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 My Book Essentials Jan 06, 2009
Excellent product. Easy to set up and super easy to use. If I can do it, anyone can!
 Define your objectives Jan 01, 2009
The Mybook essential 500GB HD is an economical choice for PC users who have a need for extra storage space or external back-up capability but do not require a range of connectivity options as it only accommodates USB.
V2.0 has some changes in features from 1.0 and I am not convinced all of the variations are beneficial. First and foremost, V1.0 had a forwarded located on/off button that I found particularly useful with consideration to some quirky performance of the drive from time to time, where it tended to impede boot functions or seems to initiate untimely back-ups of revised files. This newer version lacks a physical power switch but has a blue-hued activity indicator lamp and is designed to power down after 10 minutes of inactivity, or upon recognition of a system shutdown. I have seen little evidence the inactivity power down facility is accurate.
While I have never personally encountered heat or overload issues with my V1.0 drive - I've used it for back-up only for 18 months - the new unit has a slightly smaller footprint ( approximately 4" x 6" x 2") but similarly configured for ventilation and heat dissipation with top, back and bottom air outflow slots. This version also features a mini USB cable that limits the distance the drive can be situated from the CPU and if you have a vertically oriented workspace as I do that may represent some challenges. Due to the USB configuration and potential heat related read/write issues, I do not believe this drive to be an efficient or viable alternative for productivity applications or as an external streaming server.
This drive is essentially plug and play. Upon installation a prompt is initiated to install a trial version of some back-up software, a diagnostic toolkit, a google bundle and another option I no longer remember and cannot get back to since I opted not to install and immediately reformatted from the pre-loaded FAT32 to NTFS with a single partition of 465GB, a step that is preferable for windows users but one you may want to defer until you have registered the device via that same install module as registration thereafter becomes a headache since the device serial number is printed on the label in a font only decipherable with a 10x magnifying glass.
My intent for the drive as well as the predecessor I own is as a dedicated resource for back-ups of individual desktops. For facilitation of services across a home network, a NAS unit such the Netgear RND2150 ReadyNAS Duo 500 GB Desktop Network Attached Storage with RAID capability seems to be a safer option.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Easy to use, but might not last too long Dec 30, 2008
I have had 4 of these Western Digital 500 GB USB 2.0 drives(and one also had the eSATA option). I also have 3 of their 1 TB USB drives, and I've used 3 of their older 80 GB USB drives too. As you can see, I've been pretty much a fan of this brand, but see below for some cautions. I've found these to be very easy to use. My experience has been that set up is 100% plug and play with Windows (XP).
One issue, be SURE if you are using this with a Windows based PC to reformat the drive to NTFS. A FAT32 drive of this size in these days is just asking for problems (and I've seen problems on systems that were not re-formated to NTFS, such as issues with long file names, and files that are very large, ex: video files!). You need to reformat the drive BEFORE putting any of your data on it. You can use the quick-format option under Windows Explorer - and it will do this pretty quickly (minutes, not hours).
The second issue is that these have not lasted very long for me. I don't know if the actual drive fails or if the enclosure fails, but I've had 3 of them go bad over a 3 or 4 year period of time. Twice this happened while it was still under warranty and Western Digital's RMA process worked fine for me; they sent a new or refurb'ed one to me, and I send them theirs back (no charge to me). This failure rate is odd to me, as I don't move these around - they are sitting on a desk top and never move (it's not like I bang them around in a back pack).
Bottom line, as one of the other reviews also said - use this as a backup drive, not as your ONLY primary drive!!
In my case, I have my primary data (and pictures and video's etc) on some internal and on some external drives. I then have a separate 1 TB external USB drive that I use each night to back my primaries up to. And then once a month, or more frequently if I'm adding lots of files, I back that 1 TB external drive up to a second 1 TB external drive that I keep in a fire-box. This way, if the primary or backup gets fried, I still have the fire-box copy of all my stuff. I use a product called, SyncBackSE, to handle the actual backup processes (it finds the changes and just copies those to the target). It works pretty well for me.
 Don't Buy WD Dec 28, 2008
I bought this item just to have it die almost exactly one year later. This is the third Western Digital Drive I've purchased and had gone bad after a year. These thing DON'T LAST!! DON'T BUY IT!!!
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Why release a product that is faulty? Dec 26, 2008
I have had my Western Digital External Hard Drive for about a year now. It has worked fine, mounted properly onto my desktop and been easily accessible for backing up files and retrieving files. I came onto this site to find another backup for it since I started getting nervous about losing all my files and data. I have a wonderful Macbook Pro and I couldn't be more pleased with it. I started to read some of the reviews for this company's products and I was surprised at how many of their drives fail, and then how many customers were irate because customer service gives them the run around and data retrieval services are insanely priced. I decided to go with another backup. Well, I was too late. My backup arrived a day before Christmas, and on Christmas, my Western Digital Hard Drive failed. It won't appear on my desktop and I can't retrieve my files anymore. The thing I want to know is, why release a product that is as transient as an 8 hour battery? What is the point? I think back on how many important files I lost (my fault for gambling on a company of course) and I wonder, how can these people stay in business if they are releasing less than reliable technology that ends up screwing the consumer? Capitalism can be a cancer I guess. I would just like to warn the consumer, please do your homework, maybe look into another way to keep your files stored because Western Digital might help you out for about a year, maybe 6 months, hell, I've read even 2 weeks, but they will ultimately fail you miserably. I am very sad about this and wish there were a way to get some of my important files back, I guess next time I will be more careful.
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