Manage updates with the Download AppWestern Digital My Book Live (2TB)
Manufacturer: Western Digital Corp. Part number: WDBACG0020HCH
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Product series
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- The Western Digital MyBook Live is a fast, plug-and-play, simple-to-use home NAS server that unfortunately lacks features and has a subpar remote-access solution.
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CNET editors' review
Western Digital My Book Live (2TB) price range: $149.00 - $291.54
- Reviewed by: Dong Ngo
- Reviewed on: 10/17/2010
The good: The Western Digital My Book Live NAS server is easy to use, fast, and affordable. It also comes with mobile applications to share photos on the go.
The bad: The WD My Book Live's hard drive can't be serviced by users, and there's no USB port to add more storage. The device lacks common features found in many NAS servers, and its MioNet remote access solution is nearly useless.
The bottom line: The Western Digital MyBook Live is a fast, plug-and-play, simple-to-use home NAS server that unfortunately lacks features and has a subpar remote-access solution.
User reviews
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Great value and performance, Lots of storage
by jhacker on May 9, 2011
Pros: Lots of storage, discoverable by other computers and devices, smartphone app lets you view photos from anywhere, 3 year warranty
Cons: Buggy out-of-the-box software, Mionet software takes patience to set up
Summary: I was searching for a network hard drive to replace my Windows Home Server. It just wasn't doing the job anymore. I chose this Western Digital based upon comments ...
Summary: I was searching for a network hard drive to replace my Windows Home Server. It just wasn't doing the job anymore. I chose this Western Digital based upon comments I had seen on other websites stating that the performance and speed of this model was better than most others. On my 100mbps network, I see about 8 mb/s of transfer speed. It took about 6 hours to transfer 140GB worth of video. If I ever upgrade to 1gigabit ethernet, I'll be anxious to see the results. The included software has some functionality, but is buggy. If I had to do it over, I wouldn't have wasted my time with the contents of the included disc. When I tried to access the user interface to change settings, it kept locking up on me. I tried it on IE and Google Chrome. Instead of taking a chance of it locking up again, I searched the web for the upgraded software, and downloaded it that way. That solved the problem, for the most part. Mionet is a different story. Mionet is the software WD uses to share your hard drive contents across the internet. I had to do a lot of research to figure out why it wouldn't work. It turned out that you have to register the hard drive in order to see the Mionet software link. Even after registering, it took quite a while for the link to appear. Then, when setting up Mionet, it wouldn't see the directories I had set for remote sharing in the WD software. I had to deselect the shares, then select them again. Mionet has a file sharing feature, but the person I shared with couldn't get it to work. They're not very tech savvy though. I do know that you have to use Java though. What's nice is that I can see all the pictures I have shared on my Android phone through WD's app. You get a free trial to additional features of the Mionet software, but if I understand, your access to your shares remains free. I'm not clear about how long the trial lasts. The other computers on the network, along with our XBOX 360 are able to see the drive. I haven't tried the Twonky add-in yet.
After owning this drive for about 3 months, I'm impressed with WD's constant attention to product development. They have released upgraded firmware at least twice in three months. The latest is a major update which eliminates the clunky Mionet remote interface. It is replaced by something called WD2GO, which is infinitely better. They have developed mobile apps (Android, iOS) which allow you to access your files from your mobile device. It's like having a cloud drive that you can easily add files to without having to pay a subscription fee for. Plus, they have refreshed the web interface to access them, as well. The newest update also allows you to backup your drive to prepare for the unlikely event of a failure.
I've had a bad experience with WD external drives, but I decided to give them another chance. After only a few days, I'm rather impressed with this drive after working out some bugs. I'm hoping for the day when I can shut off my power hog of a file server for good, and simply use my Western Digital network hard drive.
