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Back to My Book Essential Edition 2.0 External 500GB Hard Drive

WD My Book Essential Edition 2.0 External 500GB Hard Drive
Price Range
$89.00 - $170.15

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Viewing items 1 - 10 of 16

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Overall Rating
1 Star Review

Reviewed by: bobmark5

Updated:08-12-08

Duration of ownership:1 Years

Strengths: It works

Weaknesses: Support is useless no ability to contact them. Unit rumbles and lights dont show capacity as advertised

Overall Evaluation: Serial Number does not match any known model. Bought at Best Buy(not off the truck)
Overall Rating
4 Star Review

Reviewed by: randyco

Updated:05-23-08

Duration of ownership:6 Months

Strengths: Price, small, 500GB

Weaknesses: It will log onto the web by it's self if you save your password so you don't have to sign in each time. For some unknown reason it started down loading back to the C drive on the computer and filled it to the max them the computer wouldn't work because the hard drive was full. It screwed up my computer. I've figured it out so I have to send what I want to it and not let it just run and down load anything and everything.It has a mind of it's own.

Overall Evaluation: The 500GB is nice, it seems to be good except for the "Back Load" it did on it's own.
Overall Rating
1 Star Review

Reviewed by: datapro

Updated:05-02-08

Duration of ownership:18 Months

Strengths: Inexpensive

Weaknesses: 1 year limited warranty from date of manufacture. Failure occurs much faster than other brands

Overall Evaluation: I've had 2 failures shortly after warranty expiration. Overall I would not recommend the myBook line of drives to anyone who is considering long-term use of the drive. The exposure to data loss is great. Would never recommend this drive for system backups!
Overall Rating
3 Star Review

Reviewed by: gatorcat

Updated:03-30-08

Duration of ownership:12 Months

Strengths: Sturdy, reliable sufficient speed.

Weaknesses: Biggest weakness is the MANDATORY spindown feature that can NOT be controlled or stopped as stated by the manufacturer. Makes this drive imossible to use as a music library storage devide.

Overall Evaluation: B at best
Overall Rating
5 Star Review

Reviewed by: eyeoftiger

Updated:05-16-08

Duration of ownership:

Strengths: - Great look- Small design- Completely quiet

Weaknesses: - None so far

Overall Evaluation: I had a few older My Book drives and I recently bought some new drives. This 500GB My Book Essential is really a great drive for the price.The outside:It looks smaller than on the picture. The drive is actually pretty shiny. It has a lot of air vents on the top, back and bottom. It has a "clean" shape. No funky or obnoxious look. It's really nice on my desk.The inside:I liked that drive because it is totally quiet. No fan. I think it uses some new green power drives so it might help with the electricity bill :) The drive gets barely warm even in useFor backup:I have one drive to backup a PC laptop. I also connected it my mac and Time Machine automatically recognized it. The drive is connected through the USB port. The backup speed is pretty good for USB. It see about 25MB/s.I definitely recommend this drive to anyone looking for great value. It's small, quiet, reliable and quite good looking.
Overall Rating
3 Star Review

Reviewed by: kklee921

Updated:05-10-08

Duration of ownership:2 Months

Strengths: easy set up, light, compact, sleek and stylish

Weaknesses: N/A

Overall Evaluation: This hard drive is perfect for any regular person that is not computer savvy. I just plugged in the harddrive and transfer anything i want to it. Has enough space to store all my pictures and songs to free up my computer.
Overall Rating
1 Star Review

Reviewed by: Shay365

Updated:05-03-08

Duration of ownership:2

Strengths: Works fine for a few months, inexpensive. easy to install

Weaknesses: I bought three units, none of them currently operational, they tend to wear out for one reason or another. They start having problems reading or writing, until they stop function completely.

Overall Evaluation: I bought three units, none of them currently operational, they tend to wear out for one reason or another. They start having problems reading or writing, until they stop function completely. Ththree units I bought were bought at Amazon UK, and they refered me to the manufacturer for warranty. I did not replace them or repair them since I don't want data to be lost. I switched to other manufacturers.
Overall Rating
1 Star Review

Reviewed by: dogsloose

Updated:04-28-08

Duration of ownership:1 Years

Strengths: Cheap

Weaknesses: Broken

Overall Evaluation: Worked fine for a year and a half and then began to have problems (two weeks ago). Currently I'm scrambling to get back lost data; WD fix-it software repaired some lost sectors but it is not reliable. I suspect a mechanical problem that is gradually wiping out sectors (?) I'm not very happy, especially since I read that WD makes very reliable drives. I've had other drives last for five years and more without any problems. WD, of course, cannot help once the HD breaks and the data is lost. I tried Data Recovery software from one of WD's partners but it didn't work. Meanwhile, what kind of HD can I buy that's reliable?
Overall Rating
2 Star Review

Reviewed by: a_ayyappan

Updated:04-25-08

Duration of ownership:2 Months

Strengths: It is sleek and small

Weaknesses: No reliablity and not good for long run

Overall Evaluation: Hi,I bought this 500 GB Western Digital external Hard drive from costco. It works for a months or 2 after that it started to give the problem. It won't be reconized and we need to unplug and plug again. some time we need to shutdown the computer. One fine day it stop working and it is asking me to format the hard drive, when I click any folder in the hard drive.
Overall Rating
5 Star Review

Reviewed by: CHICHORAF

Updated:03-19-08

Duration of ownership:

Strengths: Price, capacity, quietness, energy efficiency, usb 2.0, nice looking.

Weaknesses: short usb cable

Overall Evaluation: I have had this drive for almost 2 months and have had no problems at all. It's fast and very quite, can't tell if it's on if not for the cool blue led. It turns itself off if idle for 10 minutes and shuts down when computer shuts down. Overall, I am very happy with this high capacity drive!