Western Digital My Book Essential 2 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive WDBAAF0020HBK-NESN Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This drive is embedded with Western Digital's SmartWare virtual CD that will ALWAYS and FOREVER boot to your Mac computer. This Virtual CD cannot be disabled, unmounted, removed, eradicated, or partitioned away - EVERY!!!!! It says so right on WD's website buried in the tech support area, not on the box where this kind of "don't-buy-our-product" warning belongs. Western Digital has decided to embed their Virtual CD Smartware into this drive so that you cannot, under any circumstances, disable or remove the VCD. It will forever mount this unwanted intrusion to your Mac (Windows is no better apparently) and their website essentially tells you that you can do nothing about it.

Can you tell that I am upset?!? I own seven other Western Digital hard drives and I will not own this one. Nor will I buy another in the future out of fear of getting the same results.

Like many people, I have no need for their backup or security software as I just want external drivers for pure storage. If I were to buy more of these like I had planned, My desktop would be cluttered with a bunch of meaningless virtual CDs. This intrusion may not annoy Windows users as the Virtual CDs will just clutter up your "My Computer" window; but, on a Mac this type of unalterable intrusion is beyond unacceptable. I cannot believe that Western Digital could not see the alienation of every Mac user on the planet from ten miles away on this one.

Western Digital and other drive makers have, for a while now, put their software install packages onto the external hard drives that they sell; but, it has always been just stored on the drive where it can be deleted or is removed when the drive is reformatted - at worst it was on a separate partition that could be removed. But, not with this new version (version 3?) of the My Book Essential Drives where it is embedded into the drive's hardware and cannot be deactivated. Until Western Digital rethinks their strategy and changes this practice, their hard drives should be avoided and boycotted.

(For more information, see all of the review on the 1TB version of this drive.)

UPDATE: After returning the Essentials drive, I purchased two of Western Digital's Elements External 1TB Hard Drives; Exactly what I needed in the first place... an external hard drive that is built like a tank and is only what it is supposed to be: a hard drive. No "fancy" value-added software embedded in the hardware to muck up the works on this drive. I highly recommend the Western Digital Elements external hard drives for all of your storage needs!

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Product Description:

Our best-selling My Book external drive is an elegant, high-capacity storage solution for all the chapters of your digital life. Our latest edition now features visual, easy-to-use, automatic, continuous backup software and drive lock security protection. At last, beauty, brains, and simplicity together.


Elegant design.


This book-like shape takes up minimal space on your desk and allows two or more My Book drives to nestle neatly together like volumes on a shelf.


See your life safe in one place.


WD SmartWare software - Avisual control center with a single screen view of all your data. From it youcan back up, retrieve, and secure your files.


Password protection.


An extra level of securitywith passwordprotection and 256-bit hardware-based encryption.











Features at a glance

• Automatic, continous backup
• Illuminated capacity gauge
• Password protection and hardware encryption
• WD SmartWare software
• 2-years limited warranty

Smaller, sleeker, more streamlined design - We've made these award-winning drives even smaller, sleeker, and more elegant. As always, this book-like shape takes up minimal space on your desk and allows two or more My Book drives to nestle neatly together like volumes on a shelf.WD SmartWare™ - A control center for your drive that gives youthe power to:-- Protect your data automatically- Relax, your data is secure. Automatic, continuous backup will instantly make a second copy whenever you add or change a file.-- See your backup as it happens - Seeing is believing. Visual backup displays your content in categories and shows the progress of your backup.


-- Bring back lost files effortlessly- Retrieve your valuable data to its original location whether you've lost all your data or just overwritten an important file.-- Take control- Customize your backup, set drive security, run diagnostics, manage the power settings, and more from the WD SmartWare control center.Find out more about WD SmartWare™Drive lock- Gain peace of mind knowing that your data is protected from unauthorized access or theft with password protection and 256-bit hardware-based encryption.Illuminated capacity gauge - See at a glance how much space is available on your drive.USB 2.0 interface- Powered directly from the USB port on your PC. No separate power supply is needed*.
* An optional cable is available for the few computers that limit power from the USB port.


Power miser - My Book external drives are designed to save energy. WD GreenPower Technology™ lowers internal drive power consumption by up to 30%, a sleep mode reduces power during idle times, and a power-saving feature turns the drive on and off with your computer.Planet friendly- We designed a small box from recycled materials to minimize waste. We encourage you to recycle it.Ready to plug-and-play with Windows PCs- If you're a Mac user, check out our Mac version of this product.


Ideal For

• Protecting your data with automatic, continous backup
• Retrieving lost data effortlessly
• Adding extra storage space for photos, videos and music
• Securing private or sensitive data

Compatibility


Formatted NTFS
Windows® XP, Windows Vista®, Windows 7
Mac OS® X Tiger®, Leopard®, Snow Leopard™ (requires reformatting)

Note: Compatibility may vary depending on user's hardware configuration and operating system.What's in the box

External hard drive, WD SmartWare software, USB cable, AC adapter, Quick Install Guide.



Backup software you'll really use � WD SmartWare


Five great reasons to love it:


1. It's easy - Data backup can be a chore, but it's your family photos, your movies, your music - your life - and it's important to protect it. So we made this software extra easy because we really want you to use it.


2. You can see your life safe in one place -
See your content displayed in easy to understand categories like movies and photos. Watch the progress of your backup as it happens with the instant-feedback color bars. Now you can truly be sure that all your stuff is backed up.

• A unique visual interface lets you see the drives connected to your computer.
• WD SmartWare will automatically scan your computer and find all of your personal files, including e-mail.
• Content category gauges show how much information you have to be backed up in each category. You can even mouse over a category to see a file count.
• Simply click Run Backup and WD SmartWare will automatically start backing up your files.
• As your backup is running the category gauges will change color showing you the backup as it happens.
• When finished, you'll see a status screen and information about your backup. You only have to do this once. After the first backup your files will be backed up automatically every time you change or add a file.

3. It's always on the job - WD SmartWare is always watching your computer, so when you change a file and save it, create new files, add new pictures, movies, or songs, WD SmartWare will instantly back them up.


4. You can bring back lost files effortlessly - If you ever accidentally delete an important file, or need to get an earlier version of a file, you can find and retrieve it in seconds with this easy-to-use interface.

• Restore files and folders by categories – photos, music, video, for example.
• Find a lost file with the search function.
• Go back in time to retrieve an older version of a file.

5. You're in control - WD SmartWare software is also a control center for your external drives. From it you can:

• Customize your backup
• Set drive security
• Run diagnostics
• Manage the power settings, and more...

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