Updated on Aug 1, 2011
Updated on Feb 18, 2012Fast forward about 8 months, and I have had to replace this drive under warranty already. Now I have to replace it again, due to the fact that I cannot access the web interface for the drive. Both problems have been caused by firmware update issues. I am not happy that I have had to do this TWICE, but at least I haven't lost any files as a result.6 out of 6 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Loved it until the first firmware upgrade ruined the UI
by wbrennecke on March 16, 2012
Pros: Good storage space, easy network integration
Cons: Firmware upgrade (October 2011) obliterated the UI, affecting many users. The followup release to fix it (not until March 2012) requires you to log into the UI. See a problem here?
Summary: Don't take my word for it. Go to their forum at http://community.wdc.com and search on "firmware". You'll see all the customer service horror stories and ...
Summary: Don't take my word for it. Go to their forum at http://community.wdc.com and search on "firmware". You'll see all the customer service horror stories and more. Western Digital - the last name in Customer Service.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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so far i love it
by eneego on October 8, 2011
Pros: 2.0 firmware update, improved user interface, array of offerings, your own personal cloud
Cons: none so far
Summary: thus far the WD My Book Live seems to work as advertised. it was immediately discovered by all the devices in my network - including both a mac and a ...
Summary: thus far the WD My Book Live seems to work as advertised. it was immediately discovered by all the devices in my network - including both a mac and a pc.
i wanted to report that after i got the my book live all setup and configured, we setup mobile access on our iphones and ipad. it was all a snap. the my book live web interface --> remote access/mobile access area provided a code, we searched the app store for the wd 2go and wd photos apps and within minutes all 3 devices were set up.
i have been able to successfully set up 2 accounts/shares - other than the public share - that are password protected. i have configured the device and set the device password. setting up the WD2GO account (way better than the lame mionet) was a snap, although to access it via safari on the mac, i needed to add a special java applet for it to work. and i cannot seem to do the WD2GO access via IE8 on the pc.
in theory i should be able to access the music added to the my book live; it appears as an itunes share but does *not* allow me to access it (will update this article soon).
Updated on Oct 9, 2011
the ease of remote access to our docs is simple and relatively fast. and the interface on the wd photos app is clean, crisp and intuitive.
my one knock is still the peculiarities of accessing our items via web browsers. it worked ok, with some extra work, on the mac, but i still cannot get access on the pc.
another challege has been the enormous amount time to transfer years of files to the my book live, but i guess that's a limitation of the wireless transfer rate (there is no usb to attach it directly to my mac).
overall, my wife is quite happy with having such easy access to all our photos (does anything else matter)!
Updated on Oct 9, 2011forgot to mention that the itunes access also worked as advertised. although accessing my book live items on appletv has not yet been solved by me; it appears you can only connect to one device on the appletv and i have not solved it yet, but since i can get to my computer, not sure if i'll need to access my music/vids thru appletv.1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Cheap and cheerful
by Tayjen on April 6, 2013
Pros: The cheapest 2TB available. Wasn't too difficult to set up.
Cons: Very slow data transfer, speeds typically at 1-6MB/s over a wireless home network. Its actually quicker to stream films from the internet than from this drive.
Summary: As a NAS drive its okay for music but not for films. The speed is just too slow.
Summary: As a NAS drive its okay for music but not for films. The speed is just too slow.
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continuous problems with this device:
by gerriejason on March 29, 2013
Pros: none, it does not work properly.
Cons: expenisve, does not work, support was a joke; only the wdc forum gives some guidance.
Summary: Do not buy this product.
The firmware upgrade to 1.2.10 and following versions was a disaster; google this and you will see.
It drops connection nevery other day ...Summary: Do not buy this product.
The firmware upgrade to 1.2.10 and following versions was a disaster; google this and you will see.
It drops connection nevery other day or so, then needs a manual reboot.
It overheats all the time.
The web interface takes about 5 minutes to load. -
Does not do what it says on the box!!!!
by Simon5030 on March 19, 2013
Pros: Looks good, quiet
Cons: None working web interface, transfer very slow, customer services very painful, Twonky and DNLA media player do not work with Sony Bravia on movies only! (don't play music or watch pictures on my TV!)
