Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 160 GB External Hard Drive WDH1U1600N

From Western Digital
	Price: $94.99
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Features - Box Contents - External hard drive, USB cable, AC adapter and Quick Install Guide - Easy to set up, easy to use - Installation is a snap because you don't really install this drive, you just plug it in and it's ready to use - USB 2.0 interface - A simple connection that offers convenience and compatibility among multiple computers - Fits right in - Takes no more space than a paperback book - Smart and energy efficient - Turns itself on and off with your computer Product Description They're your photos...your music...your videos... your important files. Make extra room for them and keep them safe on My Book Essential Edition USB 2.0 external hard drive from WD . Easy to set up, easy to use - this drive is all about simplicity. Plug it into your computer's USB 2.0 port and start saving. It's so simple and integrated that the drive even turns on and off with your computer. With just the essential features for add-on storage it's perfect for all your precious digital assets. Customer Reviews Great Hard Drive, Great Price Date: 2008-03-25 | Rating: 5 I have had this for over three weeks now, and the hard drive is great. No set up, at all. No disk to put in or anything. Just plug it in and your ready to go. It has some free trial software that comes with it, but I recomend not installing it and just backing up manually or using an anti virus program. Also, I have a Dish HD DVR and I was able to use this hard drive to expand the storage space of my cable box. This was really worth the money. I have this hard drive in a safe spot so it doesn't fall or get bumped. Im not going to test its durability, but any hard drive will become damaged if its droped so be carefull. I don't understand the bad reviews Date: 2008-07-30 | Rating: 5 I have one of these external hard drives, I received it as a gift, and I've been using it for almost two years. I connect via a USB mini cable, I run Windows XP OS. I haven't had any problems whatsoever with this hard drive. It's been working since I first plugged it in. Take it out of the box, plug in the power and connect it to the PC. I've stored large files on it even in the FAT mode. I keep ebooks, videos, movies, music and pics on it, and I use it every single day. I have no problem with the speed of downloads and transfers, and frankly I can't understand anyone who does. The only possible conclusion I can come to, is that some people are so used to instant gratification that any delay is intolerable. *Shrug* I've had no problems with the computer acknowledging the drive, it operates quietly. But then again I have mine set up on a wire rack that doesn't impede airflow around the unit. There are airflow vents even on the bottom of the casing. I can touch it right now and it's cool to the touch. If you've got one set up on a solid surface you're blocking 1/3 of the cooling vents. I suggest investing in a small wire rack. They're cheap. It may not be sexy, but your external hard drive will thank you for it. And if you care more about how it looks than your data. Well what else is there to say? Maybe all these people with horror stories just got bad units. It happens. There are lemons in any kind of manufacturing. But I can assure you that I will be buying another one of these units to back up the one I have just in case. If you're that concerned about your data, back up your stuff on DVDs or CDs as well, and keep them in a safe location. There are no guarantees in life and that includes technology, but I've been very pleased with this hard drive. As much as I use it, you would think that if it was going to fail it would have failed already. But everything we buy does age and wear out, so before the next year is up I will be buying a new My Book to replace this one before the one I'm using wears out. Having said that, I'll say this. Recently I discovered, to my shock, that good shills, and bad shills, haunt review sites and post good things and bad things about products. This disgusts me. The whole point of reviews is to get information from other people about the product. I've seen competitors write crappy reviews and the seller shilling with good reviews. The only reviews I trust are my own because I don't spend enough time doing reviews to know who is who, I'm sure a great majority of other people don't either. Amazon needs to make people reviewing these products sign an agreement that they don't work for the selling company or a competitor and prosecute those who violate the agreement. I've gotten to the point where I don't trust the reviews here on Amazon. I just find someone I know that has one and I ask them about it. It's too bad corporate America can't produce products good enough to stand behind and feel like they have to put their employees online to tout their products. If the flipping product is good, you don't have to shill it. And I'll die a thousand deaths before I buy any product I find being sold in that manner. And I won't buy anything from a competitor that uses dirty underhanded tactics to undermine someone else's products. After all if a company engages in that kind of behavior, how are they going to treat their customers? Great price, great