Western Digital offers $30 back-up software for free

[bourtzovlakas]

http://www.betanews.com/article/Western_Digital_Settles_Capacity_Suit/1151510648
http://www.wdc.com/settlement/
http://www.wdc.com/settlement/verify.asp

[fccHandler]

What do you know... I think I'm actually eligible for this.

Thank you for the information! :goodpost:

Also, this reminds me of a lively discussion we had last year:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=94695

[Doobie]

Just another story of sleazy lawyers getting rich with nuisance legal action.

[Sirber]

that 1GB = 1,000,000 has been around for years and years...
it's even less once formated :(

[wmansir]

That's why most HD boxes say "1GB == 1,000,000,000 bytes" somewhere in the fine print. Apparently WD's mistake was leaving that off.

[unskinnyboy]

Hehe, submitted a claim. Had bought a 250 GB WD external HDD couple of years ago. About time someone sued these jerks..:p

[feedback]

I purchased a WD 160 gig external HD in 2004 so I am eligible. BTW, does anyone have any idea what the $30.00 backup software could be?

Regards,

P.S. Thanks for the heads up.:)

[foxyshadis]

I was hoping the terms of the settlement would require that HD makers finally switch to binary measurements, like they should have when GB disks for appeared. What was the point of this lawsuit, other than to enrich a bunch of lawyers?

EMC Dantz Retrospect Express

Isn't this the crippled OEM software that comes with practically every maxtor and WD external hard drive anyway? So it's not like they're making some great concession here; it's probably worth considerably less than $30 wholesale, especially if they're getting huge volume rebates from EMC. Hah, cross-marketing via court settlement.

[unskinnyboy]

Ha! Who is going to use that piece of crap software anyway? My satisfaction lies in relieving WD of whatever that software might cost in reality (even if its $5) and the cost of postage for shipping it to me..I am evil..:devil:

[feedback]

What a ripoff, foxyshadis is absolutely correct. Retrospect Express is the backup software that came with my WD external HD.

What are they going to do... give me another copy of that crippled software.:sly: (I use Acronis True Image for backup). A $30.00 off coupon would be of more use.

Regards,

[Doobie]

That's why most HD boxes say "1GB == 1,000,000,000 bytes" somewhere in the fine print. Apparently WD's mistake was leaving that off.

Not only is that probably on every box, including WD, anyone who is tech savvy knows this is how Hard Drive makers market drives. Anyone who isn't tech savvy is going to assume that 1K=1000, anway. So, eveyone is getting what they think they're getting. No harm done.

But, what happens is that Mary Jane boots up her new Dell and sees that Windows is reporting a 98GB (1K=1024) drive when the Dell sales sheet says 100GB (hmmm, so why isn't Dell in hot water?). Now, Mary Jane thinks that she didn't get the 1K=1000 that she paid for. She thinks she got 1K=980. So, she's upset.

The situation is even worse if she formats her drive and sees that her empty drive only has 95GB of space.

[foxyshadis]

93GB, actually (1024^3), minus 4GB used by the restore partition, another 1 for FS overhead, so if you're lucky 80 free after all the lame crap dell throws on every new PC. =p

[Doobie]

What are they going to do... give me another copy of that crippled software.:sly: (I use Acronis True Image for backup). A $30.00 off coupon would be of more use.

If they were giving out coupons instead of software, you'd get a $5-off coupon (which would cost them more than the software).

The only winners here are the lawyers. Now that they've beat WD, they're in a better position to shake down all the other drive makers.

I don't even know if this will change the industry practice of 1K=1000, or if they'll just have to make 1K=1000 bigger on the box. But, if eveyone else is saying 1K=1000, if you go with 1K=1024, consumers will think they're getting less with your drives.