Western Digital hard drives compatible with Vista?

Hi everyone, I'm using Vista home premium 32bit SP2 and also have 3 Western Digital my book hard drives. The ones I have are old versions but now there are new version drives so if I buy the new drives will they be compatible with Vista?

The older version drives which I have work fine with Vista. They are ones linked below.

My Book – High Capacity External Hard Drive | Western Digital (WD)

I want to know if the newer version drives will work with Vista? They are linked below.

My Book - External Hard Drive | Western Digital (WD)

 

I want to know if the newer version drives will work with Vista?

Vista will work with the drives IF the drives are set up in a fashion that Vista understands.

There are TWO major types of PC drive interfaces these days. The traditional form assumes a hard drive
split up into 1 to 4 partitions, with a Master Boot Record (MBR) at the front of the disk (i.e., the first most
outermost sector of the first platter of the drive) to hold the description of how the drive is laid out. This is
the form hard drives had from roughly 1980 onward, and it's what Vista assumes when it is being installed
to a disk.

The second form, identified by terms such as GPT and UEFI, is more general. A GPT drive can be split
into an arbitrary number of partitions. It's possible to link together several non-contiguous partitions and
regard them as one drive. This isn't because the drive itself is so special, it's because the BIOS that
determines how the drive is used is different. Windows 7 and 8 and 10 and modern versions of Linux
assume they are installed on hard drives with such a BIOS -- identified as UEFI. Not that it makes them
more difficult for ordinary mortals to use -- Windows 7 and 10 users still find their operating systems on
drive C, and move files about other drives just as before; the visible user interface hasn't changed.

So. Vista wants an old fashioned hard drive setup. If you've got an old computer with say a 1 terabyte
disk, split up in two or three or four partitions, this is what you've got. Be happy! If you've got something
more exotic ... maybe you'll have problems. Maybe not. Perhaps you have a UEFI BIOS. This makes
Vista barf if you're using its capabilities, but if you simply pretend you've got an old style system when you
set your computer up, using no more than four partitions per drive, the UEFI BIOS will perform exactly as
an old style BIOS would. Vista will see the PC as "normal" and install happily and run perfectly well, The
only real problem you might encounter is that Vista can't install on a hard drive greater than 2 terabytes
in size -- and we live in an age in which larger disks are common (which helps explain why GPT drives
and UEFI BIOD's have become common).

Anyhow. I have Vista on a partition on a 1 terabyte disk, with several other 2 and 4 terabyte disks in
the PC. and things work well. So, it is possible.