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Western Digital My Book Essential 2 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive WDBAAF0020HBK-NESN

Western Digital My Book Essential 2 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive WDBAAF0020HBK-NESN

Other Views:
Brand: Western Digital
Category: CE

Buy New: Too low to display
as of 9/6/2010 00:43 CDT details



Seller: Amazon.com
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars 68 reviews

Format: CD
Color: Black
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Number Of Items: 1
Operating System: Windows XP Professional Edition
CPU Manufacturer: Intel
CPU Speed: 2.10
CPU Type: PowerPC G4
Processors: 1
System Memory: 2000
Hard Drive Size: 2
Size: 2 TB
Shipping Weight (lbs): 3
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 6.9 x 7.9
Warranty: 2 years warranty

MPN: WDBAAF0020HBK-NESN
Model: WDBAAF0020HBK-NESN
UPC: 718037751290
EAN: 0718037751269
ASIN: B002JN554C

Shipping: Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

Features:
  • Automatic, continuous backup
  • Visual drive control center
  • Password protection and 256-bit encryption
  • Illuminated capacity gauge
  • USB 2.0 interface

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Smart backup and storage.

The world's best-selling external hard drive now features a new, smart, visual backup solution that protects your data automatically.

Our best-selling My Book external drive is an elegant, high-capacity storage solution for all the chapters of your digital life. Our latest edition now features visual, easy-to-use, automatic, continuous backup software and drive lock security protection. At last, beauty, brains, and simplicity together.

Smaller, sleeker, more streamlined design - We've made these award-winning drives even smaller, sleeker, and more elegant. As always, this book-like shape takes up minimal space on your desk and allows two or more My Book drives to nestle neatly together like volumes on a shelf.

WD SmartWare - See your life safe in one place.

See your backup as it happens - Seeing is believing. Visual backup displays your content in categories and shows the progress of your backup.

Protect your data automatically - Relax, your data is secure. Automatic, continuous backup will instantly make a second copy whenever you add or change a file.

Bring back lost files effortlessly - Retrieve your valuable data to its original location whether you've lost all your data or just overwritten an important file.

Take control - Customize your backup, set drive security, run diagnostics, manage the power settings, and more from the WD SmartWare control center.

Drive lock - Gain peace of mind knowing that your data is protected from unauthorized access or theft with password protection and 256-bit hardware-based encryption.

Illuminated capacity gauge - See at a glance how much space is available on your drive.

USB 2.0 interface - A simple connection that offers convenience and compatibility among multiple computers.

Power miser - My Book external drives are designed to save energy. WD GreenPower Technology lowers internal drive power

Amazon.com Product Description

Our best-selling My Book external drive is an elegant, high-capacity storage solution for all the chapters of your digital life. Our latest edition now features visual, easy-to-use, automatic, continuous backup software and drive lock security protection. At last, beauty, brains, and simplicity together.

Elegant design.

This book-like shape takes up minimal space on your desk and allows two or more My Book drives to nestle neatly together like volumes on a shelf.

See your life safe in one place.

WD SmartWare software - A visual control center with a single screen view of all your data. From it you can back up, retrieve, and secure your files.

Password protection.

An extra level of security with password protection and 256-bit hardware-based encryption.


Features at a glance
  • Automatic, continous backup
  • Illuminated capacity gauge
  • Password protection and hardware encryption
  • WD SmartWare software
  • 2-years limited warranty

Smaller, sleeker, more streamlined design - We've made these award-winning drives even smaller, sleeker, and more elegant. As always, this book-like shape takes up minimal space on your desk and allows two or more My Book drives to nestle neatly together like volumes on a shelf.

WD SmartWare™ - A control center for your drive that gives you the power to:

-- Protect your data automatically - Relax, your data is secure. Automatic, continuous backup will instantly make a second copy whenever you add or change a file.

-- See your backup as it happens - Seeing is believing. Visual backup displays your content in categories and shows the progress of your backup.

-- Bring back lost files effortlessly - Retrieve your valuable data to its original location whether you’ve lost all your data or just overwritten an important file.

