WD's My Book Mirror Edition simplifies redundant storage

That sound you hear is Western Digital grabbing hold of an udder and not letting go as it continues to milk the My Book brand for every penny it's worth. Today, the outfit is introducing a new line of dual-drive units that come ready to mirror whatever information you shove on 'em. The RAID-based Mirror Edition drives tout USB 2.0 connectivity, RAID 1/0 support, a fanless design, user serviceable enclosure, a capacity gauge and intelligent drive management features including automatic power-up and Safe Shutdown. The external HDDs arrive in RAID 1 (mirrored) mode -- which creates automatic duplicates of your files in case one drive fails -- but RAID 0 (striped) can be configured during setup. Stack your My Book collection even higher right now for $289.99 (1TB) / $549.99 (2TB).

[bpm2000 Posted Jun 18th 2008 1:20PM]

click click click

stay AWAY from mybooks!!

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 18th 2008 1:27PM]

I wouldn't get WD if I were you. Sure they have great marketing and all, but quality wise, WD is the worst when compared to Seagates or Lacies.

If you want to get a backup get Maxtor's (owned by Seagate now) Blackarmor series that automatically backup and features automatic encryption certified by the govt.

[davidhildreth Posted Jun 18th 2008 1:41PM]

USB only makes this useless.

[Wwhat Posted Jun 18th 2008 9:22PM]

Not completely, if it mirrors then if one drive fails you can rescue your data, which can be a lifesaver, but it is quite insane to have a product aimed at 'power users' that only has USB that's true, they should use eSATA.
(for firewire they are just asking ridiculous licensing money I understand so that's not an option).

[xValentine Posted Jun 19th 2008 1:59AM]

I have a 500GB Home edition (USB, eSATA, FW400), at first it was quite buggy, then I formatted it, uninstalled all the WD apps. Then so far so good.
Then I recently bought another 500gb, this time the essential edition only(USB). *cross-fingers* that it won't break.

Before I bought the Home edition, I was a LaCie fan, the Quadra is very cool, and tough. But it's FW is quite bitchy. So I sold it and buy a Neil Poulton 500gb instead, but sadly, there's a crackling sound everytime the HD is being used. It's so annoying, and that made my mind to go for the MyBook.

Haven't tried Seagate's FreeAgent though. Is it really good ?

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 21st 2008 11:23AM]

Bad product, gives me hard time!
I use it as external HD to a laptop with XP. It operates only through USB (disconnects Intermitently on Firewire connection).
Heats up a lot (had to take off the cover) and then shuts down. Sometimes its smart auto shutdown does not shut it down after I shut down my laptop. What can I say ?
Interestingly enough, I have the WD 250GB that works flawless.
From surfing the web, it seems to me the whole "MyBook" product line is f**ked up.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 30th 2008 11:16AM]

The esata connector does not appear to work with motherboards that use the jmicron 36x chipset , for example asus motherboards.