Western Digital My Book Premium II Hard Drive Array - WDG2T10000N
Western Digital My Book Premium Edition II - 1TB, 7200 RPM Triple Interface (USB 2.0 & Firewire 400/800) External Hard Drive

This is a RAID drive. it's 2 500GB drives set up in raid 1 (500GB mirrored) or RAID 0 (1TB faster than the individual drives). Only problem is you need a driver so it's not a drive you can use to move data between computers transparently, like a typical plug & play external. Not an issue for me since I use it to archive. I've been very happy with it so far. There were a couple of occasions where the drive stopped being seen by the system, easily remedied by momentarily interrupting power to the unit. No real problems so far but an external drive works fine.. until it suddenly doesn't. RAID 0 will lose all data if one drive fails so the risk is twice as great. Still think it's a great drive if you need a ton of space for RAW images or video or lossless files
 
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During the last 9 months, purchased a 160 gb passport, and a 500 gb MyBook (usb, 400/800 firewire). Both drives crashed. Tried to contact WD several times, no response. I gave up. I purchased a 750 gb Seagate. I've used Seagate drives before with no problems.
 
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Great drive and easy to set up. I use it with my Mac. The only drawback for me, is I am into recording audio and I can't have it on if I'm recording anything with a mic because the fan is too loud.
 
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It is a great little storage unit. The firewire interface did not work for me. I was dissapointed because the Firewire 800 was an attractive feature to me. Connected through USB the information transfer was not slow. I am using this device for an offsite backup solution. I wish I did not have to install the Western Digital tray application. I hope I can get my data off from another computer.
 
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I Love it...fast and powerful.
 
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I am completely satisfied with my new 1 terabyte hard drive. I had zero problems when firing it up and configuring and it has been working without a single issue ever since. I am using it in the 1 terabyte mode (no mirroring) to archive all of my music, picture and video files. One minor annoyance is that it takes a few seconds to fire up when you haven't accessed it for a while but that is not a big deal. I would highly recommend this to others (and already have)
 
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I have tried this drive on 2 different systems. 2800 MHZ & 1800 MHZ, one is XP and the other Win 2000 Pro ..both have the same problems with windows delayed write errors. Have tried disabling the write behind caching as directed and still the same thing. Setup was a breeze and the lights on the drive are cute, but the fact of the matter is this drive just doesn't work for the above average user. I am using USB 2.0 as my connection. I am looking to buy a firewire 800 card and maybe the interface will be fast enough to keep up. Sure hate to throw good money after bad tho. If not maybe I can tear it apart and use the drives seperately to try to recover some of my money out of it. Very disappointed in Western Digital for putting somthing like this on the market. Usually they are the top of the line when it comes to drives. If you have alot to backup "and why would you need a 1TB drive if ya didn't" this is not what you want to do it!!!
 
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I returned the 1st 1 I got cause it heated up and would never dismount. This 2nd one seemed ok at 1st but still have a dismounting problem. WD released a new sw update to solved some of the problems but eventually that proved not work either. Now that I have data on the drive I fear that I may loose it every time I am forced to pull the plug on it cause it won't dismount. WD tech support has proven to be less than helpful with non sense answers like plug it in another wall outlet. WD played up the design of these new My Books which I have to comment on, They look ugly! This is not a reason to select a HD but WD seemed more interested in the look then what went in the case. Architecture/Design to the device is BAD, Functionally it cause your to waste more space on your desk then it saves. You can't really stack theme cause of the heat. I would strongly suggest that you wait before buying and Give WD time to realize they need to stop selling lemons and fix the problems these drives are having. I've used WD HDs for the past 10 years and never had any problems like there with them nor any other HD. I think it is time I start looking for other vendors for my HDs.
 
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Needed a 1TB drive to archive DV home movies. Comes as 2 separate 500GB drives that you configure either as RAID-0 for 1TB capacity and speed or as a 500gb RAID-1 with mirroring for data protection. Very easy to set up. The design is flexible but the onboard raid and the need for special drivers hampers it as a true P&P device. Drive automatically powers down after 10 mins idle which can be a drag since it takes about 12 secs to spin back up. A safe, easy firmware update is avail. Cheaper solutions are available but user reviews stink on all of them. "The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten" - Benjamin Franklin. You get what you pay for.
 
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Works ok. It isnt very fast and the fan is VERY noisy. I think I'll wait to see what Maxtor comes out with before buying another one of these.
 
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The unit was shipped to me in its store packaging via UPS and I could just see it in pieces when I opened the box - no outer protective packaging from Buy.com. Fortunately, everything was OK. Connection was made to the Firewire 800 port and 120 GB of video was captured, then the problem occurred. I keep getting a Windows "Delayed Write Error" with the connection when I try to read the video files. I disabled the Policies for this in the drives Properties, but still have the problem. I've contacted WD, but no reply. I had to use the slower USB 2 port to get to my video files. I will not purchase another WD unit and will stick with the Seagate Pusbutton Backup Hard drive line with Firewire 400. I have six 400GB Seagate drives and hever NEVER had this problem with them. Therefore, I cannot recommend the WD unit for users acquiring the unit for video editing, unless you are prepared to go with the slower USB 2 interface.
 
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I like this thing. The only problem I have with it is that it can be kind of loud when the fan gets going. A little tap on the top of the drive clears this loudness right up. That tells me that the fan inside making the noise is probably a cheap one. Other than that, the drive is pretty solid.
 
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I've had this unit for a couple of weeks and it has worked perfect. The support website had the utilities I needed to make it Macintosh formatted. They worked easily and completely. Very satisfied user!
 
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I bought this drive to consolidate my 3 external drives and have some more additional disk space. The drive is very quiet, easy to install and looks majestic. I have been keeping it connected for long periods of time and has not shown any drop in performance. The RAID mirroring technology adds more peace of mind. You know your data is always safe, but to enjoy that you can only use half of the disk. The other half is used as a mirror. You can also use it without RAID and use the entire 1 TB space. I strongly recommend this.
 
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I've always wanted mirrored drives to protect against data loss. This is finally an affordable solution for a home/small business that is big enough for most users. Set-up went smoothly according to the directions. Note that the drive defaults to 1 terrabyte, so you have to run the set-up program to change it to 500 GB mirrored. I've been using it for a month. No complaints so far.
 
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My husband wanted this to save movies and games to, for when he goes to Iraq. Which he has, and loves it. He hasn't once complained about it unlike his last external, which was a fantom. Good deal for the price.
 
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Excellent value. Formatting for RAID 1 at dual 500 gb was very easy. The drive fan is a little loud at startup but settles down right after. Only once has the drive disconnected from the system with no reason. I will be purchasing another soon.
 
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