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Beware - My Book drives fail if left on 24/7
I'm an experienced computer technician with 20+ years of on the job experience. I am a firm supporter of Western Digital internal drives, and have always used them. When the My Book drives were released several years ago, I was enthusiastic that a low-cost external drive solution was available from my preferred hard drive vendor.
After years of using these drives in both a professional and personal capacity, and after having the last of my 5 personal My Book drives die today, I felt c...
[Western Digital My Book Essential Edition, 500GB 500GB My Book Essential Edition 2.0 External Hard Drive review can be read at Amazon.com]
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Review Date:
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05/21/2009
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User Review
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100%
(36 of 36) Users Found This Review Helpful
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Great Deal
first thing i did was delete the preinstalled software and format to ntfs then i transferred 116 gb of music videos and programs in 1 hour and 45 minutes. works great and does not get hot. i have two computers one with vista and one with xp. without thepreinstalled software the drive works on both just fine. now it just needs to last the last wd drive i bought 300 gb just turned 2 and is still going strong.
[Western Digital My Book Essential Edition, 500GB 500GB My Book Essential Edition 2.0 External Hard Drive review can be read at CircuitCity]
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Reviewed by:
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Review Date:
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02/23/2008
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User Review
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100%
(27 of 27) Users Found This Review Helpful
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Good hardware burdened with lots of bad 'free-ware' software (thats not really free)
This hardrive has been performing as expected. I use it to back up several laptops and pcs. Setup was a little long because I had to reformat the drive to NTFS and get rid of all of the software it came with which I tried and was useless. But now thatit is clean it runs well backs-up relatively quickly and I have had no problems.
[Western Digital My Book Essential Edition, 500GB 500GB My Book Essential Edition 2.0 External Hard Drive review by Rocrat can be read at CircuitCity]
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Reviewed by:
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Rocrat
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Review Date:
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01/29/2008
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User Location:
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Tucson
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User Review
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100%
(25 of 25) Users Found This Review Helpful
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watch out for the backup misdirection
I am not a techie, as will be obvious. I bought the external hard drive to back up my computer. I thought I was getting one with automatic backup. It turns out the essential edition does not have this feature. However, when you install it, it asks you to click on something which looks like you are setting up an auto backup system, but which in reality loads on to your computer a 30 day free trial for a remote backup system it is trying to sell you, a google toolbar, etc. etc. So I had to take al...
[Western Digital My Book Essential Edition, 500GB 500GB My Book Essential Edition 2.0 External Hard Drive review by A Customer can be read at buy.com]
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Reviewed by:
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A Customer
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Review Date:
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01/22/2008
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User Location:
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Greensboro, NC
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User Review
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100%
(19 of 19) Users Found This Review Helpful
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Reliable Home Backup
I have recently bought two portable drives: 1) Western Digital WDME1600TN My Passport Essential 160GB USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive (Midnight Black) and 2) Western Digital My Passport Essential 250GB USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive (Intense Blue).
I was impressed with the reliability of the portables. I have no problems with them but I was still running out of space. So I wanted to purchase another external drive.
I wanted to try other brands that I've used before. Seagate and Ma...
[Western Digital My Book Essential Edition, 500GB 500GB My Book Essential Edition 2.0 External Hard Drive review can be read at Amazon.com]
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Review Date:
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10/24/2008
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User Review
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100%
(14 of 14) Users Found This Review Helpful
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Easy to use!
I didnt install any software. Im just using it for storage of Digital Photos and Video Clips only. Im just dragging and dropping folders and it is working great
[Western Digital My Book Essential Edition, 500GB 500GB My Book Essential Edition 2.0 External Hard Drive review by Palletja can be read at CircuitCity]
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Reviewed by:
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Palletja
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Review Date:
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08/01/2008
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User Location:
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Milwaukie, Oregon
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User Review
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100%
(13 of 13) Users Found This Review Helpful
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Great buy
Best buy had this on sale for $119. Since circuit city matches an advertised price plus 10 I picked it up for $103. Plug it in and presto. The google software is a pain in the behind but its easily uninstalled. Instead of reformatting it to NTFS I converted it to NTFS which wont erase the software that comes on the disk if you dont care about this then reformat it. Its far from a speed demon but for what Im doing its more than sufficient. All in all I would recommend this.brbrPS - This is ...
[Western Digital My Book Essential Edition, 500GB 500GB My Book Essential Edition 2.0 External Hard Drive review by ibcotts can be read at CircuitCity]
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Reviewed by:
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ibcotts
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Review Date:
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03/21/2008
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User Location:
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pittsburgh
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User Review
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100%
(11 of 11) Users Found This Review Helpful
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Good external HD, but use ONLY for backup/data storage
I've been using Western Digital HD's for nearly 15 years now and never yet have had one of them fail on me (though there's always a first time!) I currently own two of these My Book 500GB external drives which I have hooked up to my newest system. These drives are attractively designed, quite sleek with good ventilation and very easy to set up; the only things you need to do are (1) plug in the power adapter and connect it to a suitable socket and (2) connect the USB cable to the computer; Wind...
[Western Digital My Book Essential Edition, 500GB 500GB My Book Essential Edition 2.0 External Hard Drive review can be read at Amazon.com]
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Review Date:
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11/02/2008
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User Review
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100%
(10 of 10) Users Found This Review Helpful
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Great, powerful harddrive
Bought two of these babys on black friday and will never regret it.brThis hard drive is fast reliable and even energy efficient not to mention worth my 3 hour wait brbrNote to buyersbrReformat as NTFS or Mac file system.brFAT32 the pre-formatted format is legacy friendly but much slower on Windows XP-Vista than NTFS brbrAnd regarding the required google install there is a check mark to Not install.
[Western Digital My Book Essential Edition, 500GB 500GB My Book Essential Edition 2.0 External Hard Drive review by Joe W. can be read at CircuitCity]
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Reviewed by:
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Joe W.
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Review Date:
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11/26/2007
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User Location:
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DSM, Iowa
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User Review
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99%
(144 of 145) Users Found This Review Helpful
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V2.0 Of The My Book Series Is Out - Will It Be More Reliable Than V1.0?
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 connection, the drive is targeted to price-conscious users who need lots of extra storage space, but don't need multiple connectivity options (USB, eSATA, Firewire).
Slightly reduced in thickness from its predecessor, v2.0 is about the size of an...
[Western Digital My Book Essential Edition, 500GB 500GB My Book Essential Edition 2.0 External Hard Drive review by Phillip M. Dampier can be read at Amazon.com]
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Reviewed by:
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Phillip M. Dampier
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Review Date:
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11/10/2007
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User Location:
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Rochester, NY United States
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User Review
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98%
(681 of 691) Users Found This Review Helpful
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