Western Digital 1.5 TB Caviar Green SATA Intellipower 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive WD15EARS Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)INFORMATION ONLY!I don't own this drive; however I did just purchase the previous Caviar Green 1.5 TB WD15EADS model.

As I was about to purchase that hard drive, I noticed the banner near the top of the page that informs you "There is a newer model of this item"
I thought, "Well, that's awesome. Thanks Amazon!"It was in my shopping cart, but then, I decided to do some research first, just to see if it was worth a little extra money.After all, the debates about cache size (32MB to 64MB) seem to reveal it's just a marketing gimmick and performance gains don't really exist.

So, after some searching, I came to learn about the new Western Digital "Advanced Format".
It seems these new Caviar Green drives (all containing EARS in the model number) are using 4k sectors rather than the standard 512b (0.5k) sectors.
This change means that these drives are NOT inherently compatible with Windows XP or earlier.
However, Western Digital has two solutions in place to allow them to work with Windows XP.

1) They include a jumper on the drive that can be set to "trick" Windows into properly aligning the partition table.
This solution is only "reliable" when using a SINGLE partition.I don't like it.

2) They have a custom application (not pretty) that can be used to "shift" the partition and data into alignment.
This is apparently the recommended method that can also work for multiple partitions.

Clearly, you don't see this information described anywhere on this page and since Windows XP is still in wide-spread use, I think it's unfair not to be given this warning upfront.Also, if you use any type of hard drive imaging software, these new drives will be problematic there as well.

This information and more can be read in the article at AnandTech:
[...]

Anyway, I scored this at a neutral three stars based on lack of important information only.
And, while I love the feature, Amazon's "new version" notice can be misleading given the vast difference between the two models.

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Product Description:
WD Advanced Format technology increases media format efficiency, thus enabling larger drive capacities.WD Advanced Format drives are specifically optimized for Mac and the latest Windows operating systems such as Windows Vista and Windows 7. WD Advanced Format drives work with legacy operating systems such as Windows XP but require the use of the free WD Align software available on www.wdc.com/advformat.Available in capacities up to 2 TB, WD Caviar® Green™ SATA hard drives reduce power consumption by up to 40% and offer best-in-class acoustics and operating temperature. Based on WD's exclusive GreenPower™ technology, these drives are designed to deliver power savings as the primary attribute. As hard drive capacities increase, the power required to run those drives increases as well. WD Caviar Green drives make it possible for energy-conscious customers to build systems with higher capacities and the right balance of system performance, ensured reliability, and energy conservation. They are ideal for PCs, external storage and other devices that require lower power consumption and cool, quiet operation.

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