-- Take control - Customize your backup, set drive security, run diagnostics, manage the power settings, and more from the WD SmartWare control center.

Find out more about WD SmartWare™

Drive lock - Gain peace of mind knowing that your data is protected from unauthorized access or theft with password protection and 256-bit hardware-based encryption.

Illuminated capacity gauge - See at a glance how much space is available on your drive.

USB 2.0 interface - Powered directly from the USB port on your PC. No separate power supply is needed*.
* An optional cable is available for the few computers that limit power from the USB port.

Power miser - My Book external drives are designed to save energy. WD GreenPower Technology™ lowers internal drive power consumption by up to 30%, a sleep mode reduces power during idle times, and a power-saving feature turns the drive on and off with your computer.

Planet friendly - We designed a small box from recycled materials to minimize waste. We encourage you to recycle it.

Ready to plug-and-play with Windows PCs - If you're a Mac user, check out our Mac version of this product.

Ideal For

  • Protecting your data with automatic, continous backup
  • Retrieving lost data effortlessly
  • Adding extra storage space for photos, videos and music
  • Securing private or sensitive data

Compatibility

Formatted NTFS
Windows® XP, Windows Vista®, Windows 7
Mac OS® X Tiger®, Leopard®, Snow Leopard™ (requires reformatting)

Note: Compatibility may vary depending on user's hardware configuration and operating system.

What's in the box

External hard drive, WD SmartWare software, USB cable, AC adapter, Quick Install Guide.


Backup software you'll really use � WD SmartWare

Five great reasons to love it:

1. It's easy - Data backup can be a chore, but it's your family photos, your movies, your music - your life - and it's important to protect it. So we made this software extra easy because we really want you to use it.

2. You can see your life safe in one place -
See your content displayed in easy to understand categories like movies and photos. Watch the progress of your backup as it happens with the instant-feedback color bars. Now you can truly be sure that all your stuff is backed up.

  • A unique visual interface lets you see the drives connected to your computer.
  • WD SmartWare will automatically scan your computer and find all of your personal files, including e-mail.
  • Content category gauges show how much information you have to be backed up in each category. You can even mouse over a category to see a file count.
  • Simply click Run Backup and WD SmartWare will automatically start backing up your files.
  • As your backup is running the category gauges will change color showing you the backup as it happens.
  • When finished, you’ll see a status screen and information about your backup. You only have to do this once. After the first backup your files will be backed up automatically every time you change or add a file.

3. It's always on the job - WD SmartWare is always watching your computer, so when you change a file and save it, create new files, add new pictures, movies, or songs, WD SmartWare will instantly back them up.

4. You can bring back lost files effortlessly - If you ever accidentally delete an important file, or need to get an earlier version of a file, you can find and retrieve it in seconds with this easy-to-use interface.

  • Restore files and folders by categories – photos, music, video, for example.
  • Find a lost file with the search function.
  • Go back in time to retrieve an older version of a file.

5. You're in control - WD SmartWare software is also a control center for your external drives. From it you can:

  • Customize your backup
  • Set drive security
  • Run diagnostics
  • Manage the power settings, and more...



Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 68
1 2 3 4 5 6 ...14Next »



5 out of 5 stars Excellent storage for my iTunes library   August 29, 2010
iTunes Lover!
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I love my new Western Digital 2TB external hard drive. It's perfect for my ever expanding iTunes library. It plugs in and plays perfectly right out of the box. There are 1.8 gigs of usable storage space on this drive. This is my third and largest external hard drive. I've loved them all. No problems whatsoever. I'm using my smaller externals for photo storage.


5 out of 5 stars READ THE LATEST REVIEWS FIRST Absolutely no problem; so far so good   August 26, 2010
Michael D. Swaine (Washington DC)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

PLEASE READ THE LATEST REVIEWS OF THIS PRODUCT FIRST! WD HAS APPARENTLY CORRECTED MANY OF THE INITIAL COMPLAINTS ABOUT SMARTWARE SOFTWARE. Here is my story (and keep in mind that every review is just one person's experience, good or bad, and that the vast majority of purchasers do not submit a review, in most cases most likely because they had little/no problem with the product).

