I have clear cut opinion for backup drives - Either they are very good, fully reliable or they are completely useless, there is no middle way for it. If you ask me, its better to have no backup at all than to have unreliable, undependable backup. After my own extensive research and due diligence about consumer-grade backup solutions, I opted out to buy Western Digital Elements 1TB.

The Western Digital Elements 1TB external hard drive is the no-issue, trouble-free external hard drive, which techies dream about. They have not made its look lavish metal coated, which only adds unnecessary price tag of the drive. Western Digital have rather tried to make a minimalist, reliable device and they have been successful in it. The hard drive doesn't have any useless pre-installed backup software that can't be turned off or uninstalled. Instead, it has an easy plug-and-play functioning which allows you to start backing up your content in seconds after taking it out of the box.

The drive has a very pleasing looks to begin with. The case of this drive is small and slender. The "activity" light is very unintrusive, but it is easy enough to see. Secondly, this drive does not make any sound at all while functioning. Its has a fantastic transfer rate and never has any issues with transferring, even if there are thousands of files and hundreds of Gbs worth of data to be transferred. All I have to do is the double check it's actually transferring the files because with normal room noise, this drive is indiscernible.

The drive doesn't consumer much power either, and that is one of the reason as why its always cool. It consumes 0 watts, if it is not connected to a computer, or if the computer is off or in standby. And when the computer is on, but not accessing the disk, it consumes only 4 watts of power. When its active and transferring files, it draws a maximum of 6-7 watts. When inactive for long, it automatically spins down the hard disk. This does cause a delay when you access it, but the delay is not more than a few seconds.

Western Digital Elements 1TB is overall a very good buy and a must have for backing up your files Its easy to set up, and even easier to use! I highly recommended it. You can also save yourself some money and get it on Amazon at a price less than $77 that is a whopping 40% discount with free shipping.