WD My Book Studio 3 TB FireWire 800 External Hard Drive

by Western Digital

• Pure performance for Mac with FireWire 800, Fire Wire Cable Included (4 Feet Length)
• Compatible with Apple Time Machine
• Password protection with hardware-based encryption
• WD SmartWare automatic, continuous backup software
• Cool-to-the-touch aluminum enclosure complements your Mac

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 1.9 x 6.5 inches ; 2.6 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B004QGXOP2
• Item model number: WDBC3G0030HAL-NESN
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (200 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #49 in Electronics > Computers & Add-Ons > Data Storage > External Hard Drives
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 11, 2011

Product Description

Capacity: 3 TB

From the Manufacturer

My Book Studio - Precision metal design. Pure performance.

This drive has everything you need and nothing you don't. It's formatted for Mac® with a premium aluminum enclosure and delivers blisteringly fast performance while staying cool to the touch. The fast FireWire® 800 interface makes backups fast. This high-performance drive is compatible with Apple® Time Machine® and is ideal for videographers, photographers, and other creative professionals.

Sleek aluminum enclosure complements your Mac.
The premium, aluminum enclosure matches your Mac and remains cool to the touch even as the drive delivers blisteringly fast performance.

Premium performance.
Save and access data at top speeds with the lightning fast FireWire® 800 interface. Also features USB 2.0 for maximum flexibility.

Designed for the Mac professional.
Formatted for Mac, this drive is plug-and-play ready for Mac computer users. It's ideal for videographers, photographers, video editors and other graphic professionals.

Features at a glance Premium performance for Mac with FireWire 800 Cool-to-the-touch aluminum enclosure Compatible with Apple Time Machine Password protection and hardware-based encryption WD SmartWare™ automatic continuous backup software 3-year limited warranty

WD's My Book Studio is the high performance, premium design external hard drive for your Mac backup and storage needs.

Heat-dissipating, cool-to-the-touch aluminum enclosure
Heat-dissipating, cool-to-the-touch aluminum enclosure. The premium aluminum enclosure perfectly complements your Mac computer and the sleek, book-like design allows two or more My Book drives to nestle neatly together like volumes on a shelf.

Premium performance
Save and access data at top speeds with the dual high-performance FireWire 800 interface. USB 2.0 interface for maximum flexibility.

Optional WD Smartware backup software
Visual backup software and drive management control center. Install all components, some or none. It's up to you.

• See your backup as it happens - Seeing is believing. Visual backup displays your content in categories and show the progress of your backup.
• Protect your data automatically - Relax, your data is secure. Automatic, continuous backup will instantly make a second copy whenever you add or change a file.
• Bring back lost files effortlessly - Retrieve your valuable data to its original location whether you've lost all your data or just overwritten an important file.
• Take control - Customize your backup, set drive security, run diagnostics, manage the power settings, and more from the WD SmartWare control center.

Formatted HFS+ Journaled
Works out of the box with your Mac OS X® Leopard® or Snow Leopard™ system. Can easily be reformatted to work with Windows® XP, Windows Vista® or Windows 7.

Password protection
Gain peace of mind knowing that your data is protected from unauthorized access or theft with password protection and -bit hardware-based encryption. (Requires WD SmartWare software)

Power miser
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.

Runs cool
The drive is designed to run cool without a fan. Lower operating temperatures extend the life of the drive and improve data reliability, while the fan-less design reduces noise output.

Ideal for

• Storing and accessing files in blazing-fast speed
• Matching the look of your Mac computer
• Using with Mac and Apple Time Machine
• Retrieving lost data effortlessly
• Securing private or sensitive data
• Protecting your data with WD SmartWare automatic, continuous backup software
• Storing and editing videos and photos

What's in the box
External hard drive, WD SmartWare software (on mass storage no CD), USB cable, FireWire 800 cable, AC Adapter, Quick Install Guide.

Compatibility

• Formatted HFS+ Journaled
• Mac OS® X Leopard®, Snow Leopard™
  (Note: Compatibility may vary depending on user's hardware configuration and operating system. Mac OS X Tiger does not support drives with capacities greater than 2 TB.)

Desktop Storage Comparison Chart My Book Essential My Book for Mac My Book Studio My Book Studio LX My Book Studio Edition II Next generation storage and backup. Smart backup and storage for Mac. Precision metal design. Pure performance. Pure performance for Mac. All metal enclosure. Fast, green and Mac-ready.   Interface USB 3.0, USB 2.0 USB 2.0 FireWire 800, USB 2.0 FireWire 800, USB 2.0 FireWire 800, USB 2.0 eSATA   Capacity range 500 GB - 3 TB 640 GB - 2 TB 1 TB - 3 TB 1 TB and 2 TB 2 TB - 6 TB   WD SmartWare     Automatic backup   Password protection and hardware encryption     Capacity gauge     Custom e-label         Premium metal enclosure

