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Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB USB3.0 External Hard Drive $114 @ OW

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Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB USB3.0 External Hard Drive $114 @ OW
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Charlotta on 28/05/2011 - 23:57 files.ozbargain.com.au (1414 clicks)

With external power supply this mid-level series of desktop drives has a good rep. Main "bargain" element here is that this is the USB 3.0 version.

Had seen this in the latest DSE catalogue @ $129 and saw that it was also listed on OW website at same price (last time I had looked in-store these were still at $169!) Posted the DSE deal yesterday but it was a dupe - posted last week by TheSly (albeit with no tags!!) http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/44892

Went into Milton (Brisbane) OW today to pick one up but the ticketed price on the shelf was $114 - so I grabbed two! I was wondering if checkout would scan at $129 (possibly giving me scan error advantage!!) - but no - they went straight through at $114 each. Makes me wonder therefore if all OW stores will scan at this price. No idea how long they will be at this price.

Staticice shows some 2TB Samsung USB 3.0 drives at similar prices (plus freight!!??) but I suspect this WD is a better drive than those - keen for feedback.

Hope photo of docket shows okay from link above. Unfortunately my phone battery was dead or I would have taken photo of shelf tag. This was standard shelf-price, not a price-beat nor any other form of discount.

Computing 2TB Computer Peripheral External Hard Drive Western Digital

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closed Comments

  • HD on 29/05/2011 - 00:03

    got one today :)

  • lbft on 29/05/2011 - 00:09

    Available online too: https://www.officeworks.com.au:443/retail/products/Technolog…

    Great deal for a USB 3.0 drive.

  • diamondtouch1 on 29/05/2011 - 00:12

    damn it, do officeworks have a price guarantee? got one 2/3 weeks ago for that $129 deal.

    • supersabroso on 29/05/2011 - 02:44
      +2

      Most big stores do but it's usually within a week.

    • oz-dxer on 29/05/2011 - 14:14

      I feel your pain as I bought 2 last monday from OW for $129 ea, still unused and unopened.
      maybe i can return them for a refund and buy "another two" at $114 ea instead?
      its a $30 saving.

      • jtb on 29/05/2011 - 15:12
        +1

        For some reason I thought OW had a 1 month return policy. No harm in trying/calling….

  • Flibbs on 29/05/2011 - 00:12

    Nice

  • Coops1 on 29/05/2011 - 00:32

    great price

  • supersabroso on 29/05/2011 - 02:44

    I count this as the precipice of a new age in storage technology, good times. Just waiting for the 1TB USB3.0 models to do the same thing.

    • retiredfeline on 29/05/2011 - 09:12

      Sorry I'm not with you, what do you mean by same thing?

      • supersabroso on 29/05/2011 - 13:05

        By that I mean price drop to a price where it suddenly becomes easily affordable making it the new standard. Much like the 1TB WD HDD did 1.5 years ago at $129. Ideally in my opinion, a 2.5" with half the capacity should be around 3/4 the price of its respective 3.5" counterpart. So $85.50 before it becomes standard to buy a 1TB 2.5" drive.

  • Zaxxon on 29/05/2011 - 08:35

    I bought one of these a few weeks ago for 129, so good price, yes. I am however disappointed with the firmware that ships with this unit - mainly because it does not upgrade to the latest version when running Win 7 64 bit. Also, it's not really intuitive - you'll see what I mean when trying to move between drives. Maybe on installation just opt for using the drive itself, not the software option. Lastly it would be good to have the option to select what to back up and what not to back up. From what I can see you can't do that.

    • llama on 29/05/2011 - 08:56
      +2

      It might be best to remove all that rubbish, and just use it as a normal hard drive. I doubt that any "free" backup software including in such a drive is going to be much good. Get something decent, or just use Windows backup.

      • Zaxxon on 29/05/2011 - 16:50

        One decent thing it does is sync - which windows doesn't. You add a file to d drive say, and 2 seconds later it is on the EHD. Nice. But with that comes issues, it can't handle 'open' files like pst's etc.

    • retiredfeline on 29/05/2011 - 09:11
      +1

      IIRC it's not firmware like in previous versions, it's just software that's been put on the partition. So you are not obliged to use it.

  • Jabba the Hutt on 29/05/2011 - 09:43
    +1

    Staticice shows some 2TB Samsung USB 3.0 drives at similar prices (plus freight!!??) but I suspect this WD is a better drive than those - keen for feedback.

    Mainly comes down to which you think looks nicer, but the Samsung enclosure design has the edge in function. I believe the WD lacks a power switch, has its power/activity LED at the rear, and a case that's not easily disassembled (uses internal plastic tabs that are the bane of anyone who's had to take something apart). The Samsung has its LED at the front, a knob that serves as a power switch and LED intensity adjustment, and good old fashioned screws.

