Hard drives: Compare features & prices Western Digital My Book Essential review

The Western Digital MyBook Essential packs USB 3.0 connectivity into a thoroughly affordable external hard drive. This means that, while the drive doesn't offer the premium construction or features of some rivals, it should make up for it with excellent performance. Has this worked? We tested the MyBook Essentials to find out.
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Posts (9)
User Image wrote:
Reslic wrote:
Unwieldy and noisy
Open your WD MyBook hard drive, and among the files you've stored there yourself, you'll find a slew of WD files. These shouldn't be removed or even put into a folder. The result is that either you throw all your files and folders onto the WD in a disorganised manner (just letting your stuff mix in with the WD stuff), or you have to carefully organise your data *around* the WD files. This is an absolute pain. I'm also always concerned that I'm going to accidentally include one WD file in my own backup folder, and mess up the whole thing.The on/off switch is hard to find. It's hard to tell whether you've pressed it. It feels as if you're just pressing a piece of wood, with no tactile feedback to indicate that you've pressed a button. Indeed, the best way to tell it's running is to wait a while, at which the noise will become too distracting for you to work.The instructions indicated that this hard drive can do all sorts of wonderful things. I'm sure that if I were an IT expert like the Which testers, I'd have been able to figure it out. But for us mere mortals, I never could even work out what it was supposed to do, never mind get it operating the way they wanted me to. Just ended up using it as a basic storage area, to which I could drag and drop files.
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9/6/2013 9:47 AM GDT
User Image wrote:
2011-07-29 20:20:37.937 wrote:
Temp Files
Bought 1TB version in Aug 2011, unit itself backs up and appears to work well although I've never had to restore any files from it yet. Unfortunately I have just discovered it creates GB of data in Windows/Temp files (233GB in my case) all shown as etilqs** files & WD website is not much use in resolving the problem.
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16/4/2013 7:49 PM GDT
User Image wrote:
YorickBC wrote:
Older model on a MacBook Pro
I've had a 1Tb My Book since 2008. Easy to use on a Firewire cable, no problems at any time. Firewire is a fast connection. I use it for a Time Machine backup in a smaller partition, and general files in a 700Gb partition.
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19/12/2012 7:58 PM GST
User Image wrote:
cahill54321 wrote:
Faulty machine
I purchased my 1.5TB unit about 2 years ago and used it to back-up on a six monthly basis. It's not very reliable and on the last attempted back-up failed (my desktop did not even recognise the unit and it is unresponsive). As highlighted in other posts the helpdesk was not responsive/ useful and I'm just going to have to replace it. I wouldn't buy from WD again.
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8/11/2012 9:02 PM GST
User Image wrote:
ca0203 wrote:
Unable to format
I am not experienced in setting up computer software and hard ware. I have had this external hard drive for about a year, and have been unable to format it, hence cannot use backup and restore. I just copy files over from the desktop computer, but this means having to duplicate documents, files and photographs, not an efficient method for storage. The company have not been able to help with the set up, nor have the team at Computing Helpdesk, who have just referred me to the instructions. I have not been able to follow these successfully.Would not recommend this item.
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20/10/2012 5:54 PM GDT
User Image wrote:
mail wrote:
When Things go Wrong...
Western Digital hard drives often get very good reviews but when they go wrong WD have no-one in the UK to help. Calls to foreign call centres with unhelpful agency workers who fail to act resulting in repeated calls. Eventually you have to send your device to a freight company near Heathrow who ship your drive to the USA. Mine was replaced about two months later after many, many phone calls (it went missing...). Beware of WD. I'm sticking to Seagate.
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17/10/2012 8:34 PM GDT
User Image wrote:
2011-08-12 20:15:00.927 wrote:
Never buy from this company
I've looked everywhere to review a related item, the WD My Book Live. I have had one of these for 9 months. It has never worked correctly and (as with another reviewer) the company is totally UNHELPFUL. I would never buy anything similar from WD again.
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11/10/2012 1:45 PM GDT
User Image wrote:
ianmosescal wrote:
Not User Friendly
You almost need to be a computer wizard to use this system. No instructions other than the set up instructions. For an inexperienced user like myself, I found it very difficult . Took me ages to determine where all my music was once the back up was complete. Eventually had to get a friend in who initially was also mystified, but after an hour and a half, managed to sort it out (and he is an expert on computers!!!)
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12/6/2012 10:25 AM GDT
User Image wrote:
jillmorris wrote:
jill morris
Bought one in January 2012, needed to remove it from my computer,followed instructions as per company instructions. It has not completely removed and now neither works or can be reinstated. The company has been most UNHELPFUL. I am now stuck with a piece of expensive equipment that does not work. Looks as if I will need to take my computer back to factory settings.
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19/3/2012 4:43 PM GST

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