January 2010

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 640 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive WDH1U6400N

From Western Digital

Price:	~~$119.99~~

Accessories
- Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition FULL VERSION with SP2
- Microsoft Outlook 2007
- AmazonBasics IEEE 1394 4-Pin/6-Pin FireWire Cable (6 Feet / 1.8 Meters) [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]
- AmazonBasics USB 2.0 A-Male to Mini-B Cable (6 Feet / 1.8 Meters) [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]
- AmazonBasics USB 2.0 A-Male to B-Male Cable (6 Feet / 1.8 Meters) [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]

Features
- Includes - External hard drive, USB cable, AC adapter and Quick Install Guide
- Smart and energy efficient - Turns itself on and off with your computer
- Save and organize your digital photo collection
- USB 2.0 Serial Bus Transfer Rate - 480 Mbits/s
- System Requirements - Available USB port, Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later

Product Description
Are you running out of hard drive capacity? Do you need to archive some important digital documents, photos, or music? This elegant external hard drive, reminiscent of a book, is the perfect solution. It takes no more space than a paperback book. Collect two or more and they nest neatly together like volumes on a shelf.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.

Customer Reviews

A data center on a shelf
Date: 2008-02-04 | Rating: 5
It is very hard to argue with the amount of storage that one of these drives offer. If you have been in the industry for awhile, you can remember when a terabyte of data meant an entire data center of storage! These drives are quite and they format to NTFS quickly as long as you remember to specify quick format!! I have been pleased enough with the drive that I now own 6 of them. My laptop now has 6 terabyte of storage to work with! Since I do a lot of music and video work, that is important to me. Considering the fact that these drives now run about $229 when on sale, why would you not buy one? Keep in mind that if you connect multiple drives, you will want to use different controlled ports on your computer; not just a USB hub (the reason is each dedicated port of a USB 2.0 can only work at a total of 400 MB/S. That means if you have multiple drives on the same controlled port that they are sharing that speed (this will really show up if you are moving data from one drive to another on the same hub). Remember, having 4 ports on your computer does not mean that they are 4 seperately controlled ports! Check your users manual or call technical support for your product to see how many seperately controlled ports you really have. I have now moved all of my video, photos, and music to these drives (3 terabyte) and use the other three terabyte as mirrored drives (fail safe)and it is all easily accessable on my computer and on my network through my computer. I have had the first drive for 5 months now and have added the others as they went on sale. I have not had any boot issues (mentioned in other reviews) and all of the lights go off when the computer is powered down. I am running Vista Ultimate with all updates and I am using an IBM ThinkPad with current BIOS. Great drives!!!

Sleek and quiet
Date: 2007-10-30 | Rating: 5
My expectations were beyond met when I plugged this in. It amazes me that a 1tb external HD can be so quiet. I had returned a 1tb older version of Western digital's external HD because it sounded like a jet engine. WD clearly fixed that problem. The design is sleek and stylish, it is perfectly silent, and it transfers quickly with a 2.0 USB port. I highly recommend this product. UPDATE: I've had the product for 7 months now and I still stand by my original review. It has never given me any problems or crashed.

Plug and Play External Drive
Date: 2008-08-13 | Rating: 5
I currently have 2 terabytes of storage, 6 do-it-yourself "DIY" external drives housing various sized hard drives, and a MyBook. This review compares their performance. All drives are currently on-line connected to a 7 port USB hub. In the Box A black box housing the drive, a brick power supply, and a USB cable are key items. 2 instruction sheets, and a warranty card complete the kit. The My Book is about the size of a bible one finds in hotel and motel rooms. The drive case, power and cables leave a very clean design. All my DIY drives comes with stands, awkward sized power supplies and cable placements that are not well thought through. Installation Simple: Plug the USB cable into the MyBook, and into your PC USB port. Plug in the power supply to AC and the MyBook. The MyBook has no power switch, and turns itself on/off if the USB port is powered, when the PC is on. The drive was recognized by WinXPSP2 without a hitch, and re-formatting the drive to NTFS was easy using WinXP built in disk utilities. The drive ships with FAT32 format, which is less desirable if NTFS can be supported. I backuped the shipped "trial" utilities inside the MyBook in case they were useful; they were not, and it was not clear were it was stored: C:\Program Files\Western Digital. I used Western Digital's disk utilities that shipped with my other drives to check partitions and drive status. These programs can also be downloaded free from Western Digital's web site. Break-in The drive ran over 1 week for 24/7 for a burn in, and has done a 24 hour long disk encryption format routine. it is currently a month old running 16 hours/day. Its surprisingly silent, and runs cooler than my DIY drives. USB 2.0 Speed It has a transfer rate of 10MB/sec. This is not the raw transfer rate, but includes delay from encryption I use. This is about 6x slower than the maximum USB transfer speed of 60 MB/sec but is the same rate as my other DIY drives. Conclusion: Excellent bang for buck. The cost to build a DIY external drive today may often be more than buying a pre-made external drive. USB 2.0 transfer speeds suggests the MyBook drive is a decent speed drive. The auto on/off feature is very helpful, given most DIY kits require manual power-down. Note, there are a number of complaints about the higher end MyBook drives. The simple electronics of the low end 'Essential Edition' maybe the saving grace to this drive's performance, keep this in mind as the display boxes look the same. Further, all drives can malfunction, so a burn-in is a must to insure your drive is not among the few bad eggs.

Fantastic working and fantastic looking!
Date: 2008-01-07 | Rating: 5
I have had this hard drive for about a month now and have had no real problems with it. It is very quiet and has not had any hiccups. The only thing I have noticed may be a problem with Windows Vista. When the computer goes to sleep (hibernate and off works fine) the hard drive becomes unrecognizable when booting back up. However, all you have to do is unplug the USB port and then plug it back in and it works like a charm. Also, the drive will park itself after a while and when accessing it again it takes a few seconds for it to start running again. Other than that it works like it is supposed to. Running movies off of it works without stuttering. It also looks great. I would definitely recommend this product!

Quiet, lots of storage, good price
Date: 2007-12-26 | Rating: 5
The drive runs very quiet. It powers itself off at times of inactivity. The transfer speed is decent, can't ask for much more from a backup drive. The price is reasonable. It also comes with simple backup software right on the HD. The only minor issues I have are 1) the included mini-usb cable is about 3 feet long, and 2) when your PC is not shut off, the drive still has its light on even though it's sleeping. This light is very bright in a small room at night. Other than that, it's very easy to use: just plug-n-play.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Western Digital My Book Essential 750 GB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive WDH1U7500N

From Western Digital

Price:	~~$119.99~~

Accessories
- Built NY E-PHD-FOR Hoodie Hard Drive Case (Fiery Orange)
- Built NY E-PHD-SHS Hoodie Hard Drive Case (Soho Stripe)
- LaCie Set of 3 Sleeves for Rugged Hard Drives 130752
- Case Logic PHDC-1 Small EVA External Hard Drive Case (Blue)
- Case Logic PHDC-1 Small EVA External Hard Drive Case (Red)

Features
- Includes - External hard drive, USB cable, AC adapter and Quick Install Guide
- Smart and energy efficient - Turns itself on and off with your computer
- Saving and organizing your digital photo collection
- USB 2.0 Serial Bus Transfer Rate - 480 Mbits/s
- System Requirements - Available USB port, Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later

Product Description
Are you running out of hard drive capacity? Do you need to archive some important digital documents, photos, or music? This elegant external hard drive, reminiscent of a book, is the perfect solution. It takes no more space than a paperback book. Collect two or more and they nest neatly together like volumes on a shelf.

