Advantages: Relatively fast transfer rate, light, portable, reliable, looks good.
Disadvantages: Can be unexpectedly slow at times, can cause problems when unexpectedly disconnected.

.... Downsides are the obvious - heavy use of this drive means that a laptop battery will be drained a lot quicker than usual unless it itself is connected to a power source. However, this can be useful when on the move or (as I found out - during a power outage at home). Also, as much as I love Western Digital drives there are some times when they take a lot longer to load files than usual - and computers (certainly laptops) are often susceptible to problems when they are disconnected from these drives unexpectedly. All in all, as far as I am concerned Western Digital should always be trusted and as for these drives in particular - for about £50 you are getting a portable cyber-space of 160GB (equivalent to the volume of memory which most whole laptops have). Certainly a good buy from a good manufacturer.... Read review

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Advantages: Holds tonnes of files!
Disadvantages: It is quite heavy.

...I decided to buy an external harddrive as I store a lot of music and photographs on my computer and I would like it to be backed up in case my computer breaks and my files are irretrievable. I decided to start on Amazon.co.uk and searched "external harddrive" on their main page. A number of different models came up - the Western Digital My Book external harddrive came up a few times with different storage sizes - 160GB, 320GB, 500GB etc. The Western Digital My Book external harddrive stood out next to the others as it looked to be a nice size, it was better looking than most of the others available with its smart black casing and it had more variety of what storage size you can get. Space The 320GB harddrive holds up to 90,000 photos or 80,000 songs or 25 hours of film. The 160GB harddrive holds up to 45,000 photos or 40,000 songs... Read review

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Advantages: Small, light, easy to use.
Disadvantages: Difficult to open packaging

...This is a great little hard drive. Its small, light and very portable. I bought one for work a few months ago, and have since purchase 5 more for work use and one for me to use at home :) 3 of the siz drives are used on Mac OS X with no problems, and the other 3 are used as portable storage or for backups. The price is right, reliability isn't an issue, and ease of use is second to none - literally just plug in and go. It uses a standard mini-usb (think camera) plug which is supplied with the unit. Also comes with sync software on the drive - I havent used this myself but my colleagues report good things about it. I would recommend this, although you may want to look at the larger size drives (160/250gb) as they are also good on price and the extra space comes in very hand for storage.... Read review

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Advantages: Fast, Silent, Price
Disadvantages: Nothing

...There's not an awful lot to say about an hard drive really, but I'll try my best. I've bought several hard drives in the past which were either Maxtor or Western Digital, unfortunately my Western Digital failed but all the Maxtor hard disks I've purchased are still going strong. I bought an 80gb Samsung Spinpoint drive so I could use it with my Maxtor 60gb drive and use one for operating system and the other for games/files. When I turn on my computer you hear the Maxtor spin up is a high-pitch whirring sound but not a whisper from the Samsung, I have never known a hard disk to be as silent as the Samsung, you really cannot hear anything out of it. I haven't done any benchmarks on the Samsung drive but I haven't had any problems with speed, everything seems to transfer as fast, if not faster, than it did with the Maxtor alone. Price... Read review

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Advantages: Extremely Reliable
Disadvantages: A little noisy, but you'd need a decimeter to prove it!

...The Hitachi 160GB (SATA Version) is truly an exceptional drive. Whereas Maxtor are known for their low prices and Western Digital for their performance, Hitachi have truly captured the market as a result of the reliability of their products. And so it is with the 160GB Hard Drive. As far as hard drives go, it's pretty standard. It installs the same way, works the same way, even looks the same way, unless you count the different logo. I personally have 2 of these drives, having bought them as a replacement for my previous Maxtor drives, after one o them failed irrecoverably and the other failed but did not have guarenteed reliability. I have found that the Hitachi drive is slightly noisier than the Maxtor, although this is only really noticeable if you are lyying next to your case with it lying open, and even then only on bootup... Read review

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Advantages: great handy portable drive
Disadvantages: none

...I did buy this because i thought it very good and so the review that follows. Design The portable hard drive comes in an attractive silver and white case that has USB2 and FireWire 400 ports. It is a fully functional travel companion and easily fits into a rucksack or laptop bag. This is feasable because it weighs relatively little and is easy to handle. Installation The instructions were easy to follow and it installed by windows wizard as soon as i plugged it in, so within 20 minutes i was backing up my files. Performance Performance is good for a portable hard disk, and there was no real difference in speed between the two interfaces. That said, it is only 160GB, which is a bit much when you can get a near-identical Western Digital Passport 120GB for £65. Features It doesn't ship with backup software, just file... Read review

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Advantages: Very Stylish, Great Value, and Quiet. A USB hard drive for backups or storage
Disadvantages: A Little on the large side and another mains cable.

..., but not good for moving around several locations. And my only regret about this purchase.......... ...... not buying and the next size up. My Books are available in 80GB, 160GB, 250GB and 320GB Some models also support Firewire connection, Older models of Western Digital USB drives are reported to have a short lifespan and therefore short not be trusted totally as a backup device. No lifespan data is available on the My Book range yet.... Read review

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Advantages: Reliable
Disadvantages: Non

...First of all, I did not buy this hard drive. I had a cheaper Western Digital Hard drive but it broke. Lucky it was still in the warranty so i went to the post office.....to my horror it was £11.00 to send as i think it was going to germany. I thought this was awful as i had paid for the thing. I waited about a week and it was returned to me, apart from it was not the item i had sent to them. Because of my trouble they sent me a much better hard drive with about 50gb more than my old one. Because of this i think their customer services are pretty good, yeh they could have given me my £11.00 back but i gained a much better hard drive for £11.00. I use this hard drive on a Mac, because of this i have not bothered with the one touch backup button or timed backup button but to be honest i do not want all of my hard drive backed up, just... Read review

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Advantages: 250GB Lots of memory, Low power consumption, Cheap
Disadvantages: 2.5-inch limits it to USUALLY Laptops but can be used in desktop computers

...Fairly decent hard-drive. Western Digital are a well trusted company, especially for computer equipment. 250GB is a massive storage device, you could store ALOT and with low power consumption makes it even better. Looking at the prices too this is a real bargin! I really recommend this hard-drive, the real-time data protection will help if your computer ever shuts off. It is also a 2.5-inch hard-drive which usually associates with laptops, however there are some desktop computers which could use this. If you did want to buy this for a desktop computer but your computer could only use 3.5-inch then you could buy an external hard-drive shell which could plug straight into your computer OR laptop through USB or Firewire. Overall I think this is a very nice hard-drive and a good bargin at the price it's avaliable for.... Read review

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Advantages: Cheap, Sturdy, Reliable, Small, High RPM, Plug and Play
Disadvantages: Lack of space

...I bought this drive to store all of my video and audio (I do a lot of Music Technology) on. It has a fantastic transfer speed and is structurally sound without any loose bits. The rubber around the bottom provides a very sturdy base and absorbs any mild shock that may occur to the device whilst it is in use. At times I actually find that it runs slightly faster and less jittery than my internal laptop hard drive during video playback. The only downside to this product is the size. It has only taken me around five months to occupy 60 gigabytes but it is perfect for mild use. I recommend this product to anyone wanting a reliable hard drive that will last for years and never let you down.... Read review

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