Added to that, WD offers its aged Data Lifeguard tools that date back to 2006 and which don’t list support for Vista. There’s a choice of Windows, DOS on CD, or DOS on floppy, but when we gave the bootable CD image a go it didn’t work.

Terabyte set (clockwise from top left): Hitachi, Samsung, Seagate and WD

Recent Reviews

• AMD Radeon HD 4850 and 4870
• AMD CPU shoot-out: Phenom X3 and X4
• Lenovo ThinkCentre A61e green PC
• Alienware Area 51 ALX CrossFireX gaming PC
• 3rd Space FPS gaming vest
• DroboShare network storage 'robot'
• AMD 780G integrated DirectX10.1 chipset
• Mesh Ultimate Q8 Tri-SLI gaming PC
• Shuttle XPC Glamour SN68PTG6
• Freecom Data Tank Gateway WLAN 2TB router and NAS box
• Intel Skulltrail high-end gaming system

Add that little lot together and it’s hard to see why you’d choose the WD over the cheaper Seagate as the tiny amount of power you save won’t pay you back until some time in the distant future.

Verdict

All four Terabyte drives in this round-up offer a colossal amount of storage at a very reasonable price. The Hitachi is showing its age but still delivers decent performance, but we were less convinced by the green power saving features of the Western digital. If you want high performance – and who doesn’t? - it’s a straight fight between the Seagate and Samsung, and on balance we favour the Sammy despite its higher price.

More comments…