WD My Book Essential 160 GB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive

I have been buying and using external harddrives for ages. When I shoot video, and do editing, I store the finished footage on these harddrives. When I shoot images and pictures I store backups of my raw files, and finished psds/jpg.Obviously, these files are very important to me, and thanks to past experience, I refuse to trust 1 drive to house all my important stuff.I owned another external harddrive, and it died, it was my incredible misfortune. I was switching to a new computer, and took the files off my harddrive, onto a new drive, (that I had for over a month and tested fine) and after my new computer arrived (and subsequently sold my previous computer) I went to backup my photos and the drive started smoking. I lost a whole trips worth of photos (40+gb) tons of panoramas (that I spent hours constructing) it all went to pot. I learned then, I'm never going to buy any other brand of external harddrive than a Western Digital, and I will always backup twice.I have been using WD drives for years now. I have several stored "offsite" and each one is labeled, I have a 3 ring binder that houses the index of my shoots.I can honestly say, out of 20 WD drives, only 1 has died. That might of been my fault. I usually "eject" drives, then unplug and plug the cords into another drive, I think the connection may of been weak, and it caused the drive to smoke, thus rendering it useless. This is the only case of a bad WD drive I have ever bought, and thats good odds (my other drive, was never plugged/unplugged, it just decided to smoke up, I blame bad ventilation --lacie).These WD's (especially the newer models with the blue light on top) look very sleek, you can arrange them like books. I like to put small labels on them at different areas, so I can see them from a ways back. Such as P39 For pictures 39, V12 for video 12. M02 for misc (personal stuff, like documents, themes, software, etc) and A02 for audio / video backups (bought videos and music).My 1 complaint about these drives is, the powercord. Specifically the plug that you plug into your AC adapter. The problem is it is so large that it easily takes up 2-3 spots on my AC adapter, meaning 1 ac adapter capable of holding 12 devices, can fit about 3 of these.Luckily, I researched this when I moved, and decided upon buying one of these devices: Power Sentry 5-Outlet PowerSquid Power Multiplier Power Sentry 5-Outlet PowerSquid Surge Suppressor Power Squid with 5 Outlets - White With these, it eliminates that problem.One of the great things about these drives are, they all use the same connectors. If you have an older model WD drive, it uses a bigger USB cord, but the power cord is backwards compatible, so you do not need to plug in a new power cord to read your previous devices.I have a WD drive (older model, several years old, several years abused) that I use as my computer backup drive, it is on all the time, and never gives me an issue.I used to work in IT, and when I was building computers all the time, I always choose WD drives. This lead to me one day buying a "mybook" over buying an external case and putting in a harddrive like I used to. I haven't regretted it yet.Remember, the drive may die on you one day. The best things to do is either not use it all the time, only plug it in to get new data off the drive, or backup. Or if your getting it for extra space on your laptop, get 2. 1 to use all the time, and leave the other for your backup. This reduces the chance that something bad will happen to you.Again, out of all the drives available here on amazon, I cannot recommend one more strongly than WD, it is the only drive I spend my money on. With amazons new low price, it is worth getting the 750 (698.46 gigs of usable space) over the smaller priced 500. It is now worth it to skip the 500's completely, and go to 750s (1tbs are still to high right now).

Have used it for 8 years and still no problems! Had to replace the power cord but that was strictly the cat's fault and not a faulty product. Sure, I have several portable hard drives laying around but this one is the trusty sidekick that stands next to my computer speakers. Transfer time isn't bad because of the USB 2.0. I definitely got my money's worth out of this product and recommend Western Digital for all your digital storage problems. I would say the only negative is the external power source, but it's not a terribly big deal since I don't lug this (nor do I need to) around with my laptop.

It was everything as advertised. I never need to use the tech support so I don’t think I can honestly rate that part. But everything else was perfect. Works great. No issues. Although it’s been many years later it still works perfectly and I appreciate the seller for the purchase.

Passwords

Seems reliable, quiet, and fast enough... but i really don't like the auto shut off feature. If you don't use it for 10 minutues it shuts down. When you try to access a file from it again, it goes back on. I could be working on a file, step away for a minute, then come back to it and save... and then it has to spin up again just to save. This takes a few seconds every time this happens, which slows me down.Also... I am unsure of the longevity of an electronic item which is constantly going on and off. In any electronic device, a surge is sent through the device when powering up. We all know that this process of starting up is what wears electronics out, and decreases their life.So.... if there is someone out there that knows how to turn this feature off... please let me know. I would love it if without auto shut off.

I brought this drive from Amazon after Thanksgiving for $105. I thought this was a good buy opportunity for what this storage drive is supposed to be about, at 105 & 750GB. The operative word is storage. This drive features run parallel with each other 2.0 USB is just about right for a 5200 rpm drive which should translate well to low heat dissipation. I noticed that the vents run around 3 width sides. I believe that is over kill but just the same I keep it on its back so that none of the vents are blocked ( folk buying 7200 RPM or fire wire should keep that in mind..seems some of these higher speed models stop after a few days..Heat? see reviews) Another reviewer complained of the loudness of this drive, for my drive there is an instance of a bit of hard drive noise now and again, but I believe the case acts somewhat as an echo chamber thus amplifying normal hard drive noise through the vents. I also believe partitioning the drive to 2 or 3 partitions would also help diminish noise (can anyone guess why?)...which brings me to my only negative _ where's the partition software...luckily Amazon is offering Partition Magic 8.0 for $33 without rebate.I have moved folders, music, photos, off of my laptop and desktop to free space and I still have 99% free space. Will be adding this to my network for storage and possibly consider running massive programs through the networkLet you know what happens when I get  Norton Ghost 9.0 and Partition Magic 8.0 Bundle very good valueasH

Western Digital still dilivers good product.Most external hard drive ive used would run burning hot and would die just after warranty expires: So far so good and nice speed with more recent computers.Works great out of the box but need to be reformated (NTFS) so that you can move files bigger than 4 go.The free (trial) software looks good but i don't like trials

The best feature of this product is that it turns on and off with your computer and has power saving features.