WD Blue Solid State Drive

In spite of the fact that specific programs to qualify HD performance – including Windows Checkdisk – reported that our disk were OK, I bought two of these SS disks – which are not disk anymore – to replace old, conventional spinning disks used to store programs and data in our computers. We planned to clone the existing disks and replace the old disks, using a program provided by W. Digital and created by Acronis, to carry out such task. According to the instructions, the operation was supposed to be very easily accomplished. As simple as: Install SSD, clone existing, replace existing and that’s all. Well, in my personal experience, that was not at all that easy. To begin with, the SSD were not detected automatically by Windows; even using Windows Administrative Tools it was not immediate for the OS to recognize them completely. The SSD had to be formatted, and the formatting should be exactly the same as the original disk to be cloned, for the cloning be possible. The instructions provided by the cloning program are really minimal. I had to try a number of tricks and different setups to make the OS see the disks, and the cloning program do they job. However, once I solved all the inconveniences – which probably were due to problems in our computers caused by the original HD which were far more defective than reported by supervisory programs, the performance of the computers improved immensely. The change in performance of our computers was worth all the perspiration, time and trials that I had to go through in order to make the system work as expected. If the performance of the computers does not deteriorate with time, and the SSD are dependable and have a reasonable long life, I strongly recommend this product.

Installed super easy. I read all kinds of complex stories about settings people had to change on their mainboards to get M2 disks to work properly and be bootable. I had an issue right out of the gate, and then noticed my firmware was a year old. Updated my BIOS and bam, worked. Actually, I did have to unplug the SATA disks I had connected on the first bus (drives 0 and 1). Once I did that though, Windows 10 installed in about 15 minutes and I was back to setting up my apps and installing my games. Upgrading a HDD, even with reliable cloning methods, has always taken me about an hour. I was back and running at full speed in about half an hour. Very impressive.

Easy install, needed 3rd party transfer software. There are several to choose from. Follow transfer instructions found many places on YouTube. Yes, there are usage life limits on SSD drives but if you are an average user it works out to be 20 years or so. When was the last time you had any computer part for even 10 years? Significant increase in computer speed, I mean really significant. Once it gets past the BIOS start and goes to Windows the boot is almost instantaneous, no more chugging and grinding through numerous apps to start. I dont think could go back to a spinning drive after this. By the way because of the nature of the beast the more empty room you keep on the drive the longer it will last. Keep at least 20% free and you will have a happy hard drive. If you are a techno weenie who over analyzes things then there are faster drives but at a much higher price and in reality you will never see any difference. Spend that extra money and just get a larger drive and you will be happier. YouTube will answer all more specific questions you have.

Great little drive. I love how fast it is. However, there is a problem with my system freezing that doesnt happen with my other m.2 drive. Not sure if I just happened to find the one drive that would have a minor stability issue. Its still working and hasnt failed, but the next m.2 I buy will be of a higher quality.

This drive is great. The only problem I had was that my MS Office had to be reactivated, and that is not the fault of the drive; but Microsoft. My laptop runs a bit smoother now. I dont have long boot times and logins any longer, and this drive is loaded with even more software than the one I cloned it from. Processes happen a whole lot faster. I have been a WD fan for a while, so Im glad this drive did not disappoint. Ill be back as these drives become an even more affordable standard.

I got this SSD HD to replace and improve (The orginal HD was a Western Digital 1 TB WD Blue SATA II 5200 RPM 8 MB Cache) the performance issues that this laptop had been having which was mainly due to the growing resource demands over the years from the newer Windows Operating Systems (Going from Windows 7 to Windows 10) and the newer requirements from the current software as well. Once I installed the new SSD the difference was literally night and day, the boot up from Bios to Operating System (Windows 8.1) was almost literally instantaneous (I would say 10 to 15 seconds), the response time on applications and any action in general was also instantaneous. Only recommendation I would make is to make sure the BIOS on your laptop/PC is current so there are no compatibility issues with the SSD. Overall I could not be happier, This will unfortunately will be that last upgrade that I will be able to do this Laptop (and my Wifes Dell XPS laptop, they are both the same age and most specs are the same) since I have literally maxed out all up-gradable areas on this Laptop (See the system system specs below). I would highly recommend this SSD Hard Drive. Specs: HP Pavilion dv8t-1200 Entertainment Laptop (June 2010) OS: Windows 8.1 Enterprise Processor: Intel I7 Core @ 1.60 GHz (1st Generation) RAM: 8 GB (Max Capacity) Hard Drive: 500GB WD-Blue SSD2TB Seagate traditional Sata Drv (Storage) Video: Nvidia GeForce GT 230M (HDMI & VGA) Display: 1920 X 1080p 18.4 inch Screen Internal NIC: 1GB WiFi NIC: Internal Intel Centrino Dual Band/USB LB1 AC600 Dual Band USB Dongle (5 ghz) USB Ports: 3 X USB 2.0 Ports ROM: Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Burner

Excellent product which works as promised, and sped up my computer by a factor of at least 10x. Came excellently packaged, but didnt come with the screw to use on the motherboard to hold it in place. I was able to put into my board slot and push it down into position, but I had to go get a screw that fit to use it. Once I plugged it in on my Acer Aspire, I had some issues making it the boot drive, but now works perfectly as the boot drive, and I made the original drive I had a large storage drive.

what is your priority ? if money is it, this price is good for 500 GB. do you need FAST ? this is a tricycle, samsung 850 is a Harley1200, SAMSUNG 960 M.2 is a missile. whats your workload, how fast do you need to go & how much can you afford to get there? SAMSUNG 960 M.2 NVME is my OS & DAW choice samsung 850 is my secondary programs & Main Libraries choice this is my Secondary Libraries & good working storage choice a 7200 rpm Hybrid HDD usb3.1 is my archive choice its your money, how fast do YOU need to go?? & how much time do you have to get there ? this is great for fun & games; but a fast all day workhorse over a long hard haul ? whats your priority?

This is a product of WDs acquisition of SanDisk. Overall, this is a great mainstream SSD. While there are slightly faster ones to be had for quite a bit more money in everyday use for most people you wouldnt be able to tell the difference. Still a massive improvement over a rotating mechanical hard drive - this made my ThinkPad T430 go from a total dog (yay 5400RPM laptop hard drives) to nearly as fast as my Core i7 gaming/workstation laptop. So far this SSD has handled everything Ive thrown at it just fine - everything from simple stuff like browsing the internet to heavy virtualization workloads! Would recommend.

I bought this to install into a 2011 Macbook Pro and it made a world of difference on boot up speeds. Times easily increased by a good 10-15 seconds from when I turn on the computer until it is ready for logon at the desktop. Total time with the old hard drive was around 40 seconds from power on to desktop and login. The new SSD is around 15-20 seconds after power on to login and get to a desktop.