Customer Reviews

Western Digital My Book External Hard Drive

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I was originally planning on buying an Apple Time Capsule hard drive since we have 3 macs and I try to buy only Apple-branded accessories as they work well together. But after researching it, a lot of people don't like the Time Capsule because it dies almost always around 18 months. (right after the warranty expires) So I searched for an alternative and found the Western Digital My Book for Mac which I ended up buying. The hard drive is small, quiet, and didn't feel cheap. As soon as I plugged it into my Mac, a pop-up window appears asking if I would like to use it as an Apple TIme Machine. I clicked okay and it backed up everything on my computer to the My Book. The first back up takes several hours, but after that, backing up is very fast via USB 2.0 and with 1 TB of space, I don't have to worry about filling up with space soon. I mainly use this to back up my machine, but also use it to temporarily store large files to transfer from one mac to the next. Western Digital is known for reliable hard drives so in retrospect, this is probably a smarter purchase than buying a Time Capsule which was much more expensive.

It comes bundled with it's own software, but I do not use it. Time Machine works well with this hard drive so I don't need any other type of software. Some people complained about not being able to delete the software, but its not a big deal. Whenever you plug in the hard drive, the software icon appears on your desktop, but you can unmount it or just ignore it. Doesn't really take up much space on the hard drive.

Just a quick chat about my initial impression of the WD My Book for Mac 1TB USB2 edition, but first, a word on my current environment. I have an early 2009 iMac with 4GB RAM running Mac OS X 10.6.x and plan on using this drive exclusively for TimeMachine backups.

My first impression was actually pretty negative in that I was surprised at how low-rent the case is for the My Book. Compared to the aluminum skinned previous WD external USB/FW400 drive I have, this My Book represents the worst in Chinese manufacturing. Also contributing to my woes, is the included wall-wort being the typical "too big to fit any normal powerstrip" size. Again, all my previous external drives had external powerbricks with regular wall plugs making extremely convenient to plug into a powerstrip or UPS.

With the overall aesthetics out of the way, I was happy to see a USB2 cable included for the single USB ported device and it seems to live up to the USB bandwidth rating one would expect. Yes, it would be nice if Apple had some type of eSATA connection for the iMacs and one must give up the first born child to afford a FW800 enclosure right now (about 40% more as I write this). But with all that being said, USB2 does fine for archival purposes and should be thought of as such.

A note regarding the sound, this is not an especially loud drive but its far from silent. Somebody made a comment about it sounding like mice trying to gnaw their way out of the crappy case their stuck in and I would agree with that. But again, its not all that bad and especially for TimeMachine purposes.

Finally, I am convinced that one could skip installing the WDsmartware software that comes with the drive. Outside of the encryption part, there doesn't seem to be anything here better than what TimeMachine delivers in OS X 10.5 or 10.6 and I have chosen to uninstall the software (of course it now want to fill my logs with launchd warnings but I'll take care of that soon enough). I think the only reason one would want this bloat is if they want to mirror files on the local drive with this external drive because one may carry this drive from machine X to machine Y and have the files 'restored' to a similar directory on machine Y? I don't know but that's my only guess.

Picked up one of the Western Digital 1TB backup drives after we suffered a catastrophic hard drive failure last month. Should have bought it online and saved some cash but we wanted to get it right there in the Apple store as they were installing our new hard drive, so we plunked down $129.99 retail for it.

We've had it up an running for almost a full month now and haven't had any issues with the device at all. It's as plug-n-play as you can get. The drive has already been formatted and indexed to work with the Mac. You can use WD's bundled software or choose the Time Machine option right at the start. I'd recommend the Time Machine choice. From that point you just let the drive do it's job. Files are backed up any time you modify a file for any reason.

It's unobtrusive and intuitive to use. Connects via USB cable. Not pretty or flashy in appearance, but who cares? Runs quiet and the case stays cool. This is a way cheaper backup option than Apple's pricey Time Machine drives. The 1TB of space is perfectly sufficient for our needs, but this also comes in a 2TB model for those who want or need the additional storage capacity.

Highly recommended.

Purchased over 3 months ago and working perfectly! I think "plug-and-play" is an understatement. Plugged it it, told Time Machine to use it. Done.

I also periodically plug it into my wife's MacBook to back it up as well. I suppose it's a feature of Time Machine (and not the drive itself) but it easily manages backing up two different computers on the drive.

