At 15 cents per formatted gigabyte, the WD My Book Studio 2TB is a decent buy.
The 2TB drive (1.98GB readable on Mac OS) is quoted by Western Digital as having the capacity to store 400,000 digital photos, 500,000 songs or 240 hours of 720p/1080i high-definition video. The My Book Studio is relatively light (1.18kg) considering the amount of storage space crammed inside it. You may always get these from WD’s website in case you accidentally delete them from your My Book Duo.Unlike the MyBook Studio Edition II which came with two mirrored 3.5in hard drives in an unfashionably obese enclosure, this model comes with a single drive (a WD Caviar Green). There’s WD SmartWare, WD Security, and Acronis True Image WD Edition, in addition to the WD Drive Utilities. On top of that, a few useful programs are also included with the My Book Duo. This means it doesn’t rely on the operating system of the host computer to set up RAID and will allow the RAID configuration of the drive to work across platforms without needing to be reconfigured. It’s important to note that changing the RAID configuration wipes out all existing data on the device.Īpart from that, the My Book Duo supports RAID natively.
The accompanying WD Drive Utilities program allows you to adjust the RAID configuration as well as perform drive diagnostics, wiping, and formatting. This will ensure that your most important information is stored safely and not lost forever. So I highly suggest switching to RAID 1, which protects data from a single drive failure. Though it’s best to always keep in mind that RAID 0 has one flaw: if one of the devices fails, the data on both drives is lost. The My Book Duo’s two internal hard drives are configured in RAID 0 for optimal performance and storage space. It also contains two USB 3.0 A-female connections, which can be used to connect up to two more USB devices to the host computer. Even if the output of two conventional hard drives is arranged in striped RAID 1, that connection has plenty of bandwidth, and any excess bandwidth can be used by other devices connected via a USB 3.0 hub.Īdditionally, one micro-USB 3.0 on the rear of the My Book Duo connects to the host computer via the provided foot-long USB cable. WD specifies that this is a USB 3.1 Gen 1 port, but fails to mention that this is the current name for USB 3.0. USB Type-C is used to connect to your computer, and cables are available for both this standard and for converting a normal USB 3.0 port to the Type-C kind if you haven’t yet adopted the newer connector. Moving on, when the unit is turned on, a line of white light appears on the front of the unit and gradually pulses away to show signs of activity. As long as I have a duster nearby, I should have no problems. Personally, I find this aesthetic really premium-looking and sleek. So if dust is something you don’t want to deal with on your work desk, this is something to consider.
This may not be something of importance to some of you but keep in mind that once the cover is removed, the material of the My Book Duo is rather a dust magnet. The new My Book Duo now looks like a thick, monolithic black book that is standing upright with a wavy pattern on the bottom half and a mirror finish gloss on the top half after the plastic cover has been removed.
The latest My Book Duo from Western Digital has definitely seen an upgrade from its predecessors in terms of design. As a result, this is an external hard drive that should be utilized on top of a desk. If you’re searching for a smaller external drive to take with you on the move, this isn’t the best option.
It’s also important to remember that the My Book Duo isn’t the most portable drive available. In terms of storage, the My Book Duo boasts a staggering 3TB of storage space divided between two hard drives at a minimum, and identical models with up to 38TB of storage are also available if you need that much more storage. Finally, it provides quick performance, particularly when working in RAID 0, and it does so at a fairly reasonable cost. Apart from that, it also supports hardware RAID, it’s easy to repair internal hard drives, and has a large amount of expandable storage for your data. What’s more, it’s the first desktop external drive I’ve encountered in the market with a built-in USB hub and two USB 3.0 connectors. They now offer USB 3.0 connectivity, interchangeable drives, and massive storage capacity that would have appeared unthinkable only a few years ago. Western Digital’s most recent designs, such as this one, have come a long way from their humble beginnings. The My Book Duo’s predecessors used to have slow USB 2.0 connections and disks that couldn’t be upgraded by the user. While Western Digital was not the first company to create dual-drive storage devices for the market, their My Book line definitely popularized the concept.