Features:

  • Reliable everyday Computing
  • WD quality and reliability
  • Free Acronis True Image WD Edition cloning Software
  • Massive Capacity up to 6TB
  • 2 year manufacturer's limited warranty
Good, practical desktop drive

I gave this drive to someone as a gift, and they've been using it for backups for 10 months without issue. My review is based on another unit of this drive which I bought for myself some months later. I've been using it as my primary desktop OS/programs drive since 5/29/2014, so it's about 5 months now. There have been no problems thus far. It's really quite a bargain for desktop use if 1TB is all you need. The actual capacity of this drive is 931.5GB. That's an old marketing trick which can be blamed for the pointless redefinition of all our real, long established data measurements with those silly "i" characters. I won't dwell on it any further, but 931GB is the true capacity when measured in base 2, as all data is correctly measured. This 1TB Blue drive uses a single 1TB platter spinning at 7200rpm. There are 2 heads (each side is 500GB). A single platter design is usually better for reliability than having multiple smaller platters, because there are fewer points of failure, the assembly is lighter, the motor doesn't have to work as hard, and less heat is generated. Single platter drives will also tend to be quieter, but due to my configuration I can't judge the noise level. There has been much discussion and testing among users in online forums, including WD's forum, which repeatedly show that the 1TB Blue and 1TB Black perform the same. It appears the only benefit of the 1TB Black is a longer warranty. Some Blacks are faster than this drive, but the 1TB model is not. Compared to a Green, the Blue is faster owing to it's faster rotation speed. The Green drives also have an "intellipark" feature which causes them to keep parking the heads after a few seconds of inactivity. This can cause laggy response and extra wear. I dislike that design - I believe power management functions should be left under the control of the operating system, which can account for user preferences and what is happening in the rest of the system. Hardcoding this behavior into the drive is ridiculous, in my opinion. The Blue behaves the way I prefer - it does not use "intellipark", it stays ready to roll until directed otherwise through power management commands from the OS. I wish they were making the Blue series in larger sizes - it seems this 1TB is the end of the line. I don't care for the Greens and the Blacks are more expensive. Partition/Sector Alignment -------------------------------- Please be aware that like most modern drives, this drive uses 4KB sectors (also known as "advanced format"). If you are using Windows 2003, Windows XP or older, as I am, don't let Windows handle the partitioning of this drive. This is even an issue on unpatched versions of Vista and Windows 7. These older versions of Windows will believe that the physical sectors are 512 bytes, when in reality they are 4KB. As a result, the partition(s) will not be aligned with the physical sectors. It will still work, but performance will be reduced. Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP and older do not have any update to fix this, but it's not a problem as long as you do the partitioning with a suitable 3rd party utility. I think Western Digital offers a tool for this, but I've never tried it. Once the partitions are set, it's fine to let Windows format them. For my Windows XP install, I used a recent version of GParted to partition the drive. GParted can be downloaded and burned to a bootable CD, or installed to a USB flash drive. Just use the option to align your partition(s) on 1MB boundaries. This is the easy way to ensure they are aligned correctly for the best performance. Then boot your WinXP install disc and let it format the partition that you already created. It sounds harder than it is, it's a minor hassle but it's simple. If you ever change the partitions, once again use GParted or a similar utility that handles alignment for modern hard disks. Don't use the built-in XP partitioning. But again, once the partitions are created, it's fine to let Windows format them. The built-in partitioning is fixed in Windows 8. According to Microsoft, it is fixed in Windows 7 after installing Service Pack 1 - you would need to have that service pack before partitioning the drive, not after. Again according to Microsoft, it is also fixed in Windows Vista *after* installing update MS KB 2553708 - I assume this is automatically installed for people who use automatic updates, but I don't know that for a fact. This won't do you any good if you're doing a fresh install and your install disc predates the required update. The partition alignment detail I've described above is an issue you will encounter with any recent hard drive, it's not unique to this model. If you ignore it, performance will be affected but it will still work. You may see Seagate drives implying that they are immune from this, but in reality, they are not. All modern "advanced format" drives, of any brand, will perform better if sectors are properly aligned. But it's not a big deal - just use a modern partitioning utility and then you're set. ---------------------- I just tested this drive using "Roadkil's Disk Speed" on Windows XP 32-bit. I'll cut out all the variables and just give the linear transfer results with large block sizes. My drive has a few partitions and there are lots of files on it, so this might affect results. First partition (first 20GB): 170-178MB/sec linear read 3rd partition (physical location range is from 28-628GB): 153-177MB/sec linear read Last 300GB is unpartitioned so I can't test that range. I don't think the random access test is useful, because my partitioning greatly influences the result. There's a test mode for the whole physical disk, but it's results are too inconsistent. This drive is a great bargain if you just need a simple, inexpensive, well performing 7200rpm hard disk. I was tempted to try a Seagate SSHD, but I couldn't justify the cost compared to this. If I was shopping today, I'd look carefully at the HGST and Toshiba offerings as well, but from the WD side this is my pick for a general purpose 1TB desktop drive. Update: It is now 11/2015. This drive is in my desktop PC, used daily, and still works fine. Some months ago I ran a benchmark on this drive using the linux utility "gnome-disks". The random access performance measured out to a 15.7ms average. This is mediocre, but expected from a quiet drive. Screenshot is attached. It also shows the transfer rate across the disk (read test only, I didn't test writes).

