Western Digital Elements 500GB External Hard Drive Review
Western Digital is a name that everybody knows and recognises when it comes to storage. They have numerous series of hard drives that are devised to suite the specific needs of the individuals. Have your criteria for your storage requirement and we guarantee you that you would find one that is perfect for you in the range of western digital hard drives.
In the following review we will be discussing about the Western Digital Elements 500GB Portable hard drive (WDBAAR5000). This hard drive would suite the people who are looking for a portable storage solution with a clean design, quality built and a decent storage capacity at an affordable price range.
Simple design:
As we had mentioned earlier, Western Digital Elements is not a striking beauty, but has clean looks and not everybody is going to like its boxy looks. It has no patterns on its body and just has the Western Digital Logo on top of it. The facia, that is, the top part of the drive has a matte finishing whereas the sides have glossy black finish. We find that, with the dimensions of (H x W x D) 0.60” x 3.10” x 5” and weight of 0.44 grams, it is on the very light side for a portable external hard drive. Western Digital is renowned for its quality and it has maintained the same with the Elements drive too.
Capacities available:
The Western Digital Elements External Hard drive is available in 500GB, 320GB and 250GB. If you are in search for a higher capacity, you can also opt to use the Western Digital Elements Desktop Hard Drive which is available in 1TB, 750GB, 640GB and 500GB capacities.
Interface and operation:
In the rear of the drive, you will find the USB2.0 interface which allows the handling and maintenance of the device to be very simple. Just plug in the port and you will be performing the operations that you intended to do in just seconds. Since the device is powered directly by the USB port, it does not need any external adaptor. In case, you own one of those systems that limit the power from the USB port, there is an optional cable available.
Compatibility:
The Western Digital Elements 500GB USB 2.0 hard drive is compatible with both Windows and Mac Operating Systems. But the drive is designed and comes pre-formatted to be used with only the Windows Operating System, however, they can be easily reformatted to be used with the Macs.
Features:
It is very disappointing that the drive is not equipped with any of the features that the other portable hard drives of Western Digital have. We accept that the dive comes at a very low price tag but there would have been no harm if WD had included at least password protection. Most of the other costlier WD portable drives have at least a few of the features like the WD SmartWare, Automatic Backup, Password Protection and Hardware Encryption, High Performance, Capacity Gauge, USB dock, High Capacity and Mac readiness. It is really a shame that the Elements drive has been denied of everything.
Performance:
Coming to the performance, the 2.5″ 500GB Elements has a data transfer speed that is in par with the other portable hard drives like Simple Tech Signature Mini and Western Digital My Passport Studio and is better than some of them including the Maxtor BlackArmora and Toshiba drives.
Package:
The package of the drive includes the Elements drive itself, the USB cable and a Quick Installation guide.
Warranty:
Western Digital offers its Elements Portable drive, two years limited warranty for parts and labour.
Verdict:
The Western Digital Elements WDBAAR5000 500GB external hard drive is a very simple drive that serves the needs of the everyday consumers with not many bells and whistles. It appeals people looking for simple drive that does the job of transferring the data in a no hassle way. We have no hesitations in recommending this drive.
Check other Western Digital EHD Reviews, latest 500GB External Hard Drives in this website.
Elements 500GB External Hard Drive – Technical Specification Sheet
| Manufacturer | Western Digital |
| Model Name | Western Digital Elements |
| Model Numbers | 250GB: WDBAAR2500 320GB: WDBAAR3200 500GB: WDBAAR5000 |
| Drive type | Portable drive |
| Dimensions (H x W x D) | 0.60″ x 3.10″ x 5″ |
| Weight | 0.44 grams |
| Colours available | Black |
| Interface | USB2.0 |
| Capacities available | 250GB, 320GB and 500GB |
| Compatible OS | Windows® XP, Windows Vista®, Windows 7 Mac® OS® X Tiger® or Leopard® |
| Data transfer rate | 480 Mb/s |
| Microsoft Certifications | Compatible with Windows 7 |
| Compliant Standards | RoHS |
| Power Source | USB bus |
| Package contents | USB 2.0 portable hard drive USB cable Quick Install Guide |
| Warranty | 2 years |
December 6th, 2010 at 11:05 pm
I bought the 1TB version of this product, in fact I bought two of them and they both failed within the first year since purchase.
Do no whatever you do buy these products. Not unless you don’t care about your data. The data recovery bill is going to nearly reach £1k and that’s with no guarantee of recovering the data!