The Basics:
While
Western Digital products can be purchased in retail or OEM packages, the review sample Caviar SE16 WD7500AAKS was provided as the latter. With just the bare drive sealed in an anti-static bag, there isn't much to discuss in terms of accessories.
The top of the drive features the typical label that provides various bits of data, such as compliance to different standards, information on the make and model, and details on making the connections to the drive.
One thing that is fairly unique to Western Digital drives is the large black circular tabs used to cover holes on the drive. If you see these big black dots on a drive from a distance, you know it is a Western Digital.
While the bottom of the drive may look fairly uninteresting to some, I like the design. The green PCB is pretty much blank; free from any features or solder points that could possibly get damaged during installation or operation. As a point of comparison,
this image shows the bottom of the Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 750GB drive and all of the chips and delicate solder connections exposed on it. I killed a drive once as something else came in contact with the base of it, and upon a closer inspection I found a large burn mark at the corner of an exposed chip that had apparently been shorted out.
The 'business' end of the drive is where you will find the SATA data and power connections, as well as a series of jumpers, which are described on the drive's label. The most notable setting may be that jumper 5 and 6 need to be connected in order to cap the drive to 1.5 Gbps operation, which may be necessary on some older systems without support for SATA 3 Gbps transfers.
Like most hard drive manufacturers, Western Digital has a software utility (Data Lifeguard Tools) available for simplifying drive installation. While perhaps not necessary for more advanced users, this software helps in areas such as creating the initial drive partitions, cloning an existing drive onto your new Western Digital drive, or running diagnostics to analyze the drive's health. For those who purchase a retail packaged drive, a CD copy of this application will be provided along with some Google applications (Google Toolbar, Google Desktop, Picasa), and for those who purchase an OEM drive, the software is available for download from the Western Digital website.
