Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 500 GB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive WDG1U5000

From Western Digital
	Price: $329.99
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Features - Store and back up your music, photos, videos and important documents with this external hard drive - Easy to set up and use with built-in installation software - Simple user interface features USB 2.0 connectivity - Device holds up to 500 GB of data - Measures 5.55 x 2.25 x 6.71 inches (WxHxD) Product Description Small, simple, elegant, and very easy to use. Just plug it in, and you've got plenty of room to back up and save your valuable data, music, photos, and movies. Amazon.com Product Description Amazon.com Product Description Is your computer loaded with photos, music, video, and all sorts of important files? If so, you should make extra room, back them up, and keep them safe on Western Digital's WDG1U5000 My Book Essential Edition 500 GB Hard Drive. This reliable, easy-to-use external hard drive is the perfect storage solution for all your precious digital assets. Save and back up all your digital assets with the My Book Essential Edition Hard Drive. View larger. Simple, easy-to-use design. Connects to your computer via USB 2.0 interface. View larger. The elegant case takes up very little space. Installation is a breeze because you don't really "install" anything -- just plug it in and it's ready to use. There is not even an installation CD because all the included software loads automatically from the hard drive the first time you plug it in. The My Book Essential is all about simplicity. Just plug it into your computer's USB 2.0 port and you're ready to start saving and backing up your files. But that's not all. Western Digital uses a smart design to make the My Book Essential look as good as it performs. The elegant case resembles a book and takes up very little space on your desk. Plus, it stacks horizontally and allows two or more drives to nestle neatly together like encyclopedias on a shelf. Inside the stylish exterior is an exceptionally fast, ultra-quiet, cool-running hard drive. Last but not least, the My Book Essential is equipped with free Google software that searches your drives, manages your photos, and simplifies Web searches. My Book Essential Edition Hard Drives are ideal for: Simple add-on storage for your files, music, photos and movies Adding virtually unlimited storage with multiple USB 2.0 external hard drives Archiving the music stored on your MP3 player Adding plenty of space for digital video capture and editing Saving and organizing your digital photo collection Note: For higher performance and automatic backup software, consider the My Book Premium Edition 500 GB Hard Drive. What's in the Box My Book Essential 500 GB USB 2.0 external hard drive, USB cable, AC adapter with power cord, and quick install guide. Customer Reviews Simple, Quiet, Well Constructed Drive!! Date: 2006-05-14 | Rating: 5 I was looking for a 300GB+ External hard-drive to backup my data, photos, music and home-videos. I wanted a rugged drive as I was planning to keep the drive off-site and transport it back & forth for monthly backups. I evaluated LaCie, Seagate and other alternatives on the market and found the My Book has comparable or better specs and was aesthetically more pleasing than most. I also liked the simplicity and the concept of the My Book. The footprint is also among the smallest in the industry for a 500GB drive. The drive looks sleek and is not intrusive or odd on a desk. The casing is made of hard plastic. It looks and feels rugged. The drive has "morse-code" vents which, beside looking funky, help keep the drive extremely cool. Drive operation is extremely quiet. When placed vertically there are 2 rubber strips on the bottom to prevent the drive from sliding or vibrating. Multiple drives can also be stacked on their sides - rubber feet are included. The setup is pretty simple, just plug-in the power and connect the USB cable. Windows XP recognizes and sets up the drive quickly. Look for the drive under "My Computer" - you're up and running!! The drive comes pre-formatted as FAT32. You can reformat it to NTFS with relative ease under Win XP. There is some included Google software which you can copy to your local machine or download from Google.com. The drive switches on and shuts down with your computer. You can also turn the drive on/off via a large button which is surrounded by the green indicator. The only thing I miss is the WD Backup software - which seems to be bundled as an incentive with the Premium My Book drive. Another feature that people might miss is the "One-touch Backup" button offered by competitors. Overall, I'm very pleased with this drive!! This is my second one Date: 2006-12-20 | Rating: 5 I spent the past year digitizing my CD collection and when I outgrew my 200 gig internal hard drive I decided to go the external route. The My Book was a good choice. The drive is extremely quiet, takes up very little space, and does not get hot in normal use. I really like that the drive is smart enough to automatically go into stand-by when you turn off your P.C. The first thing you will want to do if you buy one is to delete the junk software that comes preinstalled on the disc. The second thing is to reformat the drive to use the NTFS file system, which is more reilable than FAT 32. The drive is not a speed demon but is more than adequate for streaming music. I recently bought a second one to backup the first. Unless you need the Firewire port, the Essential Edition should be adequate. WD My Book 500GB USB 2.0 - a GREAT BUY! Date: 2007-05-31 | Rating: 5 I own five WD External drives and have not had any issues with any of them (the oldest is over 5 years old, is connected 24x7x365, and it's still working fine). My most recent two purchases have been a: "Western Digital My Book Essential 500GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive - 7200rpm" and a "Western Digital My Book 500GB Premium ES Edition Hard Drive - 7200rpm USB 2.0 & eSATA Dual Interface External Hard Drive" The "WD My Book Essential 500GB USB 2.0 Ext HD" - just has a UDB 2.0 connector (no eSATA or Firewire) but it works great and if you shop the sales, the price for 500 GB can be close to $100-140 (summer 2007). The "WD My Book 500GB Premium ES Edition HD" has both a USB 2.0 & eSATA connector on the back (use either one). Note, not many PCs today (2007) have an eSATA port on them. ESATA is faster than USB 2.0, but if you don't have a connector for that externally on your PC, then don't pay extra for it. (You can get after market external eSATA ports for a PC but there are different kinds, and depending on your PC, you need to get the 'right kind' for your PC, assuming you even have room in your PC to add one). Both of these drives came with easy to install instructions - just plug in the power, and then connect them to your PC, and away you go. Both came with USB 2.0 cables. The Premium ES Edition with eSATA did 'NOT' come with an eSATA cable. Both came with their own power cords - nice long ones too. Neither of these two can be connected directly to a network, but if your PCs are part of a home network, or small business type network, as mine are, then I just plug them into one of the main PCs and I put a "share" on the drive so that any PC on my network can access it. If you have important information on your PC, back it up! And if you are like me, previously my backups were stored right next to my PC (not good!) So, now, I use one of these 500 GB drives as the primary backup drive for my PCs, and I keep that right next to one of my PCs. But then weekly, I use the other 500 GB drive to backup the backup drive - and then I keep that one in a fireproof / waterproof safe. You can get these for $30-100, depending on their size, at office stores or online. I like the Sentry line of products. No Problems Date: 2007-04-23 | Rating: 5 I got this drive because my 250 GB version was getting close to being full. So now I use this as my primary data storage drive and leave it in all the time and use my 2-250 GB as backup drives and unplug them when not in use. I have had this drive for about 6 months now and it has never given me any problems and I have had the 2-Western Digital WDG1U2500 My Book Essential Edition 250 GB Hard Drive for over a year with no problems. They are pretty small and fit nicely on a shelf near my computer and I can't even tell they are running over the computer fan so they are pretty quite. External hard drives are much better than internal, if your computer dies you still have everything right there and can plug it into another computer any time you want without opening it up, ripping things apart, setting jumpers etc. So if you are looking for a small, reliable, quite external drive, look no further. I'm Very Pleased Date: 2007-05-06 | Rating: 5 I got it, plugged it in, and without any wait, I started saving my data from my overloaded pc into this external hard drive without any problems. It runs cooler than most other external hard drives, and I can hardly hear it working. It must be reformatted to NTFS in order to take advantage of its large capacity, and that is no problem, either.