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Technical Details
Capacity: 3 TB
- Dual USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 compatibility
- Up to 3x faster transfer rates with USB 3.0
- Automatic, continuous backup
- Password protection and 256 bit AES hardware encryption
Product Details
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Product Description
Capacity: 3 TB
From the Manufacturer
My Book® Essential™ - Next generation storage and backup.
Put your digital life on the sleek, high capacity My Book® Essential™ external hard drive. With WD quality and USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 connectivity, this drive is designed for today with tomorrow in mind.
WD quality inside and out
My Book External drives are the world's best selling drives. There's a reason. We've been making hard drives for 20 years and we know how to protect your data.
My Book External drives are the world's best selling drives. There's a reason. We've been making hard drives for 20 years and we know how to protect your data.
USB 3.0 plus USB 2.0
A single drive with universal compatibility today and next-generation speed for tomorrow. Use it with USB 2.0 now and step up to USB 3.0 speed when you’re ready.
A single drive with universal compatibility today and next-generation speed for tomorrow. Use it with USB 2.0 now and step up to USB 3.0 speed when you’re ready.
See your life safe in one place
WD SmartWare visual backup software provides a visual display of your backup as it happens so you know your data is safe.
WD SmartWare visual backup software provides a visual display of your backup as it happens so you know your data is safe.
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Dual USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 - A single drive with universal compatibility today and next-generation speed for tomorrow. Use it with USB 2.0 now and step up to USB 3.0 speed when you’re ready.
Up to 3x faster transfer rates - When connected to a SuperSpeed USB 3.0 port this drive lets you access and save files up to 3 times faster than USB 2.0. Transfer a 2-hour HD movie in just 3 minutes instead of 13 minutes.*
*Performance may vary based on user’s hardware and system configuration.
WD quality inside and out - For over 20 years, millions of people worldwide have trusted their data to WD hard drives. We are successful because we understand the importance of your data and our first concern is keeping that data safe.
WD SmartWare™ software - You’re in control of your backup. Install all the features, select just the components you need, or if you prefer, choose not to use the software at all.
Automatic, continuous backup - Works quietly in the background to protect your data using minimal PC resources. Whenever you add or change a file it’s instantly backed up.
Password protection for privacy- Gain peace of mind knowing that your data is protected from unauthorized access with password protection and encryption.
Planet friendly- 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.
Ideal for
- Connecting with your USB 2.0 port today and using with USB 3.0 when you’re ready
- Transferring files up to three times faster when connected to a USB 3.0 port
- Protecting your data with automatic, continuous backup
- Adding extra storage space for photos, videos and music
- Securing private or sensitive data with password protection and hardware encryption
What's in the box
External hard drive, USB cable, WD SmartWare software, AC adapter, Quick Install Guide.
Compatibility
Formatted NTFS
Windows® XP, Windows Vista®, Windows 7
Mac OS® X Leopard®, Snow Leopard™ (requires reformatting and will work in USB 2.0 mode)
Note: Compatibility may vary depending on user’s hardware configuration and operating system.
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Product Description
Put your digital life on the sleek, high capacity My Book Essential external hard drive. With WD quality and USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 connectivity, this drive is designed for today with tomorrow in mind. Visual backup software and password protection with hardware encryption ensure your data is protected. Lightweight and easy to carry, this drive is ideal for fast storage to go.
Available Warranties for This Item
Capacity: 3 TB
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
370 of 390 people found the following review helpful
Size Name:2 TB
This applies to the My Book USB3 2TB drive.
First the good stuff -
It is a nice fast drive. HDTune showed and average speed around 90-100MB/s when connected to a USB3 port on my Lenovo W510 laptop. That is why I bought the thing, and it works well. I had NO trouble accessing the drive (but then I reformatted it completely and did not see any issues with the CD partition etc..).
Note: I needed to update the USB3 drivers on my W510 to get it to be recognized consistently by Windows 7. That is likely an issue with the Win7 NEC USB3 drivers preinstalled on my Lenovo, and nothing to do with the WD drive.
