I just bought a WD EARS 2 TB and thought I'd chip in with a quick mini review. Coming from a Samsung F2 1 TB, the WD has much quieter seeks - the F2 is almost unbearable (for being a 5400 RPM, that is), at least my sample. Idle noise is also better and blends in more easily with my room's "sound atm...

EDIT: Sent PM instead.

I'm considering buying either WD1600BEVS, 5K250/5K320 160 GB (what's the platter density on the 5K250 line, BTW?) or Samsung M5S 160 GB. What's got me stuck right now in my choosing is my uncertainty on whether I'll be able to disable APM on any of these drives. The clicking noises from my current S...

Here's the product page and a review that I found.

Felger Carbon wrote: Uh, I wasn't asked, but if you don't mind me butting in, no. The L version needs 6V+ to start reliably. You're OK from 7V up, in case you're using the 7V wire trick. Five volts definitely will not work.

That's a shame. Maybe I'll try the 7V trick though.

jhhoffma, does the 1000rpm version start (reliably) at 5V?

Do you guys think the 750GB limit applies to both to USB and eSATA, or only USB? The way I figure it, the eSATA connection is being directly passed through from the drive, 'cause I can't see the point in some sort of SATA controller here.

In case you didn't know: DS3 misses FireWire, if that's important to you.

MikeC wrote:Buy a newer drive. If it is not the same, clone your bro's old drive to the new one, and put the new one back in his PC. He'll never know -- and doesn't need to know.

I'll go with that : )

Thanks guys for the support -- really swell of you!

A concern that might arise is that different revisions of the drive might have different logic boards. That could be an issue if I would buy a new one, yes. I just compared mine with my brother's and as a matter of fact they are of the same revision. To be honest I don't even dare to ask him about ...

A couple of days ago my heart stopped for a few seconds. The resaon was smoke and an ugly smell coming from my Samsung P120S(SP2504C). I suspect, quite convincingly after a number of tests, the culprit in this drama was a bad IDE to SATA power adapter (an adapter that came bundled with the drive). T...