Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

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.

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.

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??!!!

Good:
- great bang for the buck
- huge 2 TB disks space
- nice design, looks good

Bad:
- Transfer rate is extremely low. On my 100Mb ethernet, I maxed out at only 11Mb/s which turned out to be only 1.4 MB/s
- Mionet software is horrible, very unpolished and buggy. Also only 30 day subscription, otherwise, you need to pay monthly subscription fee.
- Difficult to setup on the network - only for technically advanced computer users
- Documentation is very slim. You need internet access to do searches for your answers on installation through Google. Avoid tech support if you can.
- Cooling fan is horribly loud.
- Status light is too bright and becomves very annoying in dark rooms.
- No USB/Firewire/eSATA for connecting directly to your PC.

Very disappointed with WD and this piece of junk product. Perhaps World Edition III will be VASTLY improved and be the one to buy. Otherwise, stay far away from this product no matter what anyone says.

slow transfers, it has built in drm for your non drm files, slow transfers
disgusting, mionet is garbage and just turning it on or off is retarded. loud. it just pisses me off because i got it as a gift and i can't exchange it for something else.i got files i can't delete because they were created using the mionet software and the software when reinstalling it on another computer sees the files as created by someone else so i dont have permission to delete or move, just read only access to most my files. long file name support is limited, it is linux file system and can't be formatted into anything else.

If i hated someone, i would get them this hard drive for a gift.

I bought this drive from Fry's this past weekend and I'm in the process of returning it.

I have a home network connected via Gigabit switch with two Macs (10.5.2) and two PCs (XP Home and XP Pro). I was able to setup the drive using my Mac using the web interface with no problems. Before I used the drive, I took the firmware update. Afterwards I setup the folders I wanted to use and proceeded to start copying files to it. Here are the reasons I am returning the drive:

1) It is very slow. Even with a Gigabit switch and Gigabit computer connections, I am getting VERY slow data transfer rates. The maximum rate (not average) I was able to obtain was 5.0 Mb/sec upload and 7.9Mb/sec download. For my Macs, it would typically take over 4 minutes to copy 1Gb of data to the drive. For some reason, my PC's were not able to get quite that rate. It would generally take a little over 5 minutes per Gb on them. I did these measurements with no other network traffic. At these rates, it would take me about 5.6 days to back up this drive (yes, I need to back it up). The PC's were showing a 3-5% network utilization during transfer.
2) The USB port on back doesn't mount the connected drive so it can be used by general network users. According to the documentation, if you install the Windows-only "MioNet" you are supposed to be able to access the eternal drive. The big issue for me is that this is a "Network Accessible Drive". I wanted to access the drives from my network, with any computer on my network, be it Mac, Windows or Linux. I was wanting to backup my network drive using the USB drive. I can't do that using my main computer (Mac).

I called customer support to ask about the performance issue. They gave me a case number and then passed me off to technical support. I was passed up to the supervisor. I was told that this is a known issue and to expect a maximum data transfer rate of 3-8 Mb/sec. I was also told that several people had called in with this issue and the only option I had was to return the device.

I have just ordered a LaCie 2 TB 2big drive from Amazon. I currently have a 1TB LaCie network drive connected to my home network and it performs very well. I guess I'm going to be all LaCie from this point.

This review covers the family of My Book Pro II/Premium II drives from Western Digital, since the primary differences between the 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0Tb dual-drive models involve the size of the drive pair only, as far as I can tell. I own the My Book Pro II 1.5Tb drive and have only configured it for the factory-default Raid 0 mode, since I wanted as much non-redundant storage as possible.

Anyone not familiar with external USB or Firewire drives may be surprised at the significantly slower data transfer; the USB or Firewire interface is the bottleneck, not the drive itself. For bulk storage at still-reasonable transfer rates and for the purchase price per byte, these large capacity drives can't be beat - as long as they are reliable and the user observes all the rules about making sure the drives are safe to physically disconnect from the computer (I won't cover the rules here; the operating system has its own Help section that can assist the user who is unsure of how to physically disconnect their drive without turning off the computer itself).

