WD My Book 2TB External Hard Drive Storage USB 3.0 File Backup and Storage

This drive is all i needed and expected from it.With it's 2GB storage space it accomodates most of mine precious data, it's much fater than old USB 2.0 MyBook when used with USB 3.0 controller ... and all of that is packed in a very minimalistic but elegant package. The activity LED is not overwhelming but bright enought to see it even in direct sun light. The drive is slim but heavy enough to maintain it's stability on the desk and the power and usb cables that are included are long enough to reach to the other end of desk where I have my surge protector.The only bad thing about the drive for me was the software it came with, and the kind of autorun partition with the junk on it.Backup agent that is included and branded by WD is super limited, and almost useless unless you just want a very simple backup of everything. Other than that, if You know what are you doing you can easly wipe out all the junk software that came preinstalled and than set-up a backup software of your choice to do exactly what you want it to do.To make it clear for some interested in the software that WD supplied, my bigest issue was that it won't let you choose certain folder or folder tree to backup period, instead it will ask you wahat kind of data (pictures, documents, videos etc.) you want to backup, than it asks you were to look for it and than it scans the locations you provided for this particular data to be backed up. You have very limited or even no control over it what so ever. I want my backup software to give me aability to show it what folder, drives or single files to backup and just do it. Don't think for me what's good what's bad or what's a picture what's a video etc. A user that knows what backup is for and that he/she needs it, will for sure know what exactly is important to them and needs that backup.That said, the hard drive, it's performance, design and the looks are great! Just make sure that if you want to use it for backup to get some more advanced backup utility.

Been using these for a couple of years and love them. I just add a new one whenever I need space. There are a couple of issues that are not for the faint of heart, but are easy to correct with a bit of googling.A few tips for success:1. These are DESKTOP EXTERNAL drives and are not meant to be portable or routinely traveled with. Plug them in and leave them stationary, just like the name says. Get some small portable drives if you need to hand transfer data. I have 6 or 7 portables for that reason.2. Ensure they get good, clean air flow and space to breathe. The cases don't run especially hot, which I suspect means they are overly insulated and don't shed enough heat.3. Take some time to get to know and customize the software they ship with. It's not bad, and somewhat better than similar products I've used from Seagate and Buffalo. Customize it so it only backs up what you want, when you need it. You can even specify file types and set file versioning, which is very useful. Also be sure to do the software and firmware upgrades through the management software.4. Set the power management appropriately. If you hit the disks often, you don't want them to drop to sleep mode every 15 minutes. Match it to your workflow. I personally do all my backups to one drive and treat the others as giant write space for archives that aren't catastrophic if I lose them.5. You may discover an issue with Windows 7 not recognizing more than 2 of them concurrently. It will manifest as only two mapping drives and the third not being recognized. It's a quick fix, just google and follow the instructions.Great little drives and ample storage for the price.UPDATE 7/3/13: I just purchased my fourth drive and added it on with no problems. The software -which has been updated to a very nice new interface- recognized it and had it working immediately. The drive shipped with the latest firmware and is visually identical to previous models. Still a great drive and value for the money.

I purchased this drive to give me some much-needed extra space, and a way to transfer files from Windows7 to Ubuntu, and back again. It has performed flawlessly and more quickly than expected.Windows Users: Install the driver that comes on the drive. Then Install the software that comes with it only if you plan to use it (I didn't, so I'll not review the software). Then run Windows update to update the driver.Ubuntu users: The drive will work without additional drivers. Leave the drive formatted as NTFS if you intend to use it on other operating systems.Mac Users: I suggest installing an NTFS FUSE driver for read/write access to NTFS partitions before plugging the drive in, otherwise you will have read-only access until you install the included software and reformat the drive as HFS+. HFS+ is a poor choice if you intend using the drive with other operating systems, as they will have read-only access to the drive without significant modification, if indeed they have access at all.Applicable to both: This drive is suitable for any and all external storage needs. No external drive can equal the performance of an internal, but for most uses, this drive is more than adequate. While I would not suggest it as a boot drive, few people would wish to use it as such. be careful when plugging in/removing the cords, as others have had issues with the connectors breaking (personally I believe they were abusing the drive, but cannot be sure, all I know is that this has not happened to me, and I am not overly careful about such things).UPDATE 12Nov2012: This drive continually puts itself to sleep and parks the heads to save power. While this behaviour in no way compromises the drive while reading or writing to it, if you do not use it constantly, it becomes quite annoying waiting for it to spin up and get ready. There is no way to disable this feature. -1 Star for poor design.