Western Digital external drives have DRM can't play Impulse Tracker files!!

[amesie2]

Just read about WD drives and their DRM push.

Check it out here, evidentally you can't share a bunch of files over a network from this drive including old Impulse Tracker files.

This is just crazy!!

Almost forgot you can Google western Digital DRM for more info.

[orange]

that was discussed on slashdot. you can save whatever file you want, just sharing over Internet is disabled

[hamtronix]

Dont support a company like that.

[A1260]

wasnt it just the software that did come with this hd that did have drm?... if so just format the darn hd and everything will be fine...

[Piru]

Interestingly they also block Oktalyzer modules. That actually is amiga format (.it is pc).

[motorollin]

Oh great, more organisations trying to tell us what to do with our data :roll:

--
moto

[Linde]

Did they even research the formats they banned or did they just pick some randomly? I mean, IT modules (and oktalyzer! WTF!) are usually freely distributable.

[pyrre]

Aa far as I can tell.... this is only the case if you use the "WD Anywhere Access" software that comes with the drive...

Normally... when connecting a disk drive to a PC it is windows that controls the resources. However, using a third party program like WD Anywhere Access would change some of those rules...

Just don't use the software... Or better. don't use WD disks...
I was a BIGTIME fan of WD before. But by comparing different disk drives from other vendors... WD really has nothing to offer that is better than other disks.
WD uses smaller cache on most of their disks. And never made pATA 133, they stuck with ATA 100...
(for those still using these drives...)

One exception may be the raptor disks.
However i have not tried/tested them...

[Trev]

@pyrre

ATA/133 was a proprietary stopgap technology developed by Maxtor, which Seagate now owns. Everyone else moved to SATA.

@all

Yet another example of the entertainment industry wanting to control access to media. They pressure technology companies into releasing stupid products that infringe upon consumer rights, and it has nothing to do with copyrights or protecting intellectual property. It's all about creating monopolies, which is, of course, the goal of every successful business. They just hide it behind terms like "market share" and "market penetration."

[pyrre]

I have no idea, I only use(d) maxtor.
In fact all my disks in the PC is maxtor...

[Trev]

Drives are drives these days. In the desktop market, it's Hitachi, Seagate, or Western Digital, and all are comparably priced with similar warranties and performance charactersitics. It's only silly stuff like this file sharing limitation that separates one vendor from the next.

And what's with all the "SCSI's dead" talk I keep seeing on Amiga and Apple sites? Seriously, SATA is still playing catch up to features SCSI has had for years. (We'll stay aware from FC and other options for the moment.) Primarily though, I think the differences are akin to what Intel, AMD, and others do with chips. The good parts go in the SCSI drives, and the good-enough parts go in the ATA drives.

Trev