Customer Reviews

A data center on a shelf
Date: 2008-02-04 | Rating: 5
It is very hard to argue with the amount of storage that one of these drives offer. If you have been in the industry for awhile, you can remember when a terabyte of data meant an entire data center of storage! These drives are quite and they format to NTFS quickly as long as you remember to specify quick format!! I have been pleased enough with the drive that I now own 6 of them. My laptop now has 6 terabyte of storage to work with! Since I do a lot of music and video work, that is important to me. Considering the fact that these drives now run about $229 when on sale, why would you not buy one? Keep in mind that if you connect multiple drives, you will want to use different controlled ports on your computer; not just a USB hub (the reason is each dedicated port of a USB 2.0 can only work at a total of 400 MB/S. That means if you have multiple drives on the same controlled port that they are sharing that speed (this will really show up if you are moving data from one drive to another on the same hub). Remember, having 4 ports on your computer does not mean that they are 4 seperately controlled ports! Check your users manual or call technical support for your product to see how many seperately controlled ports you really have. I have now moved all of my video, photos, and music to these drives (3 terabyte) and use the other three terabyte as mirrored drives (fail safe)and it is all easily accessable on my computer and on my network through my computer. I have had the first drive for 5 months now and have added the others as they went on sale. I have not had any boot issues (mentioned in other reviews) and all of the lights go off when the computer is powered down. I am running Vista Ultimate with all updates and I am using an IBM ThinkPad with current BIOS. Great drives!!!

Sleek and quiet
Date: 2007-10-30 | Rating: 5
My expectations were beyond met when I plugged this in. It amazes me that a 1tb external HD can be so quiet. I had returned a 1tb older version of Western digital's external HD because it sounded like a jet engine. WD clearly fixed that problem. The design is sleek and stylish, it is perfectly silent, and it transfers quickly with a 2.0 USB port. I highly recommend this product. UPDATE: I've had the product for 7 months now and I still stand by my original review. It has never given me any problems or crashed.

Plug and Play External Drive
Date: 2008-08-13 | Rating: 5
I currently have 2 terabytes of storage, 6 do-it-yourself "DIY" external drives housing various sized hard drives, and a MyBook. This review compares their performance. All drives are currently on-line connected to a 7 port USB hub. In the Box A black box housing the drive, a brick power supply, and a USB cable are key items. 2 instruction sheets, and a warranty card complete the kit. The My Book is about the size of a bible one finds in hotel and motel rooms. The drive case, power and cables leave a very clean design. All my DIY drives comes with stands, awkward sized power supplies and cable placements that are not well thought through. Installation Simple: Plug the USB cable into the MyBook, and into your PC USB port. Plug in the power supply to AC and the MyBook. The MyBook has no power switch, and turns itself on/off if the USB port is powered, when the PC is on. The drive was recognized by WinXPSP2 without a hitch, and re-formatting the drive to NTFS was easy using WinXP built in disk utilities. The drive ships with FAT32 format, which is less desirable if NTFS can be supported. I backuped the shipped "trial" utilities inside the MyBook in case they were useful; they were not, and it was not clear were it was stored: C:\Program Files\Western Digital. I used Western Digital's disk utilities that shipped with my other drives to check partitions and drive status. These programs can also be downloaded free from Western Digital's web site. Break-in The drive ran over 1 week for 24/7 for a burn in, and has done a 24 hour long disk encryption format routine. it is currently a month old running 16 hours/day. Its surprisingly silent, and runs cooler than my DIY drives. USB 2.0 Speed It has a transfer rate of 10MB/sec. This is not the raw transfer rate, but includes delay from encryption I use. This is about 6x slower than the maximum USB transfer speed of 60 MB/sec but is the same rate as my other DIY drives. Conclusion: Excellent bang for buck. The cost to build a DIY external drive today may often be more than buying a pre-made external drive. USB 2.0 transfer speeds suggests the MyBook drive is a decent speed drive. The auto on/off feature is very helpful, given most DIY kits require manual power-down. Note, there are a number of complaints about the higher end MyBook drives. The simple electronics of the low end 'Essential Edition' maybe the saving grace to this drive's performance, keep this in mind as the display boxes look the same. Further, all drives can malfunction, so a burn-in is a must to insure your drive is not among the few bad eggs.

Fantastic working and fantastic looking!
Date: 2008-01-07 | Rating: 5
I have had this hard drive for about a month now and have had no real problems with it. It is very quiet and has not had any hiccups. The only thing I have noticed may be a problem with Windows Vista. When the computer goes to sleep (hibernate and off works fine) the hard drive becomes unrecognizable when booting back up. However, all you have to do is unplug the USB port and then plug it back in and it works like a charm. Also, the drive will park itself after a while and when accessing it again it takes a few seconds for it to start running again. Other than that it works like it is supposed to. Running movies off of it works without stuttering. It also looks great. I would definitely recommend this product!

Quiet, lots of storage, good price
Date: 2007-12-26 | Rating: 5
The drive runs very quiet. It powers itself off at times of inactivity. The transfer speed is decent, can't ask for much more from a backup drive. The price is reasonable. It also comes with simple backup software right on the HD. The only minor issues I have are 1) the included mini-usb cable is about 3 feet long, and 2) when your PC is not shut off, the drive still has its light on even though it's sleeping. This light is very bright in a small room at night. Other than that, it's very easy to use: just plug-n-play.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Western Digital My Book Essential 500 GB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive WDH1U5000N

From Western Digital

Price:	~~$99.99~~

Accessories
- Case Logic Compact Portable Hard Drive Case (Black)
- Kroo 11131-132 2-in-1 Silicone Case for Western Digital My Passport Portable Hard Drive (Red/Blue)
- Caselogic Neoprene Portable Hard Drive Case (Black)
- Speck Products Skin Pro Western Digital My Passport Case for Essential and Elite Portable Hard Drives (Black)
- Built NY E-PHD-FOR Hoodie Hard Drive Case (Fiery Orange)

Features
- Sold Individually
- Smart and energy efficient - Turns itself on and off with your computer
- Saving and organizing your digital photo collection
- USB 2.0 Serial Bus Transfer Rate - 480 Mbits/s
- System Requirements - Available USB port, Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later

Product Description
Are you running out of hard drive capacity? Do you need to archive some important digital documents, photos, or music? This elegant external hard drive, reminiscent of a book, is the perfect solution. It takes no more space than a paperback book. Collect two or more and they nest neatly together like volumes on a shelf.cent of a book, is the perfect solution. It takes no more space than a paperback book. Collect two or more and they nest neatly together like volumes on a shelf.

Customer Reviews

A data center on a shelf
Date: 2008-02-04 | Rating: 5
It is very hard to argue with the amount of storage that one of these drives offer. If you have been in the industry for awhile, you can remember when a terabyte of data meant an entire data center of storage! These drives are quite and they format to NTFS quickly as long as you remember to specify quick format!! I have been pleased enough with the drive that I now own 6 of them. My laptop now has 6 terabyte of storage to work with! Since I do a lot of music and video work, that is important to me. Considering the fact that these drives now run about $229 when on sale, why would you not buy one? Keep in mind that if you connect multiple drives, you will want to use different controlled ports on your computer; not just a USB hub (the reason is each dedicated port of a USB 2.0 can only work at a total of 400 MB/S. That means if you have multiple drives on the same controlled port that they are sharing that speed (this will really show up if you are moving data from one drive to another on the same hub). Remember, having 4 ports on your computer does not mean that they are 4 seperately controlled ports! Check your users manual or call technical support for your product to see how many seperately controlled ports you really have. I have now moved all of my video, photos, and music to these drives (3 terabyte) and use the other three terabyte as mirrored drives (fail safe)and it is all easily accessable on my computer and on my network through my computer. I have had the first drive for 5 months now and have added the others as they went on sale. I have not had any boot issues (mentioned in other reviews) and all of the lights go off when the computer is powered down. I am running Vista Ultimate with all updates and I am using an IBM ThinkPad with current BIOS. Great drives!!!

Sleek and quiet
Date: 2007-10-30 | Rating: 5
My expectations were beyond met when I plugged this in. It amazes me that a 1tb external HD can be so quiet. I had returned a 1tb older version of Western digital's external HD because it sounded like a jet engine. WD clearly fixed that problem. The design is sleek and stylish, it is perfectly silent, and it transfers quickly with a 2.0 USB port. I highly recommend this product. UPDATE: I've had the product for 7 months now and I still stand by my original review. It has never given me any problems or crashed.