    For backups I'd be inclined to buy one of each instead of two of the same.

    • AaronRain on 29/05/2011 - 12:18

      This WD one has a power switch on the back and power activity LED is at the front.

      Dammit I also bought the $129 from DSE, oh well OW is further away from me anyway.

      • Jabba the Hutt on 29/05/2011 - 17:47

        Right you are. Had my Essentials confused with my Elements.

      • lbft on 31/05/2011 - 06:01
        +1

        If it was less than 2 weeks ago, you might be able to get DSE to match the OW price:

        Dick Smith will match a competitor"s advertised price within 14 days of purchase if it complies with the conditions set out in the Price Matching Advertised Prices Policy.

        http://dicksmith.com.au/help/price-matching-content

        • AaronRain on 02/06/2011 - 10:25

          Good spot, although not sure if it's worth the effort of going there again. But definitely useful to know and others might do it.

    • Gecko on 30/05/2011 - 11:49

      Stick away from the Samsung 2TB externals, they're definitely using either broken hard drives or the firmwares been locked to limit write speeds to 14MB/s.

      Both me and a mate got one each, both pulling out the hard drives to put in our HP MiniServers that we got, and both independently get 14MB/s write speeds.

      • justtoreply on 31/05/2011 - 14:32

        If it's on the sata port meant for the ODD, apparently that's the miniservers bios.

        You can update the bios to unlock the speed on that port.

        So I hear.

        • Gecko on 01/06/2011 - 13:28

          Nah, normal bays :(

      • atlas on 14/06/2011 - 18:17

        But when used externally I get a full 35mb/s?

  • Hirokuro on 29/05/2011 - 10:09

    I would be on this in a heartbeat if my notebook has a USB 3 port. :(

    Too bad it only has a E-Sata port with no PCMCIA port to upgrade.

    • llama on 29/05/2011 - 15:21

      What difference does that make? Surely your notebook has at least ONE standard USB 2.0 port?

      USB 3.0 plug is backwards compatible with USB 2.0 socket of any normal computer.

      • Hirokuro on 29/05/2011 - 15:26

        Yes I know. But USB2 is rather slow especially for transfering 2TB of data :/

        If only there was a USB3 to E-Sata converter

        • cheapo.one on 29/05/2011 - 17:20

          but how often will you be transferring 2tb in one go?

          and can you find a cheaper hdd with e-sata?

    • lplau on 30/05/2011 - 07:56

      laptops with pcmcia ports had E-SATA?? lol I thought PCMCIA was depreciated awhile ago and had it upgraded to ExpressCard, which essentially uses a pci-e port.

      • Hirokuro on 30/05/2011 - 16:32

        .< sorry that's what I meant :)

  • issh on 29/05/2011 - 11:12

    good price for those specs!

  • [Deactivated] on 29/05/2011 - 11:34
    +1

    "(possibly giving me scan error advantage!!)" ????
    why did you think you'd get it for free?

    good spotting though

  • Algerfied on 29/05/2011 - 14:32

    Just got it matched at Harvey Norman by showing them the office works price via iPhone.

    • Trance N Dance on 29/05/2011 - 14:39

      Are you telling me the price at HN with the 20% off was still more than this?…. HOLY CRAP!!!

      • supersabroso on 29/05/2011 - 14:52

        Haha yeah, I was pretty excited when I saw 20% off, then I saw their prices did some maths and I was like oooooooook….no need to rush down there any time soon.

      • slowmo on 29/05/2011 - 17:25

        the sarcasm is strong in this one :)

  • SydStrand on 29/05/2011 - 17:14

    Picked up one today, great price for this.

  • infinite on 29/05/2011 - 17:14

    Excellent price, however, the power plugs that come with these units have a truly horrible track record. So bad, it may actually be worth holding off a little until the USB 3.0 version of these: http://www.officeworks.com.au/retail/products/Technology/Dat… come down to the same price.

  • couger on 29/05/2011 - 18:09

    Went to OW Preston Vic today, all gone @ 3pm

  • bozter on 30/05/2011 - 09:19

    Thanks OP.

    Got one at Castle Hill…. They had plenty. At least 20 on the shelf.

    Compared the price at Dicks Smith and it is $129

  • seijai on 30/05/2011 - 10:41

    Great price

  • surat on 30/05/2011 - 10:58

    great price…waiting for the 2tb element to go down below $100.
    I don't like this essential since we cannot format it fully because it has hidden files that we cannot delete it.

    • justtoreply on 31/05/2011 - 14:36

      I've never heard of anything like that in my life. I don't believe it.

      For windows: Control panel -> computer management -> disk management

      You should be able to delete the partition (not just format it) in here. If its using two partitions (one bootable with hidden files) to keep you at bay, you should still be able to get rid of both partitions in here.

