Western Digital My Book World Edition II - 2 TB (2 x 1 TB) Network Attached Storage

by Western Digital

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 4.1 x 6.9 inches ; 5.9 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 7.6 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000UF4ZZ6
• Item model number: WDG2NC20000N
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 7, 2004

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Add the Western Digital WDG2NC20000N My Book World Edition II 2 TB Ethernet Network Storage System to your wired or wireless network and you'll have a surprisingly simple and secure way to access and share data and photos at home, in the office, and anywhere in the world--even when your local computer is turned off. The included RAID software makes it easy for you to take advantage of RAID mirroring for extra data protection.

The My Book World Edition II offers several outstanding features that will give you the peace of mind of knowing not only that your data is a click away no matter where you are in the world, but also that it's safe and secure. My Book World Edition II features WD Anywhere Access, which ensures that your storage system and all the files on it are always accessible when you need them, even when your local computer is turned off. Use Data OnHand to securely browse your folders and to open, edit, and save files from any PC. EMC Retrospect Express is the easy-to-use system software you use to schedule your file backups or to create backup files on demand.

Ideal for home users who want professional capabilities, My Book World Edition II is easy to set up, thanks to its unique, powerful remote access software. It includes a 1000/100/10-compatible Ethernet connection for fast performance, and its efficient convection cooling system keeps the unit running cool and remarkably quiet.

For extra data protection RAID mirroring is also included. RAID Wizard software steps you through RAID configuration. Network setup is a breeze with the unique, powerful remote access software. Dedicate half the capacity for mirroring, and you automatically and instantaneously back up data every time you save it.

My Book World Edition II offers an extraordinary capacity with up to 2 TB of storage in an elegant, small-footprint design. That's plenty of space to store an entire digital photo library, your HD movie collection, and hours and hours of DV video.

My Book World Edition is ideal for users who want to:

• Securely access and edit their files on any computer.
• Get files from home while at the office.
• Listen to their digital music while on vacation.
• Securely share photos with friends anywhere in the world.
• Back up laptop data to their home computer while they're traveling.
• Offer clients an easy way to access business documents, designs, and artwork. (Eliminates the need for a separate FTP server.)
• Back up critical files to a remote drive for the ultimate protection from loss.
• Simplify their home network and access data from any computer or external hard drive in the house.
• Automatically back up all PCs to one central location.

The My Book World Edition II is backed by a 3-year limited warranty.

What's in the Box
WDG2NC20000N remote access storage system, Ethernet cable, AC adapter, installation and software CD, and quick install guide.

Product Description

2TB My Book World Edition II Add this unique remote-access storage system to your wired or wireless network and youll have a simple and secure way to access and share data photos and music at home in the office and anywhere in the world--even when your local computer is off.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Most reviewers' issues are caused by home network..., March 11, 2008

By 

Mom's in the Garden (Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Western Digital My Book World Edition II - 2 TB (2 x 1 TB) Network Attached Storage (Personal Computers)

Pros:

- 2 TB of storage!!
- Network-attached so all of my computers can access the same data
- Low power (I measured it at 12W standby, 17W active, 18W active w/fan)
- Well-behaved on the LAN. Not once have *any* of the shares become unavailable, even with *many* computers banging away simultaneously.
- Web interface is easy to understand and use.

Cons:

- Fan is not overly quiet (I wouldn't call it loud), though this is not a big issue since I moved it from near my computer to near my networking equipment.
- Web interface is SLOW! I'm not sure why it is so slow, but it's a minor issue since I don't configure the device often.
- I have been unable to sustain a write speed higher than about 320 MB/minute, even when directly connected with a gigabit link. I'm not sure of what to attribute this limit, but network traffic as recorded by Vista was only 80 Mbps. (It's entirely possible that this limit is due to my computer and not the drive, but I have no way to tell for sure.)

I bought this product even though it had very negative reviews here. (The one positive review is for the USB/Firewire sister drive, so it is not overly relevent, IMO.) The reason I went ahead is that I have no need (or desire) for sharing files over the internet. Instead, the goal was to have a large RAID network-attached storage device on our local network for use by the many computers on the network. I decided, before purchasing, that I would NOT install the WAN software that ships with the drive. That software DOES sound bad to me based on the reviewer comments here and makes data available on the internet, which is something I want to AVOID!