Now the awful part:
After about 4 months of usage, the USB3 female connector in the cabinet came loose - and was stuck to the USB3 cable when I removed it!
I have owned close to ten different WD external USB drives from ~320GB and up to 2TB drives. I have *never* had any such issue with any previous drive (my only real gripe has been the fickleness of the tiny USB connector which often doesn't need much in the way of movement to cause the machine to lose contact with the drive - rather annoying).
Inspecting the board where the connector was - it seems that on this drive, it is just soldered straight on with 5-6 soldering points - NONE of which go through the board. This is quite unlike their 2TB USB2 My Book where the tiny USB2 connector is supported by two plastic studs that go through the PCB board. And the power connector on both USB2 and USB3 is soldered with pins going though the board and an additional thicker plastic stud.
So if you intend to stick the cable in there and leave the thing stationary - you will most likely not have this problem.
HOWEVER if you do any amount of plugging it in and out, you must use EXTREME CAUTION or you will most likely break off the connector at some point.
The shop I bought it from had one raving review when I bought it from them - but when I went back after my problem, there were 7-8 other people with the exact same problem.
So it definitely looks like a terrible design which should never have been implemented, and can not have gone through any kind of real world testing. I am quite frankly disgusted at the QA process that let something like this go into the retail chain.
BUYER BEWARE!
If you google WD MY BOOK USB3 BROKEN CONNECTOR or similar, you should find people both on TomsHardware and on Western Digitals own community who have experienced this.
---
Be aware that if a hard drive fails, you will most likely not get any help/compensation for your data. They will at most replace the defective unit with a new one. Make sure you have multiple backups.
And I can't really say I disagree with that policy.
The problem here however, is that Western Digital has clearly designed a product which has an extremely weak point - and I hope they will show the corporate responsibility to fix the design and offer to replace the drives. The quality of that connector is quite UNACCEPTABLE and I will surely never buy anything like it again. And I have been very happy with my earlier WD purchases :(
Western Digital: I am looking forward to hearing your response to this post. Show us that you care about your customers.
First the good stuff -
It is a nice fast drive. HDTune showed and average speed around 90-100MB/s when connected to a USB3 port on my Lenovo W510 laptop. That is why I bought the thing, and it works well. I had NO trouble accessing the drive (but then I reformatted it completely and did not see any issues with the CD partition etc..).
Note: I needed to update the USB3 drivers on my W510 to get it to be recognized consistently by Windows 7. That is likely an issue with the Win7 NEC USB3 drivers preinstalled on my Lenovo, and nothing to do with the WD drive.
Now the awful part:
After about 4 months of usage, the USB3 female connector in the cabinet came loose - and was stuck to the USB3 cable when I removed it!
I have owned close to ten different WD external USB drives from ~320GB and up to 2TB drives. I have *never* had any such issue with any previous drive (my only real gripe has been the fickleness of the tiny USB connector which often doesn't need much in the way of movement to cause the machine to lose contact with the drive - rather annoying).
Inspecting the board where the connector was - it seems that on this drive, it is just soldered straight on with 5-6 soldering points - NONE of which go through the board. This is quite unlike their 2TB USB2 My Book where the tiny USB2 connector is supported by two plastic studs that go through the PCB board. And the power connector on both USB2 and USB3 is soldered with pins going though the board and an additional thicker plastic stud.
So if you intend to stick the cable in there and leave the thing stationary - you will most likely not have this problem.
HOWEVER if you do any amount of plugging it in and out, you must use EXTREME CAUTION or you will most likely break off the connector at some point.
The shop I bought it from had one raving review when I bought it from them - but when I went back after my problem, there were 7-8 other people with the exact same problem.
So it definitely looks like a terrible design which should never have been implemented, and can not have gone through any kind of real world testing. I am quite frankly disgusted at the QA process that let something like this go into the retail chain.
