Western Digital 500GB My Book Home Edition - Triple Interface (USB 2.0, eSATA & FireWire 400) External Hard Drive - WDH1CS5000N

I was looking for a external hard drive that would not only provide backups for my desktop and laptop but would also provide more disk space for transferring documents and video other files from DVD storage to being more accessible. The WD My Book was perfect. After converting the hard disk from its default format (FAT32) to the partitionable (NTFS) format (which was pretty simple), I made partitions for the desktop backup, laptop backup, and for regular hard disk use. Now everything is backed up, I've been able to move files from my laptop hard drive (which was getting pretty full) to My Book, and I've got room to spare! The drive has worked flawlessly. It seems to be as fast (using firewire) as the internal drives, and it is very quiet! It came with backup software, which enables password protected backups almost automatically. (The software says it is trial version when you first load it, but WD sent the product key with the drive so that the software can be loaded permanently.) I wanted a drive that could connect via USB for flexibility and portability and via firewire for speed. This drive fills that bill and also connects via eSATA which might be useful in the future should I upgrade my desktop. So far (I've had the drive for about two weeks), I am extremely satisfied with it and would recommend it to others.
 
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I am talking out of the box, on to my drive shelf on my desk and plug the ac and usb in and started to transferring files with windows explorer....absolutely no hitches, no worries.;.would highly recommend this drive to anyone and will probably get another one soon....digital photo files from my studio are getting bigger and bigger...
 
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I use it with Microsoft Vista's complete system backup and it works very well. Since Vista has all of the backup functionality built-in, I don't use the software that came with the product. You'll need to order a SATA cable if it's your desire to go that route, as the SATA cable doesn't come with the package... USB cable does. Also, you'll need to reformat to NTFS for Vista backup.
 
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The Western Digital external hard drive I bought is performing very well. It was easy to install and backed up my internal hard drive quickly. It continues to back up my data automatically. One minor, but annoying problem: The included software, which automatically installs itself, asks for a product code, which it tells you is on the box. It is not there. I had to call WD and the software company twice before a live person was able to assist me. The code, it turns out, is at the bottom of a sheet of paper in the box. Why didn't I see it? Because the sheet of paper is the one which contains information about the hard drive in numerous languages, but not English, so why would I go there? The English instructions do not have the code attached. Aside from that minor glitch, I am very satisfied with my purchase.
 
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