*EDITED* Will wait 2-3 months and re-review, right now, it's amazing!

Blue 4TB version. Comes with 3.63TB out of the box Write speeds were around 80-100MB Cannot hear it whatsoever Came with excellent package protection (I was a bit worried about that) EDIT: it's been 5 months now, and I absolutely love this little guy!! I really have nothing special to say about it! No overheating, no crazy noises, no hiccups, no lags, just flawless for its purpose, General Use! :)

Amazing Drives....Would recommend this drive to anyone without hesitation.

Best value/reliablility per dollar hands down. I always buy WD Black...always for game data drives and I keep reading new reviews about these new wd blue 7200 1tb drives. I rarely stray from proven tech but for $48.00 each delivered I had to try I mean what is the worst that can happen??? lose $100 bucks. I totally redo my whole system 250gb ssd with windows 10 pro installed on it,128 m.2 ssd empty. and 2 of these wd blue 1tb in raid 0 for my steam library and games 1.8tb total. Drives are amazing... numbers and everything everyone else says they are is dead on and I could not be happier. Anyone on the fence on game drives for a raid should not even think twice on buying these drives. Will update down the road if any issues but do not expect any with WD quality. I had to edit and put this in..... I have my tower on my desk 3 feet from me with 2 27" inch monitors. I have been on my computer 10+ hours a day sense buying these drives and I can not even hear them running/spinning up. Anyone saying they vibrate or are loud or any other crap like that have them in place with 1 screw and it most likely is not the only screw loose. :) p.s. I was looking at the new Firecuda drives sshd hybrids but what they fail to put anywhere is that they are not made for raid configurations at all. If you put them in any raid you lose all the ssd function and it becomes a standard drive...lol... so glad I did hard research on that.

Sorry I waited so long to get a large storage drive like this.

Worth every cent. I had been putting off buying a much larger stroage drive. Finally got one now I can store much more for much longer, get bulk files off of my work drives etc. This drive is a storage drive, not a performace drive. I use it to store files, movies etc. For gaming, and the such, I either use my SSD or my WD BLACK hard Drive. I am glad I picked this up, I have not had a single issue with it, and it has freed me up to do more with my other drives as I no longer have to have them filled up with large files I rarely use. Below are the color codes for WD drives. I do not know how different their performance are from one to another or if it is all marketing, but here it is. BLUE = Solid performance and reliability for everyday computing. BLACK = Maximum performance for power computing. RED = Increased workloads and reliability. PURPLE = Designed for Surveillance DVR storage. GOLD = WD Gold HDD is designed for Servers and some of you mentioned i forgot the green, Thanks GREEN---Parks the heads for power savings

