Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(25)

 

 

Pros:
Triple interface with USB 2.0, eSATA, and FireWire 400 ports
Two FireWire 400 ports to support daisy-chaining devices
Relatively quiet, passively cooled design (i.e. no fans)
Automatically powers on/off with your machine, spins down when inactive
3-year warranty, vs. 1-year for the Western Digital 500GB My Book Essential 2.0

Cons:
No boot support for PowerPC-based Macs
Mac software not yet compatible with OS 10.5 (i.e. capacity gauge and power button do not presently work)
*Fixed - see my update, posted as a comment on this review, for details.*
Power button on rear rather than front

Summary:
I bought this drive primarily as a backup drive to be used with the built-in Time Machine backup program in Mac OS 10.5. Providing the pending ButtonManager software update works, I will have no reservations in recommending it for similar usage. Even without the capacity gauge and power button, I am relatively happy with the drive. You should be aware that this drive IS NOT BOOTABLE from PowerPC-based Macs (see WD Support Answer ID 1715), so if you were planning to do that, you need to look elsewhere. It is bootable from Intel-based Macs, though.

In Depth:
As a basic drive, it worked right out of the box. Macintosh installers for "WD Anywhere Backup" and a "ButtonManager" program that enables the capacity gauge and power button are included on the drive, along with documentation in PDF format. I'm using Time Machine and had no interest in the included backup software, so I can't speak to its quality. Installing the ButtonManager seemed to go smoothly. The installer even asks if you want to reformat the disk, and opens Disk Utility if you opt to do so. (See notes on formatting below.)

Upon rebooting, I was initially pleasantly surprised to find no extra processes running related to the ButtonManager... until I discovered that was only because it wasn't working. No capacity gauge, and the power button on the back does nothing. It turns out that the software is currently incompatible with OS 10.5, although on their website Western Digital has promised a fix by the end of January 2008 (WD Support Answer ID 1716). A company representative assured me that this was still the case at MacWorld 2008.

Apparently WD used a StartupItem, which were deprecated in 10.4 in favor of launchd - and no longer work at all in 10.5. Considering that this drive didn't become available until September of 2007 and that StartupItems have been officially deprecated since April 2005, the commitment to Mac compatibility could be stronger. If you are using 10.5, there is no reason to install the ButtonManager at present and the representative I spoke with at MacWorld actually suggested removing it if you did install it.

I don't mind the missing capacity gauge gimmick, but the power button is a bit annoying. After unmounting the drive, it goes into standby mode, but (short of unplugging the power) there is no way to turn it off completely. The only way to remount the drive is to unplug the power and then plug it back in. Being able to just press a button would be much more convenient. Hopefully, the updated software will resolve this issue.

The problem is somewhat mitigated by the drive's automatic power management features. The drive turns off when your computer shuts down or sleeps, and turns back on when your computer does. In addition, the drive spins down and goes into standby mode when it's inactive. Western Digital seems to have intended the drive to remain connected and "on" most of the time, which is reflected in the awkward placement of the (currently non-functional) power button on the back of the drive. For the most part this works, and is actually quite convenient, but there are still times, especially with a laptop, when actually being able to turn the drive off is important.

The somewhat unusual on-end vertical drive mounting results in a relatively small footprint for the case, although its volume is comparable to, if not greater than, that of most other cases. The drive has no fan and is pretty quiet normally, although I found its peak noise (when spinning up and during heavy use) to be slightly more than my other drives.

