Western Digital My Book Home Edition 1 TB USB 2.0/FireWire 400/eSATA Desktop External Hard Drive

by Western Digital

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 2.1 x 6.5 inches ; 2.6 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000WBJDUA
• Item model number: WDH1CS10000N
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (86 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 7, 2004

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Your baby's first step, your wedding in Bali, all your milestones--all captured in digital photos and video. What could be more important? Store them safely and keep them backed up on the Western Digital WDH1CS10000N My Book Home Edition 1 TB external hard drive.

My Book Home Edition is easy to set up and easy to use. Installation is a snap because you don't really install this drive, you just plug it in and it's ready to use. There is no CD to install; the included software loads from the drive the first time you plug it in. Automatic backup allows you to save a copy of your photos to an online sharing service, duplicate your email and contacts to your iPod, and back up all your precious files to your My Book. Set it and forget it; every time you save something it's automatically backed up.

The triple interface system provides flexibility and performance with connections for ultra-fast eSATA, FireWire 400, and USB 2.0. The eSATA interface gives you speed comparable to a state-of-the-art internal hard drive, while the FireWire connection delivers a high-performance interface that is perfect for Macintosh computers. USB 2.0 is also available for convenience and compatibility among multiple computers.

My Book Home Edition takes no more space than a paperback book. Collect two or more and they nest neatly together like volumes on a shelf. This external hard drive also turns itself on and off with your computer, while Safe Shutdown prevents the drive from being powered down until all your data has been written. (Works with the USB and FireWire connection only.)

This drive is designed to save power by going into standby mode after 10 minutes of inactivity. When you're ready to use it, it wakes up automatically. My Book enclosure's heat-dissipating design with Morse Code also prevents heat buildup, a notorious data killer. How cool is that?

The My Book Home Edition offers:

• Continuous and automatic backup of your important digital assets.
• Extra storage for your computer.
• An archive of the music stored on your MP3 player.
• Plenty of space for digital photo and video capture and editing.

What's in the Box
WDH1CS10000N external hard drive, USB cable, FireWire cable, AC adapter, and quick install guide.

Product Description

Your baby's first step, your wedding in Bali, all your important milestones...all captured in digital photos and video. What could be more important? Store them safely and keep them backed up on My Book Home Edition external hard drives.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars works great, January 7, 2008

By 

Eduardo Feigenblatt (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Western Digital My Book Home Edition 1 TB USB 2.0/FireWire 400/eSATA Desktop External Hard Drive (Personal Computers)

My drive works flawlessly.
It's plugged to an Intel Mac Mini through FW.
It was recognized immediately but I had to do a quick re-format to HPFS
as it comes formated for Windows.
No problem there, just remember to save the Windows tools which are inside the drive if you think you might need them later.

I also love the fact that it doesn't have a separate power brick.
The power supply is a "wall wart" that's smaller and lighter than other drive's bricks and it fits nicely in my overcrowded power strip.

The drive is surprisingly quiet and has a very decent performance.

The "breathing" or scrolling light effects are annoying though.
A dim, discrete LED would have been better.
There are lots of options out there for you to pimp your rig if you like that stuff.
Still, for me it's a no brainer.
Not only I'm considering getting another one as I'm recommending it to my friends.
But I might get the model with FW800 this time.

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Power management features make drive unstable on eSATA, July 8, 2008

By 

Misha Taylor (Tallahassee, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Western Digital My Book Home Edition 1 TB USB 2.0/FireWire 400/eSATA Desktop External Hard Drive (Personal Computers)

This drive automatically spins down when not being used, and there is no way to disable this feature. Unfortunately on my computer under Windows, this means that the drive disappears in "My Computer" and the Disk Management tools if I don't use the drive for extended periods of time. The only way to get the computer to recognize the drive again is to power cycle the drive manually by pushing the power button on the back, it will not automatically "wake up" when I try to use the drive.

Western Digital's only recommendation was that I switch to a slower USB/Firewire connection, as their "button manager" software can keep the drive alive. This feature is not supported on the faster eSATA connection, however. (If that's the case, why did I pay more for an eSATA-capable drive?) At least the company did do an RMA exchange of my drive, just in case it was a problem with the drive or other components, but the replacement had the same issue too. This seems to be a "feature".

Their tech support also said that numerous customers have had similar issues if they plug the drive into a UPS or power strip. They recommend plugging the drive directly into a wall socket, but that didn't seem to help me at all.

I have another external eSATA drive from another vendor on the same computer (plugged into my UPS, no less), and it doesn't have this issue at all. I've left it connected for days not using it and the drive doesn't disappear. So it definitely appears to be an issue with this model of drive.

25 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Avoid the WD My Book Home Edition 1 tb model, December 12, 2007

By 

Kuulani Seto "Kuulani" (Mililani, HI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Western Digital My Book Home Edition 1 TB USB 2.0/FireWire 400/eSATA Desktop External Hard Drive (Personal Computers)

I have have 500 gb model running on OSX 10.5 with no issues. The 1 tb model is problematic with quality. I have already returned 5 drives for various issues (Does not spin up 2x, Spins up but not recognized 2x, and DOA). Did simon says with tech support, swap cables, connected to diff CPU, diff OS (Vista, XP, OSX), diff interfaces, swapped out with existing WD My book drive(500 gb model). Uninstalled and Reinstalled drivers. If you still want to try it make sure you can return it. Because you probably will.