The review I wish I'd read before upgrading my drive...
This drive probably is "not for everyone," in this day of xTb drives; but, for those of us who don't store a lot of videos, etc., it's a perfect little drive for a reasonable price. I'm a DIY'er (on just about everything in life, mainly due to economics); but, I'm definitely NOT "a techie." If ***I*** can upgrade to this on my own, pretty much anyone with the right attitude can do so, too.
I bought one of these to upgrade the 160G in my Lenovo N500 laptop, when free space was starting to get a bit thin. Here are a few tips to make setting it up REALLY easy:
1) Download the free version of Acronis; and, it's manual, at:
I had a link here, till I saw that ebay wouldn't allow it. :( Just do a search for WD Acronis. That'll get you to Western Digital's page for it. After installation, it shows up on your desktop as "TrueImage 2013". Cloning's about the only thing the free version does; but, it worked great for that!
2) Using a 2.5" external HD caddy, plug your new drive into your USB port. If the drive doesn't "show up" (common for a brand new drive; since, it's never been formatted), go to #3.
3) Right click on your "My Computer" icon; then, click "manage" and "continue." In the Left-side menu, click "disk management." It should be visible as something like "Disk 2." (WARNING!!! [For anyone who doesn't know this...] "Disk 0" is typically the main drive in your computer; do NOT do ANYTHING to it, other than making sure it's the "source drive" in step 4, until you remove it from inside your computer!!!) From there, Formatting is easy, although time consuming. (I just went to sleep; and, let my computer worry about it...) I used a single partition at this step; since, it was just for testing; and, to get it "recognizable" as a hard drive.
4) Next, just follow the directions in Acronis for cloning without assigning drive letters. It partioned and copied, w/temp drive assignments, which changed on their own after installed. I just used "proportional;" since, I hadn't used Acronis before; and, had other things to do.
On boot, Windows found the drivers for the larger HD quickly and smoothly. It automatically assigned the original drive letters; so, there's no problem finding files, etc. I'm using the new drive to type this. :)
I, initially, had concerns over not having a boot disk (which Vista will no longer generate); but, it turned out that I didn't need one. (If I'd seen this in a review, it would've saved me a LOT of time searching for one...) Your results might vary; since, the "boot disk" might've been part of my Lenovo partition. I finally got frustrated searching; so, I figured, "worst case scenario," I'll have to put my old drive back in; and, go back to searching..."
One last thing, for those who don't know: ALWAYS "stay grounded" while mucking around inside ANY computer!!! A good way to do this is to take off your shoes; and, touch something metal, first. The computer won't "fry you;" but, even just a little static electricity can fry something inside the computer! (In the late '90's, my 386 became a 486, after I shorted out the mother board, while upgrading from a 9600 modem to a 14400[???] When possible, it's always better to learn from OTHER people's mistakes...)Read full review
