Western Digital 2TB My Book World Edition II External Hard Drive
- No Longer Available
The 2TB My Book World Edition II External Hard Drive from Western Digital is an external network hard drive with remote data access capability. The drive is extremely easy to configure, removing the headaches associated with configuring network storage devices. The drive is compatible with Mac and Windows computers, and includes network backup software.
The dual-drive system features RAID capability. It comes configured as a RAID 1, which gives you 1TB of usable capacity due to real-time data mirroring. Data is written simultaneously to both physical disks, ensuring that no information is lost if either fails. It can also be configured as a RAID 0 for maximum performance with no data protection, a Spanned array, or a JBOD.
- Automatically backup data from all computers on your network
- Configure as a RAID 0, RAID 1, Span, or JBOD
- RAID 1 gives you real-time data protection at half capacity
- RAID 0 writes data to both disks simultaneously, delivering full capacity and maximum performance; the downside is that if either drive fails, all data is lost
- Span mode writes data to one disk until it is full, and then starts writing data to the next; this prevents you from losing all of your data if 1 of the 2 internal drives fails
- JBOD treats the 2 internal disks as separate volumes
- Restore lost, damaged, or older versions of files from backup via an intuitive software interface
- Access stored data over the Internet via the MioNet service
- Store your media and data on a central location, accessible from any computer on your network
- USB port for storage expansion
- Uses energy-efficient GreenPower WD drives
- Compatible with Windows and Mac
| Performance | |
|---|---|
| Capacity | 2TB |
| Drive Speed | 7200rpm |
| Buffer | Not Specified by Manufacturer |
| Processor | None |
| Hardware Platforms | None |
| Average Seek Time | Not Specified by Manufacturer |
| Sustained Transfer Rate | Not Specified by Manufacturer |
| Input/Output Connectors | |
|---|---|
| Interface | Gigabit Ethernet |
| Ports |
1x RJ-45 1x USB 2.0 |
| Drivers | |
|---|---|
| Supported | Not Required |
| Included | Not Required |
| System Requirements | |
|---|---|
| Mac | Mac OS X 10.4, 10.5 |
| Windows | Windows XP, Vista |
| Software |
Web browser (IE 6 SP1, Safari 2.0, Firefox 2.0) Adobe Flash ActiveX 9 required for WD Discovery |
| General | |
|---|---|
| Mounting Orientation | Desktop |
| Power Requirements | AC: 100-240VAC, 47-63Hz |
| Environmental Requirements |
Operating Temperature: 41-95°F (5-35°:C) Storage Temperature: -4-149°F (-20-65°C) |
| Dimensions (WxHxD) | 3.9 x 6.7 x 6.3" (9.9 x 17.1 x 16.1cm) |
| Weight | 4.5 lb (2.1kg) |
REVIEW SNAPSHOT®
by PowerReviews(based on 67 reviews)
Ratings Distribution
88%
of respondents would recommend this to a friend.
Pros
- Quiet (44)
- Reliable (36)
- Fast connection (34)
- Durable (29)
- Versatile (27)
Cons
- Slow connection (10)
- Poor performance (6)
Best Uses
- Back-up (46)
- Multimedia (26)
- Laptops (14)
- Large projects (14)
- Reviewer Profile:
- Tech savvy (36), Tech professional (20), Multimedia professional (8), Technically challenged (4)
- Primary use:
- Personal (48), Business (15)
- Computer Platform:
- PC (6), Mac (3)
Most Liked Positive Review
Works great once you get it all setup
The idea the "My Book" is great…back up your system(s) easily and have access to all of it via your network. The Problem is getting it w...Read complete review
The idea the "My Book" is great…back up your system(s) easily and have access to all of it via your network. The Problem is getting it working...
Now I can't speak for WIndows XP, but for Windows 7 the software that comes with this is a mess. When loading up the software, all the buttons are there, but they don't have any text on them. So you don't know what you are selecting making things very difficult to set up. The WD site didn't really address this but I did eventually find a link to a newer version of software that worked with Windows 7 (look for "WD Discovery Setup_V1.80(1035.003)_With_Installer1_3.zip"). Once I had the right software the installation went flawlessly.
But once you get over this hurdle I strongly suggest you follow the "Quick Install Guide" to get things going. From there you can just use the drive via the public folders and all is well.
