How do you open a WD Passprt External HDD without damaging it?

So, after all this, can somedboy tell me whether this 250 GB passport thing has 8MB buffer for sure or it is just a matter of luck?

I'm so confused about this..., If it ain't got 8 MB Cache, it doesn't make sense for me to put it into my laptop..., any thoughts?

Any help in this regard is appreciated.....

 

It would be really stupid if it had any less than 8mb. I don't see why it would - either way, its one of the fastest notebook hard drives tested thus far, so even if it did have less than 8, it doesn't show it.

 

hhhmmm, stupid it may be, but some sites refer to this having a 2MB Buffer only...

 

i'm pretty sure that it is only 8mb. there is only one sata model w/ a 250gb capacity (WD2500BEVS) and it has 8mb. all the passports have this same model number hd inside. i have one myself and it is definitely this model number.

http://www.westerndigital.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=314

 

Yeah 2mb is definitely wrong - but still - even if it is 2mb, it still gets those amazing reviews...

 

it is noticeably faster....but it's a little louder than my previous hd. it doesn't make the loud spinning sounds like other noisy hds, but it makes these faint clicks that drive me a little crazy sometimes.

 

Thanks ejl, I'll try my luck..., but take a look at this link WD Passport 250GB that states this model to be with 2MB Buffer.....

 

i can see how that review is scaring you....however, if you look on WD's website, you will see that the highest capacity drive that they make w/ the 2mb buffer is 160gb.

 

best buy was back to their $179 for a while and they finally went back on sale for $139 for today. they'll probably be back up to $179 tomorrow. the purple/pink ones are $209 for some ungodly reason. it's a good thing i like black. i went ahead and picked one up as the cheapest i see them online are $120 + $10-15 for shipping + wait time. i asked the sales guy in the computer section if i don't take apart the enclosure kit if they would they take it back. he said they would and i made very sure about their return policy with him. interestingly, the packaging for portable drive just pulls apart. (the packaging, not the enclosure kit) you don't have to cut it or rip it apart to take out the product. so. with that info, all you have to do is buy one, pull apart the packaging, plug it into your usb, go to device manager, look at drives and it should at least say WD2500BEVS. mine however said WD2500BEV. wd does make an ide WD2500BEVE, however, who in their right mind would sell a portable 250GB ide drive for $179? even wd has their WD2500BEVE for $160. last time i picked up an enclosure kit for my ide drive it was a vaio kit and it was 2 bucks plus shipping. even so, i was worried when i did not see the S at the end of the BEV. maybe xp gives less info as vista shows BEVS. dunno. anyway, it's a safe bet you're going to get the BEVS if you pick up one that's in that plastic package shown in the pictures in this thread. not sure about the boxed ones. by the way, even with instructions, this mofo is hard as hell to pry apart. the credit card idea made things easier but good grief.

 

there is no 2mb buffer option for the BEVS.

 

as a side note, if you're dropping this into a linux laptop, you'll need to delete all existing partitions. i almost got mad when an error popped during install and realized these passports come formated with that ntfs/fat32 mumbo jumbo.