Western Digital My Book Home Edition (1TB) Review

Western Digital (WD) has revamped its popular My Book line of external backup drives with a new look and more options.

Summary

Western Digital (WD) has revamped its popular My Book line of external backup drives with a new look and new software, and new interface options. It’s practically an all-new drive, and with its wealth of changes is one of the best backup drives we’ve tested.

Features and Design

The biggest exterior change to the new My Book is its sleek new shell. Its curves seem a bit softer and there is a new activity light. The old model had two circles: one for activity, and one circle that filled up as the drive was loaded with files. This new version has just a single LED strip, Knight Rider-style, that bounces back and forth during activity and then lights up as you fill the drive up. Also, rather than a bright blue light, the new display is silver and easier on the eyes.

There are also three interfaces now. Yep, that’s three, with a T. There’s USB 2.0, FireWire 400, and eSATA. This is sure to please PC users, Mac folks, and those on the bleeding edge with eSATA. Sadly, the package includes a USB 2.0 cable and a FireWire cable, but no eSATA cable. You can purchase a 3 foot eSATA cable from WD for $10 USD if you want the speed boost afforded by the eSATA interface.

The drive’s capacity is a staggering 1TB. Though some might say “You should never put that much data on one drive,” we say you don’t understand the concept of using a “backup” drive, which is where the data on the drive is a duplicate copy of data on another drive. Therefore, one could use the My Book to back up data from two 500GB internal drives. You should never put any data, regardless of size, on just one drive if it’s important to you. The beauty of large backup drives is that they let you backup multiple smaller drives.

On the software side WD has jumped ship from Dantz to Memeo. Even though the company still calls its software WD Anywhere, it is using Memeo, which is also used by Buffalo on its external drives. Overall it’s excellent software that instantly backs up any files that are added to a backup source. WD has also thrown in a bunch of free Google software, including Picasa, Google Toolbar and Google Desktop.

 

Image Courtesy of Western Digital

Use and Testing

Getting the My Book up and running was a walk in the park. We connected the drive to a USB 2.0 port, and the software installation automatically launched. It should be noted that there are no software CDs or anything like that – all the software is on the drive itself.

The opening splash screen lets you choose which software to install, including the backup software, extra Google software, a trial version of Memeo Auto-Sync, and the option to backup the backup software (a smart move, since the software isn’t on a CD).

Being spendthrift, we opted to just install the Memeo software and to have it backed up along with our files. From there you must decide which files to backup. WD tries its best to make it easy for you, and present a list of “Smart items” that includes documents, photos, music, movies, presentations, etc. We wanted to just backup a specific folder, and the software let us navigate to our chosen folder. We then created a folder on the backup drive called “top secret data” and selected it as our backup destination.

The setup routine takes the hassle out of choosing backup files by letting you select “pics, music, etc.”

 

Once we had created our routine, the software immediately began backing up all our data. Once the initial backup had taken place, the software kept watch of our chosen folder, and whenever we added content to it the software copied it to the backup drive. We have said it before, and we’ll say it again: We love the way the software backs up everything immediately, rather than doing it on a schedule as it is the best way to make sure all your data is always on two drives in case disaster strikes.

Overall, we experienced no issues with the drive or the software throughout testing. The drive was also totally silent at all times and even spins down when not in use to help extend its life. It did exactly what a backup drive should do with no hassles or problems.

 

Conclusion

A backup drive’s job is pretty simple: make it easy for users to have a backup copy of data they do not want to lose, and the WD My Book does an excellent job. WD has gone to great lengths to make the installation and setup of the drive exceedingly simple and straight-forward, so kudos to them. This is the kind of drive we would easily recommend to our family and friends. The only downside is that there is no eSATA cable included, which seems silly. However, since so few people have an eSATA port on their motherboard, the USB and FireWire cables will certainly get the job done for 99 percent of home users.

Pros:

• Triple interface
• Great software
• Quiet operation

Cons:

• No eSATA cable included