The Western Digital My Book is a nice series of external hard drives that I have been using to store and backup data for years. They come in a variety of capacities, and have a slick design that looks good on your desk.

The My Book Rundown

I have been using Western Digital’s MyBook series of external hard drives for about 3-4 years now, with very few problems. My first MyBook a few years back was defective and had to be returned. Since then I’ve bought a few more of these drives and it’s been smooth sailing. Currently I use a 500 GB My Book external drive to backup my laptop’s internal hard drive, and a 1 TB My Book Essential Edition to backup the media on my Home Theater PC.

You’ll notice that some of the larger capacity My Book drives are fatter than the others. The reason they appear to be wider is because they contain two hard drives. This enables them to achieve their higher capacities, but also to provide RAID capabilities. Drives like the 2 TB Mirror Edition and the 4 TB World Edition NAS can duplicate your data in a RAID 1 configuration to raise the likelihood that your files will survive a hard drive crash. This is a very nice feature if you are will to spend the extra money, although if this is the direction you are looking to go I suggest you look at Drobo as well. The drives inside a Drobo can be swapped in and out when capacity is reached or a drive goes bad.

Connectivity

How you connect to a Western Digital My Book external hard drive depends on which model you choose. I have the basic models that hook up via USB 2.0 which is good enough for my needs. I have scheduled backup jobs that update the drives’ contents once per night while I’m asleep. Some models have Firewire 400 and/or 800, and still other models such as the Western Digital World Edition have network attached storage capabilities that let you plug the drive into your router and store files from any computer on your home network.

Design

WD’s My Book line of external hard drives are designed to look good when stored out in plain view. They get their name from their resemblance to a book on a desk, albeit a sleek, shiny book with a built-in light. Take a look for yourself:

The My Books also seem to be somewhat tough. I’m not saying that these are rugged hard drives meant to take abuse — because they are not — but one of mine took a dive off the entertainment center and survived. It hit my wood floor while it was turned on and the case cracked off, but I snapped it back together and it has kept on working for months now. Not bad… your mileage may vary.

Hard drives (even Western Digitals) fail all the time, which is why backing up your data is so important. I have had plenty of internal and external drives go bad on me, so when I find something that works I like to stick with it. The only bad experience I had with Western Digital was that first defective My Book drive. But since then I’ve been running 2 My Book external drives, 3 WD Caviar internal drives in my Drobo and two more inside my HTPC, all headache-free. If you are looking for a reasonably priced, easy to use external hard drive for casual everyday use, the Western Digital My Book line of products is a fine choice.