OK, back to the Western Digital My Book II drive... when the drive is received, the Raid Manager software package should be installed before plugging in the drive. After I did this and plugged in the drive, I had one problem after another with the drive disappearing in Windows, the fan going very loud when there was no heat issue to make it do so, then the drive would act like it over-heated and shut down. Twice I received replacement drives and both replacement drives acted the same way.

I figured the problem wasn't the drive, so I tried the second replacement on a second PC running Vista; same problems. I next moved the drive to a PC running Windows XP; no problem - the drive ran quietly and reliably.

It turns out there is currently (12/22/07) a problem with Windows Vista and the way it stores driver information. The fix is found in their technical bulletin 1708 (go to www.wdc.com, support, frequently asked questions and enter "1708" in the "Search by Keyword" field. This has solved all my problems with my drive and I can now recommend this drive without reservations, however Vista is due for its first significant "patch", SP1, in the first half of 2008 and these sorts of patches have sometimes provoked new problems. I do think the solution presented in technical bulletin 1708 would still be helpful if the SP1 patch caused further problems, however.

I purchased this item because I prefer Western Digital drives to other manufacturers. After reading the other reviews, I decided not to install the software that comes with it as I won't be using the "world access" functionality.

After figuring out what IP address it pulled, setup was easy via the web interface.

As others have written, the web interface _is_ unusually slow, but it does get the job done. It's not like you'll be using the web interface regularly.

I have confirmed what some others have written about write access being a bit slow. However, I did so some testing on my own and have found that writing to this drive over my gigabit network (wired), I can get up to 5 MB/s writing. If I write to a true windows server on my same network, I can get up to 12 MB/s on that.. so there is some speed difference. Possibly because the true Windows server is doing (more) write-caching.

Since I am using this to primarily store videos to stream to my DirecTV HR20 (mpegs), I have done several tests and find that the bandwidth on this device is more than sufficient to stream to my receiver. The videos play without delay, and no jitters or playback problems.

One downside to this is that it doesn't have a built in UPNP server, but my current TVersity server handles it fine.

All in all, I am happy with this NAS, especially for the price, compared to other devices.

Pros:
-Easy to setup, don't install the software
-Not as loud as people have mentioned. I barely hear it.
-Looks nice, small form factor
-Gigabit Ethernet helps video performance (less lag)

Cons:
-The blue-ring of death (the power and activity lights) is just as annoying as the one on my DirecTV HR20. Unfortunately, unlike the HR20, the lights can't be turned off. Don't put this near your TV, or you'll be staring at the lights.
-Slower than writing to a regular windows server (by 50%), but it still performs well

Wishlist:
-Ability to turn off the lights
-USB connector to plug it into my computer directly (so I could use it as a regular external hard drive)
-Rubberized feet. I live in earthquare country so things need to be able to stay put. This is easy to overcome at my local hardware store.
-Faster write performance. Perhaps more write-caching?

My primary problem with this device, and ultimately the reason that I returned it for a refund, is that it is unacceptably slow. And when I say slow, I mean 10 times slower than a USB drive. I measured the throughput by copying a 1GB file over gigabit ethernet, and it clocked at 2.5MB/s, whereas copying the same file over USB measured 25MB/s. Copying across a wireless network to another computer was also faster. I got these results *after* updating to the latest firmware -- performance was even worse with the shipped firmware.

Other complaints: no explicit support for Mac or Linux, although both can be made to work given enough Google searches. Pathetic documentation even for supported Windows platforms.

Strongly NOT recommended. Still searching for an alternative.

Read the fine print.

The "world access" is through a subscription which will cost you about $50 per year. In additon the "MioNet" software does not work (at least on my machine, after sevaral hours of farting around with it) on XP 64.