Plug and Play External Drive
Date: 2008-08-13 | Rating: 5
I currently have 2 terabytes of storage, 6 do-it-yourself "DIY" external drives housing various sized hard drives, and a MyBook. This review compares their performance. All drives are currently on-line connected to a 7 port USB hub. In the Box A black box housing the drive, a brick power supply, and a USB cable are key items. 2 instruction sheets, and a warranty card complete the kit. The My Book is about the size of a bible one finds in hotel and motel rooms. The drive case, power and cables leave a very clean design. All my DIY drives comes with stands, awkward sized power supplies and cable placements that are not well thought through. Installation Simple: Plug the USB cable into the MyBook, and into your PC USB port. Plug in the power supply to AC and the MyBook. The MyBook has no power switch, and turns itself on/off if the USB port is powered, when the PC is on. The drive was recognized by WinXPSP2 without a hitch, and re-formatting the drive to NTFS was easy using WinXP built in disk utilities. The drive ships with FAT32 format, which is less desirable if NTFS can be supported. I backuped the shipped "trial" utilities inside the MyBook in case they were useful; they were not, and it was not clear were it was stored: C:\Program Files\Western Digital. I used Western Digital's disk utilities that shipped with my other drives to check partitions and drive status. These programs can also be downloaded free from Western Digital's web site. Break-in The drive ran over 1 week for 24/7 for a burn in, and has done a 24 hour long disk encryption format routine. it is currently a month old running 16 hours/day. Its surprisingly silent, and runs cooler than my DIY drives. USB 2.0 Speed It has a transfer rate of 10MB/sec. This is not the raw transfer rate, but includes delay from encryption I use. This is about 6x slower than the maximum USB transfer speed of 60 MB/sec but is the same rate as my other DIY drives. Conclusion: Excellent bang for buck. The cost to build a DIY external drive today may often be more than buying a pre-made external drive. USB 2.0 transfer speeds suggests the MyBook drive is a decent speed drive. The auto on/off feature is very helpful, given most DIY kits require manual power-down. Note, there are a number of complaints about the higher end MyBook drives. The simple electronics of the low end 'Essential Edition' maybe the saving grace to this drive's performance, keep this in mind as the display boxes look the same. Further, all drives can malfunction, so a burn-in is a must to insure your drive is not among the few bad eggs.

Fantastic working and fantastic looking!
Date: 2008-01-07 | Rating: 5
I have had this hard drive for about a month now and have had no real problems with it. It is very quiet and has not had any hiccups. The only thing I have noticed may be a problem with Windows Vista. When the computer goes to sleep (hibernate and off works fine) the hard drive becomes unrecognizable when booting back up. However, all you have to do is unplug the USB port and then plug it back in and it works like a charm. Also, the drive will park itself after a while and when accessing it again it takes a few seconds for it to start running again. Other than that it works like it is supposed to. Running movies off of it works without stuttering. It also looks great. I would definitely recommend this product!

Quiet, lots of storage, good price
Date: 2007-12-26 | Rating: 5
The drive runs very quiet. It powers itself off at times of inactivity. The transfer speed is decent, can't ask for much more from a backup drive. The price is reasonable. It also comes with simple backup software right on the HD. The only minor issues I have are 1) the included mini-usb cable is about 3 feet long, and 2) when your PC is not shut off, the drive still has its light on even though it's sleeping. This light is very bright in a small room at night. Other than that, it's very easy to use: just plug-n-play.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Western Digital My Book World Edition 4 TB (2 x 2 TB) Network Attached Storage WDH2NC40000N (White)

From Western Digital

Price:	~~$599.99~~

Accessories
- Mack 3 Year for External Storage Device / Hard Drive, for Items with a Retail Value of up to $500.00.
- Sandisk 64GB SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash Card, 90MB/s (SDCFXP-064G-A91)
- SanDisk 32GB Extreme Pro CF memory card - UDMA 90MB/s 600x (SDCFXP-032G-A91, US Retail Package)
- Western Digital My Book World Edition II - 2 TB (2 x 1 TB) Network Attached Storage WDH2NC20000N (White)

Features
- Automatic and continuous backup for all the computers on your network
- Centralize all your family¿s digital content
- Best-in-class performance ¿ cutting-edge technologies to deliver high performance read and write speeds ideal for the most demanding users.
- Built-in media server for streaming music, photos and movies to any DLNA certified multimedia device such as Playstation 3, Xbox 360, wireless digital picture frames, and connected audio receivers. DLNA 1.5 & UPnP certified.
- iTunes server support ¿ Centralize your music collection and stream to a Mac or Windows PC using iTunes software.

Product Description
Simplified set up and best-in-class performance make My Book World Edition II Home Network Storage the easy choice for centralizing data and backing up your home computers. Connect the drive to your network router and you¿re up and running in minutes. Use the included back up software to protect your family¿s PCs with automatic and continuous backup plans. Store all your digital media in one central location so everyone in the family can have access to it. Compatible with both Mac and Windows files.

Customer Reviews

Setup? What Set-up? Very Impressive NAS From Western Digital!
Date: 2009-11-17 | Rating: 5
I received my World Edition II 2 TB NAS on 11/13! Opened the box, connected it to my router, powered it up and presto, my network discovered the new drive. Very shortly afterwards, I was transferring files! (I am running Windows Vista for reference). The web setup was amazingly simple... One point of caution, the basic setup flyer that comes with the drive does not mention the username and password which are admin, admin(You can of course change these once you are logged in)... Once I logged in I was able to establish a static IP address (you have the option of DHCP but I prefer to use static IPs). The drive also comes pre-configured for RAID 1 (Mirroring) which is exactly what I wanted for secure data protection/back-up. However, if you prefer to establish RAID 0 (Striping), then it's very easy to configure (just make sure that you do this before transferring any data to the drive). RAID 1 provides a total of 1TB of effective storage and RAID 0 provides a total of 2TB of effective storage. With regard to transfer speed, I was seeing on average respectable transfer speeds of about 5 MB/sec(40 Mbps). The intitial data transfer will take a while but for ongoing access, no problem. I then loaded the backup software to my Work laptop, established a shared folder and then mapped that folder to my laptop. I then initiated the backup and a few hours later, my laptop was securely backed up to my new drive! Just for testing purposes, I disconnected this laptop from the network and updated one of my files. I then reconnected the laptop to the network and the backup software immediately recognized that a file had been changed and updated the file on the NAS!!!! How's that for secure backup! And if that wasn't enough, the backup software kept a copy of my original file along with the updated file (you can configure the software to keep multiple versions of the files when you setup your back-up plan). One other feature that is not widely advertised is the ability to setup alerts. You can configure the NAS to send an email if there are issues with the NAS (e.g drive failure, errors, etc...)! I thought that this was a pretty slick advanced feature that honestly I hope I never see in action (-: The World Edition II (WDH2NC20000N)performed very well in the following areas: - Ease Of Setup - Transfer Speed - Backup Software - Pre-Configured For RAID 1 - Web Enabled Setup/Configuration I have not explored the DLNA or Remote Web Access features but will update my review once I've explored these options. If my initial experience is any indication, I'm sure that these features will perform just as flawlessly... Overall, I'm completely happy with my purchase and very impressed. I would definitely recommend this NAS for anyone looking to provide centralized storage and security for their home network! Good luck with your purchase. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ UPDATE: 12/18/2009 I've recently purchased a Playstation 3 and I'm using it as a media server. DLNA works flawlessly and I've been able to successfully stream music and video from my NAS to the PS3 wirelessly. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the Twonky Media Server provided by Western Digital was automatically and immediately discovered by the PS3 - no additional setup or configuration on my part. Again, very satisfied!!!

