Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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72 of 75 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Elegant, shelf-worthy My Book, July 10, 2006
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.
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35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My Book is a great addition to your pc station, November 3, 2006
I purchased the Western Digital 250GB "My Book" 250 GB Hard Drive about a month ago. Unlike a lot of products I purchase, I did not do a lot of research on this, I needed extra space for some files and I needed it soon. For the price, it was perfect compared to some of the other drives out there, which may boast more features but give you less total storage space.
I have not encountered a single crash with mine. I noticed from other reviewers that several are experiencing this. I don't know what else to tell you, the possible consumer, except for the fact that I have had no trouble with it.
The Hard drive is sleek and small, sitting next to any computer tower without taking up desk space. It's also small enough to easily carry in a backpack or small bag. Everyone seems to be going ga-ga over whether something is used with Fire wire or not, but with USB 2.0 I have no issues. Its not how fast I can get something on or off of this hard drive, my main concern was the space it offered. USB 2.0 is not bad at all and in less than 30 minutes had transferred over 35 GB of data to it in the forms of word documents, music files, movie files, Adobe documents, and pictures.
The only downfall is I cannot seem to find a carry case for this type of hard drive. Everything seems to be made either for a specific brand that is a hindrance since the size is not universal, or made for a laptop. In this case I guess I can improvise and just buy a hard shell meant for a handgun and cut the foam accordingly to fit the shape.
I've never had any issues when booting up, nor disconnecting. It may seem hasty I am reviewing it after only a month but I use it every day and have yet to have any bad experiences with it. I have not regretted purchasing it yet and have really enjoyed it.
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Big Drive, Small Size, May 10, 2006
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.
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