Installed it very easily, just connected my PC's power and SATA cables

I've had this ~3 weeks now. Installed it very easily, just connected my PC's power and SATA cables, switched on, recognized immediately by my Win10 x64 desktop PC, did a quick format, and good to go. No drivers or other software adjustments needed. Shows 3.63 TB available. I transferred 1 TB of my main work data onto it day one, and have been using that since without any issue. Very quiet. I wouldn't recommend this drive to hold your operating system, since it's the slowest 5,400 rpm HD speed. I always put OS on a fast SSD, and my data on a slow HD, that's the best value combo for general business work and gaming. I've used a good few Western Digital, Seagate and Samsung HDs in decades of computing, and found them all reliable brands.

Long lasting, trouble-free drive. So good that I now have 5 of them as my storage needs expand.

This is the fifth hard drive I've purchased of this exact same model. No, this order was not because the previous 4 failed (they all still work flawlessly for my various onsite/offsite backups). This was to replace a failed Seagate hard drive in my mid-2010 iMac. Knowing that this model has been without issue for many, many years - I was thrilled to learn that I could still buy the exact same model years later. If you are an iMac owner, do note that the OEM drives Apple puts in also has a port for the temperature sensor. These non-OEM drives do not. As a result, the Mac will sense that it's not getting a temperature reading from the HD sensor, so it will crank the fan up to high in order to protect itself. However, the fans at 100% are really, really loud and not a long term solution. There is an adapter plug you can get (search on Google), but I did a different hack instead. I unscrewed the circuit board from the failed HD and plugged the temp sensor into the port on the old board - then inserted it in a cavity next to the internal drive. Now the new hard drive is connected as normal, and the temp sensor is connected as well - and everyone is happy. BTW - yes, I did try using the smcFanControl utility before reusing the circuit board, but it did not work in my case.

The only legit complaint is if defective or failed prematurely.

To clear up some things people clearly do not understand. Are you complaining that the storage capacity isn't what is claimed? Wrong. Hard drive storage capacities have historically been rated using power of ten and your operating system reports capacity in binary which gives a lower number when you see the size reported in your OS. As has always been the case for drive storage capacity 1 MB = 1000 kilobytes, not 1024 kilobytes. 1 GB = 1000 MB, not 1024 MB. 1 TB = 1000 GB, not 1024 GB. 2 TB = 2000 GB, not 2048 GB and so on. Example, in the case of a 1 TB drive you will see a reported capacity of ~931 GB in your OS. A 4 TB drive will report a capacity of about 3.63 TB but if you look at details you will see that means typically about 4,000,768,323,584 bytes. There's your 4TB drive. Reported capacity can depend on your OS, partitioning and formatting. Important to remember this and claiming you didn't get the capacity you paid for isn't going to negate the facts. This is how it's been and is how ALL drive manufacturers rate their capacities, every one of them. OEM hard drives are very, very commonly sold to the public and have been for a very long time. They don't come in a box with retail packaging and they come as DRIVE ONLY, no screws, no data cable, no power connector and no instructions. These days they tend to come in plain brown boxes but they use to just come in only the anti-static bag and you might get it wrapped up in some bubble wrap if you were lucky and if really lucky it was packed so it didn't bang around in the box or sit in a vulnerable corner. This has been going on as long as the 30+ years I've been in the game. OEM DOES NOT MEAN YOU DON'T GET A WARRANTY! It MIGHT if the serial number of the drive you received is one from a batch or group that was supposed to actually go to a specific OEM builder and that batch made its way elsewhere somehow. Something like a "mistake", theft or that OEM dumping them back into the product chain improperly. Check your drive when you get it by checking warranty status of your serial number on the manufacturer's site. If it says no warranty (because it was intended to be the burden of the OEM that batch, group, lot was meant for) then return it to Amazon and be very specific as to why. When you buy computer hardware and you are just a consumer without access to certain knowledge and parts you may find some items like a simple hard drive install to be more of a challenge than you thought. You need to know beforehand if you need screws (some cases use screw-less hard drive retention, most don't), a data cable (SATA is the current common standard in use for PCs) and a SATA power cable or extension. Again, you get only a bare, antistat bagged drive when you purchase an OEM drive and unless it states that it's a retail drive or shows a retail box then it's going to be a bare OEM drive most likely.

