WD My Book 2TB External Hard Drive Storage USB 3.0 File Backup and Storage

This drive is all i needed and expected from it. With it's 2GB storage space it accomodates most of mine precious data, it's much fater than old USB 2.0 MyBook when used with USB 3.0 controller ... and all of that is packed in a very minimalistic but elegant package. The activity LED is not overwhelming but bright enought to see it even in direct sun light. The drive is slim but heavy enough to maintain it's stability on the desk and the power and usb cables that are included are long enough to reach to the other end of desk where I have my surge protector. The only bad thing about the drive for me was the software it came with, and the kind of autorun partition with the junk on it. Backup agent that is included and branded by WD is super limited, and almost useless unless you just want a very simple backup of everything. Other than that, if You know what are you doing you can easly wipe out all the junk software that came preinstalled and than set-up a backup software of your choice to do exactly what you want it to do. To make it clear for some interested in the software that WD supplied, my bigest issue was that it won't let you choose certain folder or folder tree to backup period, instead it will ask you wahat kind of data (pictures, documents, videos etc.) you want to backup, than it asks you were to look for it and than it scans the locations you provided for this particular data to be backed up. You have very limited or even no control over it what so ever. I want my backup software to give me aability to show it what folder, drives or single files to backup and just do it. Don't think for me what's good what's bad or what's a picture what's a video etc. A user that knows what backup is for and that he/she needs it, will for sure know what exactly is important to them and needs that backup. That said, the hard drive, it's performance, design and the looks are great! Just make sure that if you want to use it for backup to get some more advanced backup utility.

Been using these for a couple of years and love them. I just add a new one whenever I need space. There are a couple of issues that are not for the faint of heart, but are easy to correct with a bit of googling. A few tips for success: 1. These are DESKTOP EXTERNAL drives and are not meant to be portable or routinely traveled with. Plug them in and leave them stationary, just like the name says. Get some small portable drives if you need to hand transfer data. I have 6 or 7 portables for that reason. 2. Ensure they get good, clean air flow and space to breathe. The cases don't run especially hot, which I suspect means they are overly insulated and don't shed enough heat. 3. Take some time to get to know and customize the software they ship with. It's not bad, and somewhat better than similar products I've used from Seagate and Buffalo. Customize it so it only backs up what you want, when you need it. You can even specify file types and set file versioning, which is very useful. Also be sure to do the software and firmware upgrades through the management software. 4. Set the power management appropriately. If you hit the disks often, you don't want them to drop to sleep mode every 15 minutes. Match it to your workflow. I personally do all my backups to one drive and treat the others as giant write space for archives that aren't catastrophic if I lose them. 5. You may discover an issue with Windows 7 not recognizing more than 2 of them concurrently. It will manifest as only two mapping drives and the third not being recognized. It's a quick fix, just google and follow the instructions. Great little drives and ample storage for the price. UPDATE 7/3/13: I just purchased my fourth drive and added it on with no problems. The software -which has been updated to a very nice new interface- recognized it and had it working immediately. The drive shipped with the latest firmware and is visually identical to previous models. Still a great drive and value for the money.

I bought this for backing up my photos, videos, and general files on multiple disks on a Windows 7 64 system and it works well. This drive reports its sector size as 512 bytes so it is completely compatible and works with Windows Backup. Drives that report sector size as 4K are not really compatible although they will work some of the time, but are very unreliable for use with Windows Backup and possibly other software. Unfortunately the technical information on external drives almost never lists the reported block size which makes selecting them difficult. Note that the actual physical sector size in almost all large drives is 4K, the difference is what size is reported to Windows. To get this information use a command prompt in admin mode with fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo and look at the Bytes per Sector entry which must be 512 for the drive to be full compatible. The software that comes with this drive is OK but not wonderful and the documentation is mediocre at best. Be sure to get the latest updates from the WD site, the version that comes with the drive is very flaky.

I purchased this drive after reading many reviews. I was looking for something that would automatically back up all of my PC files, pics, and music. I have a Dell PC running Vista 64 bit. This drive has been excellent so far. Speed is quite good compared to other drives I have used. I was nervous about using the smartware as some previous reviewers mentioned issues with setting it up and flexibility and ease of use. I have to say I have had no issues whatsoever. I use the smartware and it automatically backs up my PC drives whenever I run the software. I have other external drives which I manage manually, and although that has its merits, this drive is self sufficient if you are just looking to have a back up drive. It has a great restore feature as well if you do have a PC crash, the drive can put everything back in its place. I found set up and use straightforward and I am not a tech guy. The software is not going to put a man in space, but it is easy and quite automated. If you are looking to tote this thing around, I would go with some of the other some of the other models of WD drives that are built for transport as this one is a bit big. Overall a great drive.

