Western Digital My Book Elite Review
Western Digital My Book Elite Desktop External Hard Drive (640GB, 1TB, 1.5TB, 2TB) Review
Western Digital has upped the ante time and again on its wide range of external storage solutions. The biggest face lift is for the My Book desktop external hard drive series which now features the My Book Elite and My Book Studio. Today, we will be reviewing the My Book Elite which is now, much smarter and sleeker than ever featuring a customisable elabel, automatic, continuous backup and also a new smaller size to fit snugly on your desktop. Out of these features, the one feature that the label boasts that most of the other external hard drives do not have is the customisable elabel which will remain visible even when there is no power supplied to the unit. On the eve of USB 3.0 drives, the Western Digital My Book Elite 2TB seems to be the state of the USB 2.0 drive art. Read on to find out about some of the other features and performance.
Design:
Sleek:
The Western Digital My Book Elite desktop external hard drive has a design that is very similar to that of its predecessors, but is much sleeker than them. The new sleeker design brings the beauty and brains together. As you can imagine, this book-like shape takes up minimal space on your desk and allows two or more My Book drives to nestle neatly together like volumes on a shelf. The design also allows it to be sat horizontally or vertically and additional units can be stacked on top of each other.
The e-label:
Fascia is that part that has gone through the biggest change; the slim LED capacity gauge has been replaced by an eInk display to indicate the capacity and the very useful information of security status. Since the display is eInk, the label lasts for six months before asking for power again. This display can also be used to label the device using the WD SmartWare software, which is definitely much handy if you have more than one drive to handle. For instance, you can customise the label to remind you of what is stored in the drive. The good news is that, it is still passively cooled through the vents that are available on the top and rear, and hence, the device runs much silently.
Features:
Interface:
Coming to the part of interface, the Western Digital My Book Elite Desktop External Hard Drive has a single mini USB2.0 connection, which is same as the one that is used in the vast majority of devices. Given the Elite moniker, we would certainly like to have seen some faster connectivity options like FireWire 800 or eSATA.
Compatibility:
Though the WD Book Elite Desktop Drive is formatted in NTFS for Windows PCs out of the box, the device is compatible with the Macs as well. To be specific, the drive is compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Mac OS, Tiger, Leopard and Snow Leopard. Western Digital has included both Mac and Windows versions of the bundled software on a reserved partition of the drive. This just means that, even if the drive is formatted, the software remains in it.
Capacities available:
The Western Digital My Book Elite comes in capacities that suite everybody’s needs. For people who need huge capacities, there is the 2TB (WDBAAH0020HCH), 1.5TB (WDBAAH0015HCH) and 1TB(WDBAAH0010HCH) and if you are a light user, the Elite is also available in a much smaller 640GB(WDBAAH6400HCH) capacity.
WD Smart Ware:
The WDSmartWare Software included is one of the best. It is a configuration hub that allows you to choose the backup schedules, alter the eInk label and also enable the drive’s password protected 256 bit AES hardware encryption. New users will be pleased to know that whenever the My Book Elite drive is plugged in for the first time, a simple and intuitive first backup process will initialise. It features a real-time visual interface of WD SmartWare software that offers users a reassuring view of their backup as and when it happens. Real time visual interface in the sense, the software will present you with a graphical representation of all the various bits of data in 6 main categories: System, Pictures, Other, Music, Movies, and Documents. Once the initial backup system runs, users’ files will be backed up automatically every time there is a change or a file is added to a particular directory. You will be able to effortlessly retrieve your valuable data to its original location whether you have lost all your data or just overwritten an important file.
You can either select all or pick and choose the particular types of files you want to be automatically backed up when your My Book Essential is plugged in. Then simply click ‘Run Backup’ and voila, your files will begin to copy automatically. SmartWare will continuously update the graphical representation with the status of your backup. By default, the software is set to run as a low priority while your machine is in use and will speed up when the machine is in idle state.