Give my computer a rest
Date: 2009-12-31 | Rating: 5
I bought this primarily for use with an WDTV and it is better than I expected, but mostly because I'm not in a rush do much. For my uses it fits like a glove. I stream MKV's over a wired network with no problem at all, with pretty high bitrates, yet no stuttering. It moves rather fast. Copying a 12-15GB movie into it takes about 25 minutes or so through a 100Mbit router (my whole network is 100Mbit, and I never find myself needing the extra bandwidth afforded by Gigabit, but if you do, beware). It does have a very nifty feature which I didn't even read very much into it. It's called the downloader: it downloads anything for you, and even allows scheduling so it doesn't hog up your bandwidth, and even does bit-torrent. You can program it for late night downloading. It downloads as fast as your internet allows, and is extremely convenient. One niggle is that it can only download to predetermined folders, but that's nitpicking. Mionet is extremely slow just as I'm sure you've read in other reviews, and it uses Java. How slow? I downloaded a song from my house to my office and it took some 5 minutes.... the song was a little over 3MB. I haven't taken the time to look into FTP'ing into it, but I will and maybe I'll update this review. Make sure it has plenty of room to breathe as it can get pretty hot and this unit has no fans. It doesn't get "original-xbox-360"-hot, that is to say, it doesn't warm up your room, but it does get hot to the touch. I haven't used the backup stuff, so I wouldn't be able to comment on it, but for use similar to mine, I highly recommend it.

Worked perfectly
Date: 2010-01-11 | Rating: 5
I have been struggling to find a good backup system for home use. With three computers to backup up on my home wired network, I tried several different hard drive backups--both being USB--but had problems with each drive freezing during the backup process. Finally, I decided to spend a little more money and buy the WD World Edition II. With a wired home network, it setup easily in my closet with my network router. I didn't want to use the RAID1 mirrored setting as I preferred to have the additional capacity. It was easy to change the configuration to RAID0 stripped to access the total 2T storage capacity. Software set up was easy. WD Anywhere Backup was customizable. The backup started immediately and worked perfectly. It took almost all day to backup all three computers, but systems did not freeze and were completed without errors. Now the data will be backed up automatically. Have not tried to access data remotely yet. Good product that fit my needs. If you are considering this product, I would encourage you to go to their website and review the manual to make sure it would fit your needs.

Quiet & easy to implement
Date: 2010-01-15 | Rating: 5
This is my 4th WD external drive and my first WD NAS. Well-done; easy to use interface, excellent documentation, etc. Only problem I experienced was that it would not 'see' the NSLU2-formatted EXT3 drive when connected to the USB port. No worries- copied data from the EXT3 drive to another drive formatted NTFS, plugged in the NTFS drive. The drive was recognized; using the WD 'copy manager' web interface all my data was placed on the server & all's well. Very quiet unit, perhaps it has a small whisper-quiet fan in the bottom. The NSLU2 had slightly faster throughput but I needed to upgrade. The former NAS was running an older SAMBA-based OS and did not support Windows 'offline files' feature directly. The WD drive uses a newer SAMBA version and Win7 offline files sync without difficulty.

Working as planned
Date: 2009-08-31 | Rating: 5
I've been using the My Book World Edition for several weeks now and its working out just fine. It was easy to setup on 3 desktops and 2 laptops and the bundled backup software seems to be working fine. The hard drive is being utilized to store data like spreadsheets, pictures, videos, and music that can be shared across the network, and also to back up the laptops files between work and home. I haven't had any problems yet. I did have problems getting the package from the USPS. They said they attempted to deliver and that I had to pick it up at my local post office. Well, the local post office couldn't find it and then a week later it showed up on my doorstep.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Western Digital My Book Home Edition 1 TB USB 2.0/FireWire 400/eSATA Desktop External Hard Drive WDH1CS10000N

From Western Digital

Price:	~~$169.99~~

Accessories
- Case Logic Compact Portable Hard Drive Case (Black)
- Kroo Portable Hard Drive EVA Case (Black)
- AmazonBasics IEEE 1394 4-Pin/6-Pin FireWire Cable (6 Feet / 1.8 Meters) [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]
- AmazonBasics USB 2.0 A-Male to Mini-B Cable (6 Feet / 1.8 Meters) [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]
- AmazonBasics USB 2.0 A-Male to B-Male Cable (6 Feet / 1.8 Meters) [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]

Features
- Easy to set up, easy to use - Installation is a snap because you don't really install this drive
- Automatic backup - Save a copy of your photos to an online sharing service, duplicate your e-mail and contacts to your iPod
- Flexible triple interface - USB 2.0 -- For convenience and compatibility among multiple computers.
- Fits right in - Takes no more space than a paperback book. Collect two or more and they nest neatly together like volumes on a shelf.
- Capacity gauge - See at a glance how much space is available on your drive.

Product Description
Your baby's first step, your wedding in Bali, all your important milestones...all captured in digital photos and video. What could be more important? Store them safely and keep them backed up on My Book Home Edition external hard drives.

Customer Reviews

works great
Date: 2008-01-07 | Rating: 5
My drive works flawlessly. It's plugged to an Intel Mac Mini through FW. It was recognized immediately but I had to do a quick re-format to HPFS as it comes formated for Windows. No problem there, just remember to save the Windows tools which are inside the drive if you think you might need them later. I also love the fact that it doesn't have a separate power brick. The power supply is a "wall wart" that's smaller and lighter than other drive's bricks and it fits nicely in my overcrowded power strip. The drive is surprisingly quiet and has a very decent performance. The "breathing" or scrolling light effects are annoying though. A dim, discrete LED would have been better. There are lots of options out there for you to pimp your rig if you like that stuff. Still, for me it's a no brainer. Not only I'm considering getting another one as I'm recommending it to my friends. But I might get the model with FW800 this time.

Easy-to-Use. Fast. Reliable. Great Value.
Date: 2008-03-03 | Rating: 5
The Western Digital "My Book" Terra Byte external hard drive is a great value, east-to-use, and solid performer. I am using it on a home network though an HP Desktop (Pavilion 450n) as a group backup device with VISTA. The easiest thing was setting it up. Plug in the firewire (faster than the USB 2.0) and the power cable, turn it on and you're in business. VISTA recognized it immediately as an external hard drive and it was easy to access. I am using it for regular (weekly) backups of three computers on the network as a central backup device. I have found it to be fast and quiet. I am thrilled with it and highly recommend central backup - safe from any single device failing or becoming corrupted. All those wedding pictures, personal photos, financial records, etc. etc.

perfectly happy so far
Date: 2008-09-14 | Rating: 5
I have bought a few months ago a My Book 320 and I thought of getting something bigger this time. Hooked it up to my iMac intel by firewire, and like his little brother did (though through USB that one) it worked immediately. Chose it to be my Time Machine back-up drive and...voila' .... and by the way I love the ice-cold light in front, it's cool. I'm surprised that this little fella has received so many bad reviews. I was almost going to buy something else... but then I stuck to my previous positive experience with this product line and went for it. Although I bought it at Costco, just to make sure I could return it easily. ;-) So far so good and gret value for money. Maybe I am just lucky. It is clear that if so many rotten apples have been shipped out... WD should get a new quality control manager in place rather quickly!

Takes a Licking
Date: 2009-06-06 | Rating: 5
I've written about other Western Digital externals, but didn't write about the one. Perhaps I'd come to expect convenience and reliability from my external drives. This 1TB MyBook, which I purchased in December 2008, performs great; just like the 500GB Western Digital MyBook and 250GB Western Digital Dual Option externals I still use. I carry the 1TB MyBook around in my backpack and use it to back up PCs at work, home and for my family. About two weeks ago, while visiting my parents, I went back to their office to perform my usual incremental backup of their PC. I set the MyBook on the desk and ran the USB and power cords from the front of the desk to the computer and to an A/C socket. I started an incremental backup (with Acronis True Image - highly recommended) and then went under the desk to rearrange some network cables. In my haste to compete the cabling job, I bumped into one of the cables connected to the MyBook and sent it falling to the (carpeted) floor. Along with the thud, I heard the familiar Windows XP disconnect sound. The backup stopped and I figured the drive was dead. But I power cycled the drive and it connected again as if nothing happened. I erased the partial incremental backup file I had created and restarted the backup process again with no problems or complaints from Windows XP or Acronis. I have since fully scanned the file system of the MyBook with Windows Error-Checking and the drive surface with SpinRite and it checked out just fine. I'm amazed any drive can fall from this distance while writing and survive. Way to go Western Digital! This earns you 5 Amazon Stars from me. Even without this experience, this MyBook is still a fantastic package and value. The 3 ports (eSATA, Firewire and USB) offer a lot of flexibility for those needing to connect the drive to different machines, and I've found all 3 ports are reliable. The drive is quiet and the rubber feet on the bottom ensure that what little mechanical noise is present isn't amplified by the surface it sits on. The finish is matte so finger prints don't show. The external power supply is small and the drive unit does not need fans to stay cool. The drive spins down and goes into a low-power state when not used (15 minutes?). For me, saving power is a bonus, but I can imagine for some that waiting 10 seconds or so for the drive to spin up might be a problem. As I recall, this MyBook came with software on it but I didn't install it. Instead, I immediately formatted it with NTFS. NTFS is less portable than FAT32 but is more robust and recognized by Windows 2000, XP, Vista and Windows 7.