When it comes hard drive, what I usually look for is the size and whether it retains heat while exchanging files. This is a great drive from WD. I like WD since many years ago and it continue to produce great hardware. The drive itself is a 2tb drive and it is very fast. I can't believe that usb 3.0 is so much better than 2.0 usb. this drive comes in a sleak black color, shinny it is. has vents on sides that help to keep the drive cool. I bought this drive mainly to get it to store files and play on my playstation. Since playstation has a limit on 2tb, this is great. Formatting to Fat32 is a breezed. It came with a formatter as well. So for those that needed to format, you have everything in the drive, although you need to copy that formatter.exe file to your computer before you format. as for the durability, i say it's great. I like for that fact that it feels solid and strong. When you hold it, you feel like it is made from a well made strong and quality material. Some drives you buy cheap will not have this feels. One thing I don't like about the drive is that not about it's performance but rather maybe the black shinny outside shell tends to collect dust or maybe it's black and it is easier for me to see. I clean it and later I see dust on it again. Although it does not affect the drive performance but it does look dirty if look at it close up. overall the price is decent. it isn't cheap or expensive for a 2tb drive. however, because of the brand I think you get it for a very good drive for backup.

The 2TB WD External Hard Drive (EHD) arrived a couple of weeks ago and it was a snap to attach to my computer. It is USB 3.0-enabled, but it is USB 2.0 compatible, so it attached quickly and easily to an available USB 2.0 port. It is REALLY DIFFICULT to find the "best" EHD (or anything else, for that matter), since one tends to see lots of "pro" and lots of "con" reviews. This particular EHD seemed to have a reasonably good ratio of "pro" to "con," so I ordered it. So far, it has performed well -- i.e., it has not failed (as did my Seagate -- which the WD replaced -- very early in its career). However, the WD-provided backup software is a major drawback. Pros: * Attaches easily to an available USB 2.0 or 3.0 port * Starts up when the computer is started up * Operates silently and transparently * Good capacity for the $$ Cons: * The included backup software is very, very poor -- in fact, it is worse than useless. It does not allow one to choose specific files or folders to backup; instead, one is forced to choose the "type" of files one wants backed up to the EHD. This is sort of like picking up pennies wearing boxing gloves, i.e., awkward and frustrating. But it is actually worse than that -- the WD-provided software does NOT actually back up all of the files of the selected file types. Consequently, utilizing this backup software is a really bad idea if one is serious about reliable backups. The software included with my defunct Seagate drive ("Seagate Manager") was significantly better. In any event, I have acquired third-party backup software as a work-around. * When the computer powers off, the WD EHD sits and flashes its light. It SEEMS as if it has spun down, but it would be nice if it completely powered down -- as, once again, my defunct Seagate used to do. (To be fair, I suppose I should give it 10 or 15 minutes to see if it eventually completely powers down......)

