Western Digital 500 GB My Book Studio Edition External Hard Drive

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western digital 500 gb my book studio edition external hard drive

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Western Digital 500 GB My Book Studio Edition External Hard Drive

Plug-and-play setup for easy installation
Automatically backs up important data, synchronizes files to keep them current
Compatible with USB 2.0, FireWire 400 and 800, and eSATA
Formatted for Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later, can be reformatted for Windows 2000, XP, and Vista
Turns itself on and off with your computer and Safe Shutdown prevents the drive from being powered down until all your data has been written

List Price: $199.99
Lowest Price: $139.99

Product Description:

Speed is what you need when for video editing, big design projects, or managing photo shoots and thats what this drive delivers with FireWire 800 and eSATA connectivity. With our automatic backup capability your creative masterpieces will be backed up the minute you save them.

Customer Reviews:

Rating:
Date: 2008-07-07
A mixed bag..
I have had this drive for over a month now, and I am using it with a PowerBook G4 (15" w/ 80GB HDD) originally running Tiger (MacOS 10.4.11) and now Leopard (started with 10.5.2 and now on 10.5.4). My plan was to set this up with 2 bootable 80GB partitions maintained using Carbon Copy Cloner and devote the rest for Time Machine (I was planning to upgrade to Leopard) backup space. For the pros, it works well with Time Machine and Carbon Copy Cloner, and I can use either USB, Firewire 400 or Firewire 800. The noise and vibration from this drive seems to be minimal (even when in use). My main complaint/disappointment is that I cannot boot from this drive. When I boot with the drive powered up and connected via firewire and hold the option key, this drive never appears as an option either from FW 400 or FW 800 port (at least with cables provided) -- only the internal drive shows up. I did get it to work once by selecting one of the bootable partitions as the next boot choice, but since then I have not been able to get it to work. My hope is it will work as a boot drive with a newer Intel MacBook when I get one. Another oddity, I was unable to get the firmware upgrade to take. I was hoping the newer firmware might help with this issue. I will continue exploring this option.

Rating:
Date: 2008-06-21
Great but not that fast
It is a great storage item and is worth the money. Is quiet but I thought it was going to be way faster with the firewire 800 but it isn't. Overall it's a great item. I'm using it for video storage and as scratch disk for Final Cut Pro and I have no complaining.

Rating:
Date: 2008-06-09
USE WITH CAUTION!
I have been a devotee of WD drives for years. I have 15 functioning on my work server (mostly in 2 e-sata enclosures using port multipliers), I have 4 inside my home machine right now, I have a good 30 sitting about for use here at home as I need them. They're work horses that always performed flawlessly...till now.

These MYBOOKS with their sleep "feature" are criminally bad. Can't use them for servers as they will send a server crashing within 10 minutes of disuse in either SATA or FW 800 configurations. Used for backup, your backup will freeze within the same 10 minutes. The drive comes with backup software -- that's what they're being positioned for -- but they can't be left idle or they sleep and won't wake.

Older model MYBOOKS (I have three) work fine. They are in an always-on mode. I thought I was simply buying more of the same when I purchased the Studio Pro models.

This "feature" is built into the drive and system preferences won't override it. Some myopic developer decided what the community needed was a sleeping drive so what we've all got now are bricks. There is no "fix" coming from Western Digital. I called to inquire; that's coming from a Level 2 tech.

Doing a google, there's a PC script to disable this mode and for Mac users, a chron script if you're brave enough to alter your root user password and create the invisible script in the terminal. I am not. This is like playing with Res Edit (I know, I'm dating myself...) and unless you're proficient, I would not recommend it.

So use with caution. They're fine for your desktop where you can push the power button and prompt it to spin back up. They will cause you a lot of grief if you can't monitor it.

Rating:
Date: 2008-05-28
Abysmal
I suppose I made my first mistake purchasing a MyBook Pro about 7 months ago, and then purchasing this model a few weeks ago.

They both died on me, giving me a high-pitched squeal and the infamous 'click' sound. Luckily they are both still under warranty, so I will send them in to Western Digital and get new ones as replacements, but they will only be used as secondary drives. I've learned my lesson and will be sticking with LaCie's drives from now on.

The only plus I can give this drive is the FireWire 800, which is very fast and very few drives feature it (the LaCie does, however), and its very stylish design.

Avoid this one, get a LaCie drive instead.

Rating:
Date: 2008-05-20
So far so good
I've had this product for a month now and it does everything I hoped it would. It's simple to use and I've had no problems.