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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Consumer Hardware & Components > WD MyBook external hard drive, good choice?

WD MyBook external hard drive, good choice?
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UNTeMac
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Jun 18, 2007, 08:59 PM
 
I'm shopping for external hard drives as a backup and have settled on the Western Digital Mybook with USB and Firewire. Anyone have any good/bad experiences with this drive? Thanks.
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bluedog
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Jun 18, 2007, 10:18 PM
 
Drives go bad, its a sad fact. If this is the drive you're set on then you'll probably be ok. I've not had one of these in particular, but the internal IDE western digitals in the 20-80GB range were AWFUL!!! I've had about 10 go bad at my work and a few at home. Possibly 1-2 120GB ones too.

While I shouldn't single out WD from other manufacturers. I've had better luck with Seagate drives and fair luck with Maxtor, too.

There are some other external USB/Firewire drives available if you can find them. Online here's a link to a few I was recently looking at (mind you Microcenter is not the cheapest alternative when shopping online).

Micro Center Online Search Results

The Maxtor OneTouch III seems good and I have used one (the new ones have a triple interface, USB2.0, Firewire 400 & 800. I've also used a Buffalo external, but can't recall the internal drives' manufacturer.
( Last edited by bluedog; Jun 18, 2007 at 10:39 PM. )
     
Cold Warrior
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Jun 18, 2007, 11:22 PM
 
I've had a 250GB MyBook for about a month now and it's doing ok. I use it only a few times a week though, for 30-60 minutes at a time. Mostly large file storage and backups. Light use.
     
UNTeMac  (op)
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Jun 19, 2007, 01:11 AM
 
That was going to be my use. Also, movie storage but mostly backup.
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AC Rempt
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Jun 19, 2007, 02:41 AM
 
I have a 250 and a 500, and both serve as backup drives for different machines. They are not the quietest drives, but they look good and have been rock solid for me. I backup my main machine on a regular basis using the 500 as the storage drive, and it works the way an external drive should neither fuss nor muss. They also don't get overly hot since they are well ventilated.

They have my recommendation, for what it's worth.
     
Altered_Ego
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Jun 20, 2007, 03:01 PM
 
I have a Western Digital USB MyBook 500 GB hard drive.

It's currently hooked up to my Airport Extreme Base Station, serving 2 PCs and my iMac.

It's very quiet, and totally reliable.
     
joshwest
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Jun 20, 2007, 04:34 PM
 
I've had a 500 gig my book pro its triple interfaced for about 6 months it works great, I use it for my main backup device and will use it on Time Machine when its out. But havnt had a problem out of it. Got it for 175$ a while back on buy.com
     
sweatervest
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Jun 25, 2007, 05:35 PM
 
Has anyone used the 1 TB My Book Pro II? Seriously thinking of getting one in a couple weeks...
     
all2ofme
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Jul 12, 2007, 06:40 AM
 
AFAIK the 1TB WDs are two 500GB drives striped, meaning that if you lose one disk you'll lose the data on both.

I've also read that they're noisy.

Common wisdom around here seems to be get a good enclosure and a quality disk with a good warranty.

That said, I've got two of the My Book Pro 500GB disks and until recently have been happy with them. One of them's going back today though - perhaps I just got a duffer.
     
CharlesS
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Jul 12, 2007, 10:18 AM
 
Don't buy a pre-built external hard disk. Instead, get a good external enclosure and a good internal drive (preferably by Seagate), and put them together (which is easy, and requires no skills other than how to use a screwdriver). Not only will you get a higher quality, more reliable backup drive this way, but you also get a longer warranty on the drive.

For more information, read this thread:

http://forums.macnn.com/57/consumer-...ion-for-a-mac/

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Altered_Ego
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Jul 12, 2007, 12:41 PM
 
I did that 2 years ago. I did my research, and chose 2 external enclosures that offered both USB and Firewire. I chose a couple Ultra units.

Unfortunately, that particular model lost its Firewire capability with the next service release of Windows XP. Ultra said the firmware of this model couldn't be updated by them.. you had to go directly to Microsoft for some mysterious workaround. I don't recall any further details.

The cases have been a real pain. Their fans are incredibly noisy, and stop working after a time.

I'm angry because I went to so much trouble to choose this particular case, specifically for the Firewire capability. I even bought a Firewire card because my computer at the time didn't have builtin Firewire capability.

Since then, I only buy pre-made external hard drives. All but one are Firewire.
     
CharlesS
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Jul 12, 2007, 01:25 PM
 
That's why I said to get a good external enclosure. The better ones out there are fanless, so noise won't be an issue. Additionally, if you get one that uses the Oxford FireWire chipset, it'll be using the same chipset as all the rest of the quality FireWire enclosures out there, so updating the firmware shouldn't be a problem. In fact, it will be a better situation than the pre-built drives in this regard, since most of them don't even tell you what chipset their enclosure uses, so you're pretty much dependent on the maker of the enclosure for firmware updates, whereas with an enclosure that uses an Oxford chipset, you can just get the standard Oxford updates from anywhere.

Check the link in my previous post for some recommendations.
( Last edited by CharlesS; Jul 12, 2007 at 01:39 PM. )

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Altered_Ego
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Jul 12, 2007, 07:45 PM
 
The first one might be a good case, but it's pretty expensive in my mind.

I can get a 200 GB USB external hard drive for $69.

I have 2 100+ GB hard drives in crappy cases... It just doesn't make financial sense to spend that money and only have 100 GB of hard drive in the new case.
     
CharlesS
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Jul 12, 2007, 10:36 PM
 
Originally Posted by Altered_Ego View Post
The first one might be a good case, but it's pretty expensive in my mind.

I can get a 200 GB USB external hard drive for $69.
The case mentioned in that thread wasn't a USB 2.0 case, though. It was a combo USB 2.0 / FireWire 800 / FireWire 400 / eSATA quad-interface enclosure. If you go for something that's USB 2.0 only, of course, you can get one at a much lower price - probably in the $20-$50 range. With USB 2.0, it doesn't matter as much what chipset you get, but the Cypress chipset is well spoken of, and is found even in some of the cheap $20 enclosures found on Newegg. The popularity of USB 2.0 makes the economies of scale work out better than for FireWire.

If you follow my advice and get a Seagate drive, you'll probably end up paying a little more than you would for the WD external... but that's because you're getting a much higher-quality drive.

I have 2 100+ GB hard drives in crappy cases... It just doesn't make financial sense to spend that money and only have 100 GB of hard drive in the new case.
It all depends on how important the integrity of your data is. If you're using the drive as a backup, you need it to be reliable.

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Altered_Ego
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Jul 12, 2007, 10:58 PM
 
In my case, I already have 2 hard drives that are in cheap external cases.

So I'm only looking to buy a case, not another internal hard drive.

With that in mind, the cases you mentioned aren't such a good deal.
     
CharlesS
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Jul 12, 2007, 11:53 PM
 
Okay, you didn't make that clear. It sounded like you were still talking about the merits of pre-built hard drives vs. an enclosure.

If you're asking for a cheap enclosure for some drives you already have, this is probably not the right thread for it. I'm not sure how I could help you anyway, since you haven't really mentioned what it is you want. Is it just USB 2.0? Or FireWire? The latter will cost a little more... does it need to be FW800 or is FW400 good enough? Heck, I don't even know whether the drives you have are PATA or SATA.

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