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My Book Premium Edition review: My Book Premium Edition
If write speed isn't a top priority, the Western Digital MyBook is a good deal at around $300 for a 500GB drive. It'll look good on your desk or bookshelf, too.
CNET editor Dong Ngo has been involved with technology since 2000, starting with testing gadgets and writing code for CNET Labs' benchmarks. He now manages CNET San Francisco Labs, reviews 3D printers, networking/storage devices, and also writes about other topics from online security to new gadgets and how technology impacts the life of people around the world.
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
- Drive type: external hard disk drive
- Available capacities: 160GB; 250GB; 320GB; 400GB; 500GB--all drives have a 7,200rpm hard disk drive
- Capacity of test unit: 500GB
- Cache: 16MB for the 400GB and 500GB drives; 8MB for the rest
- Dimension: 6.8 x 5.6 x 2.2 (HLD in inches); 2.6 pounds
- Notable design features: backup button; book-like design
- Connection options: FireWire 400, USB 2.0
- OSs supported: Windows 98 SE/Me/2000/XP or, Mac OS X 10.2.8+
- Software included: EMC Retrospect Express Backup and System Recovery Software (on drive)
- Additional features: capacity gauge: the backup button features an LED that indicates how much space is available on your drive; the drive turns itself off when not in use
- Service/support: one-year warranty; toll-free phone support: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. from Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday, and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. CT on Saturday; e-mail support via an online form; Web site has a searchable knowledge base, FAQs, downloadable drivers, and software.
On CNET Labs' test bench, the 500GB MyBook was very sluggish when writing, via both FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 connections. The drive took almost 36 minutes to write our 10GB test folder, about three times slower than other hard drives with the same specs. On the other hand, in the read test, the MyBook drive took slightly less than 10 minutes to get the job done, which was the fastest among all of the external hard drives we've tested.
The Western Digital MyBook comes in a very sleek design that is shaped like a medium-size book and weighs about the same. It features a button in front that activates the bundled Retrospect backup software. The coolest thing about the MyBook drive is that the button has a round, blue LED ring around it that indicates the amount of space available on the hard drive.