Western Digital Media Center

[Suhit Gupta]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?PHPSESSID=6ec8428041a409d675778d242b3dabd4&id=1032&cid=10&pg=1' target='_blank'>http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?PHPSESSID=6ec8428041a409d675778d242b3dabd4&id=1032&cid=10&pg=1</a><br /><br /></div>Appropo of our <a href="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4698">discussion</a> earlier about an external hard drive, Hardwarezone has reviewed the Western Digital Media Center.<br /><br />"Western Digital's latest Media Center external drive combines the best of their desktop storage solution with features supporting all the various solid-state media devices. Built specifically for both the corporate or home user who needs a portable backup device in addition to doubling its support for various card standards... Housed in a sturdy plastic case with a metallic look and feel, the Media Center is equipped with Western Digital's latest 250GB 7,200RPM hard disk drive. From the model number displayed when the Media Center is plugged into the test system, it's actually based on the drive with the Ultra ATA-100 interface (WD2500JB)."<br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/120x160.jpg" /><br /><br />This device supports slots for Compact Flash Type I &amp; II, IBM MicroDrive, SmartMedia, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, MultiMedia Card (MMC) and SD Card, and given that it supports USB 2 and has a 250GB 7200rpm drive, the WDMC seems quite versatile. The only complaint seems to be that the feet to hold this unit upright seem to negatively affect portability.

[Crocuta]

I can see how the card slots could be useful for someone who doesn't already have them on their computer, but they wouldn't matter much to me. Given the option, I'd rather save a few bucks and leave them off. What I would like that this has and my Maxtor DV5000 doesn't is the on/off switch. I prefer it to power down when the rest of my system does but the earlier model has no on/off switch so I either have to let it run or unplug it from the back.

I don't use the backup button and software because I use mine differently than what they designed that for, but if someone were using this primarily for regular backups, that would be a nice system. One push of the button and it starts the software and does the backup. Very nice.