Summary: Very disappointing, waiting for RTB then going to try the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex as the reviews are excellent
Summary: Very disappointing, waiting for RTB then going to try the Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex as the reviews are excellent
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WD My Book Live!!! Didn't work for me
by Ron Geiken on January 30, 2013
Pros: Nice looking unit and looked easy to set up. It was also priced fairly at Costco at about $129.00 for 2 Gig.
Cons: Will not work, Returning it to Costco for Refund. See Summary for further information.
Summary: This is by far the worst electronic product that I have ever purchased except for some 10 or 15 years back. I tried everything under the sun and spent 40 ...
Summary: This is by far the worst electronic product that I have ever purchased except for some 10 or 15 years back. I tried everything under the sun and spent 40 minutes on the phone today 1/30/2013 after buying it yesterday and also spending an inordinate amount of time on it too. Nothing should be this difficult to install. The fellow on the telephone had me jumping though hoops to try to get it recognized, but no soap. I will include a letter to Costco about he difficulties that I have had on this drive and the fact that they should likely stop carry it. When something doesn't work properly in first 15 minutes, it is likely defective. I thought that Western Digital was a pretty good company. I will not buy and Seagate Hard Drives due to the unreliability of some that I purchased a few years ago. Stay away from this drive to save yourself some agony. Trying to actually do a full test of the drive is an exercise in futility. In fact, when I was at Costco, several of the drives that were for sale look to have been returned since they had the vendors packing removed from them.
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Doesn't work for remote access
by rlbaechtold on January 19, 2013
Pros: Works OK for backup, albeit slow
Cons: Using Smartware and either the iPad WD 2go app or the WD 2go website, all I can see is a list of backup files, which is useless. I can only access folders that I put in the public files
Summary: It doesn't do wha I bought it for, and WD support has been no help. I've rebooted the drive, uninstalled and reinstalled the sofware as they told me, ...
Summary: It doesn't do wha I bought it for, and WD support has been no help. I've rebooted the drive, uninstalled and reinstalled the sofware as they told me, but it still doesn't allow me remote access to private folders.
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Would not recommend for backups!!
by rotaxengine on December 27, 2012
Pros: Nice box and good looking product so so for the software!
Cons: Errors generated from the start. Problem with software upgrades.
Summary: This item was purchased as being manufactured by a reputable company. The drive was rated as a good NAS drive with very good backup software.
The software "WD Smartware" offered ...Summary: This item was purchased as being manufactured by a reputable company. The drive was rated as a good NAS drive with very good backup software.
The software "WD Smartware" offered me (on paper) reliable backups of files with up to 25 backup versions. This is why I chose this product - for reliable incremental backups.
The product was opened on Christmas day and installed as per the instructions.
I was immediately flooded with error messages from the set up screen. I do not need to document them in full as WD know the problems as will be clear from below. However they included error 31550, error 32102, error 33166 and error 35550.
For each error I was told to contact support at WD.
None of these errors were documented in the user manual.
I spent considerable time uninstalling the software an reinstalling it to only find I got the same errors. In the end I Googled the errors and found a fix on the WD community website
http://community.wdc.com/t5/My-Book-Live/GUIDE-Factory-Restore-using-PuTTY-or-Terminal/td-p/513954
Fine, but I would not expect this from a new product. However in the fix I was instructed to download additional software (putty.exe) and reset the drive to factory conditions. After another hour or so playing around the drive was starting to function correctly.
I decided to leave my backups until Boxing Day
Mid morning I then focused on the WD Smartware backup software. Again it seemed fine and straight forward but the two key tabs - "Backup" and "Restore" would not respond. After again uninstalling the software and reinstalling it the two tabs were active.
Having got the software to run "it" advised me to update the software from 1.5.1.6 to 1.6.4.7 - Okay I did that and then I found the same problem - the backup and restore tab were not responding.
And what was sitting on the WD community website - "Backup and Restore tabs not responding after upgrade to WD Smartware 1.6.0
http://community.wdc.com/t5/My-Book-Live/Backup-and-Restore-tabs-not-responding-after-upgrade-to-WD/m-p/441548#M12945
But not a word in the manual about any such problem!!
