Western Digital My Book Studio 500 GB USB 2.0/FireWire 400/800/eSATA Desktop External Hard Drive

by Western Digital

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 7 x 5.8 inches ; 2.6 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000WGJZ44
• California residents: Click here for Proposition 65 warning.
• Item model number: WDH1Q5000N
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (73 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 2, 2001

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Speed is what you need for video editing, big design projects, or managing photo shoots, and that's what the Western Digital WDH1Q5000N My Book Studio Edition 500 GB external hard drive delivers, with FireWire 800 and eSATA connectivity. With its automatic backup capability, My Book Studio Edition backs up your creative masterpieces the minute you save them.

My Book Studio 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.

By using the automatic backup, you can back up important projects to multiple destinations including file servers, portable drives, and My Book. You can use it to synchronize project files to keep them current and secure. Set it and forget it; every time you save a change it's automatically backed up.

The quad interface system provides flexibility and performance with connections for ultra-fast eSATA, FireWire 400 and 800, 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 Studio 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 Studio Edition is backed by a 5-year limited warranty.

What's in the Box
WDH1Q5000N My Book Studio Edition external hard drive, USB cable, FireWire 800 cable, FireWire 800 to 400 cable, AC adapter, and quick install guide.

Product Description

Speed is what you need when for video editing, big design projects, or managing photo shoots and that's what this drive delivers with FireWire 800 and eSATA connectivity. With our automatic backup capability your creative masterpieces will be backed up the minute you save them.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 85 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I really WANT to like this drive, but..., December 9, 2007

By 

Sam Sheddan (Clinton, TN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Western Digital My Book Studio 500 GB USB 2.0/FireWire 400/800/eSATA Desktop External Hard Drive (Personal Computers)

Like it says in the review title, I really WANT to like this drive. Unfortunately, I can't. I don't. And I probably won't. Ever. Why?

I bought one of these from another vendor (sorry Amazon, their price was better). I installed the drive on my 24" aluminum iMac (which I DID buy from Amazon, good job, guys). The drive recognized fine on firewire 800, and I set Time Machine to use it for backups.

Then the problems started. The drive would "freeze" when it went into suspend mode, and it wouldn't come back. OS X is too stupid to stop trying to access a "dead" drive, so the suspended/frozen drive would hang the system. The only solution was to power down the drive (if possible), or remove the firewire cable. Worse, sometimes the drive wouldn't power down using the power button, so I had to pull the power cord. NOT good.

Once the frozen drive was out of the firewire chain, the OS would recover semi-gracefully, with a "Device Removal" error. I figured it was a fluke, so I put the drive first in the firewire chain. No luck. Then I changed cables. No luck. Okay, try the drive as the ONLY firewire drive. No luck. It would still freeze, and still hang the system.

So, I figured I just had a defective drive. No problem. I already had another on order, so I sent the first back to the vendor and waited for the second to arrive.

Same problems with the second drive. I used every connection available: firewire 800, firewire 400, and even USB (iMac's don't come with eSATA, so I don't know if it's a problem too). No luck with any connection, OR any cable (I have several available, which work with other drives). The My Book Studio drive still hangs AT LEAST once a day, usually several times.

So the second drive is going back for a refund, and I'm going to call the other vendor and just have them refund my money for the "defective" drive already in transit as a return.

Now, why do I want to like this drive?

Pros:
- It's good-looking
- It's quiet (because it's fanless)
- Quadruple interface (nice!)
- It's small

Cons:
- It just doesn't work... do I really need any MORE cons?

When the drive started giving me problems, I went looking for a solution (updated firmware, updated Button Manager software, SOMETHING). I found several people on the Apple Discussion Forums with the same problem, which made me realize that the drive itself was the issue.

Google for "my book studio freeze" and you can read the Apple Support discussion, which will lead you to more problem discussions.

That being said, I love Western Digital, and they're my first choice for external drives. I just think they have some MAJOR teething pains with the My Book Studio line. And since other Mac users love them, I suspect that WD Studio drives simply don't like the new iMacs. But since I spent $2000 on my computer, and $200 on the drive, the drive is the one that gets returned. Sorry, WD.

If you want a good, reliable drive for your iMac, I've had lots of luck with LaCie, and I've heard really good things about OWC drives. But if you're a tried-and-true WD fan... stay away from THIS drive.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars USE WITH CAUTION!, June 9, 2008

By 

Linda Cappel "redstar" (NYC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Western Digital My Book Studio 500 GB USB 2.0/FireWire 400/800/eSATA Desktop External Hard Drive (Personal Computers)

I have been a devotee of WD drives for years. I have 15 functioning on my work server (mostly in 2 e-sata enclosures using port multipliers), I have 4 inside my home machine right now, I have a good 30 sitting about for use here at home as I need them. They're work horses that always performed flawlessly...till now.

These MYBOOKS with their sleep "feature" are criminally bad. Can't use them for servers as they will send a server crashing within 10 minutes of disuse in either SATA or FW 800 configurations. Used for backup, your backup will freeze within the same 10 minutes. The drive comes with backup software -- that's what they're being positioned for -- but they can't be left idle or they sleep and won't wake.

Older model MYBOOKS (I have three) work fine. They are in an always-on mode. I thought I was simply buying more of the same when I purchased the Studio Pro models.

This "feature" is built into the drive and system preferences won't override it. Some myopic developer decided what the community needed was a sleeping drive so what we've all got now are bricks. There is no "fix" coming from Western Digital. I called to inquire; that's coming from a Level 2 tech.

Doing a google, there's a PC script to disable this mode and for Mac users, a chron script if you're brave enough to alter your root user password and create the invisible script in the terminal. I am not. This is like playing with Res Edit (I know, I'm dating myself...) and unless you're proficient, I would not recommend it.

So use with caution. They're fine for your desktop where you can push the power button and prompt it to spin back up. They will cause you a lot of grief if you can't monitor it.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The perfect pairing for Time Machine, November 28, 2007

By 

Ben D Over "bmw330i" (Cary, NC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Western Digital My Book Studio 500 GB USB 2.0/FireWire 400/800/eSATA Desktop External Hard Drive (Personal Computers)

I recently bought a new iMac and immediately fell in love with the Leopard operating system(I'm someone that uses both Vista and Leopard now, and as much as I hate the advocates on either side, I'm finding myself using the Mac all the time and only using my Vista box when I'm forced to). One of the features I was looking forward to using was Time Machine, which for those that aren't familiar is a new program in Leopard that automatically(automagically?) backs up your entire Mac and then does hourly backups of any changes that occur thereafter. Wow. Erased an email yesterday that all of a sudden you wished you had today? Go to Mail, click on Time Machine and then go back in time to when that email still existed on your machine and recover it. Awesome. Simple. So enough about that.

Obviously you need a drive to do this, and I didn't have one until the other day when I bought this WD My Book. I plugged it in and immediately Leopard spotted it and asked me if I wanted to use it for Time Machine. I sure did! It's quiet, it's cool to the touch, and it looks cool as well! It matches my Aluminum iMac. The only downside is I hate the light on the front, which is easily solvable...I turned it around!

Now if my Mac ever crashes, I can be back to exaclty where I was within 15-20 minutes. Brilliant. Thank you WD and thanks Apple for making this software a part of your base OS.