Customer Reviews

Western Digital 1TB My Book Mac Edition USB 2.0 External Hard Drive

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Paired with Apple's Time Machine backup software (which is part of the current OS X.5 operating system), backup are a breeze! I bought this to use with my MacBook which lives in the living room most of the time but does move around. When I want to run a backup, I just plug in the USB cable from the hard drive to my Mac and the rest is automatic. If you would be using this with a desktop model, you could leave it connected all the time. I just hook it up every few days and it backs up everything that's changed on my computer. (Also, part of the great thing about Time Machine is that it keeps more than just the most recent backup. It keeps all the past backups as well until you start running out of space.)

Also, this drive is whisper quiet which is great since I keep it in the living room. Don't notice it at all!

Setup: VERY easy. Hook up power source and USB, and then drag the files/folders I want backed up and drop them on top of the My Book icon on the desktop. And that's it! With Time Machine, it backs up regularly on its own and is working pretty quietly.

Aesthetic: Small, does not take up much desk space at all. Sleek. I like the narrow white/light blue activity light. The drive also shuts off when the computer shuts off/goes to sleep, which is a) an energy saver and b) prevents the light from glowing at night when I am sleeping.

Value: 1 TB for $119 and pre-formatted for Mac? Waaaaay better than Time Machine, which is both a hard drive and a wireless router. Why pay for a wireless router when I already have one?

Con: I am on OSX 10.5 with a 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 1 GB of memory in a MacBook Pro. The *only* complaint so far: my computer slows down a bit when the automatic back ups run sometimes. I may get the pinwheel for 3-10 seconds, especially when I am switching between applications. I usually have no more than 2-5 apps running at once. But nothing freezes up or crashes. Just slows a bit.

Besides that, highly recommend for ease of setup and seamless use with Time Machine.

It literally took under a minute to set it up out of the box, and it syncs perfectly with time machine! So far, I have had no problems with it. I would definitely recommend this if you have a lot of movies or large programs that slow your mac down that you want easy access to.

I use this drive on computers running Mac OS 10.5 and 10.6. We have a number of these drives where I work and they are flaky at times, unmounting or not waking from sleep at random times. Sometimes the write speed becomes unbearably slow until you unmount and remount the drive.

I just bought one of these drives for personal use. Foolish, I know, since I had problems before. I figured I could deal with occasional hick-ups. The drives are inexpensive and easy to find, aferall.

In the middle of copying files to the drive, the drive "unmounted". OSX popped up its warning message. I checked the cables, all were seated properly. I unmounted the drive and changed to a different USB port on the computer and tried again. The drive unmounted repeatedly while writing files. It unmounted about 5 times within 3 minutes, each time popping up the OSX message warning you against unplugging a drive without unmounting it first.

I ran disk repair on the drive and restarted the computer. The next time I attempted to copy files to the disk, it said it would take 12 hours to copy 40 GB of data. I restarted again. Then the time dropped down to 1 hour.

What I am saying is this: these drives are flaky at best. I've used a number of them. Yes, you may have no problems with them, but it is a gamble buying these drives. They are not very reliable. I'm not sure I can recommend alternatives on Amazon, but I have been much happier with the OWC Mercury Elite Pro line of drives. They are robust, well-made and reliable. I Know video editors who swear by them. They also have great customer support. I guess you get what you pay for. I will never buy a WD drive again, seriously.

Powerful, so quiet that it's virtually inaudible (unless, that is, you put your ear right next to it, which is a pretty unlikely situation in any "normal" environment!), huge capacity, simple set-up (plug it in and it's immediately recognised and available for use on your desktop), looks great, unobtrusive read/write light and reasonably priced... what more could you ask for?

The only question is will it last the course or pack-up in a year or so's time? Judging by other comments on the Internet, Western Digital drives are among the best for longevity & reliability so there's good reason to believe that it won't... time will tell.

I have to agree with previous reviewers who stated that the setup of this drive is as simple as "plug and play". But hey, isn't that what the whole Mac experience is all about?

My only "complaint" regarding this device is the lack of an on/off switch.
I use my external drive as a backup drive and generally backup manually once a week or so . This device is powered up when it senses that your Mac is up and running and this might be an outstanding feature for those backing up via time machine or those who routinely use the drive for day-to-day tasks. For me, it means having to unplug the device from the wall or removing the USB cable from the back of my Mac when not in use.

Admittedly, this is a small inconvenience but the lack of a power on/off switch made the difference between a 4-star and a 5-star rating.

In any case, I look forward to a long and productive relationship with this WD drive

~Brian

I already had an older 500 gb Western Digital My Book drive and it worked flawlessly. I bought this to consolidate all my iTunes media files and copied everything to it easily. Unfortunately now less than 1 week later EVERY TIME I come back to the computer I find the WD "off" and an error message telling to properly eject the device next time before disconnecting.

I emailed WD customer service and have not had this resolved.

I bought the Western Digital My Book ITB to increase my Mac's Time Machine back-ups and to use for additional backup storage for my other computers. I expected the performance to be a little slow -- and it is, although not annoyingly so -- but that mattered less to me than the capacity and reliability. The capacity is a given, but what about reliability?

First, how it works: set up is easy. The drive plugs into an outlet (make sure you plug it into a surge protector) for power and through a USB slot to connect to the computer. Two bright blue bars alternate to show that the drive is working; when at rest, only one blue bar remains lit. Since I first bought this several months ago, it has been working without issue, doing Time Machine backups as scheduled. It does have an annoying low frequency hum that pulses during use. My other external drive, a Seagate ST302504FDA1E1-RK FreeAgent Desktop 250 GB 3.5" USB 2.0 External Hard Drive, is completely quiet.

I have one concern which may not show up until a year or more: the case has numerous open slots and holes, presumably for ventilation, along the top and back, exposing the interior almost entirely. I'm afraid that dust settling in through these holes might compromise the device. So far, so good, but I wonder what will happen in the future. Consumers should take this possibility into consideration when purchasing.

The box is chunky: 6.5" tall, 5.25" front-to-back, and 2" wide.

In general, I'm pleased with this drive's performance, but I removed one star for the hum and for the potential for issues that I may have to face in a year or two.

-- Debbie Lee Wesselmann

This product is excellent, sleek design, lightweight, whisper quiet function, and GREAT network functionality. Simply made for the MAC!

sure, it's easy to set up, it's small and compact, and works with time machine on your mac seamlessly...but what's the use, if this thing is not reliable? It's a very fragile machine that cannot be handled like an ipod or a laptop.

It was sitting on my bookshelf vertically and just tapped on its side and all of a sudden it died on me.

I think the sole purpose of a hard drive is to keep its contents safe...I can see if I dropped this hard, but it was a soft tap, and everything was gone. It now said that my disk was unreadable and wanted to initialize. (but that would erase all content)

Keep in mind that data recovery companies charge 600 bucks and up to 1500 for macs (what was quoted for me) ([...] and [...])

I researched other outlets and downloaded Boomerang recovery software and it got it back! they let you test it out first in demo.

I never knew how fragile these were, and a friend confirmed it with their experience with Western Digital as well.