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| Western Digital My Book Essential 500GB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive | 
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| Manufacturer: Western Digital
Category: CE
Buy New: £56.20
New (24) from £48.90
Avg. Customer Rating:  89 reviews
Sales Rank: 6
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Fragile: No
Batteries Included: No
Hard Drive Size: 500
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.5
Dimensions (in): 5.4 x 2.1 x 6.5
MPN: WDH1U5000E
Model: WDH1U5000E
UPC: 718037120928
EAN: 0718037120928
ASIN: B000WP0NM8
Release Date: November 25, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Superb! July 26, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Bought this quite awhile ago (several months back) and still using it. So far no problem at all. First of all, I don't need the software that comes with the harddisk, so I just format the entire disk with NTFS. The reason being that it will store longer file/folder name and bigger filesize limit. Apart from that, it's rock solid and relatively cheap comparing to other external USB drives. The HDD inside is a Maxtor.
good drive BUT... July 26, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
this is a awsome drive; small, quiet and good speeds. everything you could want! but do your self a favour and reformat the drives from FAT32 to NTFS! because you cant store a single file that exceeds 4gb with fat32. so if you have any large video files such as .mkv or .wmv-hd then your screwed. so just do it straight away. but sick drive all the same
 Review of External Hard Drive July 22, 2008
3 out of 8 found this review helpful
I bought this product a few months ago and it has broken, I have been unable to get any of my files off of it and it would not even let me reformat it so I have had to bin it
Free your hard drive July 20, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Got this drive because it was the cheapest I could find for the size. I'm no computer whiz but have found it easy to use. Have used it with an XP desktop and a Vista laptop with no problems. I didn't need to install any drivers for it. Never used the software so I can't comment on it. For the desktop I use it for extra storage and for the laptop its used for back ups using Norton 360. Its possibly a bit slow but as I'm not in any great rush when saving or backing up I'm quite happy with it
best buy I've made July 20, 2008
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
The MyBook external harddrive (hd) works like a dream. 500 gb is more than enough for me.
It is very quiet, and has a slick design. If there is one thing wrong with it, it would be the absence of a power button.
I considered formatting it to NTFS, and in fact twice tried only to cancel it 30 seconds later because it took too long. Thankfully, it didn't damage/corrupt my data. However, I will be considering to convert it to NTFS from the default FAT32 it comes with, primarily because of FAT32s limit on filesize where 1 file can be max 4 gb. I want to create an ISO of my laptop hdd as backup, so obviously NTFS would be feasible in this case.
EDIT: I did a quick format to NTFS. This took under a minute for me. I believe the difference between a "normal" format (which according to some say takes hours) and quick format is the normal format checks for bad sectors also. Since this is a new hdd, I didn't think the need of it.
And also, I would recommend you do format it to NTFS if you use Windows for the reasons stated above. If you use it on many different platforms, then the FAT32 is recommended. Btw, don't forget Linux (ubuntu) can read/write on NTFS (of course, when used as secondary harddrive only, which the mybook will be). But I am not sure about Mac.
There are software that the hd comes with, most of it is junk to me like the google software. However, one notable and quite important software for me was the WD diagnostics. This program performs a SMART scan on any physical harddisks (not jus the mybook) so you can be forewarned in the event of failure. Perhaps there are many better free utilities like this if u search the web, but that requires effort :P.
I have used it on both USB 1.1 and USB 2.0, and whilst we would all prefer it on USB 2.0 (due to transfer speeds), it still works on USB 1.1 which is good. Further, I have also tried it on a USB 2.0 cardbus, however the cardbus cannot provide the same transfer speeds to a "natively built in" USB 2.0 (for me at least anyways). A 2 GB file transfered in 5 minutes.
Also noteworthy is that if you transfer several files of small sizes, then the myBook is bound to make "seeking" noises. For large single files (e.g. ISO files which I transfer a lot), then you can expect it work as quiet as a mouse.
Overall, the myBook certainly is cheap compared to others. Time will tell if it proves to be reliable. However, with a 2 years warranty, it may pass the test of time.
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