Checking Out The My Book Essential External Hard Drive

By Richard Burckhardt
Expert Author
Article Date: 2010-08-09

I've had my eye on an external hard drive for back up purposes for a while and when I got the opportunity to review the Western Digital My Book Essential 1TB USB drive, I jumped at it. With a few exceptions, it hits the mark for my purposes.

The drive itself is in an attractive upright storage case with a light indicator (a very BRIGHT one) giving you an indication of how much space you have used on the drive. The case also includes cooling vents (no fan), cable lock port, power and activity lights.

Hooking it up is a breeze, just plug it into a USB port on your computer and then into a power outlet. The WDSmartWare software installs easily, setting itself up as a virtual CD drive (which could become a problem if you use more than one My Book), and is intuitive and easy to use, but basic. You can schedule backups, retrieve backed up files and see the status of your drive in your taskbar.

And, the My Book drive works nicely as a mapped network drive for me.

I did run into a couple of issues that are related to my particular PC setup. I first tried hooking the My Book to my Windows XP media center PC in my media room. Worked flawlessly until a reboot at which time the PC hung before loading Windows. I looked for a bypass in the system bios, but there wasn't one, so, since I sometimes have to reboot this PC remotely (it's primarily used for Orb cable TV and media streaming), this wouldn't work.

I moved it to my Windows 7 desktop, but the WDSmartWare software apparently has issues with my Tritton USB VGA adapter. When I have my second monitor going through the adapter, the WDSmartWare software opens, then disappears from view. I have to disable the adapter to see the drive software on the primary monitor.

Not a deal killer, though, since I basically set the WDSmartWare software and forget it for the most part. I personally plan to use the My Book Essential as a network drive anyway. But, keep in mind, this software is installed whether you want it or not, fine for a beginner with basic backup needs, but advanced users won't like it at all.

And, the manufacturer states "compatibility may vary depending on user's hardware configuration and operating system."

All in all, the My Book Essential External Hard Drive is a nice, basic external storage option. The version I received is Windows XP, Vista and 7 ready. It requires reformatting for Mac.

I'd give it three out of five stars.

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About the Author:
Richard V. Burckhardt, also known as The Web Optimist, is an SEO based in Palm Springs, CA with over 10 years experience in search engine optimization, web development and marketing.