Western Digital My Book External Hard Drive

Over the years, Western Digital has made some serious modifications to their products and refreshed some of their older but highly popular external hard drives such as the My Passport external hard drive and the My Book external hard drive.

The rehashed version of My Book external hard drive is much Slimmer than the older model, which is much more convenient for people who need the desk space made available to them. It's fully preformatted right out of the box, and all you have to do is plug it in to get it started and get to save all of your information.

The eight-terabyte version, in general, is massive and can hold:

But if you need more or less space than that, the Western Digital My Book external hard drive comes in sizes from three terabytes all the way up to ten, and you can purchase this unit as either a single drive or with a dual drive system.  Extra capacity from 12 terabytes to 20 terabytes which only come included for the dual drive system.

This external hard drive only works OS Windows operating systems from Windows 7 all the way to Windows 10, and if you have a Mac, then it will produce from El Capitan all the way up to High Sierra.  

However as many people have come to realize, this external hard drive does work magnificently with Xbox One and with the PlayStation 4, so you'll have extra storage for your games.

As far as design is concerned, there's nothing that sticks out as a high design product. The upper half with the Western Digital logo on it is a high gloss black plastic casing while the lower end features a matte black housing with ribs along the sides. Like its predecessors, the My Book external hard drive is fanless, and so the top vent is essential for keeping it fresh.

This unit could be set up on its end and resembles the general thickness of a book, or I can be set on its side depending on the space requirements that you need for the system. However, many people do set it up for vertically which helped save on space and allowed the machine to breathe better.

As with most high-end external hard drives, this one is no exception on featuring the USB 3.0 port for high-speed transfers, but it also features a USB 2.0 compatible port for those who have not had a chance to upgrade to the faster USB Style.

Western Digital has worked hard over the years to make their products and their external hard drives unique to set themselves apart from the competition. The main feature that Western Digital focused on when it came to the My Book external hard drive was the speed that the unit could perform.

What sets this device apart from the My Passport version of the external hard drives but they've set out is the support of 256 - AES encryption and some preloaded Western Digital backup software which makes it easier for customers to back up their data at the click of a button.

You can password protect all of your data that you back up onto your device, and as long as you hold onto that password, no one will be able to get into your system without your say.  It has a chance to backfire on customers if they forget their password because there's no way to recover that once it's lost.

It's important to make sure that you secure that password somewhere where you can access it so that you won't lose terabytes of valuable data.

As far as write and read speed is concerned, the Western Digital My Book external hard drive performed consistently well between the two, the write speed performing at 167 megabytes per second while the read speed is just under that 167.43 megabytes per second.

The only external hard drive that performed faster in both respects was the Seagate Backup Plus Hub which performed at 181.3 megabytes per second on the write speed, and 197.78 megabytes per second on the read speed.

If you're not looking for something that performs like a Ferrari in a suburban setting, then the Western Digital My Book external hard drive would be an excellent choice for just about all of your data needs.

The Western Digital My Book external hard drive still supports the old micro USB 3.0 port instead of the USB-C style port which could be a massive plus to some people, but it also could serve as a downside.

That means that if you have a MacBook or other device that only accepts USB C ports, then you will have to find an adapter that will convert the micro USB into a USBC before you can use it. This fact is only a minor setback, as these adapters are usually pretty cheap and found virtually anywhere.

If you don't have a MacBook, then the likelihood of you needing one is minimal.  However, the cord that does come with the external hard drive is over a foot long which is excellent for many reasons, but mostly in accommodating for space on your desk.

Depending on the storage that you choose will heavily rely on the price that you have to pay. Currently, the single drive three-terabyte hard drive comes in at the cheapest at $89.99, and it's it's as an Amazon's Choice product.

The four terabytes single drive external hard drive says it just $94.99, the six terabyte version comes in it a hundred and $128.00 and also featured as an Amazon's Choice product. And finally, the 10tb external comes in at just $253.95.

If you don't mind spending the extra money picking up a dual drive system cost at minimum $259 for just the four terabytes and you could be looking at paying almost up to $779.99 for the 20 terabytes dual drive.

Unfortunately, there are cheaper alternatives out there on the market. However, Western digital's my book external hard drive features the most significant amount of space on their device and a purchase like this would likely be beneficial for a large company.

This fact is especially true when that company needs access and storage to large amounts of data that they can stow away quickly and the Western Digital My Book external hard drive an excellent choice for handling that kind of data.

Luckily, the Western Digital My Book external hard drive comes with a two-year warranty which comes in handy for a device that potentially costs more than most are willing to spend. While the warranty isn't outstanding as far as hard drives are concerned, there are little to no stipulations included in returning the device.

Western Digital has excellent customer service, and most people find that they will get a replacement within a couple of days after they report their initial issue.

The public perception of the Western Digital My Book external hard drive is relatively positive, especially when you take into consideration the fact that many people experience fewer data crashes on their systems with this device then they had with other devices such as Seagate.

The Western Digital My Book when compared to its direct competitor the Seagate Backup Plus is the more expensive of the two. However, there are some notable differences between the two that distinguish why the Western Digital is an excellent choice for an external hard drive.

The Seagate Plus manages to stick to a slimmer frame which makes it more convenient to carry around especially if you have to travel often and you need to bring your data with you. While they both need external power sources to operate, the Seagate wins in this regard just because it's lighter and easier to stow away.

However, even though the My Book has been redesigned to operate under a Slimmer scale than its predecessor oh, it is more robust. You can drop them, and they will survive most Falls within a reasonable range. Many consumers complained that their Seagate's would break upon impact and they would lose everything that they had stored on it.

Another plus side to Western Digital over the Seagate is that Western Digital does not require you to purchase more Western Digital products to access your information. Seagate products become written with a specific code that makes it only accessible to other Seagate related external hard drives.

This fact annoys many customers because they feel they are trapped and won't be able to access essential files unless they purchase more Seagate external hard drives. This problem is a business tactic that helps preserve sales, but it also serves as a double-edged sword in discouraging sales from potential customers who realize this trap.

As far as price is concerned, the Seagate is a cheaper alternative, and it does run a little bit faster when you're looking at the read speed. However, the Western Digital My Book reads and writes at approximately the same rate which gives you a more balanced ratio to work.

When it comes to choosing an external hard drive that needs to meet your needs as far as storage concerns and transfer speeds are concerned, the Western Digital My Book external hard drive hits all the check marks.

While it's not an overly remarkable device, it gets the job done, and for the most part, it provides an excellent option for storage without spending a lot of money to obtain it. It's durable, you can use it for multiple occasions, and it formats easily to your desktop computer as well as your gaming devices.

featured image source: amazon.com