WD My Book Pro Edition II Hard Drive Array - 2 x HDD Installed - 1 TB Installed HDD Capacity

XLNT 1TB RAID FireWire 800/400 HD System for Mac...

Strengths: Solid design; 1TB size; FireWire 800-native=fast access; nice power off/on design that works 100%; stylish; HFS+ formatted OEM; user-serviceable if necessary

Weakness: Bad reviews from early adopters; occasionally loud cooling fans; runs warm, but that's apparently normal; lacks 5-year warranty but makes up for it in performance

This is a great external HD system for Mac users, as it worked right out of the box as advertised, was OEM formatted HFS+ Journaled, and I get to use FireWire 800 for its connection to my Dual Core G5. I updated the firmware immediately, and that stopped the fans from going on hard too often, although it seems to run naturally a trifle warm, with the fans on low speed much of the time when it's...

Read Full Review

It doesn't get better than 1 terabyte on your desk!

Strengths: Huge capacity, stylish, fast

Weakness: Loud, useless capacity gauge

After outgrowing my current hard drives, I decided to upgrade and get this 1TB monster, and I'm very happy I did. The drive itself is speedy, and I've quickly transferred hundreds of gigs of data to it. The My Book is also pretty stylish and definitely goes well with modern computer designs. The are two things that I don't like, though: it's loud, and that capacity gauge is useless. Regarding the...

Read Full Review

My Book Pro Edition II 1TB HD

Strengths: Price, Design, RAID and tri-connections

Weakness: Occasionally loud.

I have been using this drive for about a week with a setting of RAID 1 for redundant backup. Has been great right out of the box but the one thing I noticed was during large file xfers, the fans kick on and the unit switches from silent to mini hairdryer level noise. Sort of makes sense and I was fine with it since I wouldn't be doing this type of large volume xfers frequently, but yesterday I...

Read Full Review

Great external hard drive!

Strengths: Lots of space; Very easy to install on a Mac; Works fast and really quiet; Looks great on my desk

Weakness: None so far

WD My Book 1TB is a great external hard drive. It’s easy to use. I use RAID configuration and it was really easy to set it up on a Mac. Hard drive automatically goes to sleep after some time of inactivity and wakes up as soon as to