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01-24-08
Duration of ownership:
Strengths: Looks great.
Weaknesses:Limited life.
Overall Evaluation: My drive lasted just six months before dying ? without warning. WD\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s foreign call center help desk was of no use. AVOID this product ? unless, of course, you want to replace it after six months.
12-01-07
Duration of ownership: 1 Months
Strengths: USB 2.0, 800 AND 400 Fire wire connectivity.
Weaknesses:blue light stays on after computer is on sleep/standby.
Overall Evaluation: Great buy for backing up files and saving large documents. Got it for my wife's iMac to free up internal hard drive space. So far working as advertised. The blue light spins in circles when moving files but partially stays on even after placing the computer in sleep or standby mode. The hard drive is small and can be stored vertical or horizontal. The silver color matches the design of the new iMacs. Overall a good external hardrive.
09-02-07
Duration of ownership: 6 Days
Strengths: Works for Macs
Weaknesses:WD support.Doesn't have drivers for 64-bit OS's
Overall Evaluation: Tried to ues it with my Vista 64-bit PC.Didn't work.emailed WD support -> 1 week later got an answer.-"We don't provide drivers for 64-bit OS's and probably never will. Talk to Microsoft, it's not our responsibility"Funny attitude from a hardware company, NOT providing drivers for their products.Have to move 450 GB data to another drive and format this to HFS.
04-10-07
Duration of ownership: 1 Weeks
Strengths: the drive works
Weaknesses:the software doesn't work
Overall Evaluation: Retrospect Express is advertised as Mac compatible but is so bad it defies belief. It has the feel of something written for PC in the '90s and outsourced to Easter Island for updates. On an Intel iMac it pretends to do something for 10-15 minutes then requires a force quit. The help file crashes the browser. On a G5 iMac it pretends to do something for 10-15 minutes then tells you it can't handle files over 2GB. The help file on the G5 tries to run in Netscape 4.0 (Classic). Daily backup means Monday - Friday, like nobody creates anything of value on a weekend? Don't buy this drive for the software.
01-30-07
Duration of ownership: 2 Weeks
Strengths: Triple interface, including all cables // Fast file transfer, esp. using FireWire 800 // Low price // Three-year warranty // Enclosure matches the brush-metal of current Macs
Weaknesses:High pitch sound produced by drive mechanism // Low quality of FIreWire 800 cable (based on look and feel only) // Lame naming scheme
Overall Evaluation: I bought this drive to hold a clone of my PowerBook's hard drive and media files I don't need when away from home. I created two partitions on the My Book Pro for these two distinct purposes. I formatted both in HFS+ (it comes formatted FAT32), which allows me to boot from the My Book Pro using either of the FireWire connections. While this means I cannot use the drive on a Windows machine without installing a third-party driver, bootability is of supreme importance to me, since this drive will allow me to keep working, should my internal HD ever snuff it. -The My Book Pro powers on whenever it senses an active connection, whether the user has connected to a hot port or switched on the computer to which the drive is attached. This eliminates the need of reaching for a power switch. The drive is quiet, though I personally find the high pitch sound the mechanism makes when writing a bit grating. Its similar to those new ultrasonic cleaning tools dentists now use, only quieter. I am willing to put up with this irritation because the My Book Pro is fast. Using the FireWire 800 connection, I cloned my internal hard drive in less than half the time it took with hold drive with FireWire 400. The boot time is also perceptibly faster. I would have done a statistical comparison, but I couldn't bring myself to even test the FireWire 400 connection. There's no going back! In short, I am a happy owner. -NB: The My Book Pro warranty is for three years, not the one of Premium and Essential versions. Also note that only the Pro version comes with the faux aluminum case. -And finally a rant for the marketing minions at Western Digital The current naming scheme should be deep-sixed. Pro, Premium, and Essential? Pah! Next time use names that the clarify the hierarchy among these three products. The consumer shouldn't have to keep referring to a comparison chart just to remember that the Pro is better than the Premium, which is better than the Essential.
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