But... if you want to password protect your files that you are backing up, things get tricky once again. Give the "User Manual" a good review before diving in. There are many options here and user names and password o'plenty so you can easily get lost in the logins when using this. Things to note: "MioNet" is for remote file access, "Dowloader" is for downloading large files from the internet, "Copy Manager" is to copy a USB drive to the My Book. Where you'll really want to spend some time is in the "Network Storage Manager". This is the tool that configures your My Book and will be where you will learn a bunch about how this system works.
Now I strictly wanted this for a NAS backup drive so I haven't used all these other tools. In fact, besides the WD Discovery software I've ignored the other options. I am using a freeware version of GFI Backup which works great as backup software. The WD Backup software by Memeo is ~~super~~ slow to load, but it does give you one-click convience to backup all files so maybe that's nice, but again, it's so slow to load/run and for that reason I'm using GFI as an alternative.
Overall, the system works just fine. It is super quiet, super fast (GBit speed), and the initial setup is super simple. It has bugs with Windows 7 which WD should be clearer about on their support site. I'd consider myself to be a very experienced computer user but still I found the setup of this to be a bit confusing and time consuming. But, once you get things the way you want them it is smooth sailing from there.
VS
Most Liked Negative Review
Hardware/Firmware fail, less than 2 yrs
I use the product in a small business, in a gigabit wired network. I've had no problems with this drive until last Monday, 9/19/11. WD released a firmware update for the ...Read complete review
I use the product in a small business, in a gigabit wired network. I've had no problems with this drive until last Monday, 9/19/11. WD released a firmware update for the drive to make it compatible with OS X Lion, and when I downloaded it/applied it, the drive stopped behaving normally. Copying folders of data FROM the drive TO another Mac produced an error. Duplicating folders produced an error. Trying to compress a folder of items would fail and produce an error. About 7 tech support calls later, I at least was able to back up the data to a USB drive via its USB port and WD drive's GUI. I was told to restore the drive to factory settings and re-apply the firmware, then try copying some folders back onto it to test it. I did all that, but the drive still produced errors when copying folders of files. The firmware apparently has broken the basic functionality of the drive - or hardware has failed. And you can't revert back to a previous firmware version. It also slowed the time of login to the network drive to about 45 seconds. Very frustrating and time consuming to troubleshoot, plus it has cost me about $500 in new hardware and network consultant fees. This will RMA back to WD. It's still under warranty so at least I'll get a replacement to use as a 2nd drive on the network. I pray that the new one doesn't have the same firmware on it - OR - if it does, it better work.
Reviewed by 67 customers
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Displaying reviews 1-20
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Pros
Cons
Best Uses
Comments about Western Digital 2TB My Book World Edition II External Hard Drive:
Everything is great about the product but the iTunes support stopped working after iTunes 10.4
Would have definitely given 5 star if it would have worked fine with iTunes 10.4+.
- Primary use:
- Personal
- Computer Platform:
- PC
Pros
- A good idea
Cons
- Terrible support
Best Uses
- Great potential
Comments about Western Digital 2TB My Book World Edition II External Hard Drive:
I am using the WD My Book World Edition II. This is my second attempt using a similar WD product.
WD is using the public as their beta test group for a product WD is neither prepared to write proper documentation for or provide support for. It is a great idea but WD's follow through is absolutely terrible.
The initial set up was better with the second product but is still difficult to optimally implement. I have now recently over to a windows 7 computer and WD sells compatibility software instead of giving it away - very hard to swallow in light of the poor product (software-hardware combination) they offered to begin with.
WD really needs to apologize to everyone and give us our money back.
- Primary use:
- Personal
- Computer Platform:
- PC
Pros
- Quiet
- RAID 1 and WD reliability
- Simple setup
Cons
- Slow Connection
Best Uses
- Backup
Comments about Western Digital 2TB My Book World Edition II External Hard Drive:
I have installed my World Book Edition II on my network, as a backup device for all the computers in the house, and as a shared resource for storing photos and music. No longer does my wife have to find pictures on my computer, email them to herself, and then post them to face book on her own computer. All the photos are available to her at her behest.
Also, I no longer fear the loss of these pictures with the RAID 1 setup of the World Book.
