The Western Digital MyBook Essential Edition is a pared-down version of the MyBook Premium Edition that we reviewed. Available in sizes from 80GB to 500GB, this external hard drive features the same exterior design as the Premium Edition. It also uses the same 7,200rpm hard disk drive, so we expect the performance to be on a par with that of the Premium Edition. The Essential Edition drive has only a USB 2.0 connection (the Premium Edition can also connect via FireWire) and doesn't come with the EMC Dantz Retrospect software that ships on the Premium Edition. Also, the capacity meter on the "spine" of the drive glows green instead of blue.
Intro:
This Western Digital My Book Essential Edition External Hard Drive is a 320GB, external hard disk drive.Compared to other external hard drives on the market, it is relatively inexpensive at around $120.This external drive connects to a system though a USB 2.0 port.This is a 7200 rpm drive and has an 8MB buffer.
Noteworthy Features:
Has a 320GB capacity, which is somewhat larger than some similarly priced hard drives.By way of comparison, the average cost of a product with this large a capacity is $260.
Weaker Features:
None noted, given available product data.
Suitability:
Suited for those who don't want to take apart their computer to add another hard drive -- just plug it in.
Value:
Given its relatively inexpensive price, this hard drive has great features for the money.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Easy to use right out of the box
It took less than 1 minute to get this drive operational. I use it to back up ebooks and music ...
It took less than 1 minute to get this drive operational. I use it to back up ebooks and music and pictures as I have had 2 drives crash on me in the last year. I now religiously backup my data on all my computers. My computers are lan'd together thru wireless and I use Nero backup and AJC Directory Syncronizer with no problem.
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by Roox99 (see profile) -
July 31, 2006
20 out of 20 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Does exactly what it should do.
This Hard drive is the little brother so to speak to the "My Book Premium" edition. The Premium has a ...
This Hard drive is the little brother so to speak to the "My Book Premium" edition. The Premium has a Firewire connection which I didn't need and had a "Backup" button which I didn't need on the hard drive either as I backup my own computers myself and it wasn't a big deal not to have a button on the hardrive to do that. I bought this drive to be able to back up a couple of computers and to have addition space when needed. The Hard drive works great and is very quite and ultra quick with the 7200 rpm motor. I only hear the motor spinning up when the house is very quite or I see the LED ring flashing which catches my attention then I pay attention to the slight sound of the Hard drive, but it isn't annoying in anyway.
The only reason I didn't give the Hard drive a perfect 10 was because after I had loaded 50+ GB of items, I tried to backup one of my computers and unknowning at the time, The Western Digital Hard drive comes from Western Digital in the FAT32 format which wouldn't let more than a 4GB file be stored on the hard drive at one time and gave a message that it was out of space which was strange to me being it was a brand new Hard Drive and I had already added a total of 50GB with a couple of files being over 4 GB. I assume the backup file was special compared to normal JPEGS, WMV, WMA and Mp3 files.
The Western Digital website had the resolution online which was, it needed to be in a NTFS format instead of the FAT32 format. The reformat process was very ease to do, but I had to take the time to remove all my 50+GB that I had put on the Hard Drive so that I would not loss the data during the reformatting of the drive. After the reformatting, the Backup procedure went flawless. I was able to connect a couple of computers to it with no problems and backedup all the systems on my network.
Beyond the reformatting issue, I think this is a great hard drive and highly recommend it.
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by Derrickb1974 (see profile) -
January 1, 2007
10 out of 10 users found this user opinion helpful.
6 out of 10 - Good Nothing Special
Nothing special about this external hard drive unless you think that doing what it says it will do is special. ...
Nothing special about this external hard drive unless you think that doing what it says it will do is special. My initial backup took WAY TO LONG, over 12 hours ! ! ! After the initial back up it is much faster but found it very frustrating to get the initial set up completed, plus it slows my internal hard drive significatly when backing up.
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by deb_bai (see profile) -
October 8, 2007
5 out of 5 users found this user opinion helpful.
10 out of 10 - Perfect Fantastic hard drive in its category
Since I have a tablet notebook, I need to have removable devices that are easy to install, use and disconnect. ...
Since I have a tablet notebook, I need to have removable devices that are easy to install, use and disconnect. I needed a sturdy hard drive that was not too delicate. I researched hard drives at CNET. I discovered that all hard drives in the My Book series are highly rated. I ended up with the 320GB My Book Standard Edition. This external hard drive is fantastic. I bought this one from Sam's Wholesale Club for $129.00 a few months ago. While there were other cheaper hard drives, but this one was sturdy, fast and dependable. Now, the price of this hard drive has decreased. To hook up this hard drive, I plugged it into the electrical outlet, then into my APC USB Port Dock and that was it. My computer found the device and started it up. SUCCESS! Each time I turn my computer on, the "My Book" hard drive comes on, and the hard drive shuts down when I shut down the computer. Some people mentioned problems with that in the reviews, but the manufacturer instructions did have directions for how to overcome that issue. I have moved most of my archived pictures and documents that I don't need when I travel with my Tablet notebook. I don't even notice it, but it is there every time I need it. To me that is the ultimate test of any gadget.
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by neochonetes (see profile) -
July 27, 2007
2 out of 10 - Terrible Slow data transfer and file operations
My major complaint is speed. I have owned two HDD based MP3 players (Archos and Cowon). Both could write their ...
My major complaint is speed. I have owned two HDD based MP3 players (Archos and Cowon). Both could write their contents (18 GB) to my PC's HDD in about 20 minutes. Other file operations were almost as fast as the local drive. The MyBook took 63 minutes to copy 12 GB off my PC's HDD via USB 2.0. When asked to delete the 12 GB folder off the MyBook, I gave up after 43 minutes. It just sat there. The PC is no whiz but adequate; 2.8 GHz P4, 1 Gig RAM, running XP SP2
Drive housing looks cheap. Documentation is nil. Questions to Western Digital were not really answered.
Returned unit to retailer for a full refund 1 day later.
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