Western Digital My Book External Hard Drive
The WD My Book External Hard Drive stores, carries and protects all the sensitive data in its massive storage devices available in capacities of 2, 3, 4, 6, and eight terabytes options; this is convenient enough for backing up videos, music, documents, and photos.
Its key features include automatic backup software that runs quietly in the background utilizing negligible resources from the PC. It also has a system-level backup which saves the whole operating system, settings, applications, and files.
On top of all My Book offers universal connectivity with its USB 3.0 connectivity. Not only is the speed super fast but also provides an improved power management. It is also backwards compatible with USB 2.0.
Design
The My Book is available in five models of different capacities of 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8 TB that is both well-suited for Mac and Windows. The dimensions are 49mm by 139.3mm by 170.6mm and weighs just about 1.2Kg.
The My Book has a simple straight forward design with only a tiny white light on the front side that acts as both the power and activity indicator. The drive comes in handy with a Mini USB 3.0 cable, a two port PCI Express add-in card, a software CD, a power adapter and a well-illustrated setup guide.
Performance
The device is a desktop type external hard drive and can manage interface speeds of 5Gbps. The expansion and connectivity interface available is only one USB 3.0- 10 pin Micro- USB Type B.
The Operating System supported are Microsoft Windows Vista / XP / 7 and later versions of Windows. The average operating temperatures vary depending on the intensity of usage ranging from a minimum of 5 degrees Celsius to 35 degrees Celsius; this is a favorable operating temperature even under extended heavy loads operations. Moreover, the My Book operates very quietly.
The read and write speed vary depending on the connection type and user’s computer. When using a USB 3.0 connection; the drive can attain speeds of up to 59 MB/s for Writing and 75 MB/s for reading. However when connected through the USB 2.0 it registers speeds of 24 MB/s for writing and 31 MB/s for reading. These rates are relatively good among external hard drives based on USB 2.0.
Usability
Well, the My Book is very ideal for connectivity. The external hard drive always protects data through an unremitting and automatic backup. Also, it secures private data with a password protection and 256bit AES hardware encryption.
There is also a Kensington security slot, located on the back of the drive, which provides additional security for your drive. This security slot enables you to physically bind the hard drive to something, the removal of which would cause extensive damage to the drive.
Bundled software isn’t the most intuitive. WD has five different programs: WD Security, WD Drive Unlocker, WD Drive Utilities, WD SmartWare and WD Quick View. All these programs have to be used and even updated separately. Worth noting that WD software allows you to save multiple copies of a file, up to 25 different versions.
WD My Book, even if it is pre-formatted as NTFS, can be reformatted to work with OS X. For directions on how to do that, take a look at this helpful article.
Among the user reviews on the Amazon shopping site, most users are satisfied enough to rate the device at 5 out of 5. However, a couple of other users are not so pleased with the device. A particular customer whines about the WD SMARTWARE software using all resources of the CPU at 100% hence, nothing else runs on his PC; this happened after only a few months of use.
Another user’s My Book died after several months of use and even though he got a replacement under warranty, the second one also died and was unable to recover the data; the drive could also not repair nor reformat becoming completely useless.
Customers with Mac and Windows 7 have reported some issues e.g. incompatibility of 2TB drive with windows 7 system but this issue is common with drives of 2TB storage capacity. According to experts, for higher storage external drives, this issue does not exist.
My Book has an overall rating score of 3.8 stars out of 5 stars, a factor that may lead to considering other external hard drive options.
Western Digital My Book External Hard Drive in external raid system performance test…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swmno9M9MzY
Final Thoughts
The Western Digital My Book External Hard Drive meets the needs of ease of use, security and an elegant design equally. All the content that is stored on the drive is guarded by hardware encryption and a secure password. All in all, the Western Digital My Book External Hard Drive is recommended for desktop users as notebook users can find better available devices on the market.
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