I've owned a WD 500gb MyBook drive for a little less than a year. Until about 2 weeks ago it hadn't given me a single problem, which I'm now learning is actually pretty rare. I've come across endless amounts of customer reviews telling of poor performance, and in many instances it's "the worst hardware purchase" they'd ever made.

Well, I haven't experienced total failure ...yet. Instead, the drive fails after about an hour or two and must be restarted after waiting a while (it wont work again immediately). I'm thinking maybe a temperature problem? Any other idea's? Most importantly, what are some more reliable products? (i've found too many identical complaints about ALL WD external memory)

I'm backing up irreplaceable photos right now, fearing a worst case scenario.

Is it still under warranty?

wouldn't that be nice... i don't believe it is still covered.

i don't really want another one anyway... i'm just looking to stop the random failures untill i can get new hardware if i can.

(my o/s is WinXP BTW)