Mine worked perfectly out of the box
Date: 2007-12-06 | Rating: 5
I'm using an Intel iMac - I plugged it in, connected the firewire cable to my other external drive (a Maxtor) and it popped up on my desktop. I erased it using the Leopard Disk Utility, it was partitioned and then "Time Machine" went to work backing up my data. I must have spent a total of less than 10 minutes which included breaking into the packaging to extract the drive and its accessories (why hasn't everyone switched to packaging that doesn't require the potentially dangerous use of an exacto knife to open?). One of the reasons I switched from a PC user (for more than 20 years) to mac this year was because most everything works out of the box as advertised. I've had the harrowing experiences described above when attempting to connect external hard drives to Window's operating systems too.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Western Digital My Book World Edition 2 TB Network Attached Storage WDH1NC20000N (White)

From Western Digital

Price:	~~$299.99~~

Accessories
- Mack 3 Year for External Storage Device / Hard Drive, for Items with a Retail Value of up to $500.00.
- SanDisk Ultra Backup 64 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive SDCZ40-064G-A11
- Sandisk 64GB SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash Card, 90MB/s (SDCFXP-064G-A91)
- SanDisk 32GB Extreme Pro CF memory card - UDMA 90MB/s 600x (SDCFXP-032G-A91, US Retail Package)

Monday, January 25, 2010

Western Digital My Book Studio II - 4TB (2 x 2 TB) USB 2.0/FireWire 400/FireWire 800/eSATA Desktop External Hard WDH2Q40000N

From Western Digital

Price:	~~$549.99~~

Accessories
- AmazonBasics USB 2.0 A-Male to Mini-B Cable (6 Feet / 1.8 Meters) [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]
- AmazonBasics IEEE 1394 4-Pin/6-Pin FireWire Cable (6 Feet / 1.8 Meters) [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]
- AmazonBasics USB 2.0 A-Male to B-Male Cable (6 Feet / 1.8 Meters) [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]
- Sandisk 64GB SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash Card, 90MB/s (SDCFXP-064G-A91)
- SanDisk 32GB Extreme Pro CF memory card - UDMA 90MB/s 600x (SDCFXP-032G-A91, US Retail Package)

Features
- Performance for creative pros; Quad interface
- Formatted for Mac; RAID 1/0
- 33% power reduction

Product Description
WD's My Book Studio Edition II dual-drive, quad-interface external storage system for Mac offers optimum performance for creative professionals. Lightning-fast FireWire 800 or eSATA interfaces combined with RAID 0 (striping) yields the speed you need for fast, smooth video and audio editing, rendering complex 3D objects or special effects, and saving huge blocks of data in record time. Set the system to RAID 1 (mirroring) for the peace of mind in knowing that if one drive in this two-drive system ever fails, the system continues to run and your data is safe. Includes automatic data backup software, user-serviceability, a 5-year limited warranty, and works with Apple's Time Machine.

Customer Reviews

Expanded Back-up
Date: 2008-11-29 | Rating: 5
With the ever increasing size of my digital photo library I needed to increase the size of my back-up drive. I use this unit with a Mac and set to a RAID 1 configuration for mirrored storage. RAID 1 knocks down the usable area to 931 MB. It seems to work with Apple's Time Machine back-up program and OS 10.5. I did reformat from my Mac as I have always found I have to do for external drives. After about a month, everything seems good.

A Great Product by WD
Date: 2009-11-12 | Rating: 5
BOTTOM LINE UP FRONT: PROS- -Exactly as advertised by Western Digital -Drive/RAID Management Software is very easy to use & works well in OS X -Works very well with AirPort Extreme Base Station -Excellent as an AirDisk for Time Machine (follow process listed elsewhere in reputable Mac Forums) -Includes FireWire 800/800, FireWire 800/400, and USB A/Mini-A Cables (the FireWire Cables alone are a big plus for new Mac Owners) CONS- -Included WD Anywhere Backup is a waste of time - does not do full system backups EXCRUCIATING DETAIL: I purchased this drive to run it from an AirPort Extreme Base Station (AEBS) as a self-mirroring Network Attached Storage (NAS) volume in a mixed-platform environment (WinXP and OS X). MAC EXPERIENCE: Initial set-up was a snap by connecting the drive to a MacBook Pro via Firewire 800 and using the included drive/RAID management software to configure it to be a RAID 1 HFS+ volume. After following the processes to set this drive up as a Time Machine target, it has performed flawlessly. PLEASE NOTE: Using any drive as a Time Machine target via an AEBS IS NOT SUPPORTED BY APPLE. WinXP EXPERIENCE: This drive was made available to my Windows Platforms via an AEBS. Mounting this volume was handled automatically by AirPort Base Station Agent. PLEASE NOTE: If using this drive on an AEBS in a Windows Environment, the AirPort Base Station Agent translates HFS+ File System into FAT32 in real time. For most new applications, this will not be an issue BUT some legacy software will either hang or post an error if writing a file larger than the 4GB limit in the FAT32 specification (this happened to me with Ghost v9), but I was able to establish a workaround. OVERALL: This drive has performed HOURS of continuous READ/WRITE without any of the disconnect/dismount problems reported by other users (please see my note in the paragraph above as to my theory on why that happens). The Power Save mode is mostly transparent although there will be a minor delay as it restores itself. This is my third WD "MyBook" purchase, all of which have been dependable workhorses.

Excellent drive for use with time machine on apple OSX
Date: 2008-06-19 | Rating: 5
I bought this drive to serve as a backup disk for my iMac. Its working great, and the large capacity allows for "longer" range of backup.. I can go back over amonth and restore files long lost.

Cheap, reliable storage for Time Machine
Date: 2008-08-12 | Rating: 5
Using this drive with RAID level 1 and Time Machine is an easy way to get backup storage you can trust for the Mac. I prepared by downloading the latest driver from Western Digital and installing it instead of the driver on the CD. I turned off Time Machine so it wouldn't prompt me to use the drive the first time I plugged it in. When the drive arrived, I followed the instructions on the quick start card to change the drive to RAID level 1. (This uses the second drive for redundant storage. If a drive fails, you just pull it out and replace it, without losing data.) Then I turned on Time Machine and clicked Change Disk. The WD drives in the enclosure are WD5000AAVS "Caviar Green" drives. The rotation speed varies depending on a number of factors, mostly to save power. That's why the data sheet doesn't specify 5400 or 7200 rpm. I tested the heat issue by copying files for an hour and then opening the enclosure. The drives were almost too hot to touch. However, I don't think this is an issue in practice, since the drives don't normally need to run for such an extended period. I would rather have them quiet--and redundant.

