May 01, 2011
Western Digital My Book Essential 2 TB USB 3.0/2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive
Posted by: kk : Category: Desktops & Servers
Western Digital My Book Essential 2 TB USB 3.0/2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive
- Dual USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 compatibility
- Connectivity today; speed for tomorrow
- Up to 3x faster transfer rates with USB 3.0
- Automatic, continuous backup
- Hardware encryption, password protection
Western Digital My Book Essential WDBACW0020HBK 2 TB External Hard Drive WDBACW0020HBK-NESN 1036
List Price: $ 169.99
Price: $ 99.98
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May 1st, 2011 at 10:16 am
Impressive Design And Fast Technology – 5 Stars All Around,
First, the packaging. Western Digital (WD) does an impressive job of securely packaging this hard drive with a minimal amount of waste. There’s no unnecessary plastic or cardboard.
This 2 TB drive has to be plugged into the wall socket as well as powered with a USB cable. One of my major complaints about electronics products are the ridiculously short power cables. This My Book Essential External Hard Drive has an impressively long power cable – which is a plus for any experienced tech user. WD figures the customer is smart enough not to accidentally strangle themselves with a long power cord. So many products I buy have a cord that is so short as to make the item almost unusable. 5 stars to WD for trusting the intelligence of the buyers of their products.
Here are the results I obtained after testing out this drive:
The drive did not have to be formatted before I used it. It worked with my Windows XP-based computer right out of the box.
It took approximately 70 minutes to copy 35 GB of data from my old external drive to this one. This is impressively fast. The manufacturer claims it should take seven minutes and 42 seconds to copy 2000 standard MP3 songs onto the hard drive. These times are using the standard USB 2.0 technology. The drive is also designed to accommodate USB 3.0.
I didn’t check out or try to install the backup software or the other extras that came with the product – these installation files are located already copied onto the drive. Another 5 stars to WD for not forcing this software onto the computer user with an automatic installation setup. My impression is that WD trusts the intelligence of the consumer to make their own decisions about how to best use the product. A toll-free international help line is available for anyone who does need some assistance with the installation of the hard drive.
The outside of the package mentions that the data on this drive is capable of being secured with a password and also comes with a 2-year limited warranty. There’s almost no product literature included inside the package – only a small fold-out booklet which refers the customer to the company’s website for a user manual.
A drive with this many features should probably come with more basic literature inside the box – such as, there is a physical cable lock port option – you can secure this drive with some kind of an external lock (the locking device isn’t included with the drive) and there are no other clues inside or outside the package to explain this security option.
So this drive was easy to install right out of the box and it worked without any difficulties or technical headaches. I would definitely recommend this product.
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|May 1st, 2011 at 10:40 am
A little pricey if you just need the space, but…,
There are 2TB drives out there for less money and if all you need is a huge space, you might consider one of those. The value added in this package is the backup software that is bundled with the drive (actually, delivered right on the drive).
WD Smartware is a backup/restore suite that, once installed, boots with your machine. If the MyBook is attached via your USB port, it will constantly monitor activity and make backups accordingly in the background in near real time without any action on your part. It also maintains multiple generations of files (you choose how many), so you can go back to, say, three versions ago if you need to recover a spreadsheet or other data file.
You can also use it on multiple computers. Backups are stored under folders with the same name as the PC they’re created on.
I tested on a Win XP Pro laptop and a Win7 laptop and detected no system slowdowns at all. Every now and then the activity light on the drive would flicker; otherwise the backup operations were not noticeable. The drive itself is completely silent.
INSTALLATION
Strongly consider copying the software included on the drive to a CD before you do anything. I can envision situations where you might want to delete everything off the MyBook and if you do that, you’ll no longer have the software to install on another machine (the manual has instructions about where to look for it online).
Plug in the power supply, then connect the MyBook to a USB port on your computer, then turn on your computer if it’s not on already. The MyBook will not power up until it is connected to a USB port on a running computer, which is actually handy – if you turn that computer off, the MyBook turns off with it, then comes back up when you power the computer back up.
My Win7 machine saw the drive quickly but complained that the drivers could not be installed. The drive worked fine, though – I was able to create folders, copy stuff to it, and delete stuff from it using Windows Explorer.