I know others have commented on the included software. To be honest, I've been ignoring it. Why add the complication when Time Machine does everything so well? Yes, the extra Virtual CD icon on the desktop is tad annoying. So, after months of debating whether or not to use it...I decided I wasn't going to use the included software. After a quick trip to the WD site to download a firmware update and Virtual CD manager, I was able to turn off the Virtual CD so it doesn't mount every time I turn on my computer. (Nicely enough, it simply toggles the Virtual CD on/off so I can change my mind down the road if I so choose.)

Unfortunately, the "illuminated capacity gauge" only works with the SmartWare software. Still, I bought it for it's capacity, price, and ease of use...not the gauge!

Nice, quiet, effortless. What more could you ask for?

This is supposed to be a Mac Edition external HDD and it still doesn't have a FireWire connection. I don't see how this is a "Mac Edition" with no FireWire options.
Other than that, the features in the drive are good. With Time Machine you won't need WD's extra software. As soon as you plug it in you'll be asked how you want to use it.
Choose Time Machine and it'll do the rest.

I have been using Western Digital hard drives since the biggest model they carried was 1.2GB... 15-odd years. I have never been so frustrated with them than when I plugged in my new My Book "For Mac" and a virtual CD automatically mounted itself on the computer, insisting I install WS Smartware. Without it, I would not be able to use the drive as a Time Machine Backup as intended. With it, I would not be able to disable a piece of software I did not want to use.

THERE IS A SOLUTION. Go here:
[...]
and follow the instructions for downloading TWO new pieces of software what will give you the ability to disable the virtual CD.

SHAME on Western Digital for including NON-OPTIONAL software with it's drive. I am seriously considering switching to another company (I use LaCie drives at work with no problems), and here is why:

One of the things Mac users take extreme pride in is the simplicity of both the hardware and software...the simplicity of use...the way you plug in something and it just works, and everything doesn't need you to install drivers and perform 19 steps to get it going. WD should be embarrassed they put "for Mac" on their box. There is nothing "for Mac" about it. My LaCie didn't say "for Mac" and worked just fine by just plugging it in. This MyBook is just a lie, and an un-simple piece of hardware. I feel duped.

The USB and power ports on the back of the machine were partially covered by the plastic casing so I was unable to plug anything in. Normally I would ask for a replacement however the item seemed cheap and poorly made so I am going to look for higher quality equipment. Luckily Amazon has always made returns and refunds very easy!

UPDATE 2.23- I decided to give this one more try and THE SAME THING HAPPENED AGAIN! The case isn't properly aligned and I wasn't able to plug the cables in! So disheartening to have to deal with returning this product again! Western Digital is not giving anyone a chance to like their product because they cannot be used out of the box! GRRRR!!!!

I'm a graphic designer and a photographer. This means I have huge amounts of digital media.

This is my second purchase of this ext hard drive. The first had no trouble, I just filled it already. Since it worked seamlessly, I decided to stick with what was workin' for me, and purchase another. The first was silver and bigger. The second was noticeably smaller - sleek and black, almost the size of a book. Other than that, it was just plug and go. I use it with Time Machine on my Mac Book Pro.

The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is because my older one - the first one that I filled - is getting loose at the connection point. Sometimes my Mac will tell me it's been ejected when the cord was moved just the slightest bit. Since Mac doesn't like when you just pull the cord without ejecting, I get the pop up scolding me to eject first or I could lose data. I haven't lost any data, it's just slightly annoying that the cord won't stay plugged in.

Since I only use that for bringing up old client files (rarely), it doesn't bother me all that much or all that often. But felt it worth mentioning. This newer model hasn't had any ejection problems so far, and seems to be working seamlessly and effortlessly in the background. If I have any changes, I'll come back and update.

This particular WD 1 TB external hard drive comes with software that automatically installs and then precludes you from selecting specific folders to back up. I had to email WD technical support so I could use it as a normal disk drive and choose what I wanted to copy to it. Very frustrating experience. Their World Book was great. Weird - two similar products, same company, one excellent, one that drove me nuts.

I purchased this for my daughter who is currently living in New Zealand and watches movies and tv programs on her macbook. This was an easy plug and back up system for her to store all her movies, tv programs, music and photos she is taking while in NZ! She had tried to purchase two other backup systems in NZ but this was the easiest one and she loves it!