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Hardware Western Digital Adds New My Book Editions
Wolfgang Hansson (Blog) - September 21, 2007 9:14 AM

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11 comment(s) - last by ksherman.. on Oct 23 at 4:15 PM

Western Digital My Book Home Edition (Source: Western Digital)

Western Digital My Book Office Edition (Source: Western Digital)

Western Digital adds new My Book Editions for home, office and users looking for simple storage

Western Digital’s My Book External Hard drives have been on the market for a while now with Classic Editions that include USB, FireWire 400/800, eSATA, and Ethernet connectivity. Western Digital recently announced three new editions of the My Book.

The new My Book Editions include the My Book Essential Edition 2.0, My Book Home Edition, and the My Book Office Edition. These three new editions are aimed at different types of users according to Western Digital.

The Office Edition is aimed at the office user who needs access to the data stored on the drive from remote locations using MioNet DriveAccess. MioNet DriveAccess allows users to access the My Book Office Edition from anywhere and share files securely for the lifetime of the drive. Other tools are included for small business owners to allow remote control of the desktop, sharing of computer screens for meetings, and remote file access. USB 2.0 is the sole connectivity option for the Office Edition.

The My Book Office Edition also provides continuous, automatic backup of files on the computer. The My Book Home Edition offers connectivity via USB, FireWire 400 and eSATA. Like the Office Edition, the Home Edition also offers automatic, continuous backup in the background to keep user data safe. The Home Edition has a capacity gauge to show how much capacity is left on the drive; and features SmartPower that turns the drive on and off with the computer system.

The My Book Essential Edition 2.0 offers USB 2.0 connectivity only and SmartPower to turn on and off with the computer. No backup software is included with the Essential 2.0 Edition. Capacities for these drives range from 320GB to 1TB and they are all available now with pricing from $129.99 to $379.99.

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Firewire 800

By ksherman on 9/21/2007 10:09:01 AM , Rating: 2

So they nixed Firewire 800 in their new external drives? Ouch...

RE: Firewire 800

By retrospooty on 9/21/2007 10:36:35 AM , Rating: 3

The industry is using eSATA. Firewire is long past obsolescence, and USB 2.0 holds on due to the fact that every PC built int he past 5 years has it. Most newly designed enclosures these days are eSATA/USB2.0.

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RE: Firewire 800

By kungfustickman on 9/21/2007 1:34:16 PM , Rating: 2

I was going to say that firewire 800, while frickin fast, is a standard that is quickly dying out unless you have a mac pro or macbook pro.

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RE: Firewire 800

By retrospooty on 9/21/2007 5:26:39 PM , Rating: 2

I am pretty sure newer Mac's have eSata as well. If not, a $5 adaptor for can get them there (desktops anyhow). Either way, Mac is about 3% worldwide, not nearly enough to keep anything going.

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RE: Firewire 800

By kelmon on 9/22/2007 8:05:48 AM , Rating: 1

I really hate sounding like a Mac-fan but the whole market share statistics thing is just totally meaningless in this context. We all know that Windows PCs make up like 90%+ of worldwide computers but we also know that the vast majority of those are going to be office PCs that would not be used with any form of external disk drive save for network servers. FireWire 800 represents an interface to get at high volumes of data from an external drive quickly and so you're mostly looking at the likes of video and audio producers who need that kind of performance (unless they already have themselves a Fibre Channel-based SAN). Would anyone like to argue that Macs represent only 3% of that market? I'm sorry but when it comes to high performance external drives Macs are not an insignificant market so let's knock this silly 3% statistic on the head, eh?

At present I don't believe that any Mac comes with eSATA. The MacBook Pros have ExpressCard/34 ports so a suitable ExpressCard can be used and you can add a PCI card to the Mac Pro for the job but none come with it as standard. In contrast, all Mac Pro, MacBook Pro and now the new iMacs come with FireWire 800 ports.

In all honesty I'm not much bothered about FireWire 800 since I don't have need for that level of performance but I do find it a crying shame that USB 2.0 is more widespread than FireWire 400, which kicks USB 2.0's ass in the real-world. Just the way that these things go, unfortunately, but I'll continue with FireWire devices for as long as I can.

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RE: Firewire 800

By retrospooty on 9/22/2007 6:09:50 PM , Rating: 2

anyhow... The point was that firewire 800 never caught on and never will, not that is does not have its benefits. Agreed fw800 is much faster then USB 2.0, but it is not faster than eSata. eSata is just as fast as SATA, 100% as fast any internal hard drive. That fact alone will stop FW800 from catching on.

1-2 years ago, the better high end external drives had USB2 and Firewire, today the better high end drives have USB2.0 and eSata. The reason, is like I said... USB2.0 is in almost every PC (and MAC) built in the past 5 years, and eSata is the preffered interface for the absolute best performance. If Apple doesnt use eSata, they missed yet another market trend they will need to catch up with. Its not like they use diff hardware anymore, there is no excuse for it.

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RE: Firewire 800

By ksherman on 10/23/2007 4:15:15 PM , Rating: 2

Problem is, there arent many, if any, laptops with eSATA built in. Granted you could put in a PCIexpress card with an eSATA port, but I doubt it would be faster than the native FW800. I bet there are more latops out there with FW800 built in (think all PowerBooks/MacBook Pros) than there are ones with eSATA... anyway, I have a WD external with FW800 and am happy with that.

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Firewire?

By afkrotch on 9/21/2007 8:52:15 PM , Rating: 2

Firewire, it's still around? Course both Firewire and USB2.0 is dated, even though they both can easily support any devices using it's connection (minus RAID arrays or multi-disk external storage devices). USB 2.0 is everywhere, so it's understandable that the My Book contains it. Also, USB 3.0 will support it.

RE: Firewire?

By mxzrider2 on 9/22/2007 3:18:25 AM , Rating: 2

firewire 800 inst that old, and i like the 400 on my mybook as i can daisy chain them

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RE: Firewire?

By kelmon on 9/22/2007 8:09:21 AM , Rating: 2

If you've got access to a FireWire port then you'd be bonkers to use a USB 2.0 device, assuming that you can find a suitable device that supports it for your purposes. USB 2.0 is theoretically faster than FireWire 400 but doesn't really come close to it in the real-world. It is, however, a shame that FireWire 400 isn't more common on Windows PCs and I hate to see the interface die out.

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RE: Firewire?

By retrospooty on 9/22/2007 6:12:04 PM , Rating: 2

agreed... fw400 is better than USB 2.0 for external drives, I had one a few years back... However, you should really look into eSata. Faster than both, it removes all questions.

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