CNET Editor's rating: 7.0 out of 10
Reviewed by
Dong Van Ngo
Review date: 06/15/06
Release date: 03/08/06
The good: The MyBook Premium edition is compact, employs an innovative design, has an external capacity gauge, comes with backup software, and is a speedy data reader.
The bad: The MyBook Premium edition is slow to write data, over both USB 2.0 and FireWire 400.
The bottom line: If write speed isn't a top priority, the Western Digital MyBook is a good deal at around $300 for a 500GB drive. It'll look good on your desk or bookshelf, too.
The Western Digital MyBook Premium Edition external hard drive is physically portable but still humongous in terms of capacity. The 500GB unit we tested offered the most mixed performance of any external hard drive we've tested. Though we love its design, capacity, and small size, we were a little disappointed with its overall performance. Direct competitors in this space include the Maxtor OneTouch III Basic (500GB), the Seagate Pushbutton Backup Drive (400GB), and the Iomega External Hard Drive (400GB). All these drives cost about the same, though the Iomega also offers FireWire 800 connections. All have backup software, as well. The Seagate drive was a slow performer, while the Iomega was speedy when transferring over FireWire but slow over USB 2.0.
Drive type: external hard disk drive
Available capacities: 160GB; 250GB; 320GB; 400GB; 500GB--all drives have a 7,200rpm hard disk drive
Capacity of test unit: 500GB
Cache: 16MB for the 400GB and 500GB drives; 8MB for the rest
Dimension: 6.8 x 5.6 x 2.2 (HLD in inches); 2.6 pounds
OSs supported: Windows 98 SE/Me/2000/XP or, Mac OS X 10.2.8+
Software included: EMC Retrospect Express Backup and System Recovery Software (on drive)
Additional features: capacity gauge: the backup button features an LED that indicates how much space is available on your drive; the drive turns itself off when not in use
Service/support: one-year warranty; toll-free phone support: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. from Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday, and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. CT on Saturday; e-mail support via an online form; Web site has a searchable knowledge base, FAQs, downloadable drivers, and software.
On CNET Labs' test bench, the 500GB MyBook was very sluggish when writing, via both FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 connections. The drive took almost 36 minutes to write our 10GB test folder, about three times slower than other hard drives with the same specs. On the other hand, in the read test, the MyBook drive took slightly less than 10 minutes to get the job done, which was the fastest among all of the external hard drives we've tested.
The Western Digital MyBook comes in a very sleek design that is shaped like a medium-size book and weighs about the same. It features a button in front that activates the bundled Retrospect backup software. The coolest thing about the MyBook drive is that the button has a round, blue LED ring around it that indicates the amount of space available on the hard drive.
Intro:
This Western Digital My Book Premium Edition External Hard Drive is a 320GB, external hard disk drive.Compared to other external hard drives on the market, it is midpriced at around $175.Connects via either FireWire or USB 2.0 for increased flexibility.This is a 7200 rpm drive and has an 8MB cache.
Noteworthy Features:
Has a 320GB capacity, which is somewhat larger than some similarly priced hard drives.By way of comparison, the typical cost of a product with this large a capacity is $260.Connects to your PC via high speed USB 2.0 or FireWire cables.This product can also connect to older USB ports, but the transfer rates will be fairly slow.
Weaker Features:
Has a 1 year warranty, which is somewhat less favorable than some similarly priced hard drives.For example, the Seagate Freeagent Pro USB/eSATA External Hard Drive, a 320GB hard drive at around $165, has a 5 year warranty.
Suitability:
An external hard drive, suited for convenient plug-and-play with most desktop or notebook computers.
Value:
Overall, this hard drive has good features for the money.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular The perfect external hard disk!
If someone is considdering an external hard drive please let it be the My Book Premium. It looks good (that ...
If someone is considdering an external hard drive please let it be the My Book Premium. It looks good (that can be important), the performance is very good. Transfer rates are really good. Although I have to say that I only use the My Book in combination with the FireWire cable, I haven't tried the USB cable yet. The capacity gauge is cool. But what I like about this thing is that I use it as a media hard drive. I've put all my movies, images and music on the drive and now I can acces the files frommy 2 Windows-based desktop PC's, my MacBook and even my Xbox 360 can play the music files. Sweet!
