Western Digital WDG1C3200N My Book Premium Edition 320 GB USB 2.0/Firewire400 External Hard Drive

by Western Digital

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 8.2 x 4.7 inches ; 3.6 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000EVMK62
• Item model number: WDG1C3200N
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: March 16, 2006

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description Is your computer loaded with photos, music, video, and all sorts of important files? If so, you should make extra room, back them up, and keep them safe on Western Digital's WDG1C3200 My Book Premium Edition 320 GB Hard Drive. This reliable, easy-to-use external hard drive is the perfect storage solution for all your precious digital assets.

Save and back up all your digital assets with the My Book Premium Edition Hard Drive. View larger.

Simple, easy-to-use design.

Hard drive features dual interface connectivity (FireWire 400 and USB 2.0). View larger.

The elegant case takes up very little space.

Installation is a breeze because you don't really "install" anything -- just plug it in and it's ready to use. There is not even an installation CD because all the included software loads automatically from the hard drive the first time you plug it in. For cream-of-the-crop, high-speed performance, use My Book Premium's FireWire 400 interface. However, if FireWire 400 isn't convenient, Western Digital has you covered -- the My Book Premium hard drive is also compatible with USB 2.0 connectivity. Best of all, you don't have to choose between one or the other because both interfaces are built into every drive.

Western Digital provides software (WD Backup) that makes backing up your data as easy as possible. With a few simple steps you can back up all your data files, or just save your picture and music files. You can also schedule routine backups so you don't have to worry about it ever again. Built for ease of use, this drive is equipped with a capacity gauge that shows how much space is left on your drive. The My Book Premium also includes intelligent drive management features. For example, the drive turns itself on and off with your computer, and Safe Shutdown prevents the drive from being powered down until all your data has been written.

But that's not all. Western Digital uses a smart design to make the My Book Premium look as good as it performs. The elegant case resembles a book and takes up very little space on your desk. Plus, it stacks horizontally and allows two or more drives to nestle neatly together like encyclopedias on a shelf. Inside the stylish exterior is an exceptionally fast, ultra-quiet, cool-running hard drive. Last but not least, the My Book Premium is equipped with free Google software that searches your drives, manages your photos, and simplifies Web searches.

My Book Premium Edition Hard Drives are ideal for:

• High-speed backup of important documents and images
• Extra storage for your computer
• Automatic backups of your existing hard drive
• Archiving the music stored on your MP3 player
• Adding plenty of space for digital video capture and editing
• Saving and organizing your digital photo collection

Note: For basic, less expensive storage option without automatic backup software, consider the My Book Essential Edition 320 GB Hard Drive.

What's in the Box
My Book Premium 320 GB USB 2.0/FireWire external hard drive, USB cable, FireWire cable (six-pin to six-pin), AC adapter with power cord, and quick install guide.

Product Description

They're your photos¿your music¿your videos¿your important files. Make extra room for them, back them up, and keep them safe on YOUR book. WD's My Book Premium is the perfect external hard drive for all your precious digital assets.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reliable Inexpensive Data Storage, March 8, 2007

By 

pointsource "pointsource" (Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Western Digital WDG1C3200N My Book Premium Edition 320 GB USB 2.0/Firewire400 External Hard Drive (Personal Computers)

I've heard some complaints about this line of external drives, so let me address those first. Yes, there is a slight "hum" or high frequency vibration. But I have several of these drives in different capacities and some hum a little, some not so much. Bottom line is that the noise is neither distracting nor bothersome. Besides, don't you get a little worried when any machine goes dead silent? Okay, now to the good stuff. Though designed as an "archival" device, I have streamed digital video from these drives full screen onto a Mac 23" widescreen monitor with no problems. I've used both USB versions and Firewire and both work fine. I've also run them for tens of hours at a stretch with no problems -- when not used they drop into "sleep mode". I suggest reformatting the drive if you use it on a Mac. This will make it compatible with the Mac's file system. It's easy and takes a couple of seconds. Also works with PCs just fine. The published capacity is misleading -- so what's new in the world, eh? If you buy a 320GB drive and are sweating a couple of gig, well... The obvious caveats: Don't bang or drop it -- especially when it's running. Always dismount it in the proper sequence.

27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Book Back Up Program Great. . . . . ., October 22, 2006

By 

Bobby1st (DE USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Western Digital WDG1C3200N My Book Premium Edition 320 GB USB 2.0/Firewire400 External Hard Drive (Personal Computers)

I read a lot of reviews and I thank those who came before me for helping me make my purchasing decision. This is not my first ext. hard drive or similar device. Hard drives works similar, with the same purpose to back-up your important files. What makes the different is the back-up program that comes with My Book. I have a couple of WD ext. hard drives without the program. It's a drag-n-drop to back-up

I would like to expand and share what another reviewer have said about the type of format for the benefit of those who are not computer savvy. My Book comes with file system FAT 32 which has a limitation to save a single file up to 4GB only, in order to over come that, the hard drive should be formatted to NTFS. To check this out, click on Start, click on My Computer, click on Local Disk (C) and on the left panel under Detail see what file system your computer have. I did the research for you, just follow it. If you have save any files to your My Book, back it up somewhere. Close any open programs.

To convert file system FAT or FAT32 to NTFS, do the following: First copy this portion to Words or any similar program and print. It is easier to follow. Click Start, click Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance, click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Computer Management. Click the plus sign under Storage, click Disk Management.

On the right panel under Volume, your computer drives will appear and one of them is My Book. Right-click My Book and click Format. Select the options you want, both is just fine and then click OK. When done, open the WD Backup icon on your desk top. You will be presented to select which folder or files to back-up, when done, click OK. Seat back and relax, it will take a while.

Looking to the future, if you have a lot of pictures, music, videos, get the largest hard drive you can afford. With the size of files and programs of today, they will go fast. Whatever gigabyte sizes you choose deduct 20GB and that's the real hard drive capacity. To learn more, read about conversion type base 10 decimal vs. base 2. In closing, the Premium edition is better (two rings) than the standard edition but higher price with extra Google program. That's my personal view.

Update:
With regard is hard drive capacity, we can called it false advertisement. A good example is we can describe how fast we drove our car over the posted speed limit of 55mph by say I was doing 78, but we left out the fact that it was kilometer per hour. Actually it's 55 mph. One reason they can do this is because whatever conversion they used, the measurement is called bytes. To make it sound non-technical decimal numbering system is used(1 MB = 1,000,000 bytes) but in true computer measurement it's 1 MB = 1,024 kilobytes). Therefore, whatever the hard drive size you have in bytes, divide it by those numbers and one will be smaller. If they use apples as measurement, they should describe it as apple, not orange.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Solid Product, Poor Backup Software, February 14, 2007

By 

O. Funkhouser (Toney, AL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Western Digital WDG1C3200N My Book Premium Edition 320 GB USB 2.0/Firewire400 External Hard Drive (Personal Computers)

As for the hard drive itself, I'm quite impressed. It is very fast and behaves just like another hard drive.

The difference between the Premium Edition and the Essential Edition is about $50 for which you get the WD Backup software. The Backup software needs some significant improvements to compare to other products like Acronis True Image, which just so happens to cost $50. While WDBackup provides scheduled backups, encrypted backups, incremental backups, and advanced backups (select exactly which files/folders to backup), the following deficiencies are not acceptable:

1. Cannot view or edit an existing scheduled backup. You have to delete it and create a new one.

2. Cannot backup networked drives.

If I had to do it again, I would have bought the Essential Edition and purchased a much better backup software package.