New WD Elements EHDD?

[Zephik]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136388

It looks like a new external hard drive from WD. Its a bit cheaper than the Passport line. The only difference is that the passport has like transfer encryption or something like that. Anyways, looks like they're updating the Elements line with these new ones which apparently no longer require a secondary power source. Good stuff! At 500GB for $99, I think I'll start saving my pennies for one.

Nice design improvement WD! Also liking the consumer affordable attitude!

[Zephik]

The reviewers are reporting 465GB.... why does it say 500GB then?

[BuzzKillington]

The reviewers are reporting 465GB.... why does it say 500GB then?

I guess they want another class action.

[Zephik]

I think its because they consider 1000MB to be 1GB where 1024MB is actually 1GB. So annoying that companies do this. I don't get how they can get away with it. You can say whatever you want, but that doesn't make it true. 1GB is 1024. Should there not be a period set in stone at the end of that sentence?

[slaveofconvention]

The reviewers are reporting 465GB.... why does it say 500GB then?

It'll be the hard disk manufacturers standard lie. They claim 1GB is 1,000,000,000 bytes - when really it should be 1024x1024x1024 (1,073,741,824)...

I have several 1TB drives in my server which format down to 931GB - it never used to be an issue when they started doing this back in the days of 1.2 and 2GB drives - the difference was miniscule - but as capacities have grown the difference has grown too... Makes sense that if you "lose" 70GB on 1TB you'd lose 35 on 0.5TB...

It'll never change unless all of the manufacturers agree to do so at the same time - if just one of them was to change, it'd look like they had smaller drives than the competition - imagine a non-technical person looking at two drives for the same price - one at 500GB and one at 465GB - they'd most likely go for the "bigger" one even though it's actually the same size...

Other than being "honest" there is no incentive for the HD manufacturers to make the change - all they'll be doing is reducing the size of every hard disk in the range, for no real benefit that an accountant can see....

EDIT: See what happens when you talk too much lol - Zephik got there first - his post wasn't there when I started typing

[billygoat333]

eh. it doesn't really bother me too much, because I know what I am getting when I buy a "1tb" drive.

[SXRguyinMA]

[SXRguyinMA]

Anyways, looks like they're updating the Elements line with these new ones which apparently no longer require a secondary power source.

my wife's WD Passport doesnt require a secondary power source either

[Zephik]

Why don't they add a few more gigabytes to even it out? Then they wouldn't have to advertise it as less. Hell, it could be a marketing point. Tired of not getting your full capacity? Then buy ours because we use the correct standard! etc etc

my wife's WD Passport doesnt require a secondary power source either

Yep, the Passports have never required a secondary power source as far as I've known. I own one too and LOVE it. Best external hard drive I've ever owned. The Elements line used to require one though if I"m not mistaken? These ones don't and they're cheaper than the Passports. Sweet!

Edit: The old Element drives do require a secondary power source. However, they also go up to 1TB. Also, while on the WD website, it looks like they are preparing for a 1TB Passport! Score!

[OvRiDe]

The reviewers are reporting 465GB.... why does it say 500GB then?

The drive is pre-formated FAT for compatibility. The drive may have a capacity of 500GB RAW. Once you put a format on the drive the File Allocation table takes up some over head on the drive. The bigger the drive the more space it takes to store the File Allocation Table.

They give the RAW storage capacities because different formats (ie. FAT, FAT32, NTFS, ext3) use up different amounts of space to store the FAT.