Product Description

WD's My Book Studio is the high performance, premium design external hard drive for your Mac backup and storage needs.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

113 of 116 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars 5-stars for me, so far January 2, 2012

By DineKur

Size Name:1 TB

My background: Long time Mac user with over 20 years experience in graphic design and multimedia (so data back-up comes with the territory), though am not so tech-savvy where I have the where-with-all to buy a naked drive and install it into it's own shell.
The Quick Review: Bought it 6 months ago and so far love the drive. Smaller (physically) than I expected, which is nice if you have a crowded desktop. The drive is so quiet I literally cannot hear it even if I put my ear next to it. I cloned a re-bootable system and desktop hard drive and all files (208 GBs worth) to it to update my OS, and it did it flawlessly and fast (using FireWire). Sports a nice clean look, too. So far, so great. Time will only tell, but for now, love it and am a new fan.
The Long review: I've gone through many a peripheral hard drive over the years, and had grown to like LaCie drives for my drive of choice, but it seems as drive capacity has grown, LaCie has tended to let me down. Two consecutive 1TB LaCie drives have crashed out on me, and each within a year of purchase (last one within 4-months). Fortunately I had most of the critical data backed-up on older, 500GB LaCie drives that still work well. After this last burnout (and my resultant anger), I figured I was done with LaCie and that it was time to shop for a new large-storage drive.
My typical MO is to read as many reviews from as many different vendors and sites as I can, to try and glean as much info - usually both good and bad - about any one product. After reviewing NUMEROUS 1-3TB drives, I noticed the reviews for the Western Digital My Book Studio 1TB were mostly outstanding to good - compared to other WD drives, as well as other vendor drives.... So after zeroing in on the WD My Book Series of drives, I delved further into the reviews and it seemed the 1TB outshined the others in the series, and reviews again were mostly glowing; there's ALWAYS some who have a middlin-to-bad experience, so that's why it is helpful to read as many (what we hope are) objective reviews as possible.
After all the research, the WD MyBook Studio 1TB stood out among the crowd consistently, so thought it was worth the price to give it a try. And as mentioned above, love the drive, and am a new fan. Here's hoping it stands the test of time. I'll write a follow-up review in 6-months time, good or bad, which hopefully will be helpful to someone down the line. Read more ›

88 of 93 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Warning if you need a bootable backup... May 8, 2012

By Dave K

Size Name:2 TB|Amazon Verified Purchase

I'll cut to the chase. This would have been a 5-star review, but as I learned, this drive might not be for you if you need a Firewire bootable backup. If this is a concern, read on...

I bought this drive intending to partition it into two 1TB partitions- one for a bootable backup and one for a Time Machine backup. I do my bootable backups with the application SuperDuper, which is outstanding for this purpose. I have used it to create bootable backups on 3 different Maxtor external Firewire drives, and they have all flawlessly booted all my Macs. I expected no different from this new Western Digital (WD) 2TB drive. Unfortunately, the WD would not boot 2 out of my 3 Macs when connected via Firewire. It would NOT boot an Intel MacBook (Late 2007 edition) or an Intel iMac (Mid 2007 edition). It does boot our Intel iMac (Mid-2010 edition). Strangely, the WD booted all 3 Macs when connected via USB, though needless to say very slowly in all cases. If you need additional technical information, read on.

Technical Info: The following tests were done with the WD connected via Firewire. The WD is correctly formatted for booting Intel Macs with GPT GUID formatting. Note that the WD appears as a bootable drive in System Preferences->Startup Disk on all 3 of my Macs. But when attempting to boot via Firewire, I get only a grey screen on the Intel MacBook (Late 2007 edition) and the Intel iMac (Mid 2007 edition). The Intel iMac (Mid-2010 edition) boots normally. When booting with the Option Key held down, Startup Manager does NOT see the WD as a bootable drive on the Intel MacBook (Late 2007 edition) and the Intel iMac (Mid 2007 edition). It does appear as a bootable drive on the Intel iMac (Mid-2010 edition)....

When connected via USB, the WD boots all three of my Macs, but very slowly compared to the internal drive.

So, bottom line is that if you need a Firewire bootable backup, be sure to test this drive right away so that you don't think you have a bootable backup when in fact you don't.

One other thing- contrary to what appears in the Amazon specs, this drive no longer ships with a Firewire 800-to-400 cable. It ships only with a Firewire 800-to-800 cable and a USB cable.

On the good side, the drive is amazingly quiet. At this point, I need to decide whether to keep the drive, knowing that I have only USB as a bootable option on 2 out my 3 Macs, or return it. But in any case, wanted to pass this on to anyone else considering this drive. Read more ›

45 of 48 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Mac external hard drive July 22, 2012

By Chris McCreevey

Size Name:2 TB|Amazon Verified Purchase

Being in the market for an external hard drive for a Mac in my household, I naturally turned to customer reviews to read what others thought of the various drives on the market. What I found is that for every brand that I researched, including Western Digital, Seagate, LaCie, G-Technology and others, there are those that love the drives along with a few that reported multiple failures of the drives along with a promise to never buy that brand's hardware again. This made my decision process that much harder, especially since I am more familiar with the PC environment and wasn't sure about what might be best for a Mac. In the end, I went with what I knew from my prior experience.

