Western Digital My Book Premium Edition WDG1C5000 500 GB

Western Digital My Book Premium Edition WDG1C5000 500 GB

WDG1C5000E - External hard drive - 7200 rpm - IEEE 1394 (FireWire) / Hi-Speed USB more

Overall user rating Western Digital My Book Premium Edition WDG1C5000 500 GB 2 reviews | Write a review | Add product to list

They're your photos... your music... your videos... your important files. Make extra room for them, back them up, and keep them safe on WD's My Book Premium. This reliable,...
more





Please wait ....
Rate this product:  
 

Products you might be interested in
Western Digital My Book Essential Edition WDG1U5000 500 GBWestern Digital My Book Essential Edition WDG1U5000 500 GB

WDG1U5000E - External hard drive - 7200 rpm - USB 2.0

 6 reviews

Buy now for only £ 64.99

My Book Essential Edition 2.0 WDH1U10000 1 TBMy Book Essential Edition 2.0 WDH1U10000 1 TB

WDH1U10000E - External hard drive - USB 2.0

 2 reviews

Buy now for only £ 99.00

My Book Studio Edition WDH1Q10000 1 TBMy Book Studio Edition WDH1Q10000 1 TB

WDH1Q10000E - External hard drive - IEEE 1394b (FireWire 800) / IEEE1394 (FireWire) / Hi-Speed USB / eSATA-300

 1 review

Buy now for only £ 120.99

Freecom Classic Mobile 2.5Freecom Classic Mobile 2.5" Hard Drive USB-2 120 GB

27583 - External hard drive - 2.5" - USB 2.0

 3 reviews

Buy now for only £ 38.76

Freecom Hard Drive Hard drive 500 GBFreecom Hard Drive Hard drive 500 GB

28604 - External hard drive - 3.5" - 7200 rpm - USB 2.0

 6 reviews

Buy now for only £ 67.95

Maxtor Basics Desktop 500 GBMaxtor Basics Desktop 500 GB

STM305003EHD301-RK - External hard drive - 3.5" - 7200 rpm - USB 2.0

 2 reviews

Buy now for only £ 64.53

Maxtor Basics Personal Storage 3200 500 GBMaxtor Basics Personal Storage 3200 500 GB

U15H500 - External hard drive - 7200 rpm - USB 2.0

 5 reviews

Buy now for only £ 87.50

Iomega Desktop Hard Drive Value Series Hard drive 500 GBIomega Desktop Hard Drive Value Series Hard drive 500 GB

33645 - External hard drive - 3.5" - USB 2.0

 2 reviews

Buy now for only £ 58.14

WD Elements Desktop WDE1U5000 500 GBWD Elements Desktop WDE1U5000 500 GB

WDE1U5000U - External hard drive - 7200 rpm - USB 2.0

 2 reviews

Buy now for only £ 49.99




   
My Book Premium 500GB - Recommended
A review by bananamanuk on Western Digital My Book Premium Edition WDG1C5000 500 GB
March 6th, 2007


Author's product rating:   


Advantages: Simple setup, Quiet, Small size, large capacity
Disadvantages: none

Recommend to potential buyers: yes 

Full review
SUMMARY
The Western Digital (WD) My Book Premium 500GB is a small, well built external hard drive which is quiet in operation, with excellent capacity and choice of USB 2 or Firewire connectivity. As someone who is interested in technology, photography and video editing, I often end up running low on storage space on my PC. I had been looking to get another hard drive for some time and had seen the WD advertised in a magazine at a reasonable price. I bought mine from an online retailer and as of March 2006 have been using it for 3 months and I have not experienced any problems with it.

FEATURES
Well without wanting to make it sound as though it's not a good product, because I think it is, there's not much to it, it's just an external hard drive, however it is stylish and feels well built. It is quiet as there is noisy fan, but it doesn't overheat because of the air vents on the top surface. I have mine on my desk and when in standby or turned on but not in operation you wouldn't know it was there, but when it reads something I can feel a little vibration on the desk, for example when using my mouse. It's far from excessive though.

This range of discs comes in a variety of flavours which vary in their connectivity to the computer and the size of the disc, and therefore they will vary in price. The Premium version that I have differs from the standard version because it has Firewire connections as well as USB2 and the light on the front is blue not green.

IN THE BOX
You get the hard drive itself which is mat black with dimensions of about 6cm thick, 13.cm long by about 16.5cm tall. You also get a USB and Firewire lead, plus a power lead with an adapter for converting the power supply. There was an instruction sheet and software on CD as well.


CONNECTING
First of all I installed the WD software CD which installed the drivers, this was quick and painless although it also came with Google Picasso, which I promptly uninstalled because it affected software I had installed.

The next bit was simplicity at it's best. Now I am quite computer literate and have installed internal drives before but this is so much easier, literally plug in the USB port, plug in the power, press the button on the front and hey presto, it's installed, allocated a drive letter and straight away you can start to use it.

You have the option of firewire connection too, but personally I find USB 2 is fine.


USAGE
Turing the unit on is simply a case of pressing the large circular button on the front of the disc, the blue light will flash for a moment but startup times are incredibly quick, probably 30 seconds tops. You'll get a WD icon in the system tray as well. Windows automatically detects the drive, assigns the drive letter and gives the usual options of file viewing, playing or open folders.

I use my drive as a backup for my photos, video and music files. You could save anything you want to the disc, pretty much all except the operating system of your computer. The transfer of files is a case of drag and drop, in exactly the same way that you would in any other folder. I find the transfer very quick indeed, I transferred 43 GB in about 10 mins - 15 mins, although this is very approximate but preferable to backing up to CDs and DVDs.