BUYER BEWARE!
If you google WD MY BOOK USB3 BROKEN CONNECTOR or similar, you should find people both on TomsHardware and on Western Digitals own community who have experienced this.
---
Be aware that if a hard drive fails, you will most likely not get any help/compensation for your data. They will at most replace the defective unit with a new one. Make sure you have multiple backups.
And I can't really say I disagree with that policy.
The problem here however, is that Western Digital has clearly designed a product which has an extremely weak point - and I hope they will show the corporate responsibility to fix the design and offer to replace the drives. The quality of that connector is quite UNACCEPTABLE and I will surely never buy anything like it again. And I have been very happy with my earlier WD purchases :(
Western Digital: I am looking forward to hearing your response to this post. Show us that you care about your customers.
291 of 308 people found the following review helpful
Size Name:2 TB|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
There are 2TB drives out there for less money and if all you need is a huge space, you might consider one of those. The value added in this package is the backup software that is bundled with the drive (actually, delivered right on the drive).
WD Smartware is a backup/restore suite that, once installed, boots with your machine. If the MyBook is attached via your USB port, it will constantly monitor activity and make backups accordingly in the background in near real time without any action on your part. It also maintains multiple generations of files (you choose how many), so you can go back to, say, three versions ago if you need to recover a spreadsheet or other data file.
You can also use it on multiple computers. Backups are stored under folders with the same name as the PC they're created on.
I tested on a Win XP Pro laptop and a Win7 laptop and detected no system slowdowns at all. Every now and then the activity light on the drive would flicker; otherwise the backup operations were not noticeable. The drive itself is completely silent.
INSTALLATION
Strongly consider copying the software included on the drive to a CD before you do anything. I can envision situations where you might want to delete everything off the MyBook and if you do that, you'll no longer have the software to install on another machine (the manual has instructions about where to look for it online).
Plug in the power supply, then connect the MyBook to a USB port on your computer, then turn on your computer if it's not on already. The MyBook will not power up until it is connected to a USB port on a running computer, which is actually handy - if you turn that computer off, the MyBook turns off with it, then comes back up when you power the computer back up.
My Win7 machine saw the drive quickly but complained that the drivers could not be installed. The drive worked fine, though - I was able to create folders, copy stuff to it, and delete stuff from it using Windows Explorer.
My XP machine saw the MyBook and started the Found New Hardware wiz. It asked if it could connect to Windows Update to look for drivers. The drive wasn't showing in Windows Explorer, so I said yes. After a long search for "WD SES Device USB Device," it found and installed what it needed to and the balloon said my new hardware was installed and ready to use.
I then installed the software (all of it) on both machines without incident, by running the WD SmartWare executable included on the drive (blue icon). On installation, I was prompted to perform my first backup, so I did. When I was through with both machines I had two presumably complete backups on the MyBook, one for each machine. For each PC you're supporting with the MyBook, this first backup is your baseline and changes to it will be tracked from that point on.
NOTE: these are not drive images. As nearly as I can tell, WD SmartWare doesn't support creating drive images or recovery boot discs, so you'll need to rely on other tools to create things like that if desired. I didn't see this as a flaw since this isn't sold as a system recovery utility. It will save your rear end if you blow a file or folder, but if your whole machine dies you have lots of other problems to solve before you start worrying about individual files. Of course it's a great location to store drive images, but be aware that the software isn't designed to create them.
I am regularly prompted that a software upgrade is available for the MyBook. Like another reviewer, I found that the installation program complains about additional USB devices being connected no matter whether any are connected or not. The drive works well so I just dismiss prompts to upgrade. Maybe I'll struggle with that later, or maybe not.
OPERATION
It just works. I disconnected the MyBook and then edited files, created new files, and deleted existing files on both my XP and Win7 machines. Then I connected the MyBook to each machine in turn. On both machines, a couple of minutes after connecting the MyBook, the new files appeared in the backup and edited versions (2nd generations) appeared in the backup without my doing anything. Deleted files (I had really deleted them, not sent them to the Recycle Bin) were still there in the backup.
