Western Digital WDG1U2500 My Book Essential Edition 250 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive

by Western Digital

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 2.2 x 6.7 inches ; 2.9 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000EVOOO8
• Item model number: WDG1U2500N
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (111 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 7, 2004

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 WDG1U2500 My Book Essential Edition 250 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 Essential Edition Hard Drive. View larger.

Simple, easy-to-use design.

Connects to your computer via USB 2.0 interface. 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. The My Book Essential is all about simplicity. Just plug it into your computer's USB 2.0 port and you're ready to start saving and backing up your files.

But that's not all. Western Digital uses a smart design to make the My Book Essential 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 Essential is equipped with free Google software that searches your drives, manages your photos, and simplifies Web searches.

My Book Essential Edition Hard Drives are ideal for:

• Simple add-on storage for your files, music, photos and movies
• Adding virtually unlimited storage with multiple USB 2.0 external hard drives
• 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 higher performance and automatic backup software, consider the My Book Premium Edition 250 GB Hard Drive.

What's in the Box
My Book Essential 250 GB USB 2.0 external hard drive, USB cable, AC adapter with power cord, and quick install guide.

Product Description

Small, simple, elegant, and very easy to use. Just plug it in, and you've got plenty of room to back up and save your valuable data, music, photos, and movies.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

72 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Elegant, shelf-worthy My Book, July 10, 2006

By 

Will Bueche (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Western Digital WDG1U2500 My Book Essential Edition 250 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive (Personal Computers)

It vibrates a bit, but that is easy to forgive in light of the really attractive design, a black-sheen case that evokes nothing less than a futuristic bible. Or maybe a Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

The Essential edition sports a green circle of light, and a single USB2 connection. The Essential edition is the budget edition of the line, lacking a FireWire connection and without a second ring of light that indicates (on the Premium and Pro editions) how much room is left on the drive. But who needs that? And personally I prefer the green illumination, anyway.

The circle of light doubles as an on/off button, conveniently located on the front. You may not need to tap that button much though, since the drive senses when you Shut Down (or Hibernate or Stand-By) your computer and automatically turns off.

Essentially, the design of the case and the automatic on/off are the two main reasons why these drives have become so popular within weeks of their debut. It took me three weeks to score one of these on sale.

You've probably read that the vents are a code. It reportedly spells out words such as "innovative", "reliable", "personal", "design", and "simple". The design of this drive is certainly innovative. The last memorable time when a designer got involved in making a case for an external hard drive was when the LaCie company hired F.A. Porche, but Porche, in what one could speculate was a bit of a cruel joke on LaCie, turned in a generic metallic brick (ooh I bet that angered LaCie). Western Digital, in contrast, has turned in a strikingly elegant case that would look great on a shelf. Expect other companies to follow suit with shelf-worthy case designs, now that good aesthetics have been introduced to this formerly purely-functional line of products.

One small unexpected complaint. You can see why they dubbed it "My Book", but rather inconveniently for anyone who is actually writing a book and already has a folder named "My Book", this drive is formatted with the name pre-designated as "My Book". But authors need not worry; that name is easily erased when one reformats the drive to the NTFS standard that current computers use (like nearly all hard drives, it arrives formatted in the old FAT32 format to accomodate users of older computers). Just plug it in, reformat the drive to NTFS (which takes an hour or so for a drive this size), and then it is ready to serve you. The drive came with some software on it, but none of it is needed.

So far, so good. If no one reports any design flaws, I expect people will be "swearing by" this book... ok that pun was lame.

Four stars rather than five, because of the slight vibration.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Big Drive, Small Size, May 10, 2006

By 

Brian Koch "Aspiring Photographer" (MI United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Western Digital WDG1U2500 My Book Essential Edition 250 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive (Personal Computers)

I bought 2 of these drives to backup digital photos that would no longer fit on my hard drive. I keep the same thing on both of them, just in case one crashes. So far I have had no problems. Plus the Google Picasa2 software that comes on the drives is nice for sorting all of my photos in an easy to view way. The drives are also pretty small and fit nicely on a small shelf beside my computer. They are also pretty quite while running, unlike some of WD's previous drives. If you need extra space, in a compact place, this is a good choice.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars couldn't be easier, December 7, 2006

By 

I. Wan (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Western Digital WDG1U2500 My Book Essential Edition 250 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive (Personal Computers)

steps
1- Unboxed it.
2- Plugged the power cord
3- Plugged the usb cable to the computer
4- BAM!!! Additional 250Gb

I didn't install any software. Windows XP automatically recognizes this as an additional logical drive.

The only bad thing is that it comes formatted as FAT from factory. But nothing a good reformat won't solve.

Transfer rate is excellent. I actually plugged this to my server and shared it on windows so I could access it on my home network.

Now I can easily backup files from my laptop to this device (that's actually connected to the server)


For those giving bad reviews because it crashed... Keep it in mind that it's a hard drive... Hard drives do crash... That's just something they do. You should always keep 2 backups. Actually, I'm now researching online backup services (like Genie Backup).
What good are 10 backups in my house if there's a fire (knock on wood) and it destroys my computer and all the backups I had.

Really great product for the price.