Did I receive a refurbished (or other) hard drive? I purchased this hard drive from Amazon almost a month ago to replace a defective Seagate 500GB drive that failed after 15 months of use. The Seagate 500GB drive was installed on a new Dell XPS 420 desktop computer when I ordered it from Dell. When I went to install my Western Digital 500 GB Caviar Black Hard Drive, Windows Vista wouldn't allow me to choose a Primary Partition or choose a NTFS Format or a Full Format. I finished installing Vista and went into Computer Management and found that this drive had been formatted in NTFS. I thought that this was strange, because I couldn't format it when I started to install Vista. Did I receive a refurbished (or other) hard drive? I purchased this hard drive from Amazon almost a month ago to replace a defective Seagate 500GB drive that failed after 15 months of use. The... » Read More Did I receive a refurbished (or other) hard drive? I purchased this hard drive from Amazon almost a month ago to replace a defective Seagate 500GB drive that failed after 15 months of use. The Seagate 500GB drive was installed on a new Dell XPS 420 desktop computer when I ordered it from Dell. When I went to install my Western Digital 500 GB Caviar Black Hard Drive, Windows Vista wouldn't allow me to choose a Primary Partition or choose a NTFS Format or a Full Format. I finished installing Vista and went into Computer Management and found that this drive had been formatted in NTFS. I thought that this was strange, because I couldn't format it when I started to install Vista. « Show Less
1995473
Hi D. Petitpas,I was wondering if anyone would ever reply to my post. I didn't know that these drives were shipped pre-formated and I don't think that it is listed in it's description here on Amazon. Thank you so very much for setting me straight!
427918
Actually, these drives are pre-formated for NTFS. If you use the WD Data Lifeguard Tools software, you can quick format the disk in 60 seconds. And you can format it as either as bootable or as a secondary drive. I don't "think" you got a reused drive.
1766296
I contacted my external hard drive mfg. (Seagate) via web & then called. They researched the item, gave me the model # for the item and recommended Amazon for best price!Received it quickly and am very happy!
1127566
Andrew, That's a generic Seagate drive but the Dell version you would need is Dell Part # W347K. Order that part # and you should be good. I hope this helps answer your question. Scott All Computer Parts
513138
I would use nothing BUT these drives in anything I built or upgraded. They're a bit pricier, and no one ever thinks about it, but the warranty on THESE hard drives, the WD Black series, is a full 5Y. VERY few other mfrs even offer a 5y warranty. And WD drives earn that warranty reputation, I haven't had a WD drive fail, EVER. In each case -- over a dozen -- they've become useless through increasing capacity, never mechanical/electronic failure. That is, I probably have an 80gig WD drive that's still functioning. It's just not worth plugging in and taking up a SATA channel when I can get that capacity on a freaking flash drive nowadays... Yes, they're that good. You can "save money" by buying something cheaper. But you'll pay in the long run with headaches from lost data, or time spent rebuilding your windows/software/os and tweaking it back to the way you had it. The HD is the soul of your machine. Everything else fails, you can practically swap a part back in and you're up and running. But the HD fails and you've got a multiday to longer term headache to get things back to "normal". And, for general purposes, they're among the best drives in performance terms, too. Tom's Hardware may rate something else marginally faster, but not by much. And not by enough to drag you away from WD Black. As the old saw goes, once you go Black, you'll never go back. :-D
98247
Western Digital's support portal doesn't say, and honestly once the drive dies your warranty is forever impacted, as you only have a year from the refurbished drive before it's no longer supported. In the review I didn't clarify the seller, the seller was EOnline. When I ordered it it was posted as a WD1500HLHX, now my review is showing under a 600GB model so perhaps I'm not the only one they were making that mistake with.
721282
Hello, I went to Seagate's site, typed the model and serial #'s in from one of the drives I ordered. The site shows the warranty will expire 12-21-2018.The drives arrived sealed in anti-static foil surrounded with foam in plain wire cardboard boxes. Have installed 4 drives so far with no issues.
926434
Although I don't own this particular drive, I am here as I am looking to buy this one also to add to my two other Seagate 500gb Freeagents that I already have that have been working flawlessly for me for over 12 months now. I honestly think that your experience was most likely caused by a faulty unit. Without knowing your computer configuration (windows, mac or linux) it's hard to say if any extra steps would need to be taken to set it up, but for a windows or linux based pc it should be simply plug and play in my experience. As you see on this site, there is only one bad review of the product. If you think about how many of these must get sold every year, one bad review is pretty good as almost everybody will take the time to complain, but very few will come back to write a positive review as a working product is what most people expect. So I guess the short answer from me is yes, I would give this drive a second chance, but then again, i may be biased by my great experience. I hope that this is of some help to you..
803031
NOT from this seller - I checked both serial numbers on Seagates Warranty Validation page and see "The product you identified was sold as a system component. Please contact your place of purchase for service."I have a failed drive, and no response from the seller - can't send it back to Seagate.. uh oh.
2178929
All of the seagate constellations I buy are brand new from the factory. I do not buy refurbished drives. 7 are in my 13 TB raid 5 NAS drive and 3 are in my Mac Pro workstation and 1 is in an office PC. The warranty is the best ever - I have not had to use it. That is my definition of a good warranty - one that is never needed.