      Maybe you mean the hidden windows files? "System Volume Information"? That's a windows thing, not a WD thing. It will be there on any NTFS formatted drive.

      • Gecko on 01/06/2011 - 13:30
        +1

        WD went through a phase of having a 512mb flash chip on the hard drive with their crapware on it that you could only get rid of by updating the firmware - don't know whether that's what he's talking about though.

    • retiredfeline on 31/05/2011 - 14:40
      +1

      No, not this model. Previous models had an extra partition with software. Now they just leave the software on the one NTFS partition that you can use, ignore or delete.

  • MementoMori on 06/06/2011 - 00:43

    Hey is this going to expire anytime soon - I see it's still for sale online :)

  • atlas on 14/06/2011 - 18:18

    Are there any cheap USB 3.0 PCI cards that would fit the HP Microserver?

  • Charlotta on 19/10/2011 - 17:58

    Still available at this price:
    https://www.officeworks.com.au/retail/products/Technology/Da…

  • Ozem61 on 26/10/2011 - 12:57

    Recently this has been selling at OW at the posted $114 but sadly it has just gone up to $124. Still a good deal for 2Gb and USB3.0 though.

    Check the price at http://www.officeworks.com.au/retail/products/Technology/Dat… before taking this as a certainty as the rrp is around $169 (Current Dick Smith Price) and the OW price probably varies regularly.

    Ozzie

  • Ozem61 on 09/11/2011 - 16:20

    It has just gone up to $159.00 :((

    Ozzie

  • Ozem61 on 26/01/2012 - 13:14

    Now it is $149 - Wow :(

  • Ozem61 on 03/06/2012 - 18:13

    Now $179 :((

  • Ozem61 on 20/06/2012 - 15:14

    Just gone down to $129 - a considerably better price :)

  • Ozem61 on 22/06/2012 - 13:29

    And now gone up to $168 - got to be quick!

  • Ozem61 on 05/07/2012 - 19:52

    Crazy - it is now $229

  • Charlotta on 09/08/2012 - 21:40

    $145 today

    not sure why we're doing this on this old thread… but anyway from OW website fwiw:-

        $89.00          SGTC1000BK          Seagate 1TB FreeAgent GoFlex Desk External Hard Drive USB3.0
    $99.00          SGTC1500BK          Seagate 1.5TB FreeAgent GoFlex Desk External Hard Drive USB3.0
    $109.00         SGED2000            Seagate 2TB External Hard Drive
    $119.00         WDAU2000BK          Western Digital 2TB Elements Desktop External Hard Drive
    $119.00         HPAD2000BK          HP 2TB SimpleSave External Hard Drive
    $134.00         WDAG1000CH          Western Digital 1TB My Book Mac External Hard Drive
    $134.00         SGAY2000GB          Seagate 2TB Expansion External Desktop Hard Drive USB 3.0
**  $145.00         WDCW2000BK          Western Digital 2 TB My Book Essential USB 3.0/2.0 external hard
    $149.00         SGTC2000BK          Seagate 2TB FreeAgent GoFlex Desk External Hard Drive USB3.0
    $163.00         WDAG2000CH          Western Digital 2TB My Book Mac External Hard Drive
    $169.00         WD3G1000CH          Western Digital 1TB My Book Studio External Hard Drives
    $184.00         WDCW3000BK          Western Digital 3 TB My Book Essential USB 3.0/2.0 external har
    $199.00         WDAU3000BK          Western Digital 3TB Elements Desktop Hard Drive
    $199.00         SGAY3000GB          Seagate 3TB Expansion External Desktop Hard Drive USB 3.0
    $213.00         SGTC3000BK          Seagate 3TB FreeAgent GoFlex Desk External Hard Drive USB3.0
    $219.00         WD3G2000CH          Western Digital 2TB My Book Studio External Hard Drives
    $229.00         WDCG2000BK          Western Digital 2TB My Book Live Ethernet
    $244.00         WDAG3000CH          Western Digital 3TB My Book for Mac External Hard Drives
    $293.00         WD3G3000CH          Western Digital 3TB My Book Studio External Hard Drives
    $299.00         WDH2Q2TB            Western Digital 2TB My Book Studio External Hard Drive
    $459.00         WDH2Q4TB            Western Digital 4Tb My Book Studio Ii External Hard Drive
    $699.00         WDBU4000SL          Western Digital 4TB My Book Thunderbolt Duo dual-drive storage s
    $749.00         LA301509            Lacie 4000Gb 2Big Network 2-Disk Raid
    $849.00         WDBU6000SL          Western Digital 6TB My Book Thunderbolt Duo dual-drive storage s
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