Customer Reviews

Western Digital WDG1C2500N My Book Premium Edition 250 GB USB 2.0/Firewire400 External Hard Drive

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

At last, someone has finally created a device that is literally plug and play. There is no need to install any sofware for it. Plug in the USB, plug in the power, and you're ready to transfer files. The included Google software and Western Digital's back-it-up program is also optional. The box doesn't even have a cd for installation. You just plug it into the computer and you'll find the software on the drive itself.

It's a beautiful little black box with two blue led rings on the front. The outer ring consists of four LED's that flash in a clockwise direction as you read or write data to the drive. The inner ring consists of six LED's that display how much of the drive is being used up. The back contains one usb port and two firewire ports. The top and bottom have two black rubber borders that grip any surface pretty well and they contain exhaust vents which were made with looks in mind.

Finally, when Western Digital says quiet operation, they MEAN quiet operation. This hard drive makes absolutely no noise at all. Not on spin-up, nor while you're using it. The last great feature is that it detects when your computer is on or off so it will turn itself on and off as well.

Great product!

I just purchased this item and it is awesome. It is as easy to use as plugging in a Jump Drive and start saving. The only difference is that it needs power. You may want to format it to NTSF in order to save larger videos. This was easy too and the manual directs you where to get the directions on the Western Digital website.

I purchased this external drive after my last external drive failed me wiping out my itunes library and most of my data. Now that drive is decorating my shelf with its dust, and this new spiffy drive is working like a charm. It really is plug and play. I loaded it, and it just worked... Awesome. The large capacity means I can get my iTunes library, my recorded shows and hard drive loaded on it with room to spare. Thanks my book.

I needed a large capacity external hard drive for work, and I did a fair amount of research of different products. Based on several other reviews, I chose this unit with some circumspection. This unit was hands-down the easiest pc product I've ever installed. Granted, I kept the unit formatted as fat32, but it may be more difficult if you choose to format it to NTFS. The unit is very quiet, pleasing to the eye, and built tough. File transfer and retrieval is quick. My setup is a laptop hooked up to a docking station, and this unit does something I wasn't expecting: It turns itself on during boot up, and turns off during shutdown. I thought it was a cool, anyway. In conclusion, if you need an external HD, you will be very pleased with this unit.

There are numerous external hard drives for sale. I looked at some of them and concluded that WD's My Book is the best choice for me. Using with XP SP2.

Pros:
1) I believe this is the best-looking external drive out there. I don't buy products solely based on looks, but I do think My Book's case design is elegant. It goes well with my black ThinkPad and I happen to have a USB hub that also glows in blue, so they complement each other well.

2) It is a plug-n-play device. It feels to me that WD's engineers worked hard to make the experience as easy as they can think of. The first time I plugged it in to my USB hub, the drive automatically started its initial configuration, which I declined because I already had other backup software and search utility (both included with My Book), but for someone new to computers, I don't know what could be simpler. Everything you need to use My Book with either a Windows machine or a Mac is included.

3) It is competitively priced. I went with My Book Premium Edition instead of Essential Edition (cheaper than many other drives with similar capacities) because it has both USB and Firewire connections. I plan to have this drive for a while and maybe I may use it with a Mac in the future.

4) I like WDC's support. For example, the included manual has instructions on how to convert from FAT32 to NTFS. Yeah, geeky, but the fact this is included in the manual as well as relevant FAQs on the web site (like restoring My Book's icon in Explorer after you format the drive) sealed the deal for me.

5) The best thing about My Book: I do very much like the feature that it turns off itself when the computer is shut down. I cannot find any other external drive that does this. It also has an extra protection built in not to shut it down while the data are being written to the device. That's intelligent and user friendly. It's quiet too.

Cons:
I read reviews that this drive is slow when writing data. I do not feel that it's slow. Your mileage may vary.

All in all, the elegance, price, and WD's support make My Book Premium my choice for an external hard drive!

this is my first HDD ive ever bought. im glad i came on amazon and read all the user reviews and compared because i was thinking about getting a seagate one but they posed to have alot of problems.

the thing that got me hoocked on this HDD was its plug and play feature. it trully is plug and play.

i can honesly say that this is the best invesment ive ever made on a product due to what it does, and how many times its saved me.

Im sad and happy to say that it was dropped for the first time by my friend off a computer desk 3 days ago, he tripped on the wire and it fell about 4-5 feet to the ground, and to my amazment it still works. unlike my MP3 player :(

We installed this external HD on a Dell computer. As most Dell customers will attest to, any time you talk to one of their representatives, they'll deny compatability with anything other than a Dell product. Well, I have upgraded the video card, power supply, and now added this HD to the computer with very liitle effort. This HD has performed perfectly for us.

Checking the other reviews here on Amazon showed that everyone either loved this Western Digital drive (and gave it 5 stars) if it worked or else they blackballed it if it failed. As the prices for these drives continue to fall, since larger drives (500 GB as well as even 1000 GB) are now available, they really are a good buy and an excellent way to externally store as well as transfer data.
My experience is that this drive is very easy to install, reformat, and use as an extra drive. No problems.
The only thing I really don't like is the fact that it doesn't have a real on/off button. The circle on the front does turn off the power, but whenever the computer starts, this drive starts as well. That means that unless the drive is manually turned off after the computer starts, the drive will always be on when the computer is on. I prefer to have the drive on only when I need it to save it from unnecessary wear and tear. Other external drives from Maxtor and even other Western Digital drives have real on/off switches.
This drive does make a noticeable hum while running.

My first WD My Book drive delivered from Amazon.com actually never worked but shut down after a few seconds on several computers. After spending nearly 30mins waiting for an only remotely helpful WD helpline rep, I was eventually directed to WD's support website which had a new drive shipped to me in less than 48hrs soothing my initial anger.

The new drive works just fine. The software is very easy to use (no installation), but provides only limited functionality. If you consider using this drive for more complex backups (rather than just storing data outside of your PC's hard drive), you should definitely consider upgrading the software.

Don't believe the claim that you can "just plug it in and it's ready to use." This product is set up for Windows, and the instructions for installing the drive for a Mac fail to mention that you have to reformat the drive to remove the Windows software. It's easy to become hopelessly fouled up.

Don't expect any help from Western Digital. If you can actually get connected to them, and your call isn't dropped while you wait for 40 minutes or so, you'll get a customer rep who reads to you from the same useless manual that came from the drive. Their web site help is equally useless.