Western Digital My Book Essential Edition WDG1U5000 500 GB

Advantages: Good value for money, very simple to use
Disadvantages: Not portable and has a power cable and usb cable

...500gb available. Produced by Western Digital who are a confirmed producer of storage devices both internal and external, I chose it because of it's confirmed brand and at the time the price was good. It is a quirky shape in that as the title suggests it is book shaped. To give further guidance it is about the height and width of the paperback edition of the Da Vinci Code and as such fits nicely on a book shelf., obviously without the wiring. The ...
...it is quite quick and transfers your files easily. - It is externally powered which means it is faster. - You can do drag and drop backups if you only want to back up one folder to save time. - It is good value for money is that it gives you what you want for a reasonable price. - It is easy to use and will self install on most machines above Windows 2000 (which includes Vista), although drivers for Windows 98 were also available online. - Unlike ... Read review

Advantages: space, price ease of use
Disadvantages: none

I really do love Western Digital hard drives as they deliver great performance and storage at very reasonable prices. This is no exception. This is a very cool and compact metal-cased storage device that works as well as you would expect from Western Digital, which means phenomenal performance at a great price. Design Its presented in a big box, and I was very relieved (and also surprised) to see how small it actually is! At 8cm in width, by 1.5 ...
...on/off button to as on the MyBook western digital range. During powerdown of your computer, the hard disk will automatically turn off, so there is no need to turn it off yourself. I would thoroughly recommend this product due to its great reliability and very good value for money. ... Read review

Advantages: Fast, nice design, prevents data loss and corruption
Disadvantages: slows down the start up time (unknown reason)

General Western Digital specialises in producing external hard drives therefore their products are of good quality. The My Book Essential offers 500 GB which is more than enough for a standard user (Family usage). You can back up your pictures, videos, documents and programs without running out of space. Design The HD has a slick design and the shape of a book; it is small - however not small enough to be a portable hard drive. But ...
...the included set up from Western Digital that allows you to manage sync groups and automate backups or update files on the external drive. Based on my personal experience data stored on the drive is really secure! It happened more than once that my friend unplugged the drive while being used - regardless this fact I was happy enough not to lose data or discover that it was corrupted. USB/memory sticks often break down after being accidentally pulled ... Read review

Advantages: Build quality, price,easy to use.
Disadvantages: Limited speed (USB2), no software.

Before you buy this product, it's worth making sure that it's the one for you as there are 3 versions - Pro, Premium and Essential. As the name suggests, "Essential" gives you the basics - 500MB with USB2 support. It's easy to install, and although it should work via an additional powered usb hub (if you have one), it's probably safer to use a spare USB port direct to your machine. Other than that, it's really just a question of plugging it in ...
...file system it comes preformatted with - at the time of writing it's FAT32, and most users will probably want to make their first job that of changing this to NTFS, which is both simple and quick. 500GB is obviously loads of space for either making backups on, or holding ripped copies of DVDs. The "Essential" edition has perhaps just two main drawbacks. 1) It comes with no backup software, and this alone can cost £30 -£40. 2) It only has a USB ... Read review

Good hard drive. Nice plastic case. When the drive spins up, it makes a bit too much noise in my opinion. It's easy to install, windows finds it automatically. There is some extra software with it (I think backup software), but I didn't use it. Summary: good product.