As you can see, backing up of the WD My Book Elite is quite intuitive. It offers automatic and continuous backup to make sure all your data within remains safe and sound most of the time. Similar to the software on the HP SimpleSave Portable, WD’s SmartWare automatically categorises data on both your PC and the External Hard Drive based on file extensions. From here, you will be able to choose the types of files to back-up. However, unlike the SimpleSave Portable, you will not be able to set your own custom extensions. And, as a result, the obscure media formats will be simply listed as ‘other’ and bundled with some of the other miscellaneous system files. The Western Digital SmartWare supports up to twenty five sequential backups of the same file.
Data lock:
To up the ante security wise, you will find a combination of user-selected password protection with 256-bit hardware-based encryption to be more than sufficient to prevent unauthorized data theft. WD never receives your drive’s password. In other words, you are the only person who knows the password. Should it be lost, the drive will remain locked or must be re-formatted to use again. We can live with that.
Performance:
Speed:
With this 256-bit hardware-based encryption, you can be sure that the new My Book Elite desktop drive will not disappoint you much on the notes of performance and capability. The drive has read speed of 27.7Mbps and write speed of 24.1 Mbps as far as the large files are concerned and with the smaller files like 3GB ones, the drive has read speed of 24.6Mbps and write speed or 15.2Mbps. However, there are much faster USB 2.0 based external hard drives that have passed through our tests, and the Western Digital My Book Elite does not offer any alternative connections like eSATA. Generally speaking, the drive is pretty quiet, although there is the usual buzz and hum during large backups.
Earth friendly:
My Book external drives are designed to save energy. WD GreenPower Technology™ lowers internal drive power consumption by up to 30%, a sleep mode reduces power during idle times, and a power-saving feature turns the drive on and off with your computer.
Package:
The package contents include the My Book Elite external hard drive, WD SmartWare software (pre-loaded), USB cable, AC adapter and Quick Install Guide.
Warranty:
Western Digital offers its latest My Book Elite Desktop drive three years limited warranty for parts and labour.
Verdict:
The Western Digital My Book Elite is a decent desktop external hard drive. The drive manages reasonable read and write speeds while dealing with both small and large files, but it is not the fastest USB 2.0 drive around in the market. A much faster interface like FireWire 800, would have certainly made a difference if you are transferring huge files. We wished the software offered more control over which files and folders you want to include/exclude from the backup, but in terms of a complete and idiotproof backup system, SmartWare does a respectable job. The My Book Elite is reasonably priced, powerful, and intuitive, and the drive offers users easy backup and restore, full-disk encryption, and an awesome e-ink label. The maximum capacity of 2GB does not hurt either.
Western Digital My Book Elite Hard Drive - Technical Specification Table
| Manufacturer | Western Digital |
| Model Name | Western Digital My Book Elite |
| Product Code | 2TB: WDBAAH0020HCH 1.5TB: WDBAAH0015HCH 1TB: WDBAAH0010HCH 640GB: WDBAAH6400HCH |
| Drive type | Desktop |
| Enclosure Type | Metal |
| Hard Disk Interface | USB 2.0 |
| Dimensions (H x W x D) | 165 x 48 x 135 mm |
| Weight | 1.18 Kg |
| Colours available | Grey and silver |
| Capacities available | 2TB, 1TB, 1.5TB and 640GB |
| Drive Device, Buffer Size | Variable |
| Hard Disk Spindle Speed | 7200 rpm |
| Software included | WD SmartWare |
| Compatible systems | Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Mac OS, Tiger, Leopard and Snow Leopard |
| Data transfer rate | 480 Mb/s |
| Compliant Standards | RoHS |
| Power Source | Power adapter |
| Power Requirements | 100 - 240 VAC |
| Package contents | WD My Book Elite external hard drive, USB cable, AC adaptor and a quick install guide |
| Warranty | 3 years |
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