I have been using a Freecom 500GB external drive for 4 years without any problems. As it is getting old and I need more storage, I went to PC World hoping they had a 2TB Freecom. Unfortunately, they do not stock Freecom, but recommended the WD My Book Essential 2TB. I was slightly concerned by the low price (which has since been reduced by a further 20%) but was assured by the slick salesman that the WD was very reliable and that he used one himself with no problems (yeah, right!). I connected the drive and after several attempts to install the software, got it to run. I allowed it to back up my computer’s files, which it did without any problems. To assure myself that the files were backed up correctly & that I could access them if needed, I retrieved a small folder containing about 100 files, using the ‘retrieved files’ option. This all seemed sweet until I attempted to open the files. Each folder contained 1 word document & 2 picture files. None of the files would open. On top of this, any folder with a title longer than about 5 words would not open at all, and could not even be deleted withot renaming them to make them shorter. The Freecom has never caused this problem. The WD is now safely back in its box awaiting my next visit to the recycling centre. But all is not lost. I have learned 2 things: steer clear of anything Western Digital & don’t listen to con artist salesmen.
Or you can use another backup software or you can drag and drop the files.
I took the device out of the box and tried one more thing. I formatted the drive and have not installed the software. I am now sending data to the drive manually and it sends it back in a useable condition. This is really all I wanted it for. One more thing is bothering me, though. I read somewhere else in the forum that XP, which I am running, is unable to support more than 2TB total, including all internal and external drives. Is this true? My internal drive is 400GB, I am using the 500GB freecom drive plus the 2TB WD drive, and everything seems to be OK.
I believe the 2T limit on XP is per drive not entire system. A drive larger than 2T would need to be formatted with WD format tool to work on XP.
Joe
