Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 2.0 1000 GB (1 TB)

Pros: Stylish design, large capacity, budget-minded price, power-saving feature, update to original product line

Cons: Questions about hard drive longevity, no power switch, no fan, Mini-USB cable

The Bottom Line: Trust but verify! This is an update of the My Book series, which had quality problems. Use for backups but never alone to protect important files. Longevity? Time will tell.

Review: Western Digital has released v2.0 of the My Book Essential external hard drive series, redesigned for late 2007.

The Essential series is the value line from Western Digital's external hard drive product line. Featuring a USB-only...

Pros: Compact, quiet, fast, reliable.

Cons: Should include automatic back-up software.

The Bottom Line: With more and more of our lives being stored on computer hard drives, don't you think it's time to expand your capacity, or just back up your hard drive?

Review: The Western Digital My Book Essential 500GB external hard drive is a worthwhile purchase for several different types of folks. I actually purchased this product for one reason, and am now using in a slightly different capacity. It has performed very...

Pros: Noise, design, capacity, value, ease of installation and use

Cons: Somewhat sparse documentation

The Bottom Line: The ease of use and installation, capacity, performance, product design, and look and feel make this a very nice addition to a PC. Included trial software looks good too.

Review: Quick Summary

Good size, quiet, unobtrusive, works as expected. Good value, tons of space.

What s in the Box

MyBook, AC adapter, USB cable.

Aesthetics

The outer shell is a very...

Pros: Silent operation, nice status LED

Cons: No chaining of multiple drives

The Bottom Line: Easy expandable storage. I use mine with Time Machine on Mac OSX. It's quiet and reliable.

Review: I am a Macintosh guy. My iMac has a 320Gb hard drive (about 100Gb free). With Leopard, I am making use of the Time Machine automatic backup. Time Machine works great but it eats up drive space.

I used to use a 250Gb external but it would...

Pros: Slick shiny design, Consumer friendly, Compact and portable (1TB platter instead of 2x500GB)

Cons: average data transfer only 1 USB port, average price, software is useless

The Bottom Line: Recommended for the average pc user, if you are advanced.. checking the specs highly advised.

Review: Design & Portability
I had 2 external HD's, which were 250GB and 150GB. It was in two different enclosures, so where ever I went, it was a real hassle carrying two HD's. MyBook is pretty compact with 1TB platter inside, helps slimming...

Pros: Compact, one terabyte, plug & play, easy to partition, USB cable included

Cons: Formatted FAT32, limited documentation, slower than internal drives

The Bottom Line: For a portable back up drive with an enormous amount of storage capability and solid technology, you can't go wrong with this drive.

Review: Twenty years ago, a Terabyte of hard drive space would have cost you $1 million - if you could afford a Cray Computer. Today, you can get your own Terabyte (1,000 GB) for under $200.

This Western Digital Hard Drive delivers on all fronts. I...

Pros: Inexpensive; Fast Searching Speeds; Durable; Quiet

Cons: Only USB connectivity; Not extremely portable

The Bottom Line: I would recommend this hard drive because it fits all the needs of a basic hard drive for storage in durability and compatibility.

Review: The MyBook, made by the leading manufacturer of external hard drives Western Digital, is a compact warehouse. It's not exactly 500 GB, as it really holds around 485, but that's more than enough for me.

Personally, I would rate external...

Pros: Simple, reliable, quiet, quick installation, cheap, good electronic specs, and housing design

Cons: No software included. Formatted as FAT32 for Mac compatibility.

The Bottom Line: A best buy for large USB external drives

Review: For an executive summary, read only the bolded items. UPDATE: This drive works so well I bought another. As a 'green' design, it consumes less power than many other models, including all the current external drives I use. The automatic...

Pros: The My Book is a great storage, compact, attractive, portable, and very reliable product.

Cons: No cons for me but would be nice to have a built in virus protection.

The Bottom Line:

I strongly recommend this product for anyone wanting a fast easy solution to store anything from ebooks, movies, music, software, games and pics. Move over clutter meet the My Book.

Review: Let me just say I absolutely love this hard drive. The My Book has paid for itself 100 times over well probably 1000 times over. This product allows you to keep so many things, it has been a life saver for me more then once. I will buy movies,...

Pros: Never cheaper per GB, easy to connect, simple to use.

Cons: Not much of a manual, but is USB 'Plug and Play'.

The Bottom Line: Definitely Buy recommendation! Cheap, easy to use, transportable, and can be used with PC, Mac, laptop, or home media center.

Review: Western Digital has always had a good reputation for excellent design, superb quality control, and solid service and support. The My Book Series of external USB hard drives is no exception.

The case is attractive, well designed, and...