Western Digital - My Book - External Hard Drive

[Chaw]

Hi, I'm new to the forums

Looking to buy an external hd for back-up and data storage (pics, music, etc). What do you all think of the 250gb Western Digital My Book w/ USB and Firewire ports? I've read a few mixed reviews on other sites, but would appreciate more feedback from ya' all.

Thanks in advance for any/all replies.

 

[freonchill]

its always cheaper (if you are comfortable enough w/ it) to build your own external enclosure

if you are worried about backup software, the stuff they sell w/ the retail drives is crippled software anyway

get like acronis or ghost or whatever
buy a generic enclosure w/ the appropriate internal and external connectors (int: IDE or SATA; ex: firewire400, firewire600, usb 2.0/1.1)
buy an OEM harddrive - biggest you can for the cost

if you get a sata / usb 2.0 enclosure and a 320gb 7200rpm WD or Seagate for about $125 / $135 shipped

if you get a WD book thats 320gb / 7200rpm for $180
now yea - you could wait till the right week and get the 2 mail in rebates and get it for $100 but do you really want to wait 6-8 weeks for that (if at all)

and IIRC WD retail stuff has 1 year warranty

now somtimes these pre-made retail models have features like
"one button backup" or "auto power off"
but seriously - you cant click a button on the screen rather than on the enclosure to backup; and you know how to turn it off when you are not using it...
if you want to pay $50-100 for features like that - sure, go ahead, but the manual way is cheaper most of the time)

best of luck

 

[slappynutz]

Everything freonchill said is correct. Putting together a drive and enclosure are simple and cheap.

However, I'm actually looking at one of the new My Book models myself, but for different reasons. WD has some bigger external drives coming that are outside your price range (guessing if you're looking at a 250GB) but include an ethernet port so you can share the data on your home network, plus they act as mini file servers so you can access your files over the internet. "World Editions" ... sound pretty good to me. Plus I've always kind of liked the look of the My Book enclosures.

 

[Chaw]

Thanks for the advice fellas. I'll have to check some cases next time I'm at the computer store

WD has some bigger external drives coming that are outside your price range (guessing if you're looking at a 250GB) but include an ethernet port so you can share the data on your home network, plus they act as mini file servers so you can access your files over the internet. "World Editions" ... sound pretty good to me. Plus I've always kind of liked the look of the My Book enclosures.

That sounds very interesting. I'll have to keep my eye out for when that will be available. I have a home network setup so that might just be the ticket! Thanks for the info.