Western Digital 500GB WD Blue Mobile Hard Drive HDD - 5400 RPM SATA 6 Gb s 16 MB

This is my first review and I'm so absolutely thrilled with this hard drive. For years (literally), I had put off replacing my full to capacity PS3 hard drive because I thought it would be a huge hassle. Because it had been so long since I had actually played the system I opted to replace the hard drive without backing it up. I figured I'll just have fun replaying all my old games and the only data I had on the system was saved game data and Playstation Plus titles. Anyway, I prepped by installing the PS3 firmware on a USB drive which was only 190MB before attempting to replace it and then tried to get pumped up to actually replace the hard drive. It turns out I was worried for nothing and it's only 5 little Phillips head screws. All this time I had been procrastinating and putting this off and it turned out to be the easiest thing ever. The PS3 turned on, formatted itself and amazingly recovered all the system files. I didn't even need the jump drive and I was automatically logged back in to my user profile and my Playstation Plus account. I'm so mad I made such a big deal out of it and it was really quick and simple. Anyway, when I went to system information, I had 620/698GB free. A week later I have about 500GB free after downloading a lot of my Playstation Plus titles. One thing I have noticed is the drive is slower than I expected but I really can't attribute that to the drive itself because I am using Wi-Fi and it probably should be hardwired to download such large files. Also, I've always had problems with my modem and router. But I plan to switch to DSL internet soon and update the review when I have a different ISP to determine if it's just the internet connection. Overall I am really happy with the ease of installation. I must admit I was a little nervous when I received it because the drive was in a plain box in a static-free sleeve with no instructions or packaging but it really couldn't have been more simple. Anyway, gotta go, GREATNESS AWAITS!!! Read more

Every couple of years I replace the disk drive in my Inspiron 1525 just to avoid a disk crash. Each upgrade provides more space: 320GB, 500GB and now 750GB. Along the way, I added a Ubuntu partition of only 60GB. Ubuntu has turned out to be a very good alternative to the Mac OS X and especially the Windows 8 disaster. When I chose this disk, I went for the size so that I could expand my Ubuntu file system. My bias for the laptop disks is the slower 5400 RPM which seems to be more reliable. I would have liked a little more disk cache, but I haven't noticed any performance difference with the smaller 8MB cache. I do not like the SSDs because they become sluggish after a number of writes and Windows, when I use it, is always swapping memory in and out for some unknown reason. That's not good for an SSD. Since I am going with Ubuntu, I backed up my old 500GB disk using PartedMagic onto a large 3.5" drive. After installing the WD drive, I restored the exact same 500GB image. My plan had been to create a new 250GB partition for large files. This didn't work out since I had reached the maximum number of partitions (six or seven) that could be supported. It works great as-is and some day, I'll work on accessing the additional space by expanding the existing partitions or deleting one of the useless partitions that Dell has (ie the backup "D" partition and the embedded XP "media button" partition). Maybe when I do the next disk upgrade! I put the drive to heavy use, creating many small files and then combining them into large files. The drive is not loud, but can be heard if my laptop is on my lap. The noise is nothing compared to the CPU fan when it comes on which is probably due to it being full of dust after all the years of use. The highest importance is the reliability. I do not want to waste days to recover from a failure. Also, I do not want to back up constantly like my Mac's do. I do not use cloud storage - which would be very reliable - because the only files I would put on there I do not trust to be on the Internet. Since Snowden revealed the existence of back doors, one can be sure that criminals are using them. That being said, after three months of frequent use, this drive has been solid. I will update this review if a failure occurs in the two year period (and downgrade the five star rating if that were to happen). Read more

I've had lots of experience with WD drives, all of them good. Bought this as a replacement for my Mom's laptop. Computer repair shop quoted her at least $20 more than what I paid, and that was just for the hard drive, extra for labor. Told her to forget the repair shop, ordered this one and installed and set it up with no problems. I've had poor experience with Seagate hard drives and when my Mom's laptop failed and we determined that it was due to a failing hard drive I bet her that it was a Seagate hard drive; it was. She had only had the laptop about 5 years. As a side note, I also used a WD hard drive when I repaired her desktop computer over 5 years ago. I have several WD drives of my own (netbook, 2 laptops, 2 desktops, and several externals both 3.5 and 2.5) and have been more than satisfied with the products and the company. Read more

I have a TiVo Bolt (2017), it has run perfectly for 4+ years, until the dreaded four lights started flashing. Finally, after trying a few other drives, the Western Digital 500GB(WD5000LPCX), did work, which is the one that was in my Bolt initially (did not upgrade). It took just a couple of minutes for the setup menu to show (did not with the others). Went through all the steps but, the very last one where it verifies, said it could not, and to call TiVo service, which I did. Turns out, when you're Wi-Fi connected by ethernet (my choice), they recommend using any of the ports on your router, except port #1. After that, it worked fine. I used port #2. I found videos to help me replace the drive. After swapping out the drive, I connected the power, HDMI to TV, the Ethernet to my router, and my digital antenna. If I can do this ...you can! It has been a few weeks and so far, so good. Read more