Before I received the drive, I did some tests using my existing network to see how Windows shares behave. The short answer is that Vista and XP *both* behave poorly when reading and writing files over the network. Transfers were slow, but worse, access to shared directories often fails (generally on the client, not the computer sharing the directory) sometimes requiring a reboot just to be able to reconnect to the share. Other issues included Windows update rebooting the computer doing the sharing, disconnecting all of the clients.

So when I received the device, I expected to continue having the client problems I had seen with Windows by itself. And I was not disappointed! Both Vista and XP clients do occasionally disconnect from the shares, with some client computers being worse-behaved than others. However, this drive has performed quite well with as many as 8 clients *simultaneously* banging away on the drive.

Here are some things to consider before you buy this drive:

1) You might want to test copying files over your home network prior to purchasing this drive. That will give you a quick idea of what to expect. It is likely that you have never before tried to transfer 10s or 100s of gigabytes over your home network before. You are likely to find multiple issues with your network when you perform such a test.
2) How fast is your home networking equipment? At 10 Mbps, you can expect reading and writing files over your network to be *extremely* slow. At 100 Mbps, which is what most home networks support, reading and writing large files over the network will still be slow. Wireless networks tend to fall somewhere between 10 Mbps and 100 Mbps, so it will tend to be slower than 100 Mbps for file transfers. Gigabit ethernet, which is still rare in home networks, is reasonably fast, but still is not as fast as file transfers within your computer.
3) How stable is Windows (Vista or XP) when transferring 10s or 100s of gigabytes of data to or from a Windows share? Unfortunately, the answer is that they are not very good. To get around this significant issue, I am using a tool called teracopy to improve the performance.
4) The first thing I did was to upgrade the firmware in this device. It went from version 01.01.18 that came on the device to 02.00.15. I don't know what issues were addressed, but it likely includes many fixes to various issues.

As you can see, this product will not be for everyone, but most of the issues that arise are not the fault of Western Digital. Just know what you are getting into before you purchase. I'm happy with the purchase because it fits my needs well. However, I am thinking of making upgrades to my home network to improve speeds to/from this device.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Needs More Work To Be Market Ready, December 1, 2007

By 

Ross, Infoton Computers "Ross "Infoton Co... (CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Western Digital My Book World Edition II - 2 TB (2 x 1 TB) Network Attached Storage (Personal Computers)

I purchased this product because I thought it matched my requirements exactly. However, I am very disappointed with it.

I have used it for over one month. The major problem is that the drive crashes frequently. It goes offline for unknown reason and cannot be restored remotely from the network. You have physically to turn it off then on, to restore it. It does not have a control panel or user accessible logs. The Drive CPU does not seem to have enough resources to keep it running. So much for a remotely controlled drive!

MioNet is good when it works, and the drive is accessible, but it's resource huge. The MioNet processes run all the time whether you need it or not, uses enormous amount of memory, and cannot be easily terminated.

The MioNet version that comes with the WD is extremely limited and very basic. It is a trial version, but is required to install the product. It keeps pestering you to upgrade. It really is the 30 days free trial version, not stated on the product description available when you purchase the product. The MioNet upgrade is only offered as a monthly/yearly service charge.

Other points: The drive is very, very slow even with a Gigabit Network and runs very hot.

41 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good idea, poor execution, October 27, 2007

By 

Randym - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Western Digital My Book World Edition II - 2 TB (2 x 1 TB) Network Attached Storage (Personal Computers)

I liked the idea of this drive. I have a small home network (two computers, a desktop and a laptop), and this seemed a better solution for file-sharing than the USB thumb drive I had been using.

Alas, I don't think this product is quite ready for prime time. I installed it as directed in the Quick Start guide...and nothing happened. The drive was not detected. It just gave me a "failed mount" error message. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling. I tried installing it on my other computer. I went to Western Digital's web site, searched their knowledge base, and tried every solution suggested. No dice.

So I e-mailed tech support. They said they'd get back to me in one business day. They didn't. So I called them.

They do have a toll-free tech support number. And you get 30 days of free tech support, starting from the first time you call them. After that, it's fifteen bucks a call.

