After my dad dropped my old External HDD , a Western Digital 3200AAK, he offered to buy me a new one. It wasn’t hard to choose a new one. I got the Western Digital Elements 1TB, which is a major upgrade from my past External HDD (my dad is a bit dumb when it comes to that, as he sworn me that I wouldn’t be getting a better drive than what I already had). Today, after a few days of use, I’ll talk about the ins and the outs of this product. (Inside) the Box: The box didn’t look half bad, though it wasn’t anything special either. I remember unboxing my brand new Nintendo Wii a few years ago. That was exciting. But I’m going off -topic. On the box we find the standard specifications and some features this tiny thing has. Yes, tiny, this thing is a 2.5” drive in a slightly bigger case. It doesn’t need a powercord, which is a plus, as my dad killed the drive by running into the powercord and dropping the drive. Here are the pics of the unboxing: Best installation guide ever(?): PLEASE NOTE: Sorry for the bad picture quality, but I didn’t have any camera’s available, apart from my iPod Touch 4g. Up Close: This drive looks quite good, actually it looks really good! It’s small, elegant and plain. It features the typical WD look, about the same as my old drive, but in a smaller form factor. One major plus is the fact that it only requires an USB Cable. After looking at it for a bit, I already found one con: it has an incredibly short USB cable. Of course shorter cables make it faster, but now it has to stand on top of my PC rather than on my desk, which I would’ve preferred. People who have their PC on their desk won’t be bothered by this. Specifications: This thing features a 2.5” small formfactor drive, and has 1TB of storage room. (actually 932GB, but still enough). On the back it has a strange port which I’ve never seen before, in which you put the USB cable. It also has a funky little white LED on the back which flashes when it’s on. Downside is that it starts flashing when the drive is connected to your PC but the PC is powered off. My wall reflected that light and it’s incredibly annoying when you’re trying to sleep. Performance: To test the performance, I used crystal disk mark. The thing pumps about the same speeds as my old External HDD, without better performance on. Note that the test is done on USB 2.0. I haven’t tested the drive with Better Performance on, but my old drive got about 5MB/s faster, so I expect it to be the same for this drive. Quite a nice performer if you’d ask me, and that for €69. It’s one of the cheapest 1TB External HDDs from a decent brand. Because IMO WD is the only way to go when it comes to HDDs. Conclusion: This thing is a solid performer with some minor cons. It’s relatively cheap and offers enough space to put a lot of games, movies or pictures on it. At least I’m already noticing I have too much space, I’m downloading games I can’t even run (F2P games, not illegal no ). If you’re in the market for an External HDD, this is the way to go IMO. I really, really, really like this drive. The pros outweigh the cons for me, and I’m glad that my dad dropped my old drive. Dad, if you're reading this, I would really appreciate it if you would drop my old TV. Pros: - Doesn’t require an powercord - Relatively cheap - Enough storage room - Solid performer Cons: - Annoying LED on the back - Short USB cable. 8.0/10