Gizmodo
The guys at Wired and BoingBoing stirred up a hornet's nest this morning by alleging that Western Digital's 1TB MyBook World Edition external hard drives "won't share media files over network connections." That got us worried, since we just acquired one of the 1TB three-way (eSATA, FireWire and USB) Home Edition drives to plug into our eSATA ports, looking forward to sharing some DivX, XviD and various audio files over our home network. But never fear. We plugged our drive into one of the PCs here via USB and found out what's up, first-hand.
The problem was Western Digital's DRM-infested Anywhere Access software, which lets you access your files over the Internet as long as they're not dealing with any of 30 different forbidden file types, most of which have to do with music and video. But we didn't really want to share files over the Internet, anyway; we just wanted to use this huge drive on our internal network.
As Wired's Rob Beschizza noted, if you don't install that Anywhere Access software, which is really not required, you're good to go. We noticed that without installing that software, which was included on our drive, our files transfered back and forth normally across our internal network.
While the whole idea of accessing a drive anywhere in the world sounds great, apparently there is a convoluted process of reaching your files and sharing them with someone else when you're using Access Anywhere software, and then there's this DRM aspect of the software, which makes it a completely unacceptable alternative.
Shame shame, Western Digital, for including such a crippled piece of software in the package, which on some drives is said to be "required." To Western Digital's credit, we didn't see any such notation of requirement on ours. So far, we're finding the drive to be a pretty good deal at $316.66 from Buy.com. [Boing Boing, via Wired]
Comments
Dont ever EVER buy anything from Buy.com OMG. Ive even had to put a BBB complaint on them. Furthermore, shame on them for not supporting our troops and shipping to APO addresses.
SHAME! Dont buy from buy.com, go to another giz recommended site.
Call me an old coot, if you will, but I don't see any reason why controller software for my storage device should should limit how I can access my files based on their file type.
Does it ADD DRM To all the files on the drive? Or just the files you try to transmit?
I'm a little confused, yet still pissed.
@ideaman2020: No, I'm pretty sure the youngin's think that way too.
@schrosa: If it did that, that would be grounds for a lawsuit. Imagine those folks that make their own movies, only to find that their creation suddenly has unwanted crap latched onto it. Sony rootkit debacle all over again.
@ideaman2020: I agree.
And, why won't my DVD player let me hit fast-forward when I want. My DVD, my player, my home and yet "Operation Not Allowed."
The "man" is getting me down.
300 at Amazon.com (Free Shipping)
@SierraJulietGolf: Thank you for your completely relevant contribution.
Word of warning: my 500GB WD MyBook went tits-up last night (HD failure) after only 6 months. I lost all my media files and videos; I hope I have the backup files somewhere...
@LA_Longhorn: I used to think the phrase tits-up meant something good. I'm just going to ignore you now and assume that it still does.
Just don't install the crappy pack in software.
Problem solved.
The 1TB MyBook that I picked from Amazon for $230 works great and has no problem transfering files on BitTorent or over my network.
@LA_Longhorn: Word of recommendation, my 500GB WD MyBook has running without a hitch for over a year. I actually just recently bought a second one.
Honestly, it's best to consider consumer-grade computer hardware to be completely disposable and be prepared for failure at any time.
Reliability costs money. You don't see 146GB FC and SAS drives going up in smoke the way 300+ GB super cheap ATA stuff does.
@Kaiser-Machead: I'm not sure i understand how DRM fits into this yet.
May I request some clarity?
If you are foolish enough to install the 'included' software, which permits world wide access to your disc (and you should want to do this because.....?) you will find it has more bugs than a rats tail. I gaurantee that in two days, after it has tried to take over your world and turn it into a shambles, you will delete it with cries of glee and hopes that as you bash the keys on your keyboard those chaps from WD are feeling the pain.
Mind you (IMO) the disc's OK.
Does it simply block media files based on the file extension? Can't you just rename the file to some .random, transfer it, and then rename it on the remote end?
I'm willing to pay double the WD price for a 500 GB drive that I can be assured is less likely to fail. What should I buy?
@bandit: Get a terrastation from BuffaloTech. It's got raid (0,1,5) built into it. 4X500gb. eSTATA and USB2.0
$320 for the 1TB? Try $260!
[www.clubit.com]
@O-Z: Well good for you.
While YMMV, I'm only stating what happened with mine, and people should be aware that it could happen to them. And there's nothing "super-cheap" about spending $300 on a drive that fails after 6 months.
Or just reformat the drive before you use it... problem solved.
@schrosa: Yeah, Buffalo makes some useful products. I have a network attached 500GB LinkStation Live, and not only does it *not* restrict what files I can transfer, but it can stream MP3s over the Internet.
@BANDIT
Don't buy any of the pre-packaged external drives. They are ALL lousy, and will pretty much all fail. Make your own out of a Samsung Spinpoint, and an external enclosure. The Antec USB2/eSata enclosure is really slick, and the price for a regular internal drive and an enclosure, even a really nice one like the Antec, is usually cheaper. They take less than 5 minutes to put together, and actually last.
@fuzzycuffs: That's not the triple interface edition being mentioned in this article.
I did pick up that drive from ClubIT last night for $240 (free ship).
Its kind of like the bundled digital camera software.
Do I really want Kodak to tell me how I can view my photos?
My MyBook is sitting by the couch...
...broken after two weeks.
I just got the 500 two days ago, so far so good
@davekaybsc: Is that the MX-1 enclosure?
Terrastation's not getting good reviews on Amazon. Lots of failures.
[www.amazon.com]
Correction, I've got two drivestations quattros, which are USB/eSTATA Raid 0,1,5 4X500gb and they have worked flawlessly for me.
I'm very happy with my Buffalo Storage Tech products.
Why support a company that pulls this kind of crap? I'm sure there are a dozen different companies that you can buy a 1TB drive from. By continuing buy this product you are telling them that it is OK do to this since they assume you bought it knowing that it had this DRM. And many sales mean that they are doing the right thing. Vote with your dollars.
@bandit: wow. I'll steer clear of the Terastation. Go for the Drivestation. Good stuff.
Well if you get the drive if you format the full hard drive wouldn't that software be removed.
And wow @ the 1TB of storage on your network.
My network right now has 750GB and the few times that i bring my personal computer to the network it goes up to 1.1TB
The 1TB ethernet version is available at Sam's club for $299. I picked one up on a price match at Circuit City a few days ago to use at my office.
I've been using the fatty Mybook World Edition II version at home for a few months. I found instructions online to hack it and installed Firefly Media Server on it giving me streaming music over my home network with no PC needed.
I'm also a proponent of the DIY HD enclosure.
Much better results for the little bit of work that's involved because you have control over what HD is going into the thing.
The only issue I have had with the World Edition 1TB HDD enclosures is the crappy little fan in the back blowing in the wrong direction.
@strider_mt2k: DIY FTW.
i have a 750 gb NDAS that i built myself for the same price as this, after my rebate the enclosure was 15 bucks and i have no problem getting up to the network or pulling off of it. hasn't failed in 1.5 yrs and was in a laptop/work bag for the first one.
@Bandit
Yeah, the MX-1. I have a few of them. Really excellent enclosures, light weight, and easy to put together. The big cooling fan really keeps heat under control, while being virtually silent. The fanless Seagate ext. enclosures get so hot that I can't imagine the drives in there lasting longer than a year. The Antec enclosures are also tough, and protect the drives. I dropped one with a Spinpoint in it about 4 feet onto concrete, no problems at all. Not even a scratch.
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