Multiple generations and retention of deleted files is a good thing, but it is also going to cause bloat after time on machines that are heavily used. I can see needing to do housekeeping every so often, getting all my machines to a stable point, cleaning off the MyBook entirely, and then starting over with a fresh backup/baseline of each computer.
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
This would ideally be connected to a desktop computer and just sit there quietly doing its job. I have three laptops and no longer have a desktop, so for me the advantage of virtually instantaneous file-by-file backup without having to think about it just isn't there because I don't want to be tethered to the MyBook all the time. I will have to remember to connect the MyBook to each laptop periodically to sync the changes on the laptop with the MyBook, but that's not that hard and it's a huge enhancement to the once-a-month (er, maybe) drive image I do now. I need to get off the couch occasionally anyway.
SUMMARY
This is a very well executed software/hardware bundle for those who want to maintain file backups without having to actually do anything - this thing is pure autopilot, and getting back some lost or damaged file that you update infrequently (your will? your online account/password list? your resume?) won't require a complete system restore, which is usually a disaster even if it's actually successful! I'd say it would be of the most benefit to folks who have one computer, or those whose most volatile (data-wise) computer is a desktop that they can attach the MyBook to and just let it quietly do its job, but I am having no problem putting it to use on my primary laptop.
WD Smartware is a backup/restore suite that, once installed, boots with your machine. If the MyBook is attached via your USB port, it will constantly monitor activity and make backups accordingly in the background in near real time without any action on your part. It also maintains multiple generations of files (you choose how many), so you can go back to, say, three versions ago if you need to recover a spreadsheet or other data file.
You can also use it on multiple computers. Backups are stored under folders with the same name as the PC they're created on.
I tested on a Win XP Pro laptop and a Win7 laptop and detected no system slowdowns at all. Every now and then the activity light on the drive would flicker; otherwise the backup operations were not noticeable. The drive itself is completely silent.
INSTALLATION
Strongly consider copying the software included on the drive to a CD before you do anything. I can envision situations where you might want to delete everything off the MyBook and if you do that, you'll no longer have the software to install on another machine (the manual has instructions about where to look for it online).
Plug in the power supply, then connect the MyBook to a USB port on your computer, then turn on your computer if it's not on already. The MyBook will not power up until it is connected to a USB port on a running computer, which is actually handy - if you turn that computer off, the MyBook turns off with it, then comes back up when you power the computer back up.
My Win7 machine saw the drive quickly but complained that the drivers could not be installed. The drive worked fine, though - I was able to create folders, copy stuff to it, and delete stuff from it using Windows Explorer.
My XP machine saw the MyBook and started the Found New Hardware wiz. It asked if it could connect to Windows Update to look for drivers. The drive wasn't showing in Windows Explorer, so I said yes. After a long search for "WD SES Device USB Device," it found and installed what it needed to and the balloon said my new hardware was installed and ready to use.
I then installed the software (all of it) on both machines without incident, by running the WD SmartWare executable included on the drive (blue icon). On installation, I was prompted to perform my first backup, so I did. When I was through with both machines I had two presumably complete backups on the MyBook, one for each machine. For each PC you're supporting with the MyBook, this first backup is your baseline and changes to it will be tracked from that point on.
NOTE: these are not drive images. As nearly as I can tell, WD SmartWare doesn't support creating drive images or recovery boot discs, so you'll need to rely on other tools to create things like that if desired. I didn't see this as a flaw since this isn't sold as a system recovery utility. It will save your rear end if you blow a file or folder, but if your whole machine dies you have lots of other problems to solve before you start worrying about individual files. Of course it's a great location to store drive images, but be aware that the software isn't designed to create them.
I am regularly prompted that a software upgrade is available for the MyBook. Like another reviewer, I found that the installation program complains about additional USB devices being connected no matter whether any are connected or not. The drive works well so I just dismiss prompts to upgrade. Maybe I'll struggle with that later, or maybe not.