Yesterday I received my WD My Book Essential 2TB External Drive with Smartware. I also downloaded the online complete user's guide from the WD website (something which it appears many of those who had a negative experience did not do). Installing was very easy, but just to be sure, on a couple of points, I called the WD support line, immediately got through and every time the techie was helpful and resolved the issue. The software installed, no problem, and the drive appears to be running, no problem. All my files (about 60 GB) were backed up in less than two hours, as the WD techie predicted. Since then, the drive has been working fine, no excessive on and off, just humming in the background with minimal activity. And this is on default settings. I get no intrusive "pop-up" of any icons. Yes, the smartware shows as a CD drive on the My Computer panel, but so what. All in all, the drive is doing just what it claims to do.

FYI, my computer is a relatively new Gateway with a Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OS, Intel Core 2 Quad processor, with 6 GB of RAM memory and a 1 TB hard drive. It gives no indication of being slowed by the Smartware software. My guess is that my experience is probably pretty typical of many if not most buyers of this product. So far so good, and I will report back if I have an unexpected problem. And BTW, my purpose in buying the drive was to obtain an efficient, easy-to-use means of keeping my computer backed up on a real-time basis, without having a scheduled backup period and a lengthy backing up, each time, of the entire contents of my computer. Once it conducts its initial backup, the My Book only backs up what has been newly added to my computer. Exactly what I want.



5 out of 5 stars Excelent choice   August 24, 2010
Bernardo
This is a very good portable hard disk, it is worth it a 100% of price, wich is no so expensive by the way


4 out of 5 stars WD My Book Essential 2 TB External Hard Drive   August 21, 2010
Mike
I recently purchased(8/20/2010)this external hard drive new from Amazon.com. Delivery was quick, but installation was challenging. The installation instructions that come with the unit are very simple (3 steps- connect power, connect USB plug, and picture the WD Smartware is displayed), however, they do not tell you how to take advantage of the WD Smartware software display that is available on the unit. I called WD's Tech Service number, but they only told me how to do manual backups using a copy and paste process from My Computer on Windows Vista. I eventually went on WD's website and read the full manual and especially the detailed installation section.
I highly recommend doing this if you want to use the custom software on the external drive and get all the features you paid for. Once installed, it works as advertised. Great unit for backing up your internal hard drive.



2 out of 5 stars A host of annoyances... and terrible software.   August 21, 2010
Lieven Leroy (Santa Clara, CA United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

2TB for this price seems a good deal, and WD is an established name... so, I grabbed it without checking for reviews. This was a mistake which you, gentle reader, are hopefully not making...

The software for this device is haphazard, confusing, actively harmful. And it takes up space you paid for! Given all the other negative reviews of the software I've found online since, it leaves a bad impression of WD that they have not done anything about it.

The hard drive itself runs quietly, though the case has fairly cheap feeling construction. The power button feels fragile.

When you connect the drive:
(1) 'SmartWare' software auto-installs. That would be convenient, if the software weren't terrible. It also does not offer an uninstall option, and the tray icon it adds, while it offers an 'Exit' option, does not actually exit.
(2) When the application starts it shows the drive has 1.8TB free. (That's odd, I paid for 2TB...)
(3) It then proceeds to index your files in a confusing way -- not by directory but by file type (Pictures, Music, ...). Does backing up this way work? I'll never know, it was so painfully slow it literally would have taken a day to back up my 200GB main drive.
(4) So I checked for updates. There's a button in the application for that, but it just takes you to a website. Where you have to manually select your drive and operating system. Clearly, better software could easily make this determination for you and save the world a lot of time and incorrect selections. The site then offers options to update the firmware and the backup tool. (The firmware update requires you to power cycle the drive. The power button doesn't work for this, so you'll have to yank the power cord.)
(5) On attempting to restart the backup, the software just sat there. No indication of progress, no drive activity. After a half hour I exited.

I resorted to a manual backup. The copying runs 3-4x faster that way. No backup management, of course, so that is a major setback.

I will probably keep it simply because it would be too much of a hassle to wipe the drive of my files.


Showing reviews 1-5 of 68
1 2 3 4 5 6 ...14Next »


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