The ultimate back up device

For the last 7 or 8 years, I've been using a Master and Slave hard drive on my computer, until recently. I was tired of having to back up everything onto a DVD, when the backup drive was getting full. The slave was a 60GB Maxtor, the Master is an 80GB Western Digital. I first heard about these external Hard Drives from a podcast, and decided to do my homework on them. I've used Western Digital's products for quite sometime now, and figured it was a no brainer to stick with them.

I wanted a Hard Drive that had plenty of space, wasn't a bulky unit, and be easy to use on any computer. My Book handles all the above, with it's slick design, and the available models out there... there's something for everyone. I have the 750GB model, and let me tell you, I'm glad I went with this. I have a huge mp3 collection, thanks in part to my huge CD collection and my Itunes account.

Every time I purchase a new CD, the first thing I do is rip it to mp3s. Sometimes the whole album, sometimes just a few tracks... it depends on the album. Lately, I've been ripping my music into higher quality files, that are larger in file size... so having a drive like the My Book is nice to have.

Out of the box, the drive comes with some software that offers a way to do backups of your computer, I've consider purchasing a second My Book, just for this task, but held off since I'm saving back for an iMac. There's no CD to worry about, you just plug in the USB cable and the computer does a scan and everything works like a charm. I have a Dell laptop running Vista, and have had zero problems when hooking up the drive. I've heard horror stories about how the drive crapped out not long after purchasing, I've had mine for a couple months now and runs great. I do notice, that it can be noisy at times, and also has a tendency to run, whenever it's not even in use. My guess is that it's doing a check or something... so I just leave it alone. The older My Books have the circle light on front of the unit, but the one I have is just two lights, that move alternately when in use.

I mostly use my drive for the purpose of storing my mp3s and all of my web and graphic design work. I've noticed that when you are reinstalling Windows, you have to be careful and unplug the hard drive, as it will detect it and ask you if you wish to install it on there. This is something college students, or those with a large media collection would find useful. A friend of mine is considering a purchase, although he is looking at a smaller drive size. I happen to find mine on sale at Best Buy, and figured it was wise to get the larger drive for the awesome price it was available for. The 750GB model runs for $200.00, normally I wouldn't pay that much, but caught it on sale for $150.00 or somewhere around that ballpark.

At the moment, the following drives are available...

320GB
500GB
750GB
1TB (1,000 GB)
1TB Firewire/USB

If you have money to burn, and want the mother of all My Books, there's a 2TB model, listed for $700.00 on Best Buy's website. I'm not sure if this is the new version or an older version of the drive. They also offer an Office My Book, available in different sizes, but I'm not sure what the differences are between those and the regular. In closing, this is a great way to back up data if you plan to get a new computer. If you do a lot of work from the office, or have a home office, this is a great way to store all your data. It never hurts to have a backup method, especially when working with valuable information. You never know when that hard drive inside your computer could crap out and leave you frustrated.

I hope this review helped you consider making a purchase.