“How reliable ? Many External hard drives from across many different brands, tend to fail over time. how reliable is this HDD ?.. How long is it expected to last. I plan on Using it for my xbox one, and as any gamer would know loss of data is like the plague! As far as it being a AC powered, is it safe to leave plugged in, or can it be unplugged when not in use ? If I am correct the Hard drive has a power button, is it safe to turn the hard drive off when not in use without corruption of data. Also if the power goes out to lets say a power surge protector which the hard drive would be plugged into will the hard drive be ok, and not lose data ? or every time the power shuts off to the house because lets say your normal power outage will the HDD be safe ? or will loss of data or corruption occur ? The struggle with hard drives is if they fail, or become damaged.. data is loss which money can not replace.. and the HDD is not cheap in general!”
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I have owned (and still use) several external HDDs and I have not had one fail on me yet. My apartment gets frequent power interruptions and have not lost one byte of data.
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.First, an external HDD is most often used as a back up. So if one drive goes out your data is saved on another drive. Secondly, it's difficult to give reliability on a new product, but judging by experiences with WD HDDs they are extremely reliable, I have a 500GB that is at least six years old and runs great. You shouldn't have to worry about unplugging or turning it off. Keeping it on constantly does not draw a lot of power and will not harm the drive. A power surge or lightening strike can ruin anything electrical but a simple power outage shouldn't damage it. You can plug it into a UPS and then the battery backup can help.
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.I use it as backup and power it off when not in use; when plugged in, it is to a surge protector
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.I have had many external drives. I have had many fail. Usually I spot a problem and copy the drive to a new one before data is lost. I currently have SIX 3 TB external WD My Book external hard drives that I access frequently. I also experience power outages every couple months. These WD My Book 3 TB drives have been the most reliable of the 20 plus that I have used over the past couple decades. I am now Buying more to to use as copies of my current drives. All drives can fail over time. But my experience with this particular drive is so positive that I am going to use the same drive to make copies of the ones I have. How long does this drive last? I bought my first one when they first came out and it is still in use . I leave all the drives plugged in and connected all the time and have no trouble even in unexpected power failures. I usually have a window open for every drive all the time and frequent access causes no problems. I often move files from one drive to another. I do no disk maintenance - it does a lot of excessive writing to disk, so I think I extend disk life by just letting it be. This is a most solid dependable drive. Much like some people will only buy a particular brand of car, I have only trusted WD My Book for a Very Long time (since the 3 TB was first available.)
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.Thus far this has been very reliable and resilient.
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.I have only had the drive about 3 months and have had no problems. I own another portable WD hard drive that is over 10 years in age that is still functioning. As far as power concerns, I found myself asking similar questions. I did not find a power button on the drive and had concerns about it being plugged in 24/7 without powering down. It appears it is on if it is plugged in and off if unplugged. I asked Best Buy about the constant power concern. They commented that it would probably task the drive more to be powering it off and on all the time than to just leave it plugged in 24/7. Western Digital may be a better source to consult on the matter.
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