Product Description

This elegant external hard drive, reminiscent of a book, is the perfect storage solution. It takes no more space than a paperback book. Collect two or more and they nest neatly together like volumes on a shelf. Installation is a snap because you don't really install this drive, you just plug it in and it's ready to use. A USB 2.0 simple connection offers convenience and compatibility among multiple computers. Dimensions - Height 6.5 x Length 5.4 x Width 2.1 Weight - 2.5 Pounds

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #35 in Consumer Electronics
• Size: 1 TB
• Brand: Western Digital
• Model: WDH1U10000N
• Platform: Macintosh
• Format: CD
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 500.00" h x 800.00" w x 1150.00" l, 3.60 pounds
• Hard Disk: 1TB

Features

• Easy to set up, easy to use: Installation is a snap because you don't really install this drive, you just plug it in and it's ready to use. There is no CD to install.
• Automatic backup: every time you save something it's automatically backed up.
• Interface: USB 2.0
• Fits right in: Takes no more space than a paperback book. Collect two or more and they nest neatly together like volumes on a shelf.
• Environmentally friendly: Our environmentally-friendly drive is designed to save power by going into standby mode after 10 minutes of inactivity. When you'’re ready to use it, it wakes up automatically.

From the Manufacturer

Are you running out of hard drive capacity? Do you need to archive some important digital documents, photos, or music? The Western Digital WDH1U10000N My Book Essential Edition 2.0 1 TB external hard drive, which takes no more space than a paperback book, is the perfect solution. Collect two or more and they nest neatly together like volumes on a shelf.
My Book Essential Edition 2.0 is easy to set up and easy to use. Installation is a snap because you don't really install this drive, you just plug it in and it's ready to use. This external hard drive also turns itself on and off with your computer. It's ideal for anyone who needs instant storage for their important files or a digital photo collection.
A USB 2.0 connection is available for convenience and compatibility among multiple computers. The drive is also PC and Mac compatible: You can use the My Book Essential Edition with both PCs running Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Windows Vista and Macs running OSX 10.4.8 or higher.

The My Book Essential Edition is backed by a 1-year limited warranty.

What It Holds:

• Up to 285,000 digital photos
• Up to 250,000 songs (MP3)
• Up to 25,000 songs (uncompressed CD quality)
• Up to 76 hours of Digital Video (DV)
• Up to 440 hours of DVD quality video
• Up to 120 hours of HD video

One gigabyte (GB) = one billion bytes. One terabyte (TB) = one trillion bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending on operating environment.

Ideal for

• Instant storage
• Easy to use
• USB 2.0
• Saving and organizing your digital photo collection

• Available USB port
• Windows® 2000/XP/Vista™
• Mac® OS X 10.4.8 or later

• External hard drive
• USB cable
• AC adapter
• Quick Install Guide

Customer Reviews

V2.0 Of The My Book Series Is Out - Will It Be More Reliable Than V1.0?
[Update: 3/2009: It's been more than a year since I wrote this lengthy review and I wanted to return and let people know how these drives are performing.

I have a total of ten of these drives - four the newer series referenced here, six the slightly older model that looks a bit different but is otherwise interchangeable. I am happy to report than only one drive suffered some intermittent failures in read/writing since purchase. No data was ever lost, but the problem was becoming annoying and I replaced it using their warranty service. I've had no drive failures otherwise and no data integrity problems. I find it important not to block the ventilation holes and am always on the lookout for any early signs of drive failure, such as ticking noises, grinding, or excessive drive whine, and have noted nothing thus far.

Overall, I am fully satisfied with this drive series and believe WD is definitely proven competent in the external drive marketplace.]

Western Digital has released v2.0 of the My Book Essential external hard drive series, redesigned for late 2007.

The Essential series is the value line from Western Digital's external hard drive product line. Featuring a USB-only connection, the drive is targeted to price-conscious users who need lots of extra storage space, but don't need multiple connectivity options (USB, eSATA, Firewire).

Slightly reduced in thickness from its predecessor, v2.0 is about the size of an epic paperback novel only a few inches deeper. It weighs in around two pounds.

Gone is the green lighted circle which used to represent the power switch on older v1.0 drives - v2.0 uses a blue-lighted vertical drive activity indicator which alternates on and off when the drive is being accessed.

But also gone is the power switch itself. The latest generation of external drives from a variety of manufacturers including Western Digital and Seagate are now omitting them as a cost-saving measure. The My Book powers up upon plugging in the power and/or the USB connector. The drive is configured to power down after 10 minutes of inactivity or sensing the computer has been turned off.