I tend to do a lot of video editing, which by its nature creates large files. I have found this drive is perfect for backing up the completed videos and playback is also smooth and uninterrupted, but I would still use an internal SATA drive for my main editing and transfer to external source because the data transfer rates should be better.

The blue light on the front power button looks really cool, well I think so at least! When not in use it displays a solid blue line, constantly lit up, but when accessing a file this will flash. When not in use and you want to turn the drive off you have to press the circular button in and old it for about 3-5 seconds until the blue light flashes from side to side then it will power down.

This is my only criticism, sometimes I find it can be a bit fiddly or if you don't hold the button for the right time it won't power down. I know this might sound petty for 3-5 seconds but it might be better to have a separate off switch?


CONCLUSION
I don't think you could make this product any simpler in overall setup and use, other than my comment regarding the on off button. It's quick, looks good, and quiet and above all it does exactly what it should. I don't think you can really make hard discs sexy, but Western Digital has at least made it look classy. I would recommend this, especially to people that don't like fiddling about inside their computer.
 
More Reviews
Beautiful Crafted Harddrive
Review of Western Digital My Book Premium Edition WDG1C5000 500 GB by oliverporter3

Advantages: Good Value For Money, Attractive, 500GB of Space
Disadvantages: None!!

I bought this portable harddrive for my personal use at home. WIth its massive storage capacity of 500GB i was able to store all my media, photos, movies and music all in one place! This enabled me to keep my harddrive on my computer clear of media, and resulted in my computer running a lot smoother and much faster! It is one of the best designed portable harddrives around at the moment and its design on the outside is beautiful! In the dark the ...
...only does it function as electronical device but is also very nice to look at. There is a fixed pattern sequence that constantly plays on repeat to provide an attractive blue lighting show! A installation CD comes free with this product that allows to easily install the harddrive and then as a result you can back-up any data stored on the device! I found this very useful because it took away any worry from my mind that all my data could be lost ... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
helpful

13.06.2007
(14.06.2007)


Western Digital My Book Premium Edition WDG1C5000 500 GB

Hard drive

Capacity: 500 GB

Interface Type: IEEE 1394 (FireWire) / Hi-Speed USB

Buffer Size: 16 MB

Features: Safe Shutdown

Performance

Interface Transfer Rate: 400 Mbps (FireWire) / 480 Mbps (Hi-Speed USB)

Seek Time: 8.9 ms (average)

Track-to-Track Seek Time: 2 ms

Average Latency: 4.2 ms

Spindle Speed: 7200 rpm

Power

Power Source: Included AC adapter

Power Device: Power adapter

Voltage Required: AC 120/230 V ( 50/60 Hz )

Manufacturer's product description

They're your photos... your music... your videos... your important files. Make extra room for them, back them up, and keep them safe on WD's My Book Premium. This reliable, easy-to-use external hard drive is the perfect storage solution for all your precious digital assets.

Environmental parameters

Min Operating Temperature: 5 °C

Max Operating Temperature: 35 °C

Ciao

Listed on Ciao since : 14/05/2006


Products similar to Western Digital My Book Premium Edition WDG1C5000 500 GB  
western digital my book essential edition 500

The ‘Essential Edition’ of the Western Digital MyBook only has USB2.0, which for me, is fine as I can plug it into any computer I wish. Other editions include Firewire, which of course costs more and not all computers support Firewire. It has a... more

western digital my book pro 500 gb

As information for those who don't know, this is an external storage device. Basically that means that inside the device is a hard disc drive for storing your data and it connects to your computer via either USB or firewire (all types). There is lots of... more

western digital 320gb "my book" premium

I purchased the Western Digital My Book 320GB from Amazon.co.uk for ?108 for this price I received next day delivery. Also Western Digital are one of the biggest and most respected manafacturers of hard drives in the world, and most of the big PC... more

western digital my book pro edition wdg1t3200

This hard drive is very similar in look and feel to the other Passport versions that Western Digital has, in particular the Book with a glowing yellow circle that is very nice to look at and quite heavy to boot. I needed another external harddrive as... more

Related tags for Western Digital My Book Premium Edition WDG1C5000 500 GB
500 gb external western digital my book my book premium edition western digital 500 gb western digital my book 320gb western digital my book essential edition western digital my book home edition western digital my book premium western digital my book premium edition western digital my book pro edition western digital my book studio edition

Compare Western Digital My Book Premium Edition WDG1C5000 500 GB to other similar Hard Drives

similar by Manufacturer
(Western Digital)
similar by Capacity
(From 450 GB to 650 GB)
similar by Interface
(IEEE 1394 (FireWire) / Hi-Speed USB)
(*) Reviews by Ciao members

Gift ideas

Similar products and search queries by other users


Western WDG1C5000, Western Digital WDG1C5000, Western My WDG1C5000, Western Book WDG1C5000, Western Premium WDG1C5000, Western Edition WDG1C5000, Western Digital My WDG1C5000, Western Digital Book WDG1C5000, Western Digital Premium WDG1C5000, Western Digital Edition WDG1C5000, Western My Book WDG1C5000, Western My Premium WDG1C5000, Western My Edition WDG1C5000, Western Book Premium WDG1C5000, Western Book Edition WDG1C5000



Are you the manufacturer / provider of Western Digital My Book Premium Edition WDG1C5000 500 GB? Click here