Western Digital MyBook Can anyone tell me what the difference is between the various editions? I want to use this system to back up everything on my computer.
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Thank you kq76 and JAmes B. Quirk. Your replies have helped me tremendously.
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The main difference between Essential and Home, Office, Premium, etc are the connectivity options (e.g. USB2, firewire, etc). For a full breakdown of the options and their differences, see: http://www.wdmybook.com/en/editions/If you mean the difference between 1st and 2nd Essential Editions (smaller, lighter, no on/off switch, auto power on/off, etc), see this excellent review: http://www.amazon.com/review/RDNCGQ3WR72U6/ref=cm_cr_rdp_permI think I'm going to wait to get a 2nd Edition Essential as I've read too many HDD failure stories with the 1st edition which I'm hoping has been corrected with the 2nd edition. The main difference between Essential and Home, Office, Premium, etc are the connectivity options (e.g. USB2, firewire, etc). For a full breakdown of the options and their differences, see: http://www.wdmybook.com/en/editions/If you mean the difference between 1st and 2nd Essential Editions (smaller, lighter, no on/off switch, auto power on/off, etc), see this excellent review: http://www.amazon.com/review/RDNCGQ3WR72U6/ref=cm_cr_rdp_permI think I'm going to wait to get a 2nd Edition... » Read More The main difference between Essential and Home, Office, Premium, etc are the connectivity options (e.g. USB2, firewire, etc). For a full breakdown of the options and their differences, see: http://www.wdmybook.com/en/editions/If you mean the difference between 1st and 2nd Essential Editions (smaller, lighter, no on/off switch, auto power on/off, etc), see this excellent review: http://www.amazon.com/review/RDNCGQ3WR72U6/ref=cm_cr_rdp_permI think I'm going to wait to get a 2nd Edition Essential as I've read too many HDD failure stories with the 1st edition which I'm hoping has been corrected with the 2nd edition. « Show Less
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New Editions Essential Edition 2.0 USB 2.0 Home Edition USB 2.0, FireWire 400, eSATA Office Edition USB 2.0 Studio Edition * USB 2.0, FireWire 400/800, eSATA Classic Editions Essential Edition USB 2.0 Premium Edition USB 2.0, FireWire 400 Premium ES Edition USB 2.0, eSATA Pro Edition USB 2.0, FireWire 400/800 Premium Edition II USB 2.0, FireWire 400/800 Pro Edition II * USB 2.0, FireWire 400/800 World Edition Ethernet World Edition II Ethernet *Formatted for Macintosh® New Editions Essential Edition 2.0 USB 2.0 Home Edition USB 2.0, FireWire 400, eSATA Office Edition USB 2.0 Studio Edition * USB 2.0, FireWire 400/800, eSATA Classic Editions Essential Edition USB 2.0 Premium Edition USB 2.0, FireWire 400 Premium ES Edition USB 2.0, eSATA Pro Edition USB 2.0, FireWire 400/800 Premium Edition II USB 2.0, FireWire 400/800 Pro Edition II * USB 2.0, FireWire 400/800 World Edition Ethernet World Edition II Ethernet *Formatted for Macintosh®
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I am using MyPCBackup which works fine and I have also used a Toshiba external drive for backup. The backup up and down loads very easily.
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I haven't opened my case yet, but I have a 500 GB solid state drive. It's possible it can be a Western Digital, but I don't know if they vary based on drive size. The 1 TB drive could be from a different manufacturer.
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Yes... I am on 7. I just use it to save critical files on. Don't fully understand the "back-up" software that is supplied with it.
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WD always uses their "Green" series of drives (5400 RPM) in the MyBook. I buy them just for the drive inside, because the Green drive is about 20% cheaper if purchased as an external MyBook. I have several 1TB drives that I bought in 2006 and they are still running great, showing between 90-100% health in 2 different diagnostics programs. That's why I went back to the MyBook whenever I needed more drive space... I now have 3 of the 4TB's and so far so good.