Again in almost desperation I uninstalled the WD Smartware and reinstalled it without any upgrade. It seemed to be working and I was so far happy that I had got this far and had solved these problems.
I started the backup at about 7pm on Boxing Day and left it to run - it did seem slow but that was not a consideration and could be down to my network. When I went to bed the hard drive was making backups. Great!
The next day 27th December 9:20 I looked at the computer - A window had opened to say I should update the WD Smartware software.
The Backup and Restore tabs were again not highlighted for use. The system was still backing up (121G of 460G in 12 hours???) - Screen shot of this attached.
I decided that I will not uninstall and reinstall again - (that's not quite true, I will uninstall but never install again)
More importantly I now have no faith in the product - that when or should I need to restore a backup I will never be able to do it. The product may have a 3 year warranty but there is no point in having a backup drive if you cannot get the data back from it when and if you want it.
I spoke to a helpful person at John Lewis (A good UK store) and agreed to return it with a detailed explanation why. -
Got this HDD for space. Works like it should.
by Zyzienzling on September 25, 2012
Pros: Good Space, Chills like it should.
File Transfers Good.Cons: I don't use the Software So I have none. works like I wanted it for.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Western Digital Corp.
- Part number: WDBACG0020HCH
- Description: WD's My Book Live personal cloud storage provides shared storage on your home network that can be accessed wirelessly within and outside the home. Share files with Mac computers and PCs, stream media to your entertainment center, and access your files remotely with the WD 2go app and website.
General
- Packaged Quantity 1
- Device Type NAS server
- Host Connectivity Gigabit Ethernet
- Total Storage Capacity 2 TB
- Width 2 in
- Depth 5.5 in
- Height 6.6 in
- Weight 2.4 lbs
- Localization Latin America,
Canada,
United States Storage Controller
- Controller Interface Type RJ-45
Hard Drive
- Type Standard
- Capacity 1 x 2 TB
- Features Plug-n-Play,
Automatic backups,
PC and Mac compatible,
Remote access technology Hard Drive (2nd)
- Type None
Optical Storage
- Type None
Optical Storage (2nd)
- Type None
Storage Removable
- Type None
Video
- Video Output None
Networking
- Type Network adapter
- Data Link Protocol Ethernet ,
Gigabit Ethernet ,
Fast Ethernet - Features iTunes server,
UPnP Media Server - Compliant Standards DLNA CERTIFIED
Expansion / Connectivity
- Expansion Slot(s) None
- Interfaces 1 x Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX/1000Base-T - RJ-45
Miscellaneous
- Cables Included Network cable
- Microsoft Certifications Compatible with Windows 7
- Compliant Standards RoHS
Environmental Standards
- ENERGY STAR Qualified Yes
Power
- Power Device Power adapter - External
- Voltage Required AC 120/230 V ( 50/60 Hz )
Software / System Requirements
- Software Included Smartware
- OS Required Apple MacOS X 10.5,
Apple MacOS X 10.6,
Microsoft Windows Vista / XP / 7 Manufacturer Warranty
- Service & Support 3 years warranty
- Service & Support Details Limited warranty - 3 years
Environmental Parameters
- Min Operating Temperature 41 °F
- Max Operating Temperature 95 °F
Product series
-
Western Digital My Book Live (2TB)
Manufacturer: Western Digital Corp.
Specs: WD My Book Live WDBACG0020HCH - NAS server,
2 TB,
Mac,
PC,
RJ-45,
Standard,
Ethernet,
Gigabit Ethernet,
Fast Ethernet -
Western Digital My Book Live (1TB)
Manufacturer: Western Digital Corp.
Specs: WD My Book Live WDBACG0010HCH - NAS server,
1 TB,
Mac,
PC,
RJ-45,
Standard,
Ethernet,
Gigabit Ethernet,
Fast Ethernet
Manufacturer info
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Western Digital Corp. products on Shopper.com
-
- Manufacturer:Western Digital Corp.
- Address:
20511 Lake Forest Drive, Lake Forest, CA 92630-7741
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