Mac Mini Music Server eSata Modification
Date: 2009-06-16 | Rating: 5
I was a little apprehensive about buying this external hard drive because of the issues staying connected via Firewire. Well it does drop offline on occasion with Firewire or USB. (However I find this is normal with all USB/Firewire hard drive I have owned). I use my 2009 Mac Mini strictly as a music server and hooking up to eSata proved to be as reliable as my internal Super Talent Ultradrive SSD drive I added. To add eSata to the Mac Mini I removed the internal ROM drive an added a special Sata to eSata chassis cable. (Buy them at CPU Stuff dot com, item SKU: ESATABKTM8I)The sata end of the cable has to be secured with a dab of silicone as the internal ROM drive uses a Slim Sata connection. (I now use and external USB Blue Ray drive) I then used a Dremmal Cutting Wheel to cut out the area where the Kennsington Lock was. Next I modified the plastic chassis mount end of the eSata adapter cable to fit in this new hole. The Mac Mini case comes apart easily with a pizza cutter, forget the putty knives other people suggest. When you put the Mini back together the top of the case pinches the modifed eSata connection and holds it securely. Nice! Hooking up the My Book Studio Edition RAID 1 with eSata is the only way to get a totally reliable and fast hard drive connection for secure music storage. To bad Mac doesn't offer this connection standard on their computers. You need to buy your own eSata cable as it is not included with the Studio Edition. My Mac Mini Music Server works awesome.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Western Digital My Book Mirror Edition 2TB USB 2.0 (WDH2U20000N)

From Western Digital

Price:	~~$269.99~~

Accessories
- Microsoft Outlook 2007
- Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007
- Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Upgrade
- AmazonBasics IEEE 1394 4-Pin/6-Pin FireWire Cable (6 Feet / 1.8 Meters) [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]
- AmazonBasics USB 2.0 A-Male to Mini-B Cable (6 Feet / 1.8 Meters) [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]

Features
- The safest place for your data
- Automatic backup software
- Cooler, quieter, eco-friendlier
- Capacity Gauge

Product Description
WD's My Book Mirror Edition dual-drive storage system automatically mirrors your valuable data for extra protection. The USB 2.0 interface and a powerful combination of features make this system the storage solution of choice for photographers, home users, small offices, and anyone looking for extra assurance that their data is safe.

Amazon.com Product Description
Amazon.com Product Description .caption { font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; } p { font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; } ul.indent { list-style: inside disc; text-indent: 20px; } table.callout { font-family: Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, serif; width: 250; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; } td.callout { height: 100 percent; background: #9DC4D8 url(http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01/electronics/detail-page/callout-bg.png) repeat-x; border-left: 1px solid #999999; border-right: 1px solid #999999; width: 250px; padding: 15px; text-indent: 18px; } ul.callout { font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; list-style-position: inside; list-style-type: disc; padding: 0px; margin-top: 5px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 20px; text-indent: -18px; } li.callout { font-size: 13px; line-height: 15px; } h5.callout { text-align: center; } hr { border-top: 1px dashed #999999; height: 1px; color: #FFFFFF; margin: 3px 0px; } .caption { text-align: top; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; line-height: 14px; } h2 { color: #CC6600; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 0.25em; } BODY { font-family: verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: x-small; background-color: #FFFFFF; color: #000000; margin-top: 1px; } ul { { font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16px; } The safest place for your data. WD's My Book Mirror Edition dual-drive storage system automatically mirrors your valuable data for extra protection. USB 2.0 interface and a powerful combination of features make this system the storage solution of choice for photographers, home users, small offices, and anyone looking for extra assurance that their data is safe. Features at a glanceEasy installation and set upRAID 0/1 Automatic backup softwareCooler, quieter, eco-friendlierCapacity gaugeUser serviceable3-year limited warranty Swapping out a drive is easy and you do not need any tools. Gain peace of mind with this true data guardian. Organize and archive your vast photo, music, and artwork libraries. View larger. My Book® Mirror Edition™ 360° view Secure your vital data with WD's My Book® Mirror Edition™ dual-drive storage system with RAID Mirroring. With RAID-based continuous data protection, automatic data backup software, and user-serviceability, this is the perfect backup system for your irreplaceable data. The safest place for your data Using RAID mirroring technology, this system automatically and continuously duplicates your data. If one drive in this two-drive system ever fails, the system continues to run and your data is safe. How's that for peace of mind? Learn more about RAID Automatic and continuous backup software Back up your computer - just set it and forget it. Every time you save a change it's backed up and then mirrored on the second drive for the ultimate in data protection. Cooler, quieter, eco-friendlier Designed to use only WD drives with GreenPower™ technology, this system, with its efficient convection cooling architecture, fan-less design, and power saving mode, is reliably cool, remarkably quiet and consumes up to 33% less power* than standard systems. * Tests based on comparison between a 1 TB dual-drive system using 7200 RPM drives and a 1 TB dual-drive system using WD's GreenPower drives. Easy to set up, easy to use You're up and running in a few simple steps. WD's intuitive RAID wizard software lets you easily modify your RAID settings. Capacity Gauge See at a glance how much space is available on your drive. User serviceable Want to upgrade a drive? Simply open the case and replace the existing drive – no screwdriver needed. System Requirements Available USB port Mac® OS X 10.4.11+, 10.5.2+ Windows® 2000/XP/Vista What's in the Box Dual-drive storage system, USB cable, AC adapter, Software CD, Quick Install Guide. More about RAID RAID is a high-tech acronym for Redundant Array of Independent Disks. The acronym is not important. What is important is that the inclusion of RAID technology in WD's dual-drive external storage systems make them very powerful storage products. With RAID enabled on a storage system you can connect two or more drives in the system so that they act like one big fast drive or set them up so that one drive in the system is used to automatically and instantaneously duplicate (or mirror) your data for real-time backup. There are two reasons you might want a RAID system of drives. 1. You need tons of storage space and you need it to be fast. (RAID 0) 2. You want to instantaneously and automatically backup your data. (RAID 1) Which RAID mode should I use? RAID Mode Comparison 1. Speed (RAID 0) Set in high-performance mode (also called striped mode or RAID 0) the storage system gives you the power you need when you're: Designing huge graphics and you need a lightning-fast Photoshop scratch space. Recording large DV files while maintaining clean audio performance. Editing DV or HD video and you want a smooth work flow with no dropped frames. Rendering complex 3D objects or special effects. Performing disk-intensive database operations. Driven to be the first geek on your block with a computer so fast it blows your socks off. Why is RAID 0 so fast? It's a bit complicated, but suffice it to say that two heads, or in this case, drives, are better than one. Picture two hoses filling a bucket at the same time or two men bailing a boat and you can understand why two drives striped are faster than one. Data is saved (striped) across both drives and accessed in parallel by both drives so you get higher data transfer rates on large data accesses and higher input/output rates on small data accesses. 2. Data protection (RAID 1) Set the system to data protection mode (also know as mirrored mode or RAID 1) and the data is duplicated onto one of the drives providing two copies of all the data. This reduces your capacity to the size of a single disk. So why do I want that kind of redundancy? It's your data, your family pictures, your movie of baby's first steps, your first novel. Is it important? You decide. If it is, then RAID mirroring if for you.

Customer Reviews

Great drive, but defrag thoroughly and often
Date: 2008-10-06 | Rating: 5
I've owned this drive for about five months at this writing, and use it to store all my video and music files (both mp3 and wav). And I still have 400GB of free space! Its USB 2.0 interface is fast enough for video playback in a RAID 0 configuration (since it's actually two 1TB drives it can also be set RAID 1 to automatically back up everything you put on it). It's a fairly small and very attractive package that doesn't get overly warm; if it has cooling fans inside I haven't heard them running yet. I much prefer its keyhole-shaped fluorescent-looking indicator light to the blinking bull's eye I've seen on older MyBook drives. Its up-and-down motion is actually kind of soothing. Opening the box to replace a drive, if necessary, doesn't look too difficult if you're so inclined. It's quiet but not totally silent -- there's a soft clattering sound when it's working but I don't find it annoying and it's totally masked by movie audio or music. One bit of advice, do NOT assume that Microsoft Vista's automatic "Defrag Lite" will do a good job on a drive this huge. I started to experience playback problems with recorded video and discovered that the drive was severely fragmented, even with Vista set to defrag it once a week. There's no easy way to analyze the drive for fragmentation with Vista defrag's dumbed-down user interface. And it would be great if WD included a defrag utility in its Drive Manager or Diagnostics Tool -- it doesn't. But there's freeware out there (Auslogics or JKDefrag) that will do a thorough job and, even better, actually show you what it's doing. So defrag this drive thoroughly and often, especially if you copy, move, delete and convert a lot of large video files.