Overall I'm really happy with the machine. I don't hear the My Book(it is positioned 50cm away from me), it is fast and it looks good. No bad things discovered yet!
Read more
by StumpyNL (see profile) -
July 5, 2006
Got it home and ...
I got this disk because it was on offer at Circuit City for $150 after rebates.
Got it home and tried it with another disk connected to the second FW400 port. Transferring data between the two was hideously slow - about 5Mb/second.
I wondered if it was the firewire passthrough that was the problem , so switched the two disks (using my other disk as the hub). This brought perfomance up to where I expected it - about 30Mb/s.
8 out of 10 - Excellent Quick setup, works great with USB or FireWire cable
Overall a good value (I backed up multiple laptops and home desktop computer files). I purchased the WD 320GB external ...
Overall a good value (I backed up multiple laptops and home desktop computer files). I purchased the WD 320GB external drive at Circuit City for $169 with rebate. -- Peformance, I timed two file transfers internally and externally: - 360MB file: 1 min 7 sec external & 48 sec internal - 2.5GB file: 6 min 30 sec external & 7 min 18 sec internal For what is worth below are my System specs - VIA Apollo Mainboard / 553hz FSB - Pentuim 2.41 GHz Processor - Windows XP Home Edition w/Service Pack 2 - 40GB Internal Drive (5400 rpm) WD - 60BG Internal Drive (5400 rpm) WD of course - Inexpensive Timex to clock the transfer times Read more
by GM1230 (see profile) -
July 3, 2006
3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
1 out of 10 - Abysmal DO NOT BUY THIS DRIVE
I bought this drive about 4 months ago. The first one I bought did not work at all. I took ...
I bought this drive about 4 months ago. The first one I bought did not work at all. I took it back and swapped it out with a new one. The second one I got powered up, but none of the firewire ports worked, and since I was using the drive for video editing, I needed fast transfer speeds, so I couldn't use USB. I took the drive back yet again and got a new one. Surprisingly, the new drive seemed to work perfectly. Since my computer's hard drive was full, I started several video projects on the drive and also put vacation photos on it. After a little over a month, it simply stopped working. I called Western Digital and they told me to send it in and they would replace it. But I still have to pay for postage and pack it in a certain box with special 2 inch thick padding with the correct labels or they will not accept it. And now I also just lost all of my video projects and vacation pictures. This is without a doubt the worst product I have ever used in my entire life. LEARN FROM MY MISTAKE, PLEASE DO NOT BUY THIS DRIVE!
Read more
by thomas8050 (see profile) -
January 13, 2008
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
2 out of 10 - Terrible Soft freezes after first backup. WD wants to charge $15 to address software problem.
Software crashed after first backup. Customer support via online request produces no response after multiple attempts. If you want to ...
Software crashed after first backup. Customer support via online request produces no response after multiple attempts. If you want to use the phone line they charge $14.95 per question. Now that's pathetic customer support for you from Western Digital.
Read more
by wiebon (see profile) -
January 17, 2008
3 out of 10 - Poor Great Option but problematic compatability
This is a great piece of hardware for a decnt price but the main problem with the unit is compatability. ...
This is a great piece of hardware for a decnt price but the main problem with the unit is compatability. Its great for sitting at a single computer to be hooked up 100% of the time but if you choose to use it on another computer you have to install the drivers with all the backup bloatware before it will work. There is no PnP compatability with Windows whatsoever so I driver install with the bloatware is necessary, although I noticed some Linux distros will PnP which surprised me.
I have also had some bad experiences with initialisation aswell. Sometimes the windows system will detect the device,activate drivers but not mount the volume, a simple power cycle fixes the problem most of the time and when it doesn't I continue power cycle till it does. The drive also works well with other drives aswell and after the careful removal of the case and a piece of protective foil the SATA and SATA Power connector can be easily pulled and used for other drives (if you want to void your warranty).
Overall its a good drive with a poorly though out USB interface. I havn't actually used the Firewire connectivity but i'm reassured it doesn't have the problems of the USB as an individual firewire driver download is available from WD. But if you are using Windows and USB stay away from this drive!
Read more
by twistie.man (see profile) -
January 30, 2008
Hide
Watch product review video
Show
Print friendly version
Email to a friend
del.icio.us