1140979
It depends on the vendor. I got this drive thru a 3rd party seller on Amazon. That particular vendor has a 3 year manufacturer warranty and tracks the drive thru the serial number. I would recommend looking carefully at this before purchasing since the hard drive market has gone thru so much consolidation lately and most manufacturers are dropping their multi year warranties on most drives they sell now. It will be hard to get a drive with a full warranty. With the emergence of SDD there are only 3 IDE manufacturers left really. WD, Seagate and Toshiba. They have bought up everyone else. So far Toshiba has been good about drive warranties for most products from what I can tell. WD can be very finicky and seems to only push the longer warranty on their more expensive enterprise drives. Seagate is in between. I guess they figure since they are the only 3 players left that they can avoid warranties and make folks buy new drives more often. Either that or move to SDD.
506543
I've never heard of Dell specific hard drives. All Dells that I have seen have WD, Seagate, Samsung drives. The only Dell specific firmware would be in the array itself.
629559
I just had a Western Digital 2TB My Book fail miserably (miserably!!! Dead!) after two months. I've never had any other drive fail (and I've used much smaller capacity WD external drives w/out issue in the past). But i'm now a Seagate (1TB Freeagent) user because I won't trust the larger WD's any longer. Once bitten! ;) Since the failure, many of my colleagues have admitted the same type of failure from their WD's and are using Seagates with good results. If you search online, you'll see very mixed reviews with similar negative views of the Seagates, but I can only speak from my own very frustrating experience with my WD. I just had a Western Digital 2TB My Book fail miserably (miserably!!! Dead!) after two months. I've never had any other drive fail (and I've used much smaller capacity WD external drives w/out issue in the past). But i'm now a Seagate (1TB Freeagent) user because I won't trust the larger WD's any longer. Once bitten! ;) Since the failure, many of my colleagues have admitted the same type of failure from their WD's and are using Seagates with good results. If you search online, you'll see very mixed reviews with similar negative views of the Seagates, but I can only speak from my own very... » Read More I just had a Western Digital 2TB My Book fail miserably (miserably!!! Dead!) after two months. I've never had any other drive fail (and I've used much smaller capacity WD external drives w/out issue in the past). But i'm now a Seagate (1TB Freeagent) user because I won't trust the larger WD's any longer. Once bitten! ;) Since the failure, many of my colleagues have admitted the same type of failure from their WD's and are using Seagates with good results. If you search online, you'll see very mixed reviews with similar negative views of the Seagates, but I can only speak from my own very frustrating experience with my WD. « Show Less
382005
sorry,can't answer. The company that was to install a new hard drive in my computer opted to pay part cost on a new computer because my computer was old. I have not used my copy of "xp" and will probably list it on Amazon
482505
That is no rule of thumb I have ever heard in my 15 years in IT. Seagate/Maxtor makes up the 'lower tier' of drive brands. Hitachi/Samsung are slightly more reliable. WD is still reliability king. Even if you get a good Seagate/Maxtor drive they are prone to fail after a few years, right after the warranty expires. The large capacity drive firmware issues they've been having this last year or so has just sullied their reputation even further and the kind of bugs they've had recently in fully released firmware is inexcusable. Seagate has recently earned their rep as the bottom rung hard drive supplier firmly and deservedly and that by a country mile. That is no rule of thumb I have ever heard in my 15 years in IT. Seagate/Maxtor makes up the 'lower tier' of drive brands. Hitachi/Samsung are slightly more reliable. WD is still reliability king. Even if you get a good Seagate/Maxtor drive they are prone to fail after a few years, right after the warranty expires. The large capacity drive firmware issues they've been having this last year or so has just sullied their reputation even further and the kind of bugs they've had recently in fully released firmware is inexcusable. Seagate has recently earned their rep as the bottom rung hard... » Read More That is no rule of thumb I have ever heard in my 15 years in IT. Seagate/Maxtor makes up the 'lower tier' of drive brands. Hitachi/Samsung are slightly more reliable. WD is still reliability king. Even if you get a good Seagate/Maxtor drive they are prone to fail after a few years, right after the warranty expires. The large capacity drive firmware issues they've been having this last year or so has just sullied their reputation even further and the kind of bugs they've had recently in fully released firmware is inexcusable. Seagate has recently earned their rep as the bottom rung hard drive supplier firmly and deservedly and that by a country mile. « Show Less
2275022
I am not quite sure since this was for my son and he used it. I said Used it because just last week when he turned it on he was asked to format it. We took it to a computer store to get it looked at and they said it was no data on the drive to recover. It had a bad sector and won't work. So we are in the process to see what we should do now. Soooo upset since we had just bought this November 26, 2011. Sorry that I could not help you.
1038972
I found that I did have trouble if i tried to plug into an external USB extension and had to go directly into the computer - but it sounds like you already did that so I'm not sure. Did you try to just bring up a Windows explorer session and see if there is new drive listed?
482174
No, Here is a link to the 1 TB black edition Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Internal Desktop 3.5" Hard Drive (WD1002FAEX ) (Old Model)