Western Digital MyBook World Edition 1TB Review
Zath: These days we’re pretty lucky when it comes to storage options such as the external hard drives either using USB or network attached storage (NAS) connection options, however sometimes it’s not quite as simple as plugging in a cable and being ready to store your valuable data! The following review has been written by The Average Windows Nerd and details his experience with his new NAS drive, a Western Digital MyBook.
The Product:
Western Digital MyBook World Edition 1TB
Test Machine:
P4 3.4Ghz
2.5 GB RAM
Windows Vista Ultimate
Review:
The Western Digital MyBook World Edition is a Gigabit NAS drive, which in the Linux format comes with backup software that belongs on the front of a cereal box. It really is that awful. For some reason (and it might be Vista), the drive refuses to work with Windows backup. It says something about not being able to create a folder that already exists.
So I’m stuck using the rubbish “Retrospect” software (which you have to download, it doesn’t come with the drive) which is all dandy and fine, except it backs up in this godless proprietary format which won’t be readable by anything else.
Ever tried accessing a Drivespace compressed floppy lately?
I’ve emailed Western Digital about the problem, but have yet received no response. From skulking about on the forums, I understand that there is a problem with older versions of SAMBA which run on the drives, version 3.0 being the minimum guaranteed to work with Vista.
Other manufacturers such as Buffalo have released updates to address this problem, but Western Digital have not.
So should you buy one? Well the price is right at PC world (about £140 I think). It is indeed a 1TB NAS, but it does have issues if you want to run it with the latest software from Microsoft. I intend to try setting up a backup with it in a Windows XP Virtual Machine at some point. If I could choose again though, I don’t think I’d choose the MyBook World and would perhaps look elsewhere.
Related Pages:
- USB 3.0 SuperSpeed External Hard Disks From Western Digital & Seagate (CES 2010)
- Tuxera NTFS for Mac Review
- World of Warcraft Mouse Review
- EASEUS Todo Backup Review (Free Windows Backup Software Solution)
- Windows 7 Digital Download To Install On Netbooks Via USB (US Only)
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Comments: 1
7:31 am 1st September, 2008
I own a MyBook World Edition and I would definitely NOT recommend it. After about 6 months it has gotten to be nothing but a problem It disconnects itself every 20 minutes or so and in order to reconnect I have to pull the plug and restart it. Totally useless for backing up large amounts of data (which is the point of a drive so large.) I love that it is NAS but that only matters if you can access the drive when you need it. I am going to have to sit here while it copies all 600gb to another drive a few minutes at a time. Ridiculous.
Comments: 1
11:10 pm 7th October, 2008
absolutely not recommended, it is the most sh*te piece of kit that i have ever bought, total waste of 150 quid. Unbelievable. Disgusting, only stays up for 10 minutes and then drops off all connections.
Comments: 1
4:16 pm 25th October, 2008
I have two of them, both with the same problems, the power management is crap. I want to remove the SATA drive from the enclosure and connect it directly to my PC simply so that I can get my files off this thing, then scrap it. I find that its a Linux file format (wtf is the point of that when the machine is for use on Windows computers). Im gradually managing to get the drive to stay on for 10 mins at a time, and taking weeks to back up my files. My advice? Don’t buy this piece of sh*t. … and if you DID buy one, get your files off it, before you lose them permanently.
Comments: 2
7:08 pm 20th January, 2009
Bought a Western Digital MyBook World Edition 1TB in July. Now waiting for WD to replace drive A as it failed. Lost the data as I was using it as Raid 0.
I think it overheated as the fan didn’t seem to run as often.
Needed a Multimedia Network box so I bought Buffalo. Much sleeker!!!
Comments: 174
1:58 pm 22nd January, 2009
Thanks very much for all your comments and opinions guys, it’s good to hear your thoughts on your bad experiences you’ve had, perhaps it will help others out to avoid that, cheers!
Comments: 1
1:16 am 20th February, 2009
I’ve never owned a Western Digi NAS drive so far, but my previous experiences with WD internal hard drives – Especially the Gods-forsaken “Caviar” series – Have made me think twice and thrice about buying one. Looking at the reports above, I’m now thanking the Gods that I havn’t wasted my money on one of these pieces of [crap]!
All I have to do now is warn a close friend of mine who went and bought the 500Gb model a while ago. In fairness to the same though, we’ve been streaming hour-long video files off of it many times and it hasn’t been cutting out as described above. Did that behavior start happening right away, or did it occur after the drive had been in use for some time?
To summerise my personal views though:
I’d strongly recommend *against* using Western Digital products for storage and back-up of critical data. For storage of CD/DVD collections (Stuff that can be ripped again from the original disc if lost) they’re generally OK…But for user-data that couldn’t be recovered from published media or the Internet, run right past WD’s products.
Comments: 2
7:17 pm 27th February, 2009
The failures started after about 6 months.
Another warning, I sent the drive back on an RMA. It was received and signed for on 9th January. It is now 27 Feb and no sign of the replacement, although I have an email saying it was shipped! It took almost a month before they acknowledged they had it.
Comments: 1
12:14 pm 28th February, 2009
> The failures started after about 6 months.
I’ll warn my friend about it then and point him to this page. Generally speaking, he only powers up the drive when he actually needs to use it and leaves it off the rest of the time (Maybe these drives aren’t intended by WD for 24/7 usage?) but it might start going screwy once it hits the cumulative six-month mark.
> I sent the drive back on an RMA. It was received and signed for on 9th January. It is now 27 Feb and no sign of the replacement.
That might just be normal for stuff returned on RMAs. I sent a faulty router back to Belkin about a month ago for repair/replacement, and called them two weeks after to enquire what was happening with it. I was told that it had been “authorised for replacement, but it hasn’t been labelled for shipping” or something like that.
Another two weeks down the line, and I’ve still yet to hear from either Belkin or their courier firm.