Setup was simple on our Win 7 machines, essentially point and click. The one XP machine on the system was a little more involved, but still not difficult.
I love having the confidence that NAS backup provides.
The only draw back so far--there has to be something--is limitation on data transfer speeds. The back up of my system took almost three days to complete in the background. However, now the updates to the backup take only a few minutes and run unnoticed in the background.
- Primary use:
- Personal
- Computer Platform:
- PC
Pros
- Fast Connectivity
- Quiet
- Versatile
- Well designed
Cons
- Bad Firmware update
- Poor Performance
- Slow Connection
Best Uses
- Laptops
- Large Projects
- Small office network
Comments about Western Digital 2TB My Book World Edition II External Hard Drive:
I use the product in a small business, in a gigabit wired network. I've had no problems with this drive until last Monday, 9/19/11. WD released a firmware update for the drive to make it compatible with OS X Lion, and when I downloaded it/applied it, the drive stopped behaving normally. Copying folders of data FROM the drive TO another Mac produced an error. Duplicating folders produced an error. Trying to compress a folder of items would fail and produce an error. About 7 tech support calls later, I at least was able to back up the data to a USB drive via its USB port and WD drive's GUI. I was told to restore the drive to factory settings and re-apply the firmware, then try copying some folders back onto it to test it. I did all that, but the drive still produced errors when copying folders of files. The firmware apparently has broken the basic functionality of the drive - or hardware has failed. And you can't revert back to a previous firmware version. It also slowed the time of login to the network drive to about 45 seconds. Very frustrating and time consuming to troubleshoot, plus it has cost me about $500 in new hardware and network consultant fees. This will RMA back to WD. It's still under warranty so at least I'll get a replacement to use as a 2nd drive on the network. I pray that the new one doesn't have the same firmware on it - OR - if it does, it better work.
- Primary use:
- Business
- Computer Platform:
- Mac
Pros
Cons
- Freezes Easily
- Poor Performance
- Slow Connection
Best Uses
- Laptops
Comments about Western Digital 2TB My Book World Edition II External Hard Drive:
I have another my book world and this one was complicated to use. And is extremely slow.
- Primary use:
- Business
- Computer Platform:
- Mac
Pros
Cons
Best Uses
Comments about Western Digital 2TB My Book World Edition II External Hard Drive:
I JUST LOST EVERYTHING WHEN I HIT CONFIGURE BECAUSE I WANTED TO CHANGE THE FOLDERS THAT WERE BACKED UP AUTOMATICALLY.
TEN YEARS OF WORK
GONE
GONE
GONE
OFF TO SPEND A GRAND ON DATA RECOVERY AND I JUST HOPE I GET MY STUFF BACK.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
- Primary use:
- Business
- Computer Platform:
- Mac
Pros
- Durable
- Fast Connectivity
- Quiet
- Reliable
- Small sized
- Versatile
Cons
- Last to much to power off
Best Uses
Comments about Western Digital 2TB My Book World Edition II External Hard Drive:
It´s a great device for small business or office. Instead an expensive server, you can access, and keep safe, your data from several computers at a very low cost.
- Primary use:
- Business
- Computer Platform:
- PC
Pros
- Durable
- Fast Connectivity
- Quiet
- Reliable
- Versatile
Cons
- None
Best Uses
- Backup
Comments about Western Digital 2TB My Book World Edition II External Hard Drive:
yes, yes, none. THX
- Primary use:
- Business
- Computer Platform:
- PC
Pros
- Quiet
- Versatile
Cons
- Poor Performance
Best Uses
- Backup
- Multimedia
Comments about Western Digital 2TB My Book World Edition II External Hard Drive:
I had my doubts, but the 2TB My Book World Edition II is so easy to configure that even a 10 yo kid would be able to do it!!
I was up and running in minutes!!
And the price is quite affordable!!!
It's not as fast as I was hoping but for the price...it's worth it!
Two thumbs up!
