Western Digital My Book Studio II - 4TB (2 x 2 TB) USB 2.0/FireWire 400/FireWire 800/eSATA Desktop External Hard WDH2Q40000N

Other products by Western Digital

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 8.6 x 8.6 inches ; 7.4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B002BH3ZCU
• Item model number: WDH2Q40000N
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,868 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)

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  Electronics > Computers & Accessories > Memory Cards & External Storage > Hard Drives

• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 9, 2009

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Features at a glance Quad interface RAID-enabled Cooler, quieter, eco-friendlier Formatted for Mac® 5-year limited warranty

Fast, Green and Mac® Ready

Formatted for Mac, the My Book Studio Edition II treads lightly on the earth and carries big performance for creative professionals.

The speed you need - Lightning-fast FireWire® 800 combined with RAID 0 (Striped) yields the speed you need for smooth video editing, rendering complex 3D objects or special effects and saving huge blocks of data in record time.

Cooler, quieter, eco-friendlier - Designed to use only WD hard drives with GreenPower Technology™, this system uses about 30% less energy* than standard systems and runs quietly because it doesn't need a fan.
(* Based on comparison between a 1 TB dual-drive system using 7200 RPM drives and a 1 TB dual-drive system using WD hard drives with GreenPower Technology™.)

Formatted for Mac® - Compatible with Apple's Time Machine™. Includes software and instructions for reformatting to Windows®. The 4 TB version works with Windows® Vista and Windows® 7 only. Windows XP does not support hard drives above with capacities above 2 TB.

Quad interface - Power your creativity with connections for ultra-fast eSATA and FireWire 800. For flexibility and convenience, FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 are also included.

User serviceable - Want to upgrade a drive? Simply open the case and replace the existing drive - no screwdriver needed.

Automatic backup software - Back up important projects to multiple destinations including file servers, portable drives and My Book. Set it and forget it; every time you save a change it's automatically backed up.

Capacity gauge - See at a glance how much space is available on your storage system. Intelligent drive management features - Automatic power-up, Safe Shutdown™, and LED status and activity lights make this storage system especially easy to use. (Works with USB and FireWire connections only.)

What's in the box?
Dual-drive storage system, FireWire 800 cable, FireWire 800 to 400 cable, USB cable, AC adapter, Software CD, Quick Install Guide.

Product Description

WD's My Book Studio Edition II dual-drive, quad-interface external storage system for Mac offers optimum performance for creative professionals. Lightning-fast FireWire 800 or eSATA interfaces combined with RAID 0 (striping) yields the speed you need for fast, smooth video and audio editing, rendering complex 3D objects or special effects, and saving huge blocks of data in record time. Set the system to RAID 1 (mirroring) for the peace of mind in knowing that if one drive in this two-drive system ever fails, the system continues to run and your data is safe. Includes automatic data backup software, user-serviceability, a 5-year limited warranty, and works with Apple's Time Machine.

Features at a glance Quad interface RAID-enabled Cooler, quieter, eco-friendlier Formatted for Mac® 5-year limited warranty

Fast, Green and Mac® Ready

Formatted for Mac, the My Book Studio Edition II treads lightly on the earth and carries big performance for creative professionals.

The speed you need - Lightning-fast FireWire® 800 combined with RAID 0 (Striped) yields the speed you need for smooth video editing, rendering complex 3D objects or special effects and saving huge blocks of data in record time.

Cooler, quieter, eco-friendlier - Designed to use only WD hard drives with GreenPower Technology™, this system uses about 30% less energy* than standard systems and runs quietly because it doesn't need a fan.
(* Based on comparison between a 1 TB dual-drive system using 7200 RPM drives and a 1 TB dual-drive system using WD hard drives with GreenPower Technology™.)

Formatted for Mac® - Compatible with Apple's Time Machine™. Includes software and instructions for reformatting to Windows®. The 4 TB version works with Windows® Vista and Windows® 7 only. Windows XP does not support hard drives above with capacities above 2 TB.

Quad interface - Power your creativity with connections for ultra-fast eSATA and FireWire 800. For flexibility and convenience, FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 are also included.

User serviceable - Want to upgrade a drive? Simply open the case and replace the existing drive - no screwdriver needed.

Automatic backup software - Back up important projects to multiple destinations including file servers, portable drives and My Book. Set it and forget it; every time you save a change it's automatically backed up.

Capacity gauge - See at a glance how much space is available on your storage system. Intelligent drive management features - Automatic power-up, Safe Shutdown™, and LED status and activity lights make this storage system especially easy to use. (Works with USB and FireWire connections only.)

What's in the box?
Dual-drive storage system, FireWire 800 cable, FireWire 800 to 400 cable, USB cable, AC adapter, Software CD, Quick Install Guide.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good drive, but build quality declining..., September 3, 2009

By	Michael Long (Denver, Co USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

I had the previous drive space record holder, the WD 2TB drive, and I have to say that WD's build quality is declining. The 2TB used thicker plastic and had a rubber "bumper" around the exposed edges. The 4TB's casing is much thinner, plus the bumper has been replaced with the standard four little rubber feet on the bottom of the drive.

Worse, from my perspective, is the fact that they totally eliminated the Kensington lock slot on the back of the drive. I don't know about you, but I kind of want to keep 4TB of data from just up and wandering away. This is also a full-size (dual) drive, but they dropped the standard USB port for a micro-USB port in order to fit in the eSATA port. Why, I don't know, as there's plenty of space on the back. They also replaced the two-part power brick with a smaller brick that plugs directly into the outlet (and, of course, covers the flanking outlets).

Drive-wise, I have no complaints. Plugged it into my iMac and had 4TB's of space just waiting to be filled. (An actual 4TB, due to Snow Leopard's change in drive space reporting.)

But for the reduction in build quality, this would have been a five-star review. Western Digital, if you're listening, don't scrimp a dollar's worth of plastic and rubber on a $500 drive.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best, September 5, 2009

By	H. Hussain - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

Easy to setup into Raid 1. I didn't install any of the programs came with the CD. and I'm very happy except for no eSATA CAble but I bought 6FT Shielded External Esata Cable M/m which worked perfectly with it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good product !, November 18, 2009

By	Eduardo Godyla (Caracas, Venezuela) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

Altough this product is advertised for Mac, I am using it on a XP Machine.
The main purpose was for storing all my iTunes videos and music on a raid-1 disk unit, which gave me more than enough space in a mirrored environment.
I had to configure it on a Vista machine, setting it to raid-1 was a snap (it comes preconfigured for raid-0 Mac format) and it also reformatted itself for Windows use. I am not exagerating when I say that in les than 10 minutes it was up and running, now I have 2TB mirrored storage for my iTunes library.

The only problem was that the installation program that came with the CD was faulty, failing to display the installation buttons and menues, but I managed to install directly from the .exe files on the CD. This was annoying and may be a problem for people with less computer experience.

However, it is a great product so far.