Others say...

"Might turn out to be one of my better mistakes"
Due to impatience, I bought this drive to set up redundancy on my Netgear RND2150 ReadyNAS Duo 500 GB Desktop Network Attached Storage since the specifications are identical to the Seagate HD already in use and another Seagate drive was not available via Amazon when I needed it. Only after ordering it did I bother to check to see if this drive was on the approved hardware list for the NAS and naturally, it was not recommended, and just as naturally, I installed it anyway. One of the known problems according to Netgear was a propensity for erroneous overheating messages but I haven't encountered any difficulties thus far even though the NAS in X-Raid (basically RAID 1) configuration runs 24/7. In fact, when I check, this drive consistently reflects a temperature reading 3 degrees Celsius less than the Seagate drive that came with the NAS.

As other reviewers have mentioned, it is an OEM package lacking instructions, software, connector cables or mounting screws, however unlike OEM drives from some other manufacturers it is securely packaged so the likelihood of damage in shipment is significantly reduced.

As a swap out for a smaller drive or one that is failing, this looks to be a reasonable and economical option.

"Terrible Hard Drive"
I have been working with IT for over 12 years and understand no HD is perfect however Samsung HDs are exceptionally bad and have terrible customer service.

I purchased this Samsung HD from NewEgg because of the great price on 5/19/07 and by 10/08 it started the click of death however the data was still accessible. Most Hard Drive manufactures allow advance RMA's, which means they will charge you a deposit for the price of the HD, send you a replacement and allow you to transfer your data then send the bad HD back in for a refund of the deposit. Samsung does not do this on top of that they only replace a HD with refurbished HD's. I was able to backup my data to two 150GB drives and RMA the drive to Samsung. About 10 days later I received a replacement refurbished drive which I ran a diagnostics on before loading my OS and it failed with more bad sectors than good.

I called up Samsung HD support and was told they could not do anything for me and to call the manufacture (um thought that was Samsung) Turns out they are made by TTS, called up TTS and was told the only thing I could do is to RMA it again and take the chance with another refurbished drive. They would not give me a new one. So I went back to Samsung since they put their name on it. I got to Executive support after be on hold 3.5 hours (not exaggerating) and was told that HD's were the only product they do not give refunds for. So I registered a complaint and was told I will get a call back in 2 days from the corporate office, 13 days later and no call back. I called them back today, on hold again for over 2 hours and was promised someone from the corporate office will call me back tomorrow.

Well even if they actually called me back tomorrow and gave me my money back that will not change my review. This is a terrible hard drive with terrible customer support. It is not worth the chance of losing data between backups. Do not make the mistake I did and buy a Western Digital or Seagate which both have great reliability and CU service too.


"Good cheap storage..."
Have now bought 6 of these drives - using with a BlacX drive bay for storage of Panasonic P2 video files. The drives just work, and have survived multiple flights from California to Florida and several transatlantic journeys to the edit facility in England.
Good cheap storage.

"Great Hard Drive - Highly recommend!"
I have 7 Western Digital 500gb hard drives and I am ordering 2 more today.

I use these drives to store digital photography images for both myself and my wife. We typically shoot 50 - 100 gb per photography trip, and we keep 2 additional sets of backups on separate hard drives. So we need a lot of drives. These drives sit in removable drive bays in SATA enclosures and they are moved in and out of the enclosures all the time.

I have never had a Western Digital hard drive fail, even though several were purchased as soon as that size became available. I have had other brands fail but not Western Digitals. Sooner or later they will fail but with the cost of 500gb drives this cheap it is silly not to have backups.

"Works for me. Fast. Quiet."
I bought this hard drive along with an Antec MX-1 enclosure, to expand the capacity of my DVR box. I had it installed, up and running, in less than 10 minutes. The DVR immediately recognized the drive, and formatted it. It is extremely quiet. Much quieter than the internal DVR HDD, even though it is also a WD drive. I have no complaints. Remember, this is "OEM". No manual. No cables. No hardware.