WD My Book Premium 500 GB External Hard Drive

Great At First, But BEWARE later!

Strengths: Small, inexpensive, large capacity, eSATA

Weakness: Unreliable, failed drive/bad sectors, lost data, have to reformat to NTFS

I purchased this HD only 5 MONTHS ago and it has already crashed. At first, I was very happy with the HD (other than the fact that I had to reformat it into NTFS - very odd) and it worked great with no complications, but all of a sudden, the HD crashed on me and I could no longer access the drive nor my files. Western Digital offered to send me a replacement drive, which is in process now, but...

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Very nice piece of equipment, compact, unique (but...

Strengths: Plenty fast for USB, eSATA is a nice (and rare) feature, has the ability to show remaining capacity with LED ring (if you install their drivers). Stand up or lay down without add'l hardware.

Weakness: No firewire, which is MUCH faster than USB (not in spec, but in real-world use). Plastic case probably won't survive much dropping, no real "OFF" switch. Only external Power supply (pretty common).

As the owner of multiple external drives and cases, this is definitely the nicest "store bought" external I have. It has a very small footprint, unlike many of the "eye-catching" cases that are unwieldy when you're trying to find a place to keep them. I like the idea of the USB ring showing remaining capacity, but I didn't install the drivers so didn't test this. If you have eSATA, I don't think...

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Solid, but expensive

Strengths: Works perfectly. USB 2.0 and Firewire

Weakness: Expensive

This thing works great. It seems to get a little warm, but not anymore so than other External Drives I've used. I like that I can use firewire and USB (one of my PC's has a firewire connection, while my laptop does not, and I use this for both). Overall, its very easy to use (though all external drives are), however seems to be too expensive. Thirty bucks more than the mybook essential (without...

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MyBook Premium ES Edition External 500GB Hard Drive

Strengths: lost of storage, good design, usb 2

Weakness: none so far

This comes pre loaded with software, drivers, and all the tools you need to use the drive. It is preformatted as fat32 which I like because is faster and less error prone.

Fast External Drive

Strengths: Dual Interface

Weakness: None so far

This drive is fast with the sata interface and also with the usb 2.0 interface. Like other western digital my book hard drives this one too delivers great performance. also the mybook is the most elegant looking externak hard drives available in the market. The drive package contains all the cables needed to use it with sata and usb. The 8mb buffer makes it easy to watch movies that have been...

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Solid External Hard Drive

Strengths: Plug and play with nice external case

Weakness: Didn't get the eSata to work and after reformatting to NTSF drive is only showing 465GB

A nice plug and play hard drive but comes in FAT32 partition. Had to reformat it to NTSF. It's got a nice case but the case seems pretty big compared to some other external hard drives. Did not get the eSata to work but that could have been my eSata card and was a little more expensive due to the fact it's got the eSata connection.

Solid, compact external drive

Strengths: Easy Plug and Play, and easy to use software; good value for the price.

Weakness: Aside from having to reformat after inital startup, none.

I am very pleased with the product in terms of performance, capacity and price. It is easy to use and quiet. The USB transfer rate is about what one would expect and descent.

nice piece of equipment, compact, unique

Strengths: fast for USB, eSATA is a nice feature. shows remaining capacity with LED ring, And status

Weakness: None that I can think of.

This is definitely the nicest external that I have tried (I have switch the 5 externals I have to My Book Premium ES 500's). It is small, unlike many of the cases that are unwieldy when you're trying to find a place to keep them. capacity And status with LED rings is verry nice.

My Book Premium ES Edition External 500GB Hard Drive

Strengths: Plug and Play, Ease of Installation, Case Design

Weakness: None at this point

The drive was simple to install and use. It took only a few minutes to replace my other external hard drive with this one. The case design allows for either vertical or horizontal placement. I utilized the USB connection to transfer approximately 140 GB of data in under one hour with no problems. I would recommend this drive for anyone who needed the ability to transfer large amounts of data from...

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Almost Rightbook

Strengths: Small footprint, pretty lights and useful (tells you available capacity), works right out of the box with XP, automatically shuts down with computer and starts right back-up when ready to go

Weakness: Transfer rates through USB could be faster, bulky power cord

Some complain about the noise of the drive but I have it in a fan-cooled cabinet, so I don't hear anything. I haven't tried the eSATA hookup, so I can't speak to that.