Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB – Another quality product from WD
Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB
The Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB (Model #: WDBACW0020HBK-NESN or ASIN: B0041OSQBG) is a continuous backup external hard drive for your desktop PC or Mac.
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It has dual USB 2.0/3.0 compatibility and comes formatted for Windows. If you have an Apple Mac, you’ll need to reformat the drive before use. You can also attach this to your DVR or other multimedia device to significantly increase capacity for storing videos.
The My Book Essential’s predecessor was USB 2.0 only, but this drive has been discontinued. You can still buy it online at some retailers. It is an excellent choice if you don’t need the high transfer speed of the newer version.
Form Factor
The Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB desktop drive is a nice size (6.5”H x 5.3”D x 1.9”W) and weight (2.6 lbs).
It sits up vertically so it’s a little more likely to topple over. The plastic casing doesn’t look terribly sturdy, so you’ll need to take some extra care. It has a nice, sleek design and is pretty quiet (you can barely tell it’s running).
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Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB powered by…
The My Book Essential requires an AC power adapter. There is an on/off switch in the back with an LED light on the front panel. Unfortunately, the switch is not a rocker-type with “o” and “|” indicators. Instead, it is a button that is flush with the panel. You have to depress the button in order to toggle the drive on or off. There is no indication on the button itself as to whether you’ve powered the drive up or down.
Security
This drive comes with password protection and hardware encryption. It also has a lock slot if you want to physically secure the drive, but you will need your own cable and lock.
Backup utilities
This drive comes with backup utilities build right into the drive. However the vast majority of buyers prefer to use their own backup software (most find that their operating system utilities do the job just fine). Fortunately, you have the option of using or not using the WD software.
The drive has some self-diagnostic capabilities if you find that the drive is not performing as expected and need to do some troubleshooting.
To learn more
The drive comes with a Quick Install Manual, but it’s definitely on the “lite” side. If you look at WD’s site, however, you will find a comprehensive user manual:
Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB User Manual
Warranty
The Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB external hard drive comes with a 2 year limited warranty, better than some other WD drives. The warranty is pretty standard – if you lose your data, you’re on your own in terms of data recovery and cost. And if you’ve ever been through that process, you know that it can cost more than the drive itself.
Specs
With 2 terabytes of space, your Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB drive can store the equivalent of around 400,000 photos – incredible. The My Book Essential comes in other capacities (1, 1.5, and 3 TB).
The data transfer rate is up to 480 Mb/sec with USB 2.0 connectivity and up to 5 Gb/sec with USB 3.0.
It’s formatted NTFS as a single partition and is compatible with the following operating systems:
- Windows XP
- Windows Vista
- Windows 7
- Mac Leopard
- Mac Snow Leopard
Some words of caution
Any time you buy a new drive, give it a test run with one or two files to ensure it works right out of the box. Every manufacturer, no matter how reputable, produces a bad drive upon occasion. Before you spend the time and also risk putting sensitive information on a drive that doesn’t work, try transferring, retrieving, and deleting with some test data.
Conclusion
A fantastic drive at a reasonable price, the Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB is a clear winner.