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Western Digital 500 GB My Book Essential 2.0 - USB 2.0 External Hard Drive WDH1U5000N | 
| Brand: Western Digital
Category: CE
List Price: $169.99
Buy New: $99.99
You Save: $70.00 (41%)
Rating:  67 reviews
Media: Personal Computers
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Hard Drive Size: 500
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.5
Dimensions (in): 5.4 x 2.1 x 6.5
nv:Capacity (GB): 500
Interface: USB 2.0
Spindle Speed (RPM): 7200
Buffer Memory: 16MB
Average Seek (msec): <8.9
Track-to-Track Seek Time (typical read, ms): 2.0
Data Transfer Rate on USB 2.0: Up to 480 Mb/sec
Temperature, Operating (C): 5 to 35
Temperature, Nonoperating (C): -40 to 65
Warranty: 1 year warranty
MPN: WDH1U5000N
Model: WDH1U5000N
UPC: 718037120805
EAN: 0718037120805
ASIN: B000XRK3LG
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Features:
| • | Includes - External hard drive, USB cable, AC adapter and Quick Install Guide | | • | Smart and energy efficient - Turns itself on and off with your computer | | • | Saving and organizing your digital photo collection | | • | USB 2.0 Serial Bus Transfer Rate - 480 Mbits/s | | • | System Requirements - Available USB port, Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Are you running out of hard drive capacity? Do you need to archive some important digital documents, photos, or music? This elegant external hard drive, reminiscent of a book, is the perfect solution. It takes no more space than a paperback book. Collect two or more and they nest neatly together like volumes on a shelf.cent of a book, is the perfect solution. It takes no more space than a paperback book. Collect two or more and they nest neatly together like volumes on a shelf.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 62 more reviews...
 Avoid this product, their warranty is useless July 24, 2008
Engine Ear (Gainesville, FL USA)
I purchased one of these units last December for use as expansion space to hold music and photographs. It failed 5 days ago, unable to "be seen" by either my Mac or Windows computer; it worked one day, failed the next without being touched or moved; in other words, no physical damage to it by me. I had about 40 Gigs of data on this 500 Gig drive.
Suspecting either the power supply or USB-to-PATA interface card, I contacted Western Digital(WD) to see what I had to do to recover my data and have the defective unit repaired or replaced. I suspected that the drive itself was probably OK because of the nature of the failure to be seen at the interface. They told me that IF I tried to open the unit and recover the data from the drive, that that action would "void my warranty". Only if I paid one of their "preferred partners" [a minor fortune] to open the unit and recover my data to DVDs would they honor the warranty on their obviously defective product. If I had them send me a replacement unit, and subsequently returned the original unit in a "tampered condition" [i.e. I opened it to get at the hard drive to recover my data] they would then charge the retail price [$169, more than the current Amazon price for a NEW one] to my credit card. No person in their right mind would ever use this "warranty", so, in effect YOU HAVE NO WARRANTY for Western Digital products, unless you are willing to throw away your data or pay more than the price of a new drive to recover the data which THEY should have recovered for you in a repair department and sent back to you installed on a new drive. They obviously would rather just toss you another empty made-in-Thailand drive, or intimidate you out of using the warranty you paid for, than operate a proper repair service at US labor costs, to help you recover your data.
So, AVOID THIS PRODUCT LIKE THE PLAGUE. Buy one of the many Amazon "external hard drive enclosures" and a separate hard drive from Maxtor, Hitachi, Seagate, or other manufacturers who support their products; then, if the enclosure fails, you can open it up without "voiding the warranty" and recover your data if the drive itself is OK.
I went ahead and opened this defective unit, removed the hard drive and installed it on a desktop computer as a SLAVE drive, and am now copying the data to the main drive on that computer; nothing was wrong with the drive, only with their controller, as I suspected. I will buy an empty external enclosure from Amazon, and reuse this drive until it fails. I will also never buy another Western Digital product, because their warranty policy and customer service attitude STINKS. You can decide if you want to buy from this company at your own risk.
 Good July 24, 2008
Nate, FL
I have never had a problem with western digital/my book line. I use them in a business oriented backup system and always have worked without failure.
Good value - no problems - very quiet July 18, 2008
M. Martin (NJ)
My college-age son recommended this - he already had an earlier version. No suprises - holds plenty of info, including back ups of my son's backups... He took care of partitioning with some FAT and some NTFS sections, the later preferred by Windows OneCare (which is another story altogether and now uninstalled!) It is very quiet - unlike an earlier backup drive that sounded like an airplane taking off. With this one I never even notice it's there. Looks good, works good -- go for it!
Failed at 14 months-I would not buy again. July 17, 2008
mark twain
Failed after 14 months just like other reviews. Failed drive would power up but computers could not recognize it. Lost some data between dvd backups, but I was lucky to not lose more.
Unfortunately I still have WD 500G and a WD 250 gig that are working fine. Given my 500G HD failed and other reviewers did too at about same duration and purchase date, I suspect a design flaw. I can not assume my Western Digital drives are reliable. I now can use them only in tandem and then solely to back up primary data on laptop on two external drives. Even WD is unlikly to fail in 2 external drives at once.
I do not plan to buy another western digital product when these fail.
FAIL. July 15, 2008
B. J. West (San Francisco, CA United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I bought two of these two years ago for a video editing project, and both of them have been nothing but trouble. One of them has completely died and refuses to mount no matter what I try, and the other is threatening to follow. They both freqeuently gave me write errors, and I could never get them to mount via firewire at all. Spend a little more money and get something more reliable.
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