Another substantial change is also becoming common with external drive models - doing away with the standard USB cable and replacing it with a USB-mini. The included cable, around three feet in length, may be too short for some applications, and be prepared to have some longer USB mini connector cables on hand if you want to extend the reach. Seagate has gone the same way.

Setting the drive up takes well under five minutes, from removing the shrink wrap on the box to actually seeing the drive on your desktop. The box comes with a very brief manual, a power cord (with a horizontally aligned transformer which may or may not be a good thing depending on where you plug it in), a USB cable, and the unit itself, wrapped in a protective plastic sheet.

The drive is pre-formatted using the FAT system, which creates a single partition of 465 gigabytes. The FAT file system assures the drive will function on multiple platforms. The drive will prompt you to install some minor diagnostic software and some Google tools you likely already have considered - Google Toolbar, Picasa, and Google Desktop (which indexes your hard drive and uses the Google search engine to help you find files.) For the latter, consider Copernic Desktop Search 2, which is free and offers superior search performance and better tools.

Most Windows and XP users will want to reformat the drive to the NTFS file system, which will support those 4+ gigabyte files FAT will not. You can easily reformat the drive under XP by clicking your way through Control Panel ("->" means you should click on this option) -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Storage -> Disk Management. It takes at least an hour to complete the reformat, and be aware the tools included on the drive will be erased so consider backing them up somewhere else if you care about them.

V2.0's redesign features a very shiny, smooth surfaced external case. I fear it will readily show fingerprints and scratches, so be extra careful when handling it.

As with the earlier model, no internal fan is apparent and heat dissipation is absolutely critical to the longevity of any hard drive. Some manufacturers have skimped on this, such as Seagate with their FreeAgent series which has had a high failure rate, but v1.0 Western Digital My Book drives have also historically not fared well either. Consumers want these devices to be nearly silent, and the tradeoff is product design that omits what is often the single most important component to guarantee a longer drive life - a cooling fan.

Although both series of drives seemed to get equally warm to the touch (but not uncomfortably hot), the single most important concern I have about Western Digital's entire My Book product line is drive longevity and data integrity. The last version of this product had scores of complaints about drive failures, almost always resulting in partial or total loss of your data. Most seemed to either fail during the first week of use or right around the first anniversary of purchase.

Different hard drives, depending on design, can generate more or less heat. It's not possible to tell precisely what model hard drive is being used in v2.0 (and whether it's an upgrade in quality from the earlier model), but perhaps Western Digital will have noticed the relatively high number of drive failures from its earlier product line and has used a different model for v2.0. Time will tell.

Both versions of the My Book series seem to offer adequate ventilation on the top, back, and bottom of the unit. Airflow will be very important to allow the heat from the hard drive to dissipate. In any external case without a fan to move air through the unit, or a heat sink to collect and bleed off the heat from the drive, the temperature inside the case will easily exceed 120 degrees, if not much higher if you reduce or block any of the ventilation holes. The higher the temperature, the sooner your drive will fail.

As with all USB external drives, the time spent transferring files back and forth will be much longer than experienced using an internal hard drive. The My Book series is best suited as a backup method to store copies of your important data in case one of your primary hard drives should fail. When powered down (which happens when the drive has not been accessed for around ten minutes), there will be an additional delay when attempting to access files from it, because the drive will need to spin-up (allow around 5-10 seconds for this).

As to the product's quality and longevity, as this is a new product line there is no easy way to guarantee whether this will prove a completely reliable product. But historically, external drives of all kinds tend to live shorter lives than internal drives, and Western Digital's warranty for this model remains one year. For $25 you can extend the warranty for two additional years from Western Digital's website.

But remember, it doesn't matter how long the warranty lasts if your data is gone because of a drive failure. No warranty will cover the costs to recover data from a failed drive (which can easily exceed $1000 with no guarantee of success). Do not rely on any hard drive to protect your most precious files alone. Every hard drive fails eventually. Instead, consider using the My Book Essential as a hard drive backup of your primary drives. Or if you need to rely on an external drive for day to day use, consider purchasing a second unit and using that to backup the first in case catastrophe strikes.

You can also prolong the life of your drive yourself by keeping it cool. I have a small inexpensive desk fan set on low blowing across my stack of external drives which does a good job. I also keep papers off of the drive, away from the sun or any heat vents.

Also pay attention to the sound your drive makes - it can be an early indicator of imminent failure. A whining or grinding sound (like a power saw off in the distance) is a clear danger sign. Loud clicking sounds when the drive is accessing data should sound a red alert that your drive is about to die. And should you encounter "delayed write failures" or other errors increasing in frequency as the drive ages, you should begin planning its replacement. Unfortunately, sometimes drives suddenly fail with no warning, so please create a backup strategy today before you lose up to 465 gigabytes of your files tomorrow.