Navigating the Western Digital phone menu is a bit of challenge. Which number you should press for help with this product isn't obvious, and if you don't press a number, they hang up on you. I was expecting to be routed to a human operator if I didn't pick a number, but no. They hang up on you, and you have to listen to the spiel and go through everything all over again. So here's a tip: choose "firewire or USB external drive." Even though this isn't a firewire or USB drive.

Once I got that far, they put me on hold. Which I was expecting, but it was particularly obnoxious, because they play classical music - at truly ear-splitting levels. It was so loud I had to hold the phone several inches from my ear or it was downright painful. I was really starting to think they were trying to get you to hang up and go away.

The call center, judging from the accents, is somewhere in India. Everyone was very friendly and polite, but it was often hard to understand what they were saying (especially if you're half-deaf from listening to that darned music). They made me spell out my name, address, etc., in military speak (alpha-bravo-charlie-delta).

They talked me through pinging the new drive and mapping it. That seemed to fix the problem. The drive was detected, both via Windows and via Mionet. I hung up. And the computer promptly gave me the "failed mount" error message again. Arrghhh.

So I called back the next day. Again the ear-splitting music, and a different (but equally polite) guy with a thick Indian accent. I had my case number, but they had no record of it. Yay. I got to spell out my name and address again. After all that, he was not able to resolve my problem, and put me on hold again. After several long minutes with the music from hell, he told me that his supervisor would be calling me back in 15 or 20 minutes.

He lied. They never called me back. However, the problem fixed itself when I created a new Mionet account. The new Mionet account didn't work, but when I went back to the old one, it started working. I have no idea how long this fix will last, but at the moment, it's working as it should.

Mionet is now owned by Western Digital. It's kind of like GoToMyPC. The version you get with this drive is a limited edition. It gives you 30 days of regular Mionet access, then you have to pay or many features go away. They don't really make this clear in the product description.

You don't need to use Mionet, though (except for remote access). If you just want to use this drive on your home network, you can do that with Windows' built-in networking capability.

And here's a tip for ZoneAlarm users: turn it off while you install this drive. Letting Mionet through isn't enough. I had to turn it off to map the drive, then I had to add the IP address of the drive to ZoneAlarm's "trusted zones" list manually. For some reason, it didn't add itself, or ask me if I wanted to allow it.

PROS: Looks very nice. Small footprint. Cool idea.

CONS: Installation was a headache. (Search on "failed mount" and "mionet," and you'll see it's a common problem.) It's slower than a USB or Firewire drive, at least on the average home network. Tech support could be better. Documentation (a PDF on the installation disk) is pretty poor.

I've been an Amazon customer for years, and have bought a ton of stuff from them. This was the first item I seriously considered returning. Now that it's working, I will probably keep it. However, if I could do it all over again, I might buy the 2.0TB My Book Premium USB/fw instead, and just use a USB switch or something to share it between my desktop and laptop.

UPDATE: Five months later, I am happier with this than I was originally. I would probably give it one more star.

The first month or two, it was very buggy. It kept dropping off my network, and I would have to try various things to get it back. (Turning it off and on, rebooting my computer, logging in and out of Mionet, pinging the drive, etc.) I was about ready to name the drive "Brigadoon," because you never knew when you see it. Especially annoying is when it would go offline while you were trying to copy files over to it. (The slow connection means it takes a long time to transfer data.)

However, lately it's been pretty reliable, and I'm happy with it. I must admit, it's convenient to have one drive that all the computers in the house can share.

I'm not sure why it's working so well now, when it didn't before. I suspect it's Mionet. If the Mionet site is down, you can't access your drive. Well, you can if you're computer literate enough, but really, this drive isn't being marketed to that kind of person. Mionet seems to have improved their reliability lately, and so this drive is performing a lot better.

IMO, Mionet remains the biggest drawback to this product. I don't think they made it clear enough that it's a subscription service (though you can use a crippled version for free), and that if Mionet is down, you can't access the drive (unless you're a pretty advanced computer user).

Update, 9/29/2009: I just got notification that Mionet will be down for THREE DAYS while they upgrade to Mionet 4.0. That it just unacceptable. Three days is a lifetime when you're talking about accessing your computer files. What are they thinking??!!!