The Western Digital My Book Essential Edition is an External Hard Drive with a USB 2.0 interface. The version that we are having a quick look at today is the 1TB (1 Tera Byte) version.

When opening the box for the first time we are graced with an stylish External Hard Drive that is smaller then four normal DVD cases placed side by side. Installation of the External Hard Drive is a piece of cake. All you need to do is plug the Power Adapter into a power point and the hard drive unit, hook up the USB cable and away it goes! No software should be needed while using Microsoft Windows.

In using the hard drive over the past few hours I have found the transfer speeds to be pretty good. On average it takes about 35 seconds to transfer a 715mb movie to the External Hard Drive unit from my computer. The maximum transfer speed for an USB 2.0 device is 480 Mb/s (Max). The hard drive used in the external unit has read and write times of 7200RPM which is the most common speed found in hard drives included with most desktop computers.

Pros:
The space!
Easy setup and hassle free.
Consistent performance.
No cooling fans, so very quiet.

Cons:
The external case is a dust and fingerprint collector.

conclusion
Does everything it’s supposed to do and is a great addon for those who are looking for a easy to use file storage unit.

The My Book 1TB Essential Edition can be purchased for around $220AU.

Links:
Western Digital Homepage
Manufacturer Product Page