Let's keep our fingers crossed that Western Digital has corrected the flaws from the first version of this product line. It's too bad the power switch is gone and they've switched to the less common USB-mini connectors, but as long as it keeps my data safe and secure, I can live with the changes.

Western Digital MyBook 1 TB - Great Capacity But Shorter Lived Than Other MyBooks
The Western Digital My Book Essential 1 TB Hard Drive has great capacity but might not be well suited for this design. I've had great luck with my Western Digital drives, but may have bitten off more than I could chew with this 1 TB model. The bottom line is I now think that 1 TB might be too much capacity for a USB-only connection. Even though it might not be because of the size I did experience a hardware issue with the 1 TB model that had to be repaired. That was the first HD failure I've had with any of these WD external drives.

The larger capacity means that the disk geometry has to work harder for the same form factor. When you consider that neither the speed nor the buffer were improved with this model, it's easier to see why the performance is slightly less than the 500 GB model.

Ultimately I think it might make sense to step down to the Western Digital 500GB My Book Home Edition or the Western Digital My Book Premium 500 GB model instead. If you need 1 TB you might want to look at the Premium, Home, Studio or Professional versions in that capacity. I am nervous because of the negative press some of those have gotten, but the extra and faster interfaces would have to be better than this USB only Essentials version.

For a 1 TB drive, the buffer has to get larger. This guy is still limited by the 480 Mps connection speed of USB 2.0 but gives you only a fraction of that in production.

You can unplug the AC adapter to manually power it down from behind, or it will power down with your computer. The AC adapter helps it perform a little faster than the USB powered ones.

The software utilities should be deleted by anybody but the most novice user. Just do cut and paste backups instead and use some other shareware or NTFS if you need to enable encryption.

Connecting WD drives to different systems has always been a plus, and this drive connected to my Windows XP, Vista or Mac OS X computers.

The only factor that should change whether or not you get this drive or another one would be size and connection type. Obviously, WD makes Pro and other versions of these drives that have firewire and SATA connectors. For most Mac users, firewire 2 connectivity is a must.

I did experience my first drive failure with the 1 TB after only 3 months of use. From now on I'm stepping up to the higher end models for this capacity. Still, I may have just gotten a bad one and you might be luckier.

Pros
+ Works well on multiple platforms: Windows Vista, XP and Mac OS X
+ Nice 16 MB buffer for faster copying speeds is still acceptable
+ New sleek body, more pleasing to the eye
+ Turns on and off with your computer
+ Very easy installation, virtually plug and play
+ Integrates nicely with my growing stable of WD MyBook drives
+ 1 TB truly is amazing capacity in one drive

Cons
- 1 TB capacity is probably the largest you would want for USB transfer with a 16 MB buffer
- Software will only be useful for novice users and is not very good (after several years of these drives being on the market)
- New shiny body attracts fingerprints and dust, may not appeal to everyone
- Transfer speed still limited by USB only connection, must step up for FireWire ports
- Price for 1 TB of capacity not as good as some smaller drives in $ price per gigabyte
- AC adapter for power, not USB powered

Conclusion

This drive is great for those who want a large capacity drive. It's better to get a pair to guard against drive failures and backup your backup. Watch the price and try to get it on sale. Those looking for extra connectors (firewire, SATA) will want to step up to the other models.

Enjoy!

A data center on a shelf
It is very hard to argue with the amount of storage that one of these drives offer. If you have been in the industry for awhile, you can remember when a terabyte of data meant an entire data center of storage!

These drives are quite and they format to NTFS quickly as long as you remember to specify quick format!! I have been pleased enough with the drive that I now own 6 of them. My laptop now has 6 terabyte of storage to work with! Since I do a lot of music and video work, that is important to me. Considering the fact that these drives now run about $229 when on sale, why would you not buy one?

Keep in mind that if you connect multiple drives, you will want to use different controlled ports on your computer; not just a USB hub (the reason is each dedicated port of a USB 2.0 can only work at a total of 400 MB/S. That means if you have multiple drives on the same controlled port that they are sharing that speed (this will really show up if you are moving data from one drive to another on the same hub). Remember, having 4 ports on your computer does not mean that they are 4 seperately controlled ports! Check your users manual or call technical support for your product to see how many seperately controlled ports you really have.

I have now moved all of my video, photos, and music to these drives (3 terabyte) and use the other three terabyte as mirrored drives (fail safe)and it is all easily accessable on my computer and on my network through my computer.

I have had the first drive for 5 months now and have added the others as they went on sale. I have not had any boot issues (mentioned in other reviews) and all of the lights go off when the computer is powered down. I am running Vista Ultimate with all updates and I am using an IBM ThinkPad with current BIOS.

Great drives!!!