My XP machine saw the MyBook and started the Found New Hardware wiz. It asked if it could connect to Windows Update to look for drivers. The drive wasn’t showing in Windows Explorer, so I said yes. After a long search for “WD SES Device USB Device,” it found and installed what it needed to and the balloon said my new hardware was installed and ready to use.
I then installed the software (all of it) on both machines without incident, by running the WD SmartWare executable included on the drive (blue icon). On installation, I was prompted to perform my first backup, so I did. When I was through with both machines I had two presumably complete backups on the MyBook, one for each machine. For each PC you’re supporting with the MyBook, this first backup is your baseline and changes to it will be tracked from that point on.
NOTE: these are not drive images. As nearly as I can tell, WD SmartWare doesn’t support creating drive images or recovery boot discs, so you’ll need to rely on other tools to create things like that if desired. I didn’t see this as a flaw since this isn’t sold as a system recovery utility. It will save your rear end if you blow a file or folder, but if your whole machine dies you have lots of other problems to solve before you start worrying about individual files. Of course it’s a great location to store drive images, but be aware that the software isn’t designed to create them.
I am regularly prompted that a software upgrade is available for the MyBook. Like another reviewer, I found that the installation program complains about additional USB devices being connected no matter whether any are connected or not. The drive works well so I just dismiss prompts to upgrade. Maybe I’ll struggle with that later, or maybe not.
OPERATION
It just works. I disconnected the MyBook and then edited files, created new files, and deleted existing files on both my XP and Win7 machines. Then I connected the MyBook to each machine in turn. On both machines, a couple of minutes after connecting the MyBook, the new files appeared in the backup and edited versions (2nd generations) appeared in the backup without my doing anything. Deleted files (I had really deleted them, not sent them to the Recycle Bin) were still there in the backup.
Multiple generations and retention of deleted files is a good thing, but it is also going to cause bloat after time on machines that are heavily used. I can see needing to do housekeeping every so often, getting all my machines to a stable point, cleaning off the MyBook entirely, and then starting over with a fresh backup/baseline of each computer.
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
This would ideally be connected to a desktop computer and just sit there quietly doing its job. I have three laptops and no…
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|May 1st, 2011 at 11:23 am
A Brand You Can Trust and Rely On,
Western Digital is a reputable brand for network, external and internal computer storage. This external hard drive is being used as a backup for my office computer. Since I work in the Human Resources field, I have very personal and confidential information I do not want to store on the company’s server where everyone would have access to it. With that in mind, I want to be able to backup my payroll files and employee folders in case of a system crash.
Installation could not have been any easier, just plug and play. It sits in an upright position so it does not take up too much space. Runs quietly with no knocking or loud fan sounds. The only way I know it is working is by power light on the front of the unit. I am using it in a Windows 7 64 bit OS and it only has USB 2.0 connections. Since my system still has available slots available, I purchased the Buffalo Technology DriveStation SuperSpeed USB 3.0 PCI Express 2-Port Interface Card to take advantage of the USB 3.0 super speed. Doing this will gave me transfer rates up to 5 gigabits per second compared to a USB 2.O which is about 480 migabits. That is a very noticeable difference in transfer speeds. The PCi adapter card went in easily – only took about 15 minutes to install. The card does have backwards compatibilities with USB 2.0 drives (which means you can still use USB 2.0 devices).
Once I had everything installed and booted up, all I had to do is open the WD SmartWare visual backup application and run WD backup. The files were categorized and the status screen lets you know when it is done. Once the files are all backed up, anytime I add or make changes to any file, it will instantly back up. That’s all there is to it. The user-friendly interface menu makes very easy to maneuver around and change settings without worrying you are going to do something wrong.
Optional: Does come equipped with a Kensington Security Slot for the Kensington 64068F MicroSaver Notebook Lock and Security Cable. This can be used to tether and securely lock to your WD hard drive without worrying it will sprout legs and walk away.
It looses a star because it does not come with any helpful documentation or physical manual. It comes with a small pull apart quick setup guide that is just pictures. I was looking at possibly getting another for a Mac computer, but it states that the drive has to be reformatted and I could not find any information on the online manual or in the quick start guide on how to do it. However, one thing I did read is that Mac computers can not be upgraded to use USB 3.0, so hoping to get super speed USB on your Mac is not an option at this time.
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