WD My Book 2TB External Hard Drive Storage USB 3.0 File Backup and Storage

This drive is all i needed and expected from it. With it's 2GB storage space it accomodates most of mine precious data, it's much fater than old USB 2.0 MyBook when used with USB 3.0 controller ... and all of that is packed in a very minimalistic but elegant package. The activity LED is not overwhelming but bright enought to see it even in direct sun light. The drive is slim but heavy enough to maintain it's stability on the desk and the power and usb cables that are included are long enough to reach to the other end of desk where I have my surge protector. The only bad thing about the drive for me was the software it came with, and the kind of autorun partition with the junk on it. Backup agent that is included and branded by WD is super limited, and almost useless unless you just want a very simple backup of everything. Other than that, if You know what are you doing you can easly wipe out all the junk software that came preinstalled and than set-up a backup software of your choice to do exactly what you want it to do. To make it clear for some interested in the software that WD supplied, my bigest issue was that it won't let you choose certain folder or folder tree to backup period, instead it will ask you wahat kind of data (pictures, documents, videos etc.) you want to backup, than it asks you were to look for it and than it scans the locations you provided for this particular data to be backed up. You have very limited or even no control over it what so ever. I want my backup software to give me aability to show it what folder, drives or single files to backup and just do it. Don't think for me what's good what's bad or what's a picture what's a video etc. A user that knows what backup is for and that he/she needs it, will for sure know what exactly is important to them and needs that backup. That said, the hard drive, it's performance, design and the looks are great! Just make sure that if you want to use it for backup to get some more advanced backup utility.

Been using these for a couple of years and love them. I just add a new one whenever I need space. There are a couple of issues that are not for the faint of heart, but are easy to correct with a bit of googling. A few tips for success: 1. These are DESKTOP EXTERNAL drives and are not meant to be portable or routinely traveled with. Plug them in and leave them stationary, just like the name says. Get some small portable drives if you need to hand transfer data. I have 6 or 7 portables for that reason. 2. Ensure they get good, clean air flow and space to breathe. The cases don't run especially hot, which I suspect means they are overly insulated and don't shed enough heat. 3. Take some time to get to know and customize the software they ship with. It's not bad, and somewhat better than similar products I've used from Seagate and Buffalo. Customize it so it only backs up what you want, when you need it. You can even specify file types and set file versioning, which is very useful. Also be sure to do the software and firmware upgrades through the management software. 4. Set the power management appropriately. If you hit the disks often, you don't want them to drop to sleep mode every 15 minutes. Match it to your workflow. I personally do all my backups to one drive and treat the others as giant write space for archives that aren't catastrophic if I lose them. 5. You may discover an issue with Windows 7 not recognizing more than 2 of them concurrently. It will manifest as only two mapping drives and the third not being recognized. It's a quick fix, just google and follow the instructions. Great little drives and ample storage for the price. UPDATE 7/3/13: I just purchased my fourth drive and added it on with no problems. The software -which has been updated to a very nice new interface- recognized it and had it working immediately. The drive shipped with the latest firmware and is visually identical to previous models. Still a great drive and value for the money.

I purchased this drive after reading many reviews. I was looking for something that would automatically back up all of my PC files, pics, and music. I have a Dell PC running Vista 64 bit. This drive has been excellent so far. Speed is quite good compared to other drives I have used. I was nervous about using the smartware as some previous reviewers mentioned issues with setting it up and flexibility and ease of use. I have to say I have had no issues whatsoever. I use the smartware and it automatically backs up my PC drives whenever I run the software. I have other external drives which I manage manually, and although that has its merits, this drive is self sufficient if you are just looking to have a back up drive. It has a great restore feature as well if you do have a PC crash, the drive can put everything back in its place. I found set up and use straightforward and I am not a tech guy. The software is not going to put a man in space, but it is easy and quite automated. If you are looking to tote this thing around, I would go with some of the other some of the other models of WD drives that are built for transport as this one is a bit big. Overall a great drive.

When I bought this it was perfect for gaming pc. I later on bought a portable hard drive and took those one apart and I it worked perfectly in my pc.

Ok hai vadeeya

Being using WD s for 5 years now, got 12 of them loaded up and nary a complaint..besides WD has an excellent service support system so no buying anything else for me!

Just dumped 260Gb of files on this drive in about 3 hours, which gives an average of 24Mb/second transfer rate, while I was multitasking on other things. I find that very acceptable for a storage drive. Time will tell for the durability, but so far so good! As others have said, there is some junkware on the drive, I just dumped it in a hidden folder in case I need it someday. I removed a star for this.

I used my new drive with Windows XP SP3 and USB 2.0. I filled the entire 1.8 TB in about 30 hours. The drive worked fine. It made absolutely no noise, and it stayed at room temperature all this time. Even the power adapter was only a little warm. I haven't tested the USB 3.0 part yet. That will have to wait until my next PC in 2011. I could buy a PCI-E x1 card for about $40 to add USB 3.0 capability to my current PC, but I don't think I'll bother. If you're interested in such a thing, there's even a WD product that looks pretty much like this one but comes bundled with a card like that.