In my tests transferring a 5 GB folder, the drive averaged 16.42 MB/s write and 20.17 MB/s read using FireWire, and 10.56 MB/s write and 14.12 MB/s read using USB 2.0, making the FireWire interface worthwhile. The inclusion of dual FireWire ports with the ability to daisy-chain another device is also a big plus, especially on a laptop with a single FireWire port. Performance of a daisy-chained drive didn't suffer in my testing and, since the FireWire bus is self-powered, it works even when the My Book is unplugged from power. While I didn't have the ability to test it, the inclusion of eSATA should allow for high performance. Unfortunately, the documentation indicates that the drive's automatic power management features only work with the USB and FireWire interfaces. Also, while 4 foot long FireWire (6-pin to 6-pin) and USB (Type A to Mini) cables are included, eSATA cables have to be purchased separately. If your Mac has FireWire 800 - and performance is an issue, you may want to look into the similar Western Digital 500 GB My Book Studio Edition.

How to format the drive:
If you intend to use the drive with both Macs and PCs regularly, leaving the drive formatted as FAT32 is the best choice. However, if you plan on using the drive exclusively with Macs it should be formatted as HFS+, and this format is required to use Time Machine. Unfortunately, the included PDF documentation doesn't explain how to format the drive, and instead refers you to an online document (WD Support Answer ID 287) which is decent, but a bit out of date. While the WD Support article suggests partitioning the drive using an Apple Partition Map, this is no longer the best choice. If you have an Intel-based Mac, using the GUID Partition Table is a better choice as it allows you to boot from the drive. Since the My Book Home doesn't support booting from a PowerPC machine, there really isn't any reason to use APM unless you use Macs with an OS prior to 10.4.

I have this drive and also the 1 TB version, connected to two different PCs each running Windows XP Pro SP2. Both drives are excellent although I will mention one caveat below about the other 1 TB unit.

I have not experienced any problems with this 500 GB drive.

The drives both installed easily and automatically. They come formatted for FAT32 which makes them compatible with earlier versions of Windows although it limits file sizes. Windows Disk Management easily reformats them to NTFS. Although the reformat takes several hours. You can continue using the PC itself, though, while the reformat proceeds.

Something unusual about the USB2 and eSATA interfaces. I tried the USB2 interface on both drives. I also tried the eSATA interface - in one case connecting to an eSATA port through a PCI card (and the PC has a 33 MHz PCI bus, not a 66 MHz PCI bus) and in the other case to a PCIx PCI Express interface. In both cases (!), the USB2 interface provided faster throughput than the eSATA interface. I believe the limitation is inside the PC, and NOT inside the drive. Nevertheless, it transfers about 1.6 GB in about 2.5 to 3.0 minutes. Plenty fast for my use. I now use the USB2 interface.

Note that the fancy although difficult to interpret white LED display in the front of the drive works with USB and FireWire although not with eSATA.

This 500 GB drive is super quiet all the time. The 1 TB unit is a bit odd. After accessing it, some time later it will sometimes make a low-level rapid clicking/whirring noise until the drive is again accessed at which time the noise stops. I actually replaced the 1 TB drive through WD and both drives did this. The drive passes the extended diagnostic test and WD says I am probably hearing a normal noise. I took it off the desktop and put it on top of the mini-tower so the noise no longer bothers me.

I use Acronis software to do disk image backups with these drives and also do simple backups of user folders through Windows. The drives makes this so easy.

I wholeheartedly recommend this 500 GB drive and also recommend the 1 TB unit although be aware of the possible noise.

I selected this unit because I use an iMac for my home business and I generate a lot of photos....over 50,000 high-res images in the past two years. I settled on the Western Digital My Book HD because of its Firewire 400 hookup and its 500 GB of storage. The fact that the manufacturer markets to Mac users was also a plus.

It took me all of 5 minutes to unpack the device, hook it up using the supplied Firewire cable, plug it in, and start using it. I set up the hard drive to transfer 1,368 photos (a wedding I shot two weekends ago), then walked away. In 30 (or so) minutes all images were copied to the device...flawlessly and efficiently.
I have two other external HDs that I also copy photos to, but the Western Digital My Book HD was vastly superior to them in terms of ease of setup and startup.

I have had this product about 6 months running on USB 2.0 with no problems. I recently bought a brand new PC with eSATA connections, a high quality eSATA cable and the problems began.

