The Caviar SE16 WD4000KD Serial ATA hard drive was accompanied by a Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools CD. The software is available for download via WD's website so anyone can get the same software there.

The SecureConnect Cable

For many novice users, a hard drive upgrade is one of the first upgrades. It can be a complex undertaking, but with the right guidance isn't too difficult. Western Digital's packs in an Installation guide with the Lifeguard Tools CD which is easy to understand, and detailed. Illustrations clearly guide users along with all the installation steps and cable hook ups.

The Western Digital Lifeguard Tools works in Windows or DOS mode, and most options will require a reboot into DOS mode before the program can truly function. The "View Installation Tutorial" runs through physically installing an IDE or Serial ATA hard drive step by step, it has lots of pictures to help illustrate the steps. The "Set Up Your Hard Drive" option allows users to partition and format the HDD directly from the console. You do not need a WD hard disk to run through this, and non WD drives can be used with this utility.

The "Maintenance Options" allow users to update, backup or restore the hard drives master boot record. This is a very useful feature since if the boot record is lost, the data on the hard drive is pretty much toast (also see PCSTATS guide to hard drive data recovery for other options).

In the "Utilities" section users can clone partitions and entire drives. This is useful for anyone who wants to replace an existing hard drive with the operating system, with something larger. Finally in the "Hard Drive Information" section, users can get technical information on the hard drive; like number of heads, cylinders, etc.

From hardware installation to partitioning and formatting the hard drive, Western Digital does make things easier for end users by providing such software tools. The diagnostics tools are easily the most useful feature of the bunch, and can help diagnose problems if one suspects a hard drive is about to fail.

PCStats Test System Specs:

processor: amd athlon 64 4000+ clock speed: 12 x 200 mhz = 2.4 ghz motherboards: asus a8n-sli premium videocard: msi nx7800gtx-vt1d256e memory: 2x 512mb ocz gold gx pc3500 hard drives: western digital wd740 raptor western digital wd4000kd caviar se16 cdrom: aopen dvd-rw/cd-rw combo drive powersupply: pc power & cooling 510 sli software setup windowsxp build 2600 nforce4 6.53 forceware 78.01 benchmarks business winstone 2004 sisoft sandra 2005 hdtach 3.0.1.0 pcmark04 pcmark05