performance, looks sleek to boot. Date: 2008-11-21 | Rating: 5 I have been buying and using external harddrives for ages. When I shoot video, and do editing, I store the finished footage on these harddrives. When I shoot images and pictures I store backups of my raw files, and finished psds/jpg. Obviously, these files are very important to me, and thanks to past experience, I refuse to trust 1 drive to house all my important stuff. I owned another external harddrive, and it died, it was my incredible misfortune. I was switching to a new computer, and took the files off my harddrive, onto a new drive, (that I had for over a month and tested fine) and after my new computer arrived (and subsequently sold my previous computer) I went to backup my photos and the drive started smoking. I lost a whole trips worth of photos (40+gb) tons of panoramas (that I spent hours constructing) it all went to pot. I learned then, I'm never going to buy any other brand of external harddrive than a Western Digital, and I will always backup twice. I have been using WD drives for years now. I have several stored "offsite" and each one is labeled, I have a 3 ring binder that houses the index of my shoots. I can honestly say, out of 20 WD drives, only 1 has died. That might of been my fault. I usually "eject" drives, then unplug and plug the cords into another drive, I think the connection may of been weak, and it caused the drive to smoke, thus rendering it useless. This is the only case of a bad WD drive I have ever bought, and thats good odds (my other drive, was never plugged/unplugged, it just decided to smoke up, I blame bad ventilation --lacie). These WD's (especially the newer models with the blue light on top) look very sleek, you can arrange them like books. I like to put small labels on them at different areas, so I can see them from a ways back. Such as P39 For pictures 39, V12 for video 12. M02 for misc (personal stuff, like documents, themes, software, etc) and A02 for audio / video backups (bought videos and music). My 1 complaint about these drives is, the powercord. Specifically the plug that you plug into your AC adapter. The problem is it is so large that it easily takes up 2-3 spots on my AC adapter, meaning 1 ac adapter capable of holding 12 devices, can fit about 3 of these. Luckily, I researched this when I moved, and decided upon buying one of these devices: Power Sentry 5-Outlet PowerSquid Power Multiplier Power Sentry 5-Outlet PowerSquid Surge Suppressor Power Squid with 5 Outlets - White With these, it eliminates that problem. One of the great things about these drives are, they all use the same connectors. If you have an older model WD drive, it uses a bigger USB cord, but the power cord is backwards compatible, so you do not need to plug in a new power cord to read your previous devices. I have a WD drive (older model, several years old, several years abused) that I use as my computer backup drive, it is on all the time, and never gives me an issue. I used to work in IT, and when I was building computers all the time, I always choose WD drives. This lead to me one day buying a "mybook" over buying an external case and putting in a harddrive like I used to. I haven't regretted it yet. Remember, the drive may die on you one day. The best things to do is either not use it all the time, only plug it in to get new data off the drive, or backup. Or if your getting it for extra space on your laptop, get 2. 1 to use all the time, and leave the other for your backup. This reduces the chance that something bad will happen to you. Again, out of all the drives available here on amazon, I cannot recommend one more strongly than WD, it is the only drive I spend my money on. With amazons new low price, it is worth getting the 750 (698.46 gigs of usable space) over the smaller priced 500. It is now worth it to skip the 500's completely, and go to 750s (1tbs are still to high right now). nice simplistic device-- works well, no frills, good price Date: 2007-07-10 | Rating: 5 When setting up a Windows Home Server for my growing media collection (funny how quickly your collection grows when you start archiving DVR content!) I decided to use external USB drives. After a bit of research, I decided on the MyBook Essential 500 gig unit for a couple reasons: 1.) Reasonable price, no features that I didn't need 2.) Attractive, minimalist design 3.) stacks easily I have since bought 4 of them, and plan to buy a few more. I'm very pleased... the drives have been 100% reliable despite a year of constant heavy use, and are quieter than any of the other external hard drives I own. They also generate less heat. (The other drives are Maxtor OneTouch and LaCie enclosures.) Great Price and Good Reliability Date: 2008-10-29 | Rating: 5 I have purchased four or five of this model in both the 500GB and 750GB sizes for my workplace about a year ago. I am very pleased with them so far. The are quiet and they are easy to hide away on your desk. They are easy to set up and format on OS X. As far as reliability, I haven't had any failures. They are used with desktops so they are rarely moved and that probably helps but I also have several Western Digital Passports that I use with laptops and they have proven just as reliable. Overall, I'm quite satisfied with Western Digital and would recommend them.