Great alternative to a new hard drive, or can be a convenient back-up

The Western Digital My Book Essential 500GB external hard drive is a worthwhile purchase for several different types of folks. I actually purchased this product for one reason, and am now using in a slightly different capacity. It has performed very well in both roles.

My original purchase was based on some needed storage space for my aging Dell computer. I had purchased it in 2001, long before I knew what demands I would be placing on my hard drive. With only a 40GB hard drive installed, I quickly found that I had nowhere near the room I needed for my photography, and other programs/files. I needed a new computer, but just didn't have the funds available to do that. I could stretch the computer's usefulness with the addition of some extra storage space though, and that is just what I did.

The Western Digital My Book came in several different sizes up to 1TB of storage. for the money, I thought that the 500GB would be plenty of room for my needs. After reading reviews, I was worried about the transfer speed from a USB 1.1 connection which was all that I had at the time. Along with the hard drive, I purchased a new USB 2.0 card and installed that at the same time. I would recommend anyone using this drive to have at least a USB 2.0 connection to avoid what I am sure would be long download times.

Installation is very simple and straightforward (I was using Windows XP). Instructions are included with the drive, but everything starts up automatically once the new hardware is recognized. After just a few steps your new hard drive is installed and ready for use. Placing files on the drive is done by a drag and drop operation through Windows Explorer. If you can move a file from one folder to another, you can work this thing with no problems.

With the hard drive installed, I was able remove many of the lesser used files from my main hard drive, thus freeing up a good portion of it. The files are still easily accessed and take no more time than when they were stored on the main hard drive. The biggest difference is with the computer hard drive freed up, operations are done quite a bit quicker which was just what I wanted.

The My Book only delayed the inevitable of replacing my computer with a newer and faster model. That didn't mean that I would be ditching the My Book, however. This happens to be another great quality of having an external hard drive...ease of transfer. When the time came to move over to the new machine, I just dumped all of my files onto the external hard drive. I powered everything down for the last time with the old computer, plugged the My Book into the new computer, and did a quick and easy install (this time on Vista). There they were...all of my files right there in their appropriate folders. I just dragged and dropped them right to the new computer hard drive. In just a couple of seconds all my files were back within easy reach.

The My Book is now used as a back-up device for my photographs and important files. I also keep original photographs on CD's and DVD's but these are not failure proof. I like having things spread across two hard drives for security sake. I have had no operational issues with the My Book as of yet. It is about 9 months old at this point.

The design of these units is very simple and they are small enough to fit just about anywhere. As the name implies, Western Digital intended for these drives to be stored on book shelves or on your desk. They can be lined up beside themselves if one is not enough for your needs. When in operation, you will see a blue light which alternates when the drive is being accessed. There is minimal noise as it spins. Curiously, other reviewers have commented on excessive noise and vibration. I don't see any more noise than my current Dell XPS, and vibration is quite minor to me.

There are two negatives to this item, but likely only one will cause you any problems. I doubt that there are that many people out there that still use the old USB 1.1 connections anymore. The My Book is compatible with that, but I've read that it comes at a tremendous penalty of speed. Retrofitting a computer with the newer USB 2.0 is a simple (and cheap) fix if needed.

The bigger complaint is that this hard drive doesn't have the software included for automatic back-up of your main hard drive. This wasn't a concern of mine, but I am sure with an item like this, there are many more that would want and expect this feature.

I have nothing but good things to say about this hard drive, it does everything that I want it to do, and does it without taking up hardly any space. Despite not including the automatic back-up software, I still think this product deserves a five star rating. Whether your hard drive is 40GB or 40TB, there are benefits to be had with this external hard drive.