WD My Book 3TB External Hard Drive Storage USB 3.0 File Backup and Storage

The WD My Book Essential 3.0 1 TB is great for those who've been wondering if they wanted a USB 3.0 drive for their desktop PC. With its superfast performance the drive will significantly alter your expectations for external hard drives. Costing about $88.99 for the 1TB version buying from Amazon.com and about $125.00 for the 2 TB version; the My Book Essential 3.0 is about $50 more expensive than its USB 2.0 counterpart, however, I feel it's difference is well worth it. If you have a PC desktop and are looking for a simple external hard drive, look no further than the Western Digital My Book Essential 3.0. I have been using the WD My Book Essential 3.0 1 TB since receiving it on 03/4/11 backing-up all my personal data files approx sixty-five (65) times, they are very large (over 12,000 mp3 & photos alone) without any tribulations. The Western Digital 3.0 ran flawlessly with a noticeable difference in speed compared to my old 2.0 USB external drive. I also have run numerous virus and malware prgrams through the device without any difficulty. I also recognize I used this product approx. sixty-five (65) times backing up my data files without any problems, will it continue to be reliable in the future, time will tell.Update: 12/06/11...Still backing-up all personal data very well without any problems at all!!!Design and FeaturesThe WD My Book 3.0 is a no-frills storage device. It has a straightforward design with one tiny white light on its front that serves both as the power and activities indicator and on its back it only has a Mini-USB 3.0 port. The drive is bundled with a Mini-USB 3.0 cable, a power adapter, built-in software and a well-illustrated quick-setup poster. Even without the quick-setup poster, it's very easy to set up the WD My Book 3.0. Just connect it to a computer using the included USB cable, plug in the power, and turn it on. After installation, the hard drive is instantaneously available to the computer and is preformatted using NTFS file system. For those who have older desktop PC's with only 2.0 USB ports (2.0 USB ports designated by the color "White" - 3.0 USB ports designated by the color "Blue") you will have to purchase a USB 3.0 PCI Interface Card and install it in your computer before you are capable of utilizing the 3.0 speed. Buffalo Technology DriveStation SuperSpeed USB 3.0 PCI Express 2-Port Interface Card IFC-PCIE2U3

Anyone afraid of getting a drive that's higher than 1Tb, don't. 3 TB is perfect for anyone that needs that super fat extra storage. I been using WD my book for about a month now. No problems at all. All works like its suppose to. What you should expect for this order:Solid build. Not so cheap. But it is plastic with air vents at the top. It kinda makes it look slick. I was thinking of getting a metal casing but nah, this plastic is top notch. I leave it on for big transfers and heck, it doesn't get so hot at all. A+ on that. It is of course black (the one I chose.) It is shiny and can be fingerprint magnet. But it cleans easily right off. I decided to leave the sticker on it to prevent it from getting dirty. But that's optional for you all. It comes with USB 3.0 cable. Meaning you don't get the regular USB 2.0 cable you all recognize. But 3.0 works with USB 2.0 so you don't have to worry. Make note of that though. USB 3.0 has a tiny male head that connects to the back of the External Hard Drive (EHD.) Of course the manual, power cord and the box. Also there is no bloatware pre-installed. Its ready to go NTFS. It says you can do backups with it using its own software. But there was no CD for such thing. I would assume you'd have to download it from their website. Which by the way, I did not install any software on this for backup. Maybe people are having such a hard time because of the software. I'm just using it "as is." File transfer period.Lets see what I didn't like..sometimes the USB 3.0 cable when fully inserted to my computer it will not recognize it. But if I pull the cable couple centimeters off (there is a dent line on the cable if you line it up any PC will recognize it) it will read it. Weird, maybe its just me.. On USB 2.0 cable I would just insert the whole thing. With this one you have to kinda pull it out just a centimeter or where you see the line indent. I assume it has to do with USB 3.0 compatibility. My laptop only reads USB 2.0 but 3.0 says its universal. I think it may be some small technical flaw. But it does work. One last thing I disliked was that I couldn't defragment this 3TB hard drive. I assume its because of its capacity limit. But that one caught my surprise. I tried several software including Microsofts degrag. Nothing works. :(That's about it though.I used Acomdata before and it has metal casing. Haven't had problems with either one of them. A few did but it was my own fault. I tended to be clumsy and I droped 2 of them 500GB though. Learned my lesson. But so far Western Digital is very reliable. So is Acomdata but there far more expensive. I think I might buy some more WD.Quality is just above average for me. Meet my expectation (besides some of my dislikes shown above). Lots of storage. And no, is not true the more space the more your drive can self destruct and no longer work. I used this thing heavily and it still works. I'll make sure IF anything bad does happen i'll come back to update. So be sure to subscribe to this feed or book mark it unless I do. If nothing, it means it works wonders. If you see an update someday, its bad. It'll probably be a dead drive or something. But i'm smart too. I have another external drive that I keep for super-back-up. Incase one dies I have another copy. So i'm not too worried. The back-up time frame can be tedious though for a 3 TB of data :PSo far i'm happy.. the 2 dislikes should not discourage anyone. There small.Drive looks: 9 / 10 (Sleek design)Storage: 10/ 10Heating/ cooling: 9 out of 10 (stays cool after 20min file transfer)Life span/ dependability: Undetermined. Everyone will face different life spans. Depends how you take care of the drive. I will update mine when I see problems.Overall quality: 8 out of 10 (-2 points off for my dislikes shown above)