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 List Price: $229.99 Sale Price: Too low to display Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days 
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Put your digital life on the sleek, high capacity My Book® Essential™ external hard drive. With WD quality and USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 connectivity, this drive is designed for today with tomorrow in mind. WD quality inside and out - My Book External drives are the world's best selling drives. There's a reason. We've been making hard drives for 20 years and we know how to protect your data. USB 3.0 plus USB 2.0 - A single drive with universal compatibility today and next-generation speed for tomorrow. Use it with USB 2.0 now and step up to USB 3.0 speed when you’re ready.
Put your digital life on the sleek, high capacity My Book® Essential™ external hard drive. With WD quality and USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 connectivity, this drive is designed for today with tomorrow in mind.
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Dual USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 - A single drive with universal compatibility today and next-generation speed for tomorrow. Use it with USB 2.0 now and step up to USB 3.0 speed when you’re ready.
Up to 3x faster transfer rates - When connected to a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port this drive lets you access and save files up to 3 times faster than USB 2.0. Transfer a 2-hour HD movie in just 3 minutes instead of 13 minutes.*
*Performance may vary based on user’s hardware and system configuration.
WD quality inside and out - For over 20 years, millions of people worldwide have trusted their data to WD hard drives. We are successful because we understand the importance of your data and our first concern is keeping that data safe.
WD SmartWare™ software - You’re in control of your backup. Install all the features, select just the components you need, or if you prefer, choose not to use the software at all.
Automatic, continuous backup - Works quietly in the background to protect your data using minimal PC resources. Whenever you add or change a file it’s instantly backed up.
Password protection for privacy- Gain peace of mind knowing that your data is protected from unauthorized access with password protection and encryption.
Planet friendly- My Book external drives are designed to save energy. WD GreenPower Technology™ lowers internal drive power consumption by up to 30%; a sleep mode reduces power during idle times, and a power-saving feature turns the drive on and off with your computer.
Ideal for
What’s in the box
External hard drive, USB cable, WD SmartWare software, AC adapter, Quick Install Guide.
Compatibility
Formatted NTFS
Windows® XP, Windows Vista®, Windows 7
Mac OS® X Leopard®, Snow Leopard™ (requires reformatting and will work in USB 2.0 mode)
Note: Compatibility may vary depending on user’s hardware configuration and operating system.
Rating
This external drive is an excellent choice for computer backups. Its 1 TB drive is large enough for me to do both a file and a clone backup. It operates quietly in the background with a relatively low energy consumption. There are only three concerns that I have:
1. It has been reported that the connectors on the drive have failed. Rather than find out about this problem the hard way, I just connect and disconnect the drive by using the AC plug that I connect to a terminal strip. This avoids completely a possible problem.
2. The file backup software works well. However, it is a resource hog during boot up.
3. In the event of drive failure during the warranty period, one must return the drive to Western Digital (WD). But, if one has confidential information on the failed drive, one will be loathe to do even though WD states that they will destroy the old drive. But this appears to be a common problem for all drive manufacturers.
Rating
I bought this to back up my newly built system to and also I was planning on digitizing all my movie collection and this just seemed to be a good solution for both storage and backup! I’ve had it for 2 months and I think I have had enough insights to write a review! So here it is!
Speed: As a storage drive this is a great performer especially the USB 3.0, it is 4 times faster than USB 2.0 (see the images I’ve uploaded on the product page), I love the fact that huge file transfers (i’m talking 100′s of GB) takes less than an hour to complete! Backup also is blazing fast especially if you have set the utility to incremental (don’t use the software that this comes with, more on that in a second)!
Reliability: It has weathered 2.5 months of daily use and extensive use very well so far, but it is too early for me to comment on this! Hopefully it would fare better than the Seagate I had before, that is junk!
Format: It is primarily designed to work with Win 7, and hence the the file format is NTFS, which is the best format for a hard drive this big, but for whatever reason you are buying this for a FAT32 system (like a PS3), then don’t because it is going to be a PITA, and also you would not be utilizing this drive as it is designed to be used! So for PS3 owners you are better of buying a much smaller HDD and then reformatting that to FAT32 – there are utilities out there which would do that for you!
Enclosure: I’m not the biggest fan of WD enclosures, but this one is not bad! However I had a terrible issue trying to get this to be recognized by my ASUS LGA 1155 Intel Z68 DDR3 2200 SATA 6Gbps and USB 3.0 Supported ATX Motherboard P8Z68-V motherboard! I did read on WD forums that I was not the only one with this problem and neither was this a problem with ASUS MoBo’s, it did recognize other USB 3.0 devices without any issues! So one star down for that! I finally had to disable the legacy USB 3.0 support in BIOS to get this to work well with the MoBo (that was counter intuitive, disable the very service you want to use and then it works)! It gets a little loud and hot when you have used it continuously for a few hours!
Included Software: I would not recommend anyone to use the provided backup software along with this drive, it is far from being finished as a product and has a lot of bugs, also DO NOT use the security password utility to lock the drive, it sometimes just won’t function! If you are worried about someone stealing your data, use an encryption tool and not the password. Maybe this was a rare instance but why take the chance and be left with all your data in your hand but inaccessible because the drive is locked with a password you provided! WD should really invest some time and money in developing their software that is bundled with the hardware or should just tie up with Acronis or another back up software developer to bundle the products! This was my biggest crib and criticism with this drive!
Value for Money: I got the 3TB for $135, 2 months back, thankfully before the floods in Thailand and the skyrocketing of the HDD prices, they estimate it might be months before the prices come down! So I am pretty happy with the value – that is roughly 4 cents for a GB (WOW…!), that is awesome! Right now since the supply for HDD’s are limited due to a halt in production, the price is huge and not the best value for money proposition, so unless you need the drive extremely urgently, postpone your buying decision for a few more months and you would get much better bang for your buck!
So overall I’m pretty happy with this purchase and I have had no data losses so far, which is the worst thing that can happen to a backup drive. Hope this helps someone who is planning a similar investment – check the WD forums for the USB 3.0 connectivity problems with your motherboard!
Rating
From design perspective, this thing looks great. Its glossy finish fits well with any kind of computer setup. Feels a bit flimsy but that is to be expected from the plastic finish.
Heating wise, I’ve been running this attached to the Linksys e4200 so it’s always in use and I am amazed at how little heat this drive generates. Data transfer rates are a bit slow for my taste but overall, its a great drive for network storage