WD My Book, External USB, Mini Review.

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Sat May 27, 2006 12:02 pm

Couldn't pass up the deal.....$119 at Circuit City. 250GB WD hard drive in an external housing (plastic) that looks like a small black book. This version comes with no back-up software, so you'll need to supply your own.

It's quiet.....I can only hear it running from a few feet if I get right over the top. It has vent holes on the top, bottom, and rear, but no fan. Runs fairly cool. I measure 44C at the top vent holes after a long file transfer, and a back-up of the OS onto the WD (Drive Image 7.0). Ambient today is 28C.

It comes formatted Fat32....so it's essentially plug and play, no drivers necessary (XP SP2). The speed is about the same as every other USB 2.0 drive I've tried.

But the really nice part.....it turns off when you shut down the computer, and when the computer is running the drive spins down to zero rpms after a few minutes of in-activity. It takes a few seconds to restart after it has gone to sleep. I like it so far ....no issues at all.

Link

nici · Post by **nici** » Sat May 27, 2006 1:12 pm

Seems like a very nice drive...

If didnÂ´t already have a couple of Lacie drives id probably get this one.

Hellspawn · Post by **Hellspawn** » Sat May 27, 2006 2:52 pm

I saw those at Sam's recently, 122 at the time, but was turned off by the need for the AC adapter.. I'd rather go a bit smaller and just have the USB connector to deal with .

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Sat May 27, 2006 3:19 pm

Since it uses a 3.5" drive, it for sure requires an external power supply. Only laptop drives in external enclosures can get by with current off the USB port. Far as I know anyway.....

nemo · Post by **nemo** » Sat May 27, 2006 4:24 pm

all external 3.5" usb drives that i have seen get by without an external power supply.

so does the one standing on my desk.

qviri · Post by **qviri** » Sat May 27, 2006 4:33 pm

nemo wrote:all external 3.5" usb drives that i have seen get by without an external power supply.

so does the one standing on my desk.

That's really interesting, since if I'm not mistaken a USB port is specified for 0.5 A on the 5 V rail, totalling 2.5 W. A 3.5" drive in spin-up would need at least four USB plugs to get enough power, or risk not working with some setups.

nici · Post by **nici** » Sat May 27, 2006 5:07 pm

Never seen a 3,5" usb drive without a brick..

Hellspawn · Post by **Hellspawn** » Sat May 27, 2006 5:57 pm

The drives without the ac brick were all notebook drives.. I too have not seen a standard 3.5" drive (desktop type) that did not power from an AC adapter.. Anyone provide a link otherwise?

Denorios · Post by **Denorios** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 6:16 am

Bluefront, I'm strongly considering buying one of these, so I'd appreciate an update. After two weeks of using it, do you still recommend it?

When you say it spins down to zero, do you literally means that it completely stops - i.e. that it is silent?

Does it attempt to install any irritating and unecessary software when you connect it? I got the impression from the Maxtor website that it did, which is the only thing that concerns me.

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 3:01 pm

No problems so far.....one time it did not turn off when I shut down the computer, no big deal.

Mine did not install anything......it just sits there, another fat 32 USB drive. No extra software is necessary at all. And it does stop spinning completely after a few minutes. Complete silence.

Denorios · Post by **Denorios** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 11:49 pm

Perfect. If only internal drives behaved so well. I'll have to buy a couple. Thanks.

Denorios · Post by **Denorios** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 12:58 am

Just one thought. Isn't this feature going to radically increase the number of power cycles that the drive will go through in a given period? Wouldn't this have an adverse effect on the drive's lifetime?