So minus a star for the back up software. It’s useless to me the way it is, and apparently it’s aggravating for those who have tried it.

I’ve been moving things over from other drives to free up room and get things sorted out, and the speed is OK. This is a terrabyte drive, so it takes a LONG time to fill up. USB2 is great, but we’re still talking about a terrabye drive. It took one hour to move over a 44.7 gb file and 10 minutes to move a 7 gb file.

I love the electronic label that stays put even when you turn off the power. I wonder if that display is like the e-Ink the Kindle uses. Hmm. I love the fact that the display tells you how much room you have left. Sure I can look on My Computer, but this is faster.

One thing that didn’t impress me was the case – the holes for the power and the USB port don’t exactly fit over the internal holes. So I had to wiggle the power cord and USB cord in order to get them plugged in. That doesn’t speak a lot for the workmanship of the drive. Minus a star for that and for having to worry about how long this drive will last. I mean, if they can’t even get the holes to line up, what about the delicate electronic stuff inside?

So this gets 3 stars. I don’t use or like the back up software & the condition of the case makes me worry about the condition of the insides. I do like the display and all the room you get in a TB drive. I like the look of the drive. The speed isn’t mind blowingly fast, but it’s no worse than other TB drives I have. (I have another WD My Book and a LaCie.) I tell my computer what I want to move over, and then I keep it powered on. I wasn’t using it overnight anyway.

Fortunately, with this “My Book Elite” everything was smooth. Because I have a Mac, it wasn’t usable right out of the box and needed to be formatted and partitioned. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure how to do this, so I called the Western Digital tech support who was able to walk me through the process. Once the drive was properly formatted to my Mac, everything loaded just like it should.

I am really only using this for the storage space, to keep all of my movie files and random stuff that fills up my hard drive. I am a little nervous about putting my photos on the external drive, as I have heard too many stories about the drive crashing and treasured photos being lost forever. But for downloaded movie files and things that take up a lot of space but wouldn’t make me cry if they were lost, the drive works like a charm. The files transfer over quickly, and it generally takes about ten minutes or so for a bunch of flicks to copy to the drive.

I haven’t really fooled around with the software; I don’t really want a complete back-up of my computer every time I change a file. Some of those features seem useful if you are using your computer for a home office or business, but my computer is essentially an entertainment center so that feature isn’t as necessary.

The design on this “My Book Elite” doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence as to how long it will last. When I went to hook it up, the case was not aligned properly with the outlets, so I had to struggle to get the power cable and USB cable hooked up. This is the first time I have ever had this problem with an electrical device, so it was a shock.

As some of you know, your external hard drive can also fry, so it’s good to have a backup of the backup (hence I have 4 laying about) but they’re still very handy. Unlike others, however, the My Book does a few other nifty things its competition can’t. For example, it comes with software that easily backs up your computer files without your having to hunt for you and even categorizes them by type (Pictures, music, movies, etc). It also allows password protection which makes my privacy needs happy, and has a view screen that lets you know how much memory is remaining and a title if you wish. For example, if you had 6 of these guys you could name one “Home Videos – 2001″ or something so you don’t have to put masking tape on it or something as a label. It also comes with a 3 year warranty which is much more than my other hard drives.

Overall – External Hard Drives are kind of tricky. They all run the risk of breaking and they all typically do the same thing. I was more impressed with the My Book than others because of its extra goodies and extended warranty, but it also came in a cheaper container – plastic, instead of some which are rock-hard metal. It’s a little more expensive, too, but it also runs absolutely silent whereas some of the others are about as annoying as a snoring spouse. Personally, as long as you don’t expect the guy to undergo some kind of mega damage that might crack it’s plastic coat, I think it’s worth the few extra bucks to have the software and extra warranty.

PS: If you are simply wondering whether or not you need an external hard drive – YOU DO. With laptops that burn out all the time, you need a safer spot to store your precious memories and files. I recommend this one more than any other, but if you don’t like the look or whatever, still buy an external hard drive. They make your computer run so much faster and makes everything so much cleaner and nicer. They’re like super massive usb drives!

Western Digital My Book Essential 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive WDBAAF0010HBK-NESN

** i don’t own this product but was interested in purchasing until i read the my book essential reviews **