I've been working with computers since 1974, back when there were no personal or micro-computers. Back when a 300 baud modem was hot stuff. My first 60MB hard drive cost $600 (back when $600 actually meant something) and measured about a foot long or more, about 8 inches high and six inches wide. So you can imagine my delight when this little 2TB drive showed up. It's no more than a tenth of the size of that first 60MB hard drive. Imagine, two thousand gigabytes. There's an old saying in computing (or at least those old enough to remember it) that, no matter the size of your hard drive, you'd only have about 1MB of free space. Well, not no more. Given the performance of our other Western Digital drives, I'm pretty confident that the My Book drive will last until, well, until we don't need to preserve our professional, historical files anymore. Now, before I buy things like terabyte drives or printers or laptops, I always check PC Magazine's Editor's Choice collection, and this one was highly recommended. Its speed, size, and simplicity make it a real standout. Furthermore, we've been using Western Digital's drives for over ten years and have been very pleased with them. Unfortunately, though, Robin's Rule #2 is: all drives fail eventually, as do computers. (Robin's Rule #1 is: never pass a law you can't enforce, but we'll skip that one here.) My sturdy old Pentium 4 Micron computer is finally dying, after putting in several years of hard service, so it's time to move on to the laptops, especially now that we're retired and I'm no longer doing interface or other design work that really does need a large monitor. And moving to the laptops means it's time to transfer all our historical, professional data off the old machines, which is why I bought the My Book drive. The real beauty of the Western Digital My Book isn't just its thundering capacity, it's the size and portability. Using a simple USB cable, I can move my main development data from one computer to the next in less than five minutes (Gee, just like the old days of moving SCSI drives on the Macs). So now every one of our computers with a USB port can become my main development and writing computer. Just as soon as I transfer that 1.5GB of old emails from clients and contact information for everyone I know (I used to use Outlook Express, but now I just let Yahoo take care of the mail), and things like my book-selling database files. The total data transfers have now taken up barely a fraction of the My Book's space. Out of a readable 1.81TB, I still have 1.78TB left. And that represents over fifteen years of developing database applications for clients like California state agencies and medical research projects. Meanwhile, the My Book drive just sits quietly in the background, taking up almost no space and storing our entire professional history of database development. Yes, it's a ridiculously huge drive for a small company, but all those historical files are critical and, what with the recent tornado warnings (tornadoes in California? Really? Weird.), it's nice to know that all I need to do is unplug this one little drive and our critical data is safe. Or, at least, it will be safe just as soon as I finish transferring the data from the other computers sitting around here. That's an awful lot of reassurance for about $130.

Item Reviewed: WD My Book 2TB External Hard Drive Storage After installing the Western Digital 2TB External Hard Drive and having followed the instructions provided, the hard drive was a huge disappointment. The hd would not always boot up and had to be reinstalled to use it. An error message would appear on my computer. Having contacted WD, I was sent a new USB cable. That did not fix the problem. They said that I had two options: Standard option: to print off the return authorization they would send me, affix the postage and mail it back. From the state of Alaska, that mail would have taken 7-10 days). Upon their receipt they would mail me out a new drive. So that's another 7-10 days for it to get to me. So that's 2-3 weeks without the use of the product; and, I would be responsible for the postage charges for the return of their defective product. The other option was for me to provide my credit card number, they would put a hold charge of $185.00 on it and upon their receipt of the defective hd, they would release the $185.00 charge. They also would send me out immediately a new hd. The $185.00 charge seems excessive to me given that I paid $99.00 originally. My other concern is the need for my credit card information to be given out. After requesting to speak to a manager, WD agreed to send me a return authorization including return postage and mail me out a new hd promptly (without a credit card hold). Why could they not have done that in the first place without the need to escate to a manager. Scorecard: WD customer service: 0! I then contacted Amazon.com and explained the situation. The end result (without having the need to escalate to a manager), is that I am shipping back the defective product to them, and a replacement has already been ordered. Scorecard: AMAZON 100%+ customer service. I have owned WD external hd's in the past and never had a problem with them. After all of this, it it doubtful that I will purchase another WD product. The product itself may be good, however, the customer service was very unpleasant. AMAZON.COM exceeded my expectations in their customer service. GO AMAZON!!

When I bought this it was perfect for gaming pc. I later on bought a portable hard drive and took those one apart and I it worked perfectly in my pc.

Ok hai vadeeya

Being using WD s for 5 years now, got 12 of them loaded up and nary a complaint..besides WD has an excellent service support system so no buying anything else for me!

Just dumped 260Gb of files on this drive in about 3 hours, which gives an average of 24Mb/second transfer rate, while I was multitasking on other things. I find that very acceptable for a storage drive. Time will tell for the durability, but so far so good! As others have said, there is some junkware on the drive, I just dumped it in a hidden folder in case I need it someday. I removed a star for this.

I used my new drive with Windows XP SP3 and USB 2.0. I filled the entire 1.8 TB in about 30 hours. The drive worked fine. It made absolutely no noise, and it stayed at room temperature all this time. Even the power adapter was only a little warm. I haven't tested the USB 3.0 part yet. That will have to wait until my next PC in 2011. I could buy a PCI-E x1 card for about $40 to add USB 3.0 capability to my current PC, but I don't think I'll bother. If you're interested in such a thing, there's even a WD product that looks pretty much like this one but comes bundled with a card like that.