With the eSATA cable I have found the drive extremely susceptible to having its file system corrupted when the PC is restarted. This has happened twice, once causing 14GB of important data to be converted to .CHK files which I spent a week sorting out.

I then had massive problems whereby the MyBook could not be reformatted under the eSATA connection. It would only work on USB 2.0.

Having emailed Western Digital they told me that the likely cause is that the eSATA controller in my new PC probably isn't one which has been officially tested to work. They have only tested it with 3 manufacturers on the planet however which is absolutely comedy.

I am now sticking with USB 2.0 but my faith in this drive has disappeared and I am scared about putting any important information on here.

Use eSATA with Western Digital drives at your peril, its like driving your car down the highway with your eyes closed.

Good external HDD for backing up your important data. Not only does it take up half the room of my Lacie HDD, but it has three interfaces (USB 2.0, FireWire 400 & eSATA). Since I use an iMac, I was looking for the FireWire connectivity at a reasonable price.

PROs: triple interface, small size, good price per GB, sturdy design.
CONs: indicator light is useless, too many similar versions to choose from (home, essential, pro, premium, studio).

The Memeo backup software included on this My Book is seriously outdated. Do not install it! Instead, do the following:

1. Go to memeo.com and install the latest version of Memeo AutoBackUp Standard.

2. Use the same software product key that is on the quick install guide of this My Book.

You will save a lot of time!!

I have used the WD 500 GB My Book Home Edition for about a month now. Everything worked great. The only slight issue is that the cut-outs in the plastic on the back for the cables are too small. The mini-USB and power cable worked fine, but I had to cut extra room the eSATA cable to plug in. Great product, good price.

I was unsure which one to get, but I found this and it is good, I can use it USB or Firewire, the sSata is not really usefull for me now, the plus thing I found on it is that it turns on and off automatically with the computer, so no need to go and click on the power botton.

This unit installed and worked perfectly, a real delight. Looked just like a drive (F:) on my PC and I backed up to it successfully for about a year and a half. One day, it just turned up stone dead. My opinion is that disk-drive based hardware should last about 5 years.

Had this product for only a few days so can't offer any reliability comments.

No issues with hooking this drive up. Plugged in the power supply and connected to the computer (Win XP) via FireWire/1394 interface. Drive was instantly recognized and could R/W to the drive.

No supplied software installed automatically or manually by me. Since drive came formated to FAT, it was only a DOS command away from converting to NTFS. Couple min later and drive converted and all initial data still intact. First task was to make image of C: & D:, about 60G of data. Went with no hitch.

Drive is quiet and runs cool for a device without a fan, 94°F at the top of the case, about a 20°-24° rise over amb. Drive turns ON/OFF with the computer and when sitting idle for a period it goes to sleep. Does take a few sec to turn back on and ready for data I/O but that is to be expected.

I've had good luck with WD drive in the past and I'm not expecting anything different in this case.

I never ceased to be amazed by reading the owner reviews. One thing that seems to be clear is a number of people want champaign at a beer price. eSATA is not that common of a interface but the Co. should have provided the cable and oh, not charge for it. Drive not working with Vista but what new about hardware issues with Vista. IMO when you are in a very small minority reporting a problem, why does the problem have to be because of the new piece of hardware and not something with your existing equipment or set-up? These kind of comments have little credibility with me.

After purchase I found out my son has one of these attached to his work computer as does the rest in his work group. Had them for about 6 mo and no problems with any that he know of. That's not saying problems can't come up but isolated problem doesn't raise to the level of "piece of junk" comments.

Oh, 4 stars, nothing is perfect and haven't had long enough to include reliability in the rating.

I may come back later reporting my unit has failed but then again, it may run for a number of years like my other drives have. Only had one HD failure in more than 20 yrs of computer ownership. I'd have no hesitation to recommend to a friend.