Western Digital My Book Essential 500 GB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive by Western Digital
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Digital camera reviews of Western Digital My Book Essential 500 GB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive
Digital camera Review: DONT BUY IT!
Summary: 1 Stars
DO NOT PERCHASE!!!!!!!!! I wasted my time with this product had to send it back to Amazon twice. If you want something that works go buy a Iomega 500GB UltraMax Desktop Hard Drive and had no problems with it. I transferred about 200 GB in less then an hour and a half.Digital camera Review: Dead on Arrival
Summary: 1 Stars
Unit won't power up. Judging from reviews and hearsay, these seem to have a high failure rate. Who's in charge of quality control? The one star is for being pretty, but I don't need an $80 bookend, so it's going back.Digital camera Review: Decent Drive
Summary: 4 Stars
For my needs the drive is adequate. Backup my data files. (no compression or system files.)
Not the fastest but it gets the job done.
Had a Seagate prior to this that made more noise than a bag full of mice.
Wakeup time after entering sleep mode is on the slow side but again, I can live with it.
I would recommend this product.
Digital camera Review: Define your objectives
Summary: 4 Stars
The Mybook essential 500GB HD is an economical choice for PC users who have a need for extra storage space or external back-up capability but do not require a range of connectivity options as it only accommodates USB.
V2.0 has some changes in features from 1.0 and I am not convinced all of the variations are beneficial. First and foremost, V1.0 had a forwarded located on/off button that I found particularly useful with consideration to some quirky performance of the drive from time to time, where it tended to impede boot functions or seems to initiate untimely back-ups of revised files. This newer version lacks a physical power switch but has a blue-hued activity indicator lamp and is designed to power down after 10 minutes of inactivity, or upon recognition of a system shutdown. I have seen little evidence the inactivity power down facility is accurate.
While I have never personally encountered heat or overload issues with my V1.0 drive - I've used it for back-up only for 18 months - the new unit has a slightly smaller footprint ( approximately 4" x 6" x 2") but similarly configured for ventilation and heat dissipation with top, back and bottom air outflow slots. This version also features a mini USB cable that limits the distance the drive can be situated from the CPU and if you have a vertically oriented workspace as I do that may represent some challenges. Due to the USB configuration and potential heat related read/write issues, I do not believe this drive to be an efficient or viable alternative for productivity applications or as an external streaming server.
This drive is essentially plug and play. Upon installation a prompt is initiated to install a trial version of some back-up software, a diagnostic toolkit, a google bundle and another option I no longer remember and cannot get back to since I opted not to install and immediately reformatted from the pre-loaded FAT32 to NTFS with a single partition of 465GB, a step that is preferable for windows users but one you may want to defer until you have registered the device via that same install module as registration thereafter becomes a headache since the device serial number is printed on the label in a font only decipherable with a 10x magnifying glass.
My intent for the drive as well as the predecessor I own is as a dedicated resource for back-ups of individual desktops. For facilitation of services across a home network, a NAS unit such the Netgear RND2150 ReadyNAS Duo 500 GB Desktop Network Attached Storage with RAID capability seems to be a safer option.
Digital camera Review: Disappointed after one year, poor customer support
Summary: 1 Stars
I am utterly disappointed with my external drive. It's just been a little over a year since purchase and it has malfunctioned. The warranty expired after a year, how convenient. We phoned technical support. We were offered to be transferred to a phone technician for a fee to help us troubleshoot the problem. After paying the $15 fee, we were in contact with a technician only for him to tell us that we need to replace our drive. No diagnostics, no further questions, no attempts to merely reboot the computer, nothing. The total time in contact with the technician was approximately 5 minutes, and I was placed on hold for at least a minute in between. Now, I will need to fork up an additional $500-plus to recover the data (i.e. family pictures for the last 8 months, most of which were of my newborn son) that may or may not exist on my malfunctioned drive.