Received Drive Still Under Warranty

I ordered this drive in April 2018 and it was sold and shipped by Amazon - not any 3rd party seller. At the good advice of other reviewers I searched the warranty status of the drive I received using the warranty status page on Western Digital's website. The warranty was good for 2 years and the website reported the serial number corresponded to a Blue drive so what I received was a legitimate Blue drive with the advertised 2 year warranty. Not much to say since this is a hard drive. It works and is running in my file server without problems. I plan on buying another that is sold and shipped by Amazon. Update 10/6/2018: Bought another one of these drives shipped and sold by Amazon. Western Digital website says the drive I received has a valid warranty for 2 years and expires in August 2020. Drive is working good so I am again happy with my purchase. First drive I ordered is still working good also.

Don't heed Chicken Littles' reviews completely

First, an explanation of this review's title: Numerous other reviewers have indicated that WD does/will not Warrant this product. That is a global statement of mis-information. Keep in mind that Amazon reviewers' source of product can be *many different sellers*- multiple offerings exist for the same product offered by numerous different entities. Some reviewers didn't even purchase this item at/through Amazon. I had absolutely no problem registering my drive with WD, and *I received a Confirmation of my Warranty registration from WD within five (5) minutes of registering.* That said, it behooves the buyer to immediately register their product and install the drive, and if you *do* encounter problems, deal with them within Amazon's prescribed no-questions-asked return/replace time limit. I had no problems installing this on my Win10 Lenovo laptop (using a Sabrent docking station also purchased through Amazon). My MacBookPros are too old to have a USB3 port or I would have used one of them instead- am trying to get the fastest transfers possible for raw image data from my DSLR SDXC chips both for backup/storage and later use in post processing. My experience thus far is 5 stars. I gave durability three stars because it is a total unknown. I have been dealing with DOS/WinPCs and Apple products since they were first marketed; when an IBM XT with a 10*MB* drive was wicked-cool and "state-of-the art"....and have had drives from Western Digital, Seagate and Toshiba, fail. Hard disk drives fail eventually, period. The question is will a drive meet the MTBF (average projected lifespan) or not, and there is no way to know the answer to that; the only *safe* tactic is redundancy- if you value your data. This is by no means a top-of-the-line, (read: expensive, better-built) drive, so one must doubly operate under the assumption that it will fail tomorrow (or tonight). I had no trouble setting the disk up, partitioning, and testing for read/write. Time will tell the answer to the durability question. You "pays your money, takes your chances" *wisely.* Happy data storage/retrieval.

WD Blue 1TB PC Hard Drive - Excellent

A replacement hard drive was needed since the old drive gave out after 5 years of heavy, hear daily use. I don't game but do use the PC a lot during the week and wanted the exact same hard drive since the previous hard drive lasted 5 years (I'm told hard drives last between 3 & 5 years). Amazon had the drive and I installed it easily. Given I knew the history of this hard drive (5 years of heavy use) I wanted to replace the drive with the same. Just very relieved the hard drive was available at a reasonable price. I think this hard drive is pretty long lasting given my experience with the same hard drive that failed after 5 years so feel confident I will have a very similar experience of hard drive longevity with this one as well. Like many computer users, I do not regularly back-up my drive and will now since losing everything - a good lesson for anyone who uses a computer. Five years from now if I've worn out this hard drive I hope it is still available as I'd purchase it again.

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