Western Digital “My Book” Good - Semi-Portable

This external hard drive provides 500 GB of extra or backup storage.  It works best if you don’t need to move it around very much.  I think I wish I had bought the “My Passport.”

This is a very reasonably priced way to get additional computer storage. This is the “My Book Essential,” the most basic model.  It is 6.5 inches tall x 5.5 inches deep and 2 inches thick, and sits vertically, like a book.  It has 500 GB of storage, and  USB 2.0 technology. The spindle speed is 7200 rpm.  This is all fast enough to transfer anything that I work with. I bought this one about a year ago.


There is a blue light that shows when the drive is on and it blinks when transferring data.  The higher models have a few more features.


Pros:
It is compact and provides a lot of storage.

The price was reasonable.

It’s very easy to use.

The cords are a 4 feet long, which is a good length for my use without having a lot of extra to get tangled.

It is sturdy, I dropped it on the floor and everything seems to be fine.

The vents are in the top and back, so you could buy several and line them up like books in a bookcase and they won’t overheat.


Cons:
If you are an impatient person, this may annoy you.  It takes a few seconds to read whenever you plug it into the computer, and although it is USB 2.0 there can be a noticeable time lag for some things.  For example, if I store a database on it and use the Access software on my desktop to open it I can tell the difference in load time for entries.  Some days I really wish I could afford a system that would work as fast as I can think and type.

If you have limited USB ports it can be a hassle.

It has to be plugged into a 120V outlet.  I knew this when I bought it, and decided that I could live with it because the battery powered “My Passport” cost more.  But I do find myself moving this from room to room to use with desktop and laptop enough that I wish I had bought the “Passport.”

Three times I have thought that there was something seriously wrong because the computer couldn’t find it when I plugged it into the USB port.  Each time, the other end of the cord had come loose from the back of the hard drive just a little bit, making it unreadable.

I hear that it’s a little slow for movies, but I don’t have any experience with that.

Conclusion:
This really solved my storage space problems since I do a lot with images, and databases, which can chew up a lot of bytes in a hurry.  The price was affordable.