Has anyone tried to “upgrade” their WD mybook Essential 500GB USB drive?

[Gaiko]

I want to put something like a 1.5tb Seagate or maybe a 1tb WD into
the WD MyBook USB enclosure (WDG1U5000) I have, I know it is not made
for this but hey. I have found a few howtos on opening it up various
my book models (apparently it is a bit different for each one) but
none of the ones I have found have said anything about putting in a
larger drive. While I don’t see why it wouldn’t work I wanted to post
and see if anyone out there has (successfully) done this already.

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers,

-Gaiko

 

[Arno Wagner]

I want to put something like a 1.5tb Seagate or maybe a 1tb WD into
the WD MyBook USB enclosure (WDG1U5000) I have, I know it is not made
for this but hey. I have found a few howtos on opening it up various
my book models (apparently it is a bit different for each one) but
none of the ones I have found have said anything about putting in a
larger drive. While I don?t see why it wouldn?t work I wanted to post
and see if anyone out there has (successfully) done this already.

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers,

There is a 500GB limit on some chipsets and controllers.
I have no idea what the reason is, I suspect minimalistic
engineering. It is possible that the WD interface chip cannot
handle a larger drive. Even if it seems to work, you may
run into a wrap-around issue were the start of the disk
gets overwritten, once you write over the 500GB border.

Unless you get positive confirmation that it works or you
are fine with loosing all data at some time, better not upgrade
but get an enclosure that explicitely states it can do more
than 500GB.

Arno

 

[Gaiko]

There is a 500GB limit on some chipsets and controllers.
I have no idea what the reason is, I suspect minimalistic
engineering. It is possible that the WD interface chip cannot
handle a larger drive. Even if it seems to work, you may
run into a wrap-around issue were the start of the disk
gets overwritten, once you write over the 500GB border.

Unless you get positive confirmation that it works or you
are fine with loosing all data at some time, better not upgrade
but get an enclosure that explicitely states it can do more
than 500GB.

Arno

Hmmm, i hadn't considered that. Thanks for letting me know!!