This time last year I chose the Western Digital MyBook product range for my external hard disk storage requirements.

Looking back I haven’t done a product review of my experience with the MyBook USB 2.0 500gb Models and now having used these products for a full year, it seems like a good time.

Now with storage the most important thing is reliability. After one full year of use I haven’t lost any Data.

Tips

Periodically run the S.M.A.R.T Diagnostic Tools from Western Digital. This can identify problems before it becomes critical.

Link: http://support.wdc.com/download/

Pros

Speed: I never feel these drives are slow.

Cost: At Sub £100 it’s great value for 500gb.

Noise: Acceptably quiet.

Power Management: The drives power down when not in use.

Cons

Power Management: The drives are slow to power back up (about 5 seconds or so) but as Power Management saves electricity I can’t really complain.

Summary

I am happy to recommend the MyBook Range and when I need more storage will just add another to the collection.

Technical Details
Product Description: My Book Essential Edition WDG1U5000 - hard drive - 500 GB - Hi-Speed USB
Type: Hard drive - external
Dimensions (WxDxH): 14.1 cm x 17.1 cm x 5.7 cm
Weight: 1.3 kg
Capacity: 500 GB
Interface Type: Hi-Speed USB
Connector: 4 pin USB
Data Transfer Rate: 480 Mbps
Average Seek Time: 8.9 ms
Spindle Speed: 7200 rpm
Buffer Size: 16 MB
OS Required: Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition, Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition, Microsoft Windows XP, Apple MacOS X 10.2.8 or later
Power: AC 120/230 V ( 50 - 60 Hz )

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 24th, 2007 at 10:15 am and is filed under Blog Entries, Equipment Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.