Documentation

By Rachel Rosmarin, published on June 18, 2008
Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: , , | Themes: Desktop Computers, Business Notebooks

4. Documentation

The Mirror Edition drive comes with a three-step quick-start guide that details how to insert the software CD, install it, and properly plug in the USB cord and power supply. This limited paperwork caused no problems until it was time to install the WD Anywhere Backup software. The application prompted us for a Product Key. We couldn’t find it, so we installed the software using a 30-day free trial. The Product Key would have bypassed the trial and proven purchase of the drive and the use of a permanent version of the backup software. After several days, we cleaned up our workspace and folded up the tiny Quick Start guide to put it away. Accidentally, we folded it the wrong way, with the multilingual regulatory compliance fine print on the outside rather than the inside. Then, we noticed a tiny upside-down sticker on the lower right hand corner of the page. Here was the Product Key.

Obviously, the Product Key should not be so well-hidden. WD should take care to put it on the software CD itself, or the box, or as a sticker on the drive itself.

Documentation Score: 3/5

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royalcrown 06/18/2008 5:51 PM
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it's not called a drive...the drives are inside...it's called an "enclosure"

Tomsguiderachel 06/18/2008 6:11 PM
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Actually, it is an external drive.

johnfinn68 06/18/2008 6:35 PM
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It looks like Morse code, and you can desipher letters in the plastic, but they read nothing (just two lines, read forwards and backwards) ETENESTT, TTSEANETE, EHSETENT, TAETESHE. In Morse code, some letters (like A and N) use the same digits, just backwards

johnfinn68 06/18/2008 6:36 PM
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It looks like Morse code, and you can desipher letters in the plastic, but they read nothing (just two lines, read forwards and backwards) ETENESTT, TTSEANETE, EHSETENT, TAETESHE. In Morse code, some letters (like A and N) use the same digits, just backwards

johnfinn68 06/18/2008 6:40 PM
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It looks like Morse code, and you can desipher letters in the plastic, but they read nothing (just two lines, read forwards and backwards) ETENESTT, TTSEANETE, EHSETENT, TAETESHE. In Morse code, some letters (like A and N) use the same digits, just backwards

johnfinn68 06/18/2008 6:37 PM
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It looks like Morse code, and you can desipher letters in the plastic, but they read nothing (just two lines, read forwards and backwards) ETENESTT, TTSEANETE, EHSETENT, TAETESHE. In Morse code, some letters (like A and N) use the same digits, just backwards

royalcrown 06/19/2008 1:50 AM
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Yeah, I know it's an external drive...the part you call the drive, in the article, as in, "handling the drive (moving it from place to place) and grasping the sides, the plastic walls creak a little bit and give slightly under pressure. You don’t want to stack anything on top of this drive.", is actually the "enclosure" or "housing"...as in ENCLOSING or HOUSING the drives.

Sure, I am nit picking, but say the drives are great and the electronics are fine, but the housing falls apart; you cannot then correctly state that the drive broke because the "drives" are still fine and would still work.

thatmymp5 06/21/2008 12:17 PM
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It’s tough to make a 2 TB external hard drive look cute.

satannuts 06/25/2008 4:35 PM
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from wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Digital_My_Book
The Morse Code message written into the drive case is made up of a selection of the words 'personal', 'reliable', 'innovative', 'simple', and 'design'.[15] The first occurrence of 'innovative' on the My Book Pro and My Book World Edition features an error and reads 'innovateve'.

I'm assuming they've kept the morse code message uniform throughout the mybook series.

Marcus52 12/14/2008 3:45 AM
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royalcrown a word's meaning comes not from it's hard-line definition, but from how it's used by a majority of people. Language is not mathematics. Most people would call Western Digital's system here a 'drive'. They would not be wrong, and neither is Rachel, except in a technical sense. Calling it an 'enclosure' is not only incorrect in a technical sense it is incorrect in the way people speak; to most of us, 'enclosure' would mean something provided that you put things in to, not something that comes already filled.

If you want to nitpick then be right; Western digital calls it a system, and that's what it is - 2 hard drives in an enclosure with software and hardware so it can be used in a 'Raid 0 or 1' configuration. If you want to be right, technically, call it a 'hard drive system'. If you want to communicate correctly, then use the language people understand; most would call this device a 'drive' over an 'enclosure'. Western Digital calls it a 'System'. Since I like to be right technically and say things in a way most would understand, I'd call this thing an external hard drive backup system. Off the cuff, though, I'd call it a 'drive', certainly not an 'enclosure'.

thatmymp5 12/14/2008 5:47 AM
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It’s

Quote :
STILL
Quote :
tough to make a 2 TB external hard drive look cute.

FUtomNOreg 07/28/2009 1:17 AM
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It's not 2 1TB drives it's 2 2TB drives as with the mirror edition something gets copied onto 1 drive the "mirrored" on the other for data protection. Just thought I should clear that up. You may want to edit the article.

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