Western Digital My Book Essential 500 GB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive
by Western Digital
Our Price: $159.98
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $65.00 (click here)
Category: CE
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Digital Photo Product Details
Manufacturer: Western DigitalAudio: English (Original Language)
Format: CD
Platform: Mac
Model: WDH1U5000N
Product features:
- USB 2.0 Personal Storage 3.5 In;
- Caselogic LHDC-1 Neoprene Portable Hard Drive Case (Dark Gray)
- Case Logic VHS-101 Portable Hard Drive Case (Black)
- AmazonBasics IEEE 1394 4-Pin/6-Pin FireWire Cable (6 Feet/1.8 Meters)
- AmazonBasics Ultra-High-Speed HDMI Cable Braided (9.8 Feet/3.0 Meters)
- AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Cable (9.8 Feet/3.0 Meters) [Supports 3D + Audio Return Channel]
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Western Digital My Book Essential 500 GB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive
Customer Review: Perfect For My Needs
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the first reviews implies that this model is USB only....I don't know what that is about, but I purchased a Western Digital My Book Essential 2.0, and it uses a USB cord & a power cord. It is not a portable drive-you are not supposed to be taking it all kinds of places. It is meant to stay on your desk, not be a world traveller. The portable drives are the ones that only use a USB connection, & no power cord.
Anyhow, this drive has worked out perfectly for me. It is my first external hard drive purchase. I knew nothing about them before, but I went online, did some research & settled on this particular model. Mine is 750 gig capacity, which translates to 699 gigs upon hooking it up (this is normal, but too lengthy to explain here). I am running it on a Dell computer, Windows XP.
There are specific issues I want to address. First, the noise/fan/heat issue. So far, I have not heard a single noise coming from the drive. It is completely noise-less. There are complaints in the comments section about people complaining about noise, so the manufacturers reduce the fan capacity, etc. to keep the things quiet, but thus setting the drives up for failure. Well, I know nothing about this issue,& have no idea what kind of fans are in the My Book- but I can report what my experience has been. Like I said, I hear nothing coming from the drive. But also, the drive is completely cool to the touch. I don't feel any heat, anywhere. I have it sitting upright in an open space. So, I am very hopeful that whatever the issues are, Western Digital has figured them out. Having said that, I agree that it was always ridiculous to complain about noise in the first place-at least insomuch that noise reduction would reduce the life of the drive. But obviously there are a lot of immature brats out there who want every little last thing perfect, or they complain loudly. Maybe WD has figured out a way to satiate the frothing dogs without reducing quality. Hopefully.
Another issue I read about is speed of the drive. I have the My Book hooked up to USB-& I'm not even sure if it is 2.0, as I just kind of plugged it into the first one I saw, & I only have one USB 2.0 connection. Anyhow, so far the drive is very fast. I am actually impressed that it is so fast, considering this was also supposed to be an "issue." Well, it's definetely not an issue for me. My external drive is actually a lot faster than my internal one! And this is surprising, since all I read about was how internal drives are much faster, blah, blah, blah. Well not so here. I don't know know if they get slower as time goes on, & you add more stuff. So far I have transferred my entire music collection over to the My Book, plus some videos. I have a serious music collection.
I think the My Book is just about perfect. I use mine everyday as a second hard drive, because I ran out of space on my internal drive. It is working out beautifully for this purpose. I couldn't ask for more. It was a cinch to set up. They could have sent a manuel however, just to completely educate people about the drives, but it is not essential.
Lastly, I want to talk about backups. I read comments about purchasing a second one to backup the first, etc. Not too many people seem to be aware of this, but online backup is by far the most convenient, easiest, wonderful way to take care of all your back up need. Afterall, if there is a natural disaster or theft of your drives occurs, it won't matter what setup you have. It will all be gone. Look up Carbonite. It is a company that backs up all your stuff online. So whatever happens in the "real world," your stuff is safe online. It is perfect. Check it out. Right now, they are working on a plan to include external drives. So pretty soon, all of your backup needs can be taken care of, painlessly.
More Western Digital My Book Essential 500 GB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive reviews:
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Description of Western Digital My Book Essential 500 GB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive
500GB - 7200rpm - USB 2.0 - USB - ExternalDigital Cameras and Photo Categories
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