OPERATION
It just works. I disconnected the MyBook and then edited files, created new files, and deleted existing files on both my XP and Win7 machines. Then I connected the MyBook to each machine in turn. On both machines, a couple of minutes after connecting the MyBook, the new files appeared in the backup and edited versions (2nd generations) appeared in the backup without my doing anything. Deleted files (I had really deleted them, not sent them to the Recycle Bin) were still there in the backup.
Multiple generations and retention of deleted files is a good thing, but it is also going to cause bloat after time on machines that are heavily used. I can see needing to do housekeeping every so often, getting all my machines to a stable point, cleaning off the MyBook entirely, and then starting over with a fresh backup/baseline of each computer.
OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
This would ideally be connected to a desktop computer and just sit there quietly doing its job. I have three laptops and no longer have a desktop, so for me the advantage of virtually instantaneous file-by-file backup without having to think about it just isn't there because I don't want to be tethered to the MyBook all the time. I will have to remember to connect the MyBook to each laptop periodically to sync the changes on the laptop with the MyBook, but that's not that hard and it's a huge enhancement to the once-a-month (er, maybe) drive image I do now. I need to get off the couch occasionally anyway.
SUMMARY
This is a very well executed software/hardware bundle for those who want to maintain file backups without having to actually do anything - this thing is pure autopilot, and getting back some lost or damaged file that you update infrequently (your will? your online account/password list? your resume?) won't require a complete system restore, which is usually a disaster even if it's actually successful! I'd say it would be of the most benefit to folks who have one computer, or those whose most volatile (data-wise) computer is a desktop that they can attach the MyBook to and just let it quietly do its job, but I am having no problem putting it to use on my primary laptop.
167 of 194 people found the following review helpful
Size Name:2 TB|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
First, the packaging. Western Digital (WD) does an impressive job of securely packaging this hard drive with a minimal amount of waste. There's no unnecessary plastic or cardboard.
This 2 TB drive has to be plugged into the wall socket as well as powered with a USB cable. One of my major complaints about electronics products are the ridiculously short power cables. This My Book Essential External Hard Drive has an impressively long power cable - which is a plus for any experienced tech user. WD figures the customer is smart enough not to accidentally strangle themselves with a long power cord. So many products I buy have a cord that is so short as to make the item almost unusable. 5 stars to WD for trusting the intelligence of the buyers of their products.
Here are the results I obtained after testing out this drive:
The drive did not have to be formatted before I used it. It worked with my Windows XP-based computer right out of the box.
It took approximately 70 minutes to copy 35 GB of data from my old external drive to this one. This is impressively fast. The manufacturer claims it should take seven minutes and 42 seconds to copy 2000 standard MP3 songs onto the hard drive. These times are using the standard USB 2.0 technology. The drive is also designed to accommodate USB 3.0.
I didn't check out or try to install the backup software or the other extras that came with the product - these installation files are located already copied onto the drive. Another 5 stars to WD for not forcing this software onto the computer user with an automatic installation setup. My impression is that WD trusts the intelligence of the consumer to make their own decisions about how to best use the product. A toll-free international help line is available for anyone who does need some assistance with the installation of the hard drive.
The outside of the package mentions that the data on this drive is capable of being secured with a password and also comes with a 2-year limited warranty. There's almost no product literature included inside the package - only a small fold-out booklet which refers the customer to the company's website for a user manual.
A drive with this many features should probably come with more basic literature inside the box - such as, there is a physical cable lock port option - you can secure this drive with some kind of an external lock (the locking device isn't included with the drive) and there are no other clues inside or outside the package to explain this security option.
So this drive was easy to install right out of the box and it worked without any difficulties or technical headaches. I would definitely recommend this product.