Excellent external drive
Date: 2009-04-20 | Rating: 5
I'm actually impressed by this product. I purchased this with very low expectations. I see some people say it's made out of cheap plastic... well, it's made out of plastic. It's shiney, it looks nice sitting next to my monitor.. but yes it's plastic. What did you expect it to be? I'm always skeptical with these easy setup RAID1 solutions as many of them end up corrupting themselves and destroying all of your data. This thing though comes right out of the box with a single drive presentation in RAID1 configuration. It couldn't be easier. Plug it in, it's ready. I've used this with XP Pro, XP Pro x64, Vista HP x86 and x64, Vista Ultimate x86 and x64, as well as Win7 beta x86 and x64. No issues.

Western Digital My Book Mirror Edition 2TB USB 2.0 (WDH2U20000N
Date: 2009-02-25 | Rating: 5
Very nice device. User friendly. Works extremely well with Windows XP SP3. Highly recommend.

Quiet, Fast, Simple
Date: 2009-03-02 | Rating: 5
This product lives up to its name, with great RAID options, easy user maintenance, and set it and forget it simplicity. Price shows just how much the cost per gig has declined in the last 5 years, and will prove useful for years to come. USB 2 is useful with RAID 0 option and full 2TB capacity.

SUPER simple set-up
Date: 2009-08-04 | Rating: 5
Rec'd my RAID drives yesterday.... SUPER simple to set up. Unbox, install CD, plug in, and ready to go within 5 minutes. Nice look to it. Quiet and power efficient.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Western Digital My Book Essential 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive WDH1U10000N

From Western Digital

Price:	~~$139.99~~

Accessories
- Case Logic Compact Portable Hard Drive Case (Black)
- Kroo CNDSZNR1-HD Western Digital My Passport Portable Hard Drive EVA Case (Red)
- AmazonBasics USB 2.0 A-Male to Mini-B Cable (6 Feet / 1.8 Meters) [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]
- AmazonBasics USB 2.0 A-Male to B-Male Cable (6 Feet / 1.8 Meters) [Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging]
- LaCie Set of 3 Sleeves for Rugged Hard Drives 130752

Features
- Installation is a snap because you don't really install this drive, you just plug it in and it's ready to use.
- Fits right in: Takes no more space than a paperback book. Collect two or more and they nest neatly together like volumes on a shelf.
- Our environmentally-friendly drive is designed to save power by going into standby mode after 10 minutes of inactivity.

Product Description
Are you running out of hard drive capacity? Do you need to archive some important digital documents, photos, or music? This elegant external hard drive, reminiscent of a book, is the perfect solution. It takes no more space than a paperback book. Collect two or more and they nest neatly together like volumes on a shelf.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.

Customer Reviews

A data center on a shelf
Date: 2008-02-04 | Rating: 5
It is very hard to argue with the amount of storage that one of these drives offer. If you have been in the industry for awhile, you can remember when a terabyte of data meant an entire data center of storage! These drives are quite and they format to NTFS quickly as long as you remember to specify quick format!! I have been pleased enough with the drive that I now own 6 of them. My laptop now has 6 terabyte of storage to work with! Since I do a lot of music and video work, that is important to me. Considering the fact that these drives now run about $229 when on sale, why would you not buy one? Keep in mind that if you connect multiple drives, you will want to use different controlled ports on your computer; not just a USB hub (the reason is each dedicated port of a USB 2.0 can only work at a total of 400 MB/S. That means if you have multiple drives on the same controlled port that they are sharing that speed (this will really show up if you are moving data from one drive to another on the same hub). Remember, having 4 ports on your computer does not mean that they are 4 seperately controlled ports! Check your users manual or call technical support for your product to see how many seperately controlled ports you really have. I have now moved all of my video, photos, and music to these drives (3 terabyte) and use the other three terabyte as mirrored drives (fail safe)and it is all easily accessable on my computer and on my network through my computer. I have had the first drive for 5 months now and have added the others as they went on sale. I have not had any boot issues (mentioned in other reviews) and all of the lights go off when the computer is powered down. I am running Vista Ultimate with all updates and I am using an IBM ThinkPad with current BIOS. Great drives!!!

Sleek and quiet
Date: 2007-10-30 | Rating: 5
My expectations were beyond met when I plugged this in. It amazes me that a 1tb external HD can be so quiet. I had returned a 1tb older version of Western digital's external HD because it sounded like a jet engine. WD clearly fixed that problem. The design is sleek and stylish, it is perfectly silent, and it transfers quickly with a 2.0 USB port. I highly recommend this product. UPDATE: I've had the product for 7 months now and I still stand by my original review. It has never given me any problems or crashed.

Plug and Play External Drive
Date: 2008-08-13 | Rating: 5
I currently have 2 terabytes of storage, 6 do-it-yourself "DIY" external drives housing various sized hard drives, and a MyBook. This review compares their performance. All drives are currently on-line connected to a 7 port USB hub. In the Box A black box housing the drive, a brick power supply, and a USB cable are key items. 2 instruction sheets, and a warranty card complete the kit. The My Book is about the size of a bible one finds in hotel and motel rooms. The drive case, power and cables leave a very clean design. All my DIY drives comes with stands, awkward sized power supplies and cable placements that are not well thought through. Installation Simple: Plug the USB cable into the MyBook, and into your PC USB port. Plug in the power supply to AC and the MyBook. The MyBook has no power switch, and turns itself on/off if the USB port is powered, when the PC is on. The drive was recognized by WinXPSP2 without a hitch, and re-formatting the drive to NTFS was easy using WinXP built in disk utilities. The drive ships with FAT32 format, which is less desirable if NTFS can be supported. I backuped the shipped "trial" utilities inside the MyBook in case they were useful; they were not, and it was not clear were it was stored: C:\Program Files\Western Digital. I used Western Digital's disk utilities that shipped with my other drives to check partitions and drive status. These programs can also be downloaded free from Western Digital's web site. Break-in The drive ran over 1 week for 24/7 for a burn in, and has done a 24 hour long disk encryption format routine. it is currently a month old running 16 hours/day. Its surprisingly silent, and runs cooler than my DIY drives. USB 2.0 Speed It has a transfer rate of 10MB/sec. This is not the raw transfer rate, but includes delay from encryption I use. This is about 6x slower than the maximum USB transfer speed of 60 MB/sec but is the same rate as my other DIY drives. Conclusion: Excellent bang for buck. The cost to build a DIY external drive today may often be more than buying a pre-made external drive. USB 2.0 transfer speeds suggests the MyBook drive is a decent speed drive. The auto on/off feature is very helpful, given most DIY kits require manual power-down. Note, there are a number of complaints about the higher end MyBook drives. The simple electronics of the low end 'Essential Edition' maybe the saving grace to this drive's performance, keep this in mind as the display boxes look the same. Further, all drives can malfunction, so a burn-in is a must to insure your drive is not among the few bad eggs.

Fantastic working and fantastic looking!
Date: 2008-01-07 | Rating: 5
I have had this hard drive for about a month now and have had no real problems with it. It is very quiet and has not had any hiccups. The only thing I have noticed may be a problem with Windows Vista. When the computer goes to sleep (hibernate and off works fine) the hard drive becomes unrecognizable when booting back up. However, all you have to do is unplug the USB port and then plug it back in and it works like a charm. Also, the drive will park itself after a while and when accessing it again it takes a few seconds for it to start running again. Other than that it works like it is supposed to. Running movies off of it works without stuttering. It also looks great. I would definitely recommend this product!

