WD 8TB My Book external hard drive, Desktop HDD with Password Protection, USB 3.0, SuperSpeed USB, software for device management, backup, hardware encryption, works with PC and Mac, Black

Excellent capacity and reliablity
Excellent product. This is the second one I’ve purchased in the last four years. It is very easy to install on a Mac and comes with very handy software to secure your drive with password protection. I use this one as a backup for the old one. Reliability and speed have been excellent. I have the 18TB version, which is massive capacity for storing anything you want. I would highly recommend it.

Noisy. But looks cool and works fine.
I’ve only had this hard drive for a day and I haven’t tried many similar modern products, so take this review with a grain of salt. But this external is noisy. It’s not a constant white noise that you get used to, it’s a varied and heavier sound, as if it was changing gears or something. I wouldn’t say it’s really loud, but it is distracting.
Another issue I found is that sometimes it is still active even when I am not reading any files from it. Normally, I expect that when I close all windows that are looking at files on this external and if I stop any transferring or programs that are reading off it, then it should stop ‘thinking’ and I should be able to ‘safely eject’. With all my other externals (these are all not wall-powered FYI) that works fine. But with this external, it somehow is still thinking when everything is closed, I can’t eject it and it makes noise. Usually I can then eject a few minutes later, but not always.

Not what I expected at all
I bought this because the WD Red drives are meant to be excellent quality and the price was good. That was not my experience at all. First, there is the constant hard thump every five seconds, which is a normal part of the drive’s function, but is significant enough to be felt across my whole desk. I use this mainly for backup so I thought I could live with that as it’s not on all the time. Then it started grinding as it was writing files, in a way I’ve only heard once before, on an old drive which failed. I exchanged it for a replacement and the new drive was even worse, this time the grinding noise started *after* it finished writing and had fallen idle and would not stop. As it also wouldn’t eject, the only way to silence it was to turn it off. Needless to say, that’s gone back too and I’ve gone with a different product. Maybe these were good once, but I would not recommend it now.

Quick setup
Quick setup and easy to use interface. I was up and running, backing up my laptop in no time

Il disco è arrivato con un adattatore con spina di collegamento rimovibile, premontato con la variante inglese, e la spina europea “classica” inclusa nella confezione. La velocità di lettura e scrittura sequenziale è molto alta per un hard disk meccanico, si mantiene mediamente sopra i 165MBps anche dopo utilizzo intensivo per diverse ore. Il disco contenuto all’interno ha 256 MB di buffer, e non è un WD Red (come spesso capitava per gli storage esterni della serie Elements) ma un Ultrastar di nuova generazione (HelioSeal) con camera interna sigillata e riempita ad elio, prodotto dalla divisione HGST (ora marchio Western Digital e in precedenza di Hitachi). Il disco supporta la crittografia hardware SED (self-encrypting drive technology) e viene offerto con vari software in bundle, ma il software in dotazione (se vi interessa) non si trova precaricato nel disco, ma va scaricato dal sito ufficiale.
Lo ho ormai da un po’ di tempo.
# Aspetti positivi:
– veloce (relativamente a un hard disk meccanico);
– capiente;
– case esterno più robusto dei modelli precedenti;
– prezzo competitivo, specie se si considera a che prezzo viene venduto il drive al suo interno.
# Aspetti negativi:
– nessun led operativo;
– nessuno switch per lo spegnimento;
– non molto silenzioso (si sentono distintamente sia la rotazione dei piatti che i movimenti delle testine).
# Stranezze:
– Nella descrizione pochissima chiarezza sul modello di unità all’interno e le sue caratteristiche, malgrado l’unità all’interno sia pregevole;
– Dall’analisi dei dati S.M.A.R.T. si nota che il disco è rimasto acceso probabilmente per qualche test di funzionamento un periodo stranamente lungo (il disco è stato acquistato come completamente nuovo e lo stato degli altri parametri oltre il dato relativo al tempo in cui è rimasto acceso, non fa supporre sia stato inserito qualche disco ricondizionato).

Como siempre WD no defrauda. Disco con un acabado exterior en mate y piano, que le da un toque de distinción. En cuanto a su almacena la única pega es la de siempre, la tienen todos los discos duros, Smartphone, Tablet etc, el mío es de 12 TB, que en realidad, espacio útil son 10 TB. Este es un defecto que se debería de investigar y controlar, que tienen todos los dispositos. Ya que si vendes una capacidad que es la que piensas que es útil, no te pueden quitar casi 2 TB en software o controladores. Eso se debería de hacer añadiendo espacio a esa capacidad, y dejándole al cliente la capacidad real útil, que es la que se publicita y se vende. Por lo demás todo genial, muy rápido y fácil de usar. En cuanto a reproducción multimedia, reconoce prácticamente todos los formatos, cosa que no se puede decir de otros. Gran compra y muy recomendable. Un saludo.

The Western Digital 12 TB My Book USB 3.0 Desktop Hard Drive offers robust storage and password protection for peace of mind. Perfect for backing up important files or expanding storage capacity, it’s an essential tool for home or office use.