punkrawker82's Full Review: Western Digital Caviar® Special Edition WD800...
In 2000 I built my first real computer higher than a 486, and discovered hard drives over 120Mb. I had a 3.4Gb hard drive. Well, after 3 years of loyal, reliable service I recently decided I had to upgrade. I was running out of space for all my programs, and Windows XP would barely fit on my hard drive if I ever wanted to upgrade my OS. I did some shopping around and found a great deal. Everyone I know says Western Digital is a quality manufacturer, and I couldn't say no to the price or timing. So I bought the Western Digital Special Edition 8Mb Cache 80Gb Hard Drive.
In The Box
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In the box I received the 80Gb hard drive, an ATA100 IDE Cable, Mounting Screws, Installation/Troubleshooting Guide, Installation/Utility Disk, and a 3 Year Warranty.
Functionality
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This drive works really well. I have not had a single problem with corruption or failure. When I replaced my old 3.4Gb hard drive I immediately noticed a performance increase due to an upgrade from a 5400rpm drive to a fast 7200rpm drive. The performance boost was also due to the drive's huge 8Mb cache. I haven't used the ATA100 transfer speeds yet because my old motherboard is only ATA33, so I guess I have a lot more to look forward to when I upgrade that portion of my PC. However I have also noticed a quieter PC. My old hard drive was so clicky and chirpy it sounded like an insect on steroids. I only hear a slight power up sound from the new drive if my PC comes out of stand-by, and even then its hardly noticeable.
If you're using an old OS, you may have various compatibility issues to resolve. These are all listed and explained in the troubleshooting manual. I'm currently using Windows 98SE and have had no major problems. The only slight bug that Windows 98 causes is a misreading of actual size of the hard drive. It states the drive has a capacity of 75,xxx,xxx,xxx bytes or roughly 75Gb instead of 80Gb. But Microsoft assures that there is actually 80Gb, and all of it can be used despite the misreading. There was however the problem of installing Windows 98SE on the hard drive. That was a little tricky. I had to disable the auto scandisk when you start Win98 installation. Everytime scandisk ran it would report errors on my new drive because scandisk was outdated. So I did some research and found the "/is" switch (I think it was) which skipped the scandisk and let me install Win98. They didn't list this solution in the manual either. I had to find it on my own, which is a bad thing. Windows Me might require this as well, and 2000/XP shouldn't. The controller card is also a possibility for systems with outdated BIOS or super huge drives, but isn't included in the box.
Oh well, after I finally installed it, it has been great. I'm not sure if I'll ever fill this drive up(just wait a couple years when programs get to be really bloated).
Features
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80Gb of space
Ultra ATA100/66/33 Compatible
8Mb Cache
7200rpm
80Gb of space
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With this much space available how can you go wrong?? I've downloaded a ton of stuff and installed many programs, and still haven't come close to filling it. This drive should keep me satisfied for the next 4 years or so until my next "Major Upgrade" to a computer with PCI Express, Serial ATA, or whatever may be around at the time.
Ultra ATA100/66/33 Compatible
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This feature uses the latest technology for speedy data transfers, while allowing the drive to be compatible with older systems. There's no need to change the drive in any way as it auto-detects the fastest speed supported by your system. However, if by chance you absolutely need to manually change the data transfer rate of the drive to a lower setting, the Data Life Guard Tools provided can do this. I cannot think of a reason why you would need to set the drive in ATA66/33 mode manually, but its just there in case.
8Mb Cache
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Besides the ATA100 speeds there is also the special 8Mb Cache included on this drive which under certain tasks can increase speed and performance. Under intense tasks the hard drive is usually precaching important information into the cache for faster access to the rest of the computer. Western Digital decided to add 8Mb Cache instead of the usual 2Mb so more amounts of important information can be passed. This increases performance and makes your computing experience more enjoyable. Programs may load faster, and games that use high amounts of disk caching may run a bit smoother.
7200rpm
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It may not be the fastest speed, but its pretty high up there. I'd rather spend my money on a good 7200rpm drive than an expensive and not quite needed 10,000rpm drive. Even at a speed of 7200rpm's it can still compete. On the box it even has quotes from various magazine reviews stating it "delivers the desktop performance of a good 10K rpm drive" and "outperforms SCSI drives" with its added 8Mb Cache. So with this great speed and performance why waste your money on something else??
Software
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The Data Life Guard tools that come with the drive are very useful. You may not need them if you have an up-to-date OS and motherboard, but its best to have them just in case. Thankfully my motherboard(circa 1998-99) was new enough to support the 80Gb drive with an updated BIOS. I cannot stress the importance of updating your BIOS and other Firmware enough. Anyway my motherboard was ok, but I was recommended to use Data Life Guard to insure Windows 98/MS-DOS worked properly. I believe the FDISK program as well as other MS-DOS programs are out of date, so you could go to Microsoft and download new versions, but using the Data Life Guard tools makes it a lot faster and simpler. The disk is sitting right there, it was made by the people that made your hard drive, and downloading updates from a website like Microsoft's takes too much time. The utilities on the disk were very easy to use and did what they were supposed to do. Gotta love that!!! I was surprised at how fast it formatted and partitioned compared to regular FDISK and Format. If you lose your disk they also have the utilities posted on Western Digital's site. Its great for updating your disk too whenever new versions arrive.
Manual
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The installation guide is very informative and gives many answers for troubleshooting installations. It clearly shows regular and alternative jumper settings for older computers that may have problems. The guide also gives tips and info for OS's and their limitations/bugs. With the guide you can easily foresee problems before they become nightmares. Where is the scandisk parameter answer in the troubleshooting guide?? Nowhere, I had to find it...and I'm lazy!!! That is my only problem with this guide.
Price/Timing
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The price was a dream come true. I found it for $70 after a $70 rebate($140 total). I have since seen it for better deals online like $55 without any rebates. The timing was perfect too. I had just gotten out of college for spring break and had plenty of time to install it and format/reinstall all the massive software I have. I installed it all, downloaded tons of media files, and still have 66.4Mb left free space. This drive is huge and fast...I definitely got my money's worth.
Conclusion
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This is an almost perfect bundle of hardware/software/installation guide. The only problem is the parameter solution is left out of the troubleshooting section. I wish they would have included that. It would have saved me time and tylenol. Other than that its spacey, fast, reliable, and at certain places affordable. I love this hard drive!!!
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