This 2 TB drive has to be plugged into the wall socket as well as powered with a USB cable. One of my major complaints about electronics products are the ridiculously short power cables. This My Book Essential External Hard Drive has an impressively long power cable - which is a plus for any experienced tech user. WD figures the customer is smart enough not to accidentally strangle themselves with a long power cord. So many products I buy have a cord that is so short as to make the item almost unusable. 5 stars to WD for trusting the intelligence of the buyers of their products.
Here are the results I obtained after testing out this drive:
The drive did not have to be formatted before I used it. It worked with my Windows XP-based computer right out of the box.
It took approximately 70 minutes to copy 35 GB of data from my old external drive to this one. This is impressively fast. The manufacturer claims it should take seven minutes and 42 seconds to copy 2000 standard MP3 songs onto the hard drive. These times are using the standard USB 2.0 technology. The drive is also designed to accommodate USB 3.0.
I didn't check out or try to install the backup software or the other extras that came with the product - these installation files are located already copied onto the drive. Another 5 stars to WD for not forcing this software onto the computer user with an automatic installation setup. My impression is that WD trusts the intelligence of the consumer to make their own decisions about how to best use the product. A toll-free international help line is available for anyone who does need some assistance with the installation of the hard drive.
The outside of the package mentions that the data on this drive is capable of being secured with a password and also comes with a 2-year limited warranty. There's almost no product literature included inside the package - only a small fold-out booklet which refers the customer to the company's website for a user manual.
A drive with this many features should probably come with more basic literature inside the box - such as, there is a physical cable lock port option - you can secure this drive with some kind of an external lock (the locking device isn't included with the drive) and there are no other clues inside or outside the package to explain this security option.
So this drive was easy to install right out of the box and it worked without any difficulties or technical headaches. I would definitely recommend this product.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Absolute garbage. Rarely works, causes system instability.
I bought one of these about a year ago. It has given me nothing but trouble since.
It has the following serious issues:
* Sometimes randomly decides not to... Read more
It has the following serious issues:
* Sometimes randomly decides not to... Read more
Published 11 hours ago by Azzy
So Far, So Good
Purchased the 'WD My Book Essential' 2TB backup drive because various astronomy web cam and flip videos were taking up too much space on my computer hard drives. Read more
Published 1 day ago by E. Resler
Do Not Buy!! Pick Something Else... You've Been Warned!
Hello, I'm now on my 5th MyBook, Constantly returning due to failure to WD. I'm so disgusted.
First one keeps on disconnecting from the computer... Read more
First one keeps on disconnecting from the computer... Read more
Published 2 days ago by Sonic 1992
Mixed Review
Now that the Smartware automatic backup software is updated and working properly, I'm very happy with the drive. Read more
Published 3 days ago by Donald Sepanski
great, affordable storage and backup
I use this WD external hard drive, for extra space on my laptop, to back up my laptop, and to provide continuity when I've changed laptops. Read more
Published 3 days ago by Michael Arichea
Cheap & Deceptive Product
I bought this item over a year ago, and it has worked fine. I thought.
However, when I pulled the USB plug out of the jack, the internal connector came with it. Read more
However, when I pulled the USB plug out of the jack, the internal connector came with it. Read more
Published 5 days ago by Dan
BEWARE. HDD will just stop working.
I have had the WD 1TB My Book for almost 2 years as my backup HDD. All of sudden it just stopped being recognized by my computer. Read more
Published 5 days ago by Nick F.
Western Digital My Book Essential 1.5 TB External Hard Drive
Purchased this item after reviewing other product reviews on Amazon. I am using this product to back up my computer & it has done so as stated. Read more
Published 6 days ago by Milton Maekawa
Cheap
3tb for $159.99? hell yeah.
i love western digital drives only ever owned them have not tried other companies never will.
i love western digital drives only ever owned them have not tried other companies never will.
Published 7 days ago by Nick
Pain in the butt to use
I have been a network engineer for 17 years now. I bought this piece of junk to connect to my XBox. Will not happen. Read more
Published 8 days ago by sharkman
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Capacity: 3 TB
