS but can be easily formatted for Macintosh or PS3.
In order to turn the Western Digital Elements 2TB into a PS3 external hard drive, you will need to format it as FAT32. Formatting FAT32 drives over 32Gb requires special tools and we used SwissKnife in order to do this. To format for Mac, use the Disk Utility program found in your Mac OS installation.
We tried the WD Elements 2TB on a Windows Vista system and as it is plug and play, the operating system had little problem in picking it up as external storage. Inside the chassis is a 3.5 inch hard disk and at 7200 rpm it is nice and quick helping you to get your data moved quickly. You will also appreciate how quiet it is.
The Western Digital Elements 2TB has been designed to be kind to the earth. Packaging is minimized and is made from re-cycled materials which are in turn, recyclable. To save on power, the device will go into idle mode when not in use. It will power on and off with your computer and inside the casing is a drive with Western Digital GreenPower Technology designed to save on power.
The drive is a relatively small unit measuring approximately 5 inches across, 8 inches long and approximately 1.5 inches high making it ideal for small compact spaces either on your desk or tucked away in your TV stand next to your games console.
Let us not forget that the Western Digital Elements 2TB has a whopping 2TB of storage making it an ideal place to store all of your videos, images, music and files. According to the packaging, this equates to 240hrs of HD video or 500,000 Mp3′s or 400,000 jpeg files.
Comparison with other external drives
The WD Elements 2TB is light on features and does not come with any backup software which figures as the price of the drive is very competitive. So if you thinking of using your external hard drive as a backup destination, then you will either have to copy the files onto the drive manually or acquire a third party piece of software to help automate this for you. If you want your files backed up automatically then you might want to consider the Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB. The cost of this drive is a little more but it does have a number of features, including backup.
Western Digital Elements 2TB Technical Details
- 2 terabyte storage
- USB 2.0 interface
- 7200 rpm disk rotational speed
- Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 compatibility
- Macintosh OS X Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard compatibility
- Pre-formatted for NTFS. Requires reformatting for Mac OS X or PS3
- Weight 1.02kg
- W:12.5 cm D:20.4 cm H:3.6 cm
So what do others say about the Western Digital Elements 2TB ? Check out these reviews from Amazon.
This product is wonderful!
It does exactly what it should: Stores data reliably…..Chris – May 2011 – View original review here
This hard drive has surprised me. I bought it because I needed one quickly and cheaply and this seemed to be the best for the price. It is far better than any other external drive that I have used….
James C – May 2011 – View original review here
The Western Digital Elements 2TB certainly ticks a number of the boxes from what I would expect from an external hard drive.