Quiet, lots of storage, good price
Date: 2007-12-26 | Rating: 5
The drive runs very quiet. It powers itself off at times of inactivity. The transfer speed is decent, can't ask for much more from a backup drive. The price is reasonable. It also comes with simple backup software right on the HD. The only minor issues I have are 1) the included mini-usb cable is about 3 feet long, and 2) when your PC is not shut off, the drive still has its light on even though it's sleeping. This light is very bright in a small room at night. Other than that, it's very easy to use: just plug-n-play.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Western Digital My Book World Edition II - 2 TB (2 x 1 TB) Network Attached Storage WDH2NC20000N (White)

From Western Digital

Price:	~~$319.99~~

Accessories
- Mack 3 Year for External Storage Device / Hard Drive, for Items with a Retail Value of up to $500.00.
- Sandisk 64GB SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash Card, 90MB/s (SDCFXP-064G-A91)
- Western Digital My Book World Edition 4 TB (2 x 2 TB) Network Attached Storage WDH2NC40000N (White)
- SanDisk Ultra Backup 64 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive SDCZ40-064G-A11

Features
- Offers 2 TB storage capacity in an elegant, small footprint design
- Easy access allows you to open the case and replace a drive
- UPnP enabled, makes network configuration easy and convenient
- 2TB = 2000GB Hard Drive Capacity
- Configurable to RAID 1 (Mirrored)

Product Description
Western Digital presents the WD My Book World II 2TB Network Hard Drive Storage Device - WDG2NC20000N, a superior STORAGE product. Designed for home users, creative professionals, workgroups, and anyone looking for shared storage, WD's My Book World Edition II offers a surprisingly simple and secure way to access and share your data, presentations, and photos at home, in the office and anywhere in the world, even when your local computer is turned off. The dualdrive network storage system combines 2.0 TB of storage, versatile RAID capability, backup software, user-serviceability, and remote access software to make it the most versatile and powerful remote access storage system in its class

Customer Reviews

Setup? What Set-up? Very Impressive NAS From Western Digital!
Date: 2009-11-17 | Rating: 5
I received my World Edition II 2 TB NAS on 11/13! Opened the box, connected it to my router, powered it up and presto, my network discovered the new drive. Very shortly afterwards, I was transferring files! (I am running Windows Vista for reference). The web setup was amazingly simple... One point of caution, the basic setup flyer that comes with the drive does not mention the username and password which are admin, admin(You can of course change these once you are logged in)... Once I logged in I was able to establish a static IP address (you have the option of DHCP but I prefer to use static IPs). The drive also comes pre-configured for RAID 1 (Mirroring) which is exactly what I wanted for secure data protection/back-up. However, if you prefer to establish RAID 0 (Striping), then it's very easy to configure (just make sure that you do this before transferring any data to the drive). RAID 1 provides a total of 1TB of effective storage and RAID 0 provides a total of 2TB of effective storage. With regard to transfer speed, I was seeing on average respectable transfer speeds of about 5 MB/sec(40 Mbps). The intitial data transfer will take a while but for ongoing access, no problem. I then loaded the backup software to my Work laptop, established a shared folder and then mapped that folder to my laptop. I then initiated the backup and a few hours later, my laptop was securely backed up to my new drive! Just for testing purposes, I disconnected this laptop from the network and updated one of my files. I then reconnected the laptop to the network and the backup software immediately recognized that a file had been changed and updated the file on the NAS!!!! How's that for secure backup! And if that wasn't enough, the backup software kept a copy of my original file along with the updated file (you can configure the software to keep multiple versions of the files when you setup your back-up plan). One other feature that is not widely advertised is the ability to setup alerts. You can configure the NAS to send an email if there are issues with the NAS (e.g drive failure, errors, etc...)! I thought that this was a pretty slick advanced feature that honestly I hope I never see in action (-: The World Edition II (WDH2NC20000N)performed very well in the following areas: - Ease Of Setup - Transfer Speed - Backup Software - Pre-Configured For RAID 1 - Web Enabled Setup/Configuration I have not explored the DLNA or Remote Web Access features but will update my review once I've explored these options. If my initial experience is any indication, I'm sure that these features will perform just as flawlessly... Overall, I'm completely happy with my purchase and very impressed. I would definitely recommend this NAS for anyone looking to provide centralized storage and security for their home network! Good luck with your purchase. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ UPDATE: 12/18/2009 I've recently purchased a Playstation 3 and I'm using it as a media server. DLNA works flawlessly and I've been able to successfully stream music and video from my NAS to the PS3 wirelessly. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the Twonky Media Server provided by Western Digital was automatically and immediately discovered by the PS3 - no additional setup or configuration on my part. Again, very satisfied!!!

Give my computer a rest
Date: 2009-12-31 | Rating: 5
I bought this primarily for use with an WDTV and it is better than I expected, but mostly because I'm not in a rush do much. For my uses it fits like a glove. I stream MKV's over a wired network with no problem at all, with pretty high bitrates, yet no stuttering. It moves rather fast. Copying a 12-15GB movie into it takes about 25 minutes or so through a 100Mbit router (my whole network is 100Mbit, and I never find myself needing the extra bandwidth afforded by Gigabit, but if you do, beware). It does have a very nifty feature which I didn't even read very much into it. It's called the downloader: it downloads anything for you, and even allows scheduling so it doesn't hog up your bandwidth, and even does bit-torrent. You can program it for late night downloading. It downloads as fast as your internet allows, and is extremely convenient. One niggle is that it can only download to predetermined folders, but that's nitpicking. Mionet is extremely slow just as I'm sure you've read in other reviews, and it uses Java. How slow? I downloaded a song from my house to my office and it took some 5 minutes.... the song was a little over 3MB. I haven't taken the time to look into FTP'ing into it, but I will and maybe I'll update this review. Make sure it has plenty of room to breathe as it can get pretty hot and this unit has no fans. It doesn't get "original-xbox-360"-hot, that is to say, it doesn't warm up your room, but it does get hot to the touch. I haven't used the backup stuff, so I wouldn't be able to comment on it, but for use similar to mine, I highly recommend it.

Worked perfectly
Date: 2010-01-11 | Rating: 5
I have been struggling to find a good backup system for home use. With three computers to backup up on my home wired network, I tried several different hard drive backups--both being USB--but had problems with each drive freezing during the backup process. Finally, I decided to spend a little more money and buy the WD World Edition II. With a wired home network, it setup easily in my closet with my network router. I didn't want to use the RAID1 mirrored setting as I preferred to have the additional capacity. It was easy to change the configuration to RAID0 stripped to access the total 2T storage capacity. Software set up was easy. WD Anywhere Backup was customizable. The backup started immediately and worked perfectly. It took almost all day to backup all three computers, but systems did not freeze and were completed without errors. Now the data will be backed up automatically. Have not tried to access data remotely yet. Good product that fit my needs. If you are considering this product, I would encourage you to go to their website and review the manual to make sure it would fit your needs.

Quiet & easy to implement
Date: 2010-01-15 | Rating: 5
This is my 4th WD external drive and my first WD NAS. Well-done; easy to use interface, excellent documentation, etc. Only problem I experienced was that it would not 'see' the NSLU2-formatted EXT3 drive when connected to the USB port. No worries- copied data from the EXT3 drive to another drive formatted NTFS, plugged in the NTFS drive. The drive was recognized; using the WD 'copy manager' web interface all my data was placed on the server & all's well. Very quiet unit, perhaps it has a small whisper-quiet fan in the bottom. The NSLU2 had slightly faster throughput but I needed to upgrade. The former NAS was running an older SAMBA-based OS and did not support Windows 'offline files' feature directly. The WD drive uses a newer SAMBA version and Win7 offline files sync without difficulty.

Working as planned
Date: 2009-08-31 | Rating: 5
I've been using the My Book World Edition for several weeks now and its working out just fine. It was easy to setup on 3 desktops and 2 laptops and the bundled backup software seems to be working fine. The hard drive is being utilized to store data like spreadsheets, pictures, videos, and music that can be shared across the network, and also to back up the laptops files between work and home. I haven't had any problems yet. I did have problems getting the package from the USPS. They said they attempted to deliver and that I had to pick it up at my local post office. Well, the local post office couldn't find it and then a week later it showed up on my doorstep.

Sunday, January 31, 2010

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