Western Digital My Book Studio Edition 1TB Firewire 400 / 800 & eSata External Hard Drive

 

 

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Similar connectivity findings to both previous posts but to help with limited performance data posted anywhere (especially FW800) here are the results of initial tests using a MacBook Pro with Internal 200GB 7200 HDD by copying a 2GB MPEG:

USB 2.0 - 22 MB/s
FW400 - 31 MB/s
FW800 - 50 MB/s
eSata - not tested

Bought this for new intel based iMac 24" as an external drive, to store pictures and video files. When first plugged in the iMac did not recognize the myBook. Called the help desk (Europe) and they were very honest saying that there are issue with Leopard OSX 10.5.1. So the button manager does not work. (It will not work with Firewire 800 anyway, as advertised in booklet). Anyway, set it up and if you follow the procedure properly, the iMac eventually recognized it through Firewire 800 and it is indeed REALLY fast. In fact, it seems faster in transfer between iMac and myBook than between folders on the internal HDD! GREAT.....also like the 3 year limited warranty. Finally, looks gorgeous in brushed aluminum. One slight issue at the moment. When I shut down the iMac, the front light pulses every 20-30 seconds as on standby. This issue will be resolved when the firmware updates and Leopard updates in due course (I am told by Euro-help).

Buying this disk was an extremely hard decision. Based on the reviews on Amazon of the various models of MyBooks it was either going to be noisy and unreliable or quiet and easy to use. I'd been bitten before with an Iomega drive that sounded like a vacuum cleaner and reset itself if you put it under any real strain.

My requirements, in order, were:
1, It must be very quiet as it is for home use.
2. It needed to be large - at least 750MB
3. It had to store my data reliably and easily
4. Firewire was desirable

So what are my impressions so far?
It's connected to a MacMini G4 running OS X 10.5.2 (Leopard) via Firewire 400.

Well to start it is incredibly quiet - I have to put my ear up against it before I can hear it.

It's 1TB and that's "Marketing" TB not real TB (Base 10 rather than the Base 2 that computers use). This translates to 932GBs of usable space. No surprise here, hard disks have always been sold in this misleading way, and it is way time the practice was stopped. The difference between marketing and real was trivial when disks were only a couple of MBs, but now we are up at the high GB and TB level it is a bad joke.

Connecting it to Firewire, I experienced the same problem reported by others - You have to power the drive on before you connect the cable or your Mac might not recognise it. Once recognised, it is immediately available to you. It comes with some Mac OS X 10.4+ software to allow the capacity gauge to work and also some trial backup software. This is NOT on a CD, it is stored on the disk. I made the mistake of partitioning the disk before I realised this and therefore lost it. Once you register you can download the software again (which includes the Windows versions).

In the box are a Firewire 400 to 800 cable, Firewire 800 to 800 cable and a USB lead, each a metre in length. The power supply is a fairly small brick, with a generous length of cable coming from each end.

I downloaded and installed a firmware upgrade, which is supposed to improve functionality under OS X 10.5 (Leopard) - I've no idea what difference this may have made. There is also a downloadable replacement for the bundled ButtonManager , called WDDriveManager.

As to reliability - only time will tell - I've only had the drive one day. In that time I have backed up the MacMini and a Macbook (over the network) using TimeMachine. I've also copied all the data off of the noisy Iomega drive. Throughout that process the drive has remained quiet, the case has remained quite cool and there are no vibrations.

Overall.
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It's quiet, easy to install and has a good range of connections. It has met all my requirements and exceeded my expectations

My only dislike is the array of white LEDs on the front - they scan back any forth anytime the drive is active and are most distracting - there is no way I can see of disabling them. A single LED would have been completely adequate.


** Update 14 June 2008 **
It's been three months and the drive is still excellent - it has two Macs backing up to it using Time Machine with no problem.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Set it and forget it (Time Machine - Mac)
I have this hard drive set up as the Time Machine back-up for my Mac. It turns itself on and off with the Mac, so you can just set it and forget it. Read more

Published 23 months ago by Mr. S. Fevyer

5.0 out of 5 stars Quality Product Right on Time!
I have only been using this product for a few days as a back up drive for current Mac and took all information of an older system too without any problems. Read more

Published on 12 Oct 2009 by Jason Cain

5.0 out of 5 stars External hard Drive
Works out of the box, just cable in order given in instructions. Reviews were very helpful. Firewire 800 is quick. Read more

Published on 5 Oct 2009 by History enthusiast

4.0 out of 5 stars Reliable
Bought two of these drives as back ups for two iMacs. Really easy to set up - well, when I say set up, you just plug them in, they're already formatted for Mac. Read more

Published on 4 Oct 2009 by Twenty20

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!
Absolutely excellent piece of kit! An absolute must for anyone with large volumes of data and with a Firewire 800 equiped computer, such as the new Apple MacBook Pros! Read more

Published on 7 Sep 2009 by S. MCGREGOR DALLAS

4.0 out of 5 stars Quiet, efficient
I trawled through the comments boards on many sites to find the right drive for my Mac Powerbook; I needed something that would be quiet in operation as I record audio... Read more

Published on 28 Aug 2009 by C. P.

5.0 out of 5 stars Quick, quiet and efficient
I bought this hard drive after losing patience with my dog-slow Apple Time Capsule, and was happy to spend a bit extra to have Firewire 800 (as opposed to the very similiar speeds... Read more

Published on 19 Aug 2009 by Griffin Peterson

1.0 out of 5 stars NEVER 'Put your life on it'!
I bought this drive a month ago to use as a backup system for my new Apple G5 iMac. Within a week it started to play up, refusing to mount then finally refused to switch on. Read more

Published on 29 July 2009 by Mr. J. White

3.0 out of 5 stars My Book Studio Edition
Not quite satisfied. It does not always work when you plug-in my Firewire lead. I often have to pull it out and re-plug. Read more

Published on 27 July 2009 by M.M

4.0 out of 5 stars Works as it says on tin
Basically I expect something to do what it's supposed to. This does. Would prefer to just switch off power, rather than have to unplug the firewire from my computer, but not a big... Read more

Published on 22 July 2009 by CJ

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