asafono's Full Review: Digital-Tech My Book Essential (98966H) 750 GB USB...
MyBook is an external, independently powered hard drive from Western Digital. It currently comes in several size starting from below half a terabyte to 2 TB.
MyBook is indeed about the size of a rather thick hardcover. It is made of a somewhat flimsy looking plastic - the appearance confirmed when the first unit Staples shipped arrived smashed in, despite careful packaging. A blue LED inside is one when the drive is powered up and connected.
Speaking of power... unlike the smaller Passport series of external drives (which have 2.5" notebook drives inside) that are powered by the USB connection, MyBook requires an external AC adapter. Coupled with MyBook's much larger size and weight, this makes it less portable - but the tradeoff is lower cost and higher capacity. Passport drives are not available in capacities above 500 GB.
USB 2.0 is the only connection MyBook provides, there is no FireWire or eSATA - faster interfaces available on the higher-end models. My experience is that for anything besides High-Definition (HD) video, USB 2.0 is completely sufficient.
I primarily use the drive for data backup for several desktops and laptops scattered around the house. It comes with backup software from Western Digital. I read the reviews on it before I installed it and they were mostly negative. Instead of bundled backup software, I use Cobian Backup, a free backup utility (hybrid open/closed source, depending on the version, developed in Sweden.)
I have been buying Western Digital drives for more than 10 years; this is my first external drive and so far I am happy with it. It is spacious, reasonably fast, though for portability I would recommend a Passport series rather than the MyBook series. At $60 (after online coupon) at Staples, the price is hard to beat - about 7c per gigabyte.
Speaking of cons, I noticed that (too late) that the drive was formatted with a FAT file system, an older format from the days of DOS and Windows 3. I cannot fathom why. It should be possible to reformat the drive as NTFS, though it is much easier to do it before it has any data. Reformatting will obviously delete the bundled backup software, which is no big loss.
They're your photos...your music...your videos...your important files. Make extra room for them, back them up, and keep them safe on WD's My Book.More at CircuitCity.com
Are you running out of hard drive capacity? Do you need to archive some important digital documents, photos, or music? This elegant external hard driv...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
They're your photos...your music...your videos...your important files. Make extra room for them, back them up, and keep them safe on WD's My Book.More at TigerDirect.com
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