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Just to throw in my 2 cents here, the Disk Utility reformat mentioned above in Andrew's post is spot-on. The drive so far as been great to use. However, I'm running Mac 10.5.6 and it was immediately recognized when I first plugged it in: it mounted and Time Machine asked if I wanted to use it for backups... I did the reformatting anyway as the apps on board are no use to a Mac owner. BTW, the $99 price was unbelievable! Fingers crossed on reliability, Yikesboy
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I successfully use the 2TB My Book Live for backups until upgrading to Lion. Now it is painful. It takes 7-10 days for a fresh backup of 300GB using Time Machine over a wired network. And TM demands a fresh backup every few weeks. I've scoured the internet for answers, with no success. I regret I ever bought this drive.
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THANK YOU!! I didn't know how to get my expansion disk to accept back up information until I read your post and once I used Time Machine to format, everything copied quickly and easily. So again, THANK YOU!!
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Hi Greg, This is an upgrade. You must have an earlier version installed, or, I think, the serial number from an earlier version. I'm an Engineer and a Realtor. I write all kinda of databases to streamline my life and business. Don't know what I'd do without it. It should be a standard on every computer.
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The short answer is, "it depends." The dependent factors are how much data you are going to back up, whether or not you have a SATA connection for the drive and how many generations of backup you want to maintain. With so many backup alternatives available, and for the price, you might consider one of the larger-capacity Western Digital USB-attached backup drives instead. The only reason I bought this drive is because I needed to repair an old desktop PC. It was the lowest cost alternative available.
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Hi William: I have so far had a good experience with the LaCie 3TB minimus (with Windows 7). It is possible I may have a review of it on Amazon. My concerns were largely issues of formatting a 3TB drive. But an official vendor's quote could be taken if you make a pdf of the Amazon page for the relevant product. I would think the same goes for any other site. And give the school a printout of the pdf. They can verify it independently as well once you have given them the pdf. If the school is bureaucratic about it get written quotes from neighbourhood computer stores. That ought to do it. Good luck!! Hi William: I have so far had a good experience with the LaCie 3TB minimus (with Windows 7). It is possible I may have a review of it on Amazon. My concerns were largely issues of formatting a 3TB drive. But an official vendor's quote could be taken if you make a pdf of the Amazon page for the relevant product. I would think the same goes for any other site. And give the school a printout of the pdf. They can verify it independently as well once you have given them the pdf. If the school is bureaucratic about it get written quotes from neighbourhood computer stores. That ought to do it.... » Read More Hi William: I have so far had a good experience with the LaCie 3TB minimus (with Windows 7). It is possible I may have a review of it on Amazon. My concerns were largely issues of formatting a 3TB drive. But an official vendor's quote could be taken if you make a pdf of the Amazon page for the relevant product. I would think the same goes for any other site. And give the school a printout of the pdf. They can verify it independently as well once you have given them the pdf. If the school is bureaucratic about it get written quotes from neighbourhood computer stores. That ought to do it. Good luck!! « Show Less
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Western Digital offers two Passport Edge hard drives...one for Windows the other for Mac. I purchased one of each. The Windows version is plastic, top to bottom. The Mac version is aluminum. It is sturdier and visually more appealing than the Windows version. I have since purchased another Mac drive to use with my Windows laptop. For anyone interested in this drive...BUT the MAC version and format it for NTFS. The drive is fast and small, but has a lot of storage space, overall...a great buy.
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I have upgrade both versions of the iBook and also the new MacBook. There is no comparison, the MacBook is the easiest Mac laptop ever for upgrading the hard drive. (The iBook being the worst!) You might need a Torx 8 (??) screwdriver, I can't remember now, but it was in my standard Mac toolkit. :-)
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Buy a hard drive with a LAN port built into it. Western digital makes several at decent rates. Also do a search for "LAN external hard drive"
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The box says OS X 10.5 or later. I would suggest you go to the Western Digital website and see if they have any info. You might find a more compatible drive there.
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I do not see how the operating system on the computer has any bearing on the interface adapter. SATA and USB are not OS specific as I understand it. I have not tried the automatic backup function on this device. That's not why I bought it. So, I cannot comment on the compatibility with different platforms.
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Me too! I'm not going to seriously consider purchasing anything computer related unless I see the manual that goes with it. Is it (i.e., Canvio) truly plug and play? Can you selectively choose individual files to back up? I'm not at all interested in wasting time and space backing up files that I really don't wish to back up. (I only wish to back up photographs.) Filtering through all the comments, while helpful writ large, takes a lot of time when looking for particular information. A manual please.