- Primary use:
- Personal
- Computer Platform:
- PC
Pros
- Reliable
Cons
- Connection not to fast
Best Uses
Comments about Western Digital 2TB My Book World Edition II External Hard Drive:
I use at home , exactly what I was looking for
- Primary use:
- Personal
Pros
- Quiet
Cons
- Slow Connection
Best Uses
- Backup
Comments about Western Digital 2TB My Book World Edition II External Hard Drive:
This allows me to have files accessed by all computers on my network. It's drives are mirrored so I don't have to worry about loosing my data if a drive crashes. It does take a while to copy files to it, but that is the limitations of a product in this price range. For faster speed I would have had to spend a lot more money. As an added bonus, this device uses very little power
- Primary use:
- Personal
Pros
- Fast Connectivity
- Quiet
Cons
Best Uses
- Backup
Comments about Western Digital 2TB My Book World Edition II External Hard Drive:
Drives seem to work fine, software was a bit of work to get going. Don't even bother with included software, go to site to get current software versions and firmware upgrade.
- Primary use:
- Personal
Pros
Cons
- Poor Performance
Best Uses
Comments about Western Digital 2TB My Book World Edition II External Hard Drive:
The unit was defective. No matter what I tried I could not get it to work. Changing network cables, plugging it directly into computer, restarting the drive, etc.
Contacted B&H, received RMA and now waiting for exchange. When received, will update the review.
- Primary use:
- Personal
Pros
- Quiet
- Reliable
- Versatile
Cons
- Slow Connection
Best Uses
- Backup
- Large Projects
- Multimedia
Comments about Western Digital 2TB My Book World Edition II External Hard Drive:
Kinda hard to setup .Slow to save on best setting .Value is there , It does what it is supposed to . It is ment to be in the background and there it is great , takes nothing from normal use of Computer. Software for backup is great , not so much discovery.
- Primary use:
- Personal
Pros
- Durable
- Fast Connectivity
- Quiet
- Reliable
- Versatile
Cons
Best Uses
- Multimedia
Comments about Western Digital 2TB My Book World Edition II External Hard Drive:
This is the best bang for buck in its price range. The drives are fast reliable and offers a great set of features. Setting up the drive took maybe 5 minutes; that was even including setting up accounts on Mionet and installing the software on my laptop. I use this for sharing files on my home network and accessing them remotely. Good show!
- Primary use:
- Personal
Pros
Cons
Best Uses
- Backup
Comments about Western Digital 2TB My Book World Edition II External Hard Drive:
nice price for a RAID enabled drive. However, setup is not straight forward and the standby light is a bit much, why do they use all six LEDs for STANDBY??. Also had one overheating error wtih just normal usage - still trying to figure that one out.
- Primary use:
- Personal
Pros
- Durable
- Fast Connectivity
- Quiet
- Reliable
- Versatile
Cons
Best Uses
- Backup
Comments about Western Digital 2TB My Book World Edition II External Hard Drive:
Easy to setup and configure right out of the box. Using it to backup my main server and several workstations in a protected environment. With the network connectivity, it is the perfect solution. The RAID 0 configuration and the accessible hard drives makes it reliable and easy to maintain. Perfect.
- Primary use:
- Business
Pros
- Durable
- Fast Connectivity
- Quiet
- Reliable
- Versatile
Cons
Best Uses
- Backup
- Large Projects
Comments about Western Digital 2TB My Book World Edition II External Hard Drive:
[...], the price was great and the product works wounderful.
- Primary use:
- Personal
Pros
Cons
Best Uses
- Backup
Comments about Western Digital 2TB My Book World Edition II External Hard Drive:
the software that comes with the drive is useless for Windows 7. however, W7 could detect the drive and I could set it up easily afterward.
there was no hassle and it is operational.
- Primary use:
- Business
Pros
- Durable
- Quiet
- RAID
- Reliable
Cons
Best Uses
- Backup
- Multimedia
Comments about Western Digital 2TB My Book World Edition II External Hard Drive:
Being used to hold/access files for a small company so we can all share from one location. The install software it ships with has problems with Vista (tried 2 systems), but worked fine on XP. Downloaded the software from WD's site and it worked fine on Vista, maybe I got a bad disk? Works great so far. When I read the reviews people complained about the speed of it, well it is about twice as fast as the old WD network drive it replaced so I am very happy. Some fun features, you can drop photos into the photo folder, then using their app you can access them with your smartphone anywhere, anytime. Love the RAID, sleep so much better at night!
- Primary use:
- Business
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What's in the Box
- Ethernet Cable
- AC Adapter
- Software CD-ROM
- Quick Install Guide
- 3-Year Limited Warranty
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