I'm an IT guy and have a lot of hardware in my household, which has expanded from PCs to include Macs in recent years. My plan was to use a rarely used Mac Mini as a media server, to stream music, DVD movies, family photos and home movies to other devices, including Apple TV. I needed a large, fast drive that could support streaming to multiple devices simultaneously. Because it was difficult to fully trust any brand based on reviews, I also consulted the "experts" at a local Apple store, who recommended LaCie drives.

I had no familiarity with LaCie, but I did have extensive experience with Western Digital. I have two 500 GB Passport drives from early 2009 and a 1 TB My Book from late 2008 or early 2009. Although I have never had a problem with any of those drives, the reviews made me wonder if WD's quality or reliability had decreased over the years. We all know that companies tend to make things cheaper over time, and I was wondering if shrinking profit margins were resulting in poorer quality and more consumer problems.... However, since reviews noted the same types of problems for each manufacturer I considered, I decided to rely on my prior experience when making the decision. While I can't say that the other brands are unworthy of consideration, I am very happy with the WD My Book Studio 2 TB drive that I purchased.

As it turns out, I have purchased several external drives over the last few months, including the aforementioned My Book Studio as well as a PC-formatted 2 TB WD My Book and a Seagate GoFlex 1 TB portable. All have worked flawlessly so far. The Seagate is my first experience with their external drives but I have positive prior experience with their internal drives (although I did have one of their internal drives fail on me prematurely a while back, which left me a little more leery of their drives).

One thing I seemed to notice in the reviews, which also swayed my approach, is to use a drive geared to the operating system I intended to use it on primarily. I purchased a My Book Studio for my Mac because I wanted it already formatted for the Mac, and I also wanted Firewire 800 rather than USB. However, I have successfully connected the NTFS-formatted My Books to my Mac in read-only mode, and the FAT32 formatted Passports in read/write mode. I have had no problems with moving these drives back and forth between PCs and Macs, although the My Book Studio is and will be exclusively connected to the Mac Mini.

One "problem" I have noted with all three My Books is that, when connected to the Mac Mini, they will spin down when idle for a while, even though I have the Mac's energy saver setting set to not put them to sleep. However, this really isn't much of a problem. There is a slight delay (a few seconds) when initially accessing the drive to use it or to stream content from the Apple TV as the drive spins up, but the delay is not really noticeable or problematic. I get no complaints from my wife and kids, so it can't be that bad, and I probably only notice it because I am aware of it. I am not using the drive for time machine, so I don't know if that delay is a problem for time machine, but since that is a background activity I don't see why it would be.

I have only had the 2 TB My Book Studio for a month or so, and the 2 TB PC-based My Book for maybe a couple of months, so the long-term reliability is not yet known. These drives have been getting some work though, as I have been using them both in my process for converting my extensive DVD library (~500 DVDs) into streaming content. This has worked flawlessly so far, with every piece of the puzzle working as expected (WD drives, Mac Mini, iTunes, Apple TV and even a WD TV that pre-dates my purchase of Apple TV).

In the end, you are reading this to help you decide what drive to buy. In my opinion you will likely have a good experience with any of the aforementioned brands, but that you could get a lemon with any brand. I decided against LaCie because I read that they do not make their own drives that are in their enclosures. I have decided to stick with WD and Seagate since they make drives, and lean more towards WD based on my years of positive experience. Unless you are experienced, I recommend buying a drive marketed primarily for the operating system you will use, even though any drive can be reformatted as needed. The My Book Studio was literally plug and play. I took it out of the box, plugged it in, told it not to use the drive as time machine, and am now using it to store and stream all of my media content. Although I have manual backups of everything, I am now considering buying a 3 TB My Book Studio for normal time machine backups based on this experience.

My workflow process includes ripping content on a PC to an NTFS-formatted My Book (because I prefer the ripping tool that I have for the PC), and then moving that drive to the Mac to read from it and convert the content to Apple TV format (because I prefer the tool I use on the Mac for that part of the process). Other than the My Book Studio, all of these external drives move back and forth between multiple computers with no problems so far. In fact, the 2009-era Passports travel as well with no failures so far. I also use one of those, along with a 2009-era WD TV, in our SUV when traveling and my kids have 300 movies on hand. No more deciding which DVDs to take in the car before a long trip. In short, WD drives haven't let me down yet and will likely work for you as well. It seems that you have a 90% chance of being happy with any drive you buy, and a 10% chance you will never buy that particular brand again. Read more ›