Western Digital Adds E-Ink Labels to External Hard Drives

October 6, 2009 By Geoff Duncan

Western Digital has introduced two new external hard drives with E-Ink labels show show name and capacity even when turned off, plus a new super-slim portable hard drive.

Following on the heels of Verbatim, hard drive maker Western Digital has introduced two new external hard drives—the My Book Studio and My Book Elite—that feature E-Ink labels that show a drive’s name and remaining capacity, even when the drive is unplugged. The company has also introduced its latest My Passport Elite portable drive with a convenient grab-and-go USB dock.

All three drives also feature Western Digital’s WD SmartWare for continuous backups under Mac OS X and Windows; the SmartWare software also enables users to set up the E-Ink drive labels. The E-Ink labels can display a drive’s name, its remaining free capacity, and an indicator of whether the drive is locked.

The My Book Elite is available in capacities of 1, 1.5 and 2 TB, and feature a USB 2.0 interface and 256-bit hardware encryption so users’ data safe even if the drive is lost or stolen. The My Book Studio drives come in capacities of 500 GB to 2 TB and are aimed at Mac users; they’re pre-formatted with the HFS+ Journaled file system and offer both FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 interfaces; they’re also compatible with Apple’s Time Machine backup system built into Mac OS X 10.5 and newer and offer 256-bit hardware encryption. The My Book Elites range from $169.99 to $279.99; the My Book Studios run from $149.99 to $299.99.

The new My Passport Elite features an illuminated capacity gauge rather than an E-Ink display, but it’s all about portability rather than labeling: the slim, streamlined drives are designed to be docked and undocked from a grab-and-go USB cradle with just one hand, making them ideal for folks who need to move a drive between two locations with a minimum of fuss. The drive features a USB 2.0 port, but the grab-and-go go eliminates cable-futzing and port-hunting. The My Passport Elite drives are available now in capacities of 320, 500, and 640 GB at prices from $119.99 to $169.99; they also feature WD’s SmartWare backup system and 256-bit hardware encryption.

Showing 5 comments

Ian Bell at 4:34pm 6th October 2009 Correct me if I wrong, but with Eink, it doesn't actually have to be plugged in for the image to stay on there right? It's almost burned into the display like an etch-a-sketch? The usefullness of this is pretty dumb. Who needs a display to show how full the drive is etc? Is it worth paying extra for? A label maker works for me :D
Rusty Shackleford at 4:27pm 6th October 2009 I'll admit it: the eInk displays probably aren't that useful (masking tape and a Sharpie works just fine for labeling, IMHO), but they sure do set these things apart in a market of 593 nearly identical portable drives. Wait until we have larger eInk displays on hard drives that actually display the file contents. Actually, I can think of a few people who would definitely NOT want that...
Ian Bell at 1:03pm 6th October 2009 I have had two Western Digital external drives go out on me and 1 internal Seagate drive. These things scare me.
1. Greg Mombert at 2:16pm 6th October 2009 Although I haven't personally had problems with my drives, I'm very cautious about spending much money on drives when they have such a high failure rate. I guess that's why these are made for backing data up and not being your sole storage location.
Greg Mombert at 12:16pm 6th October 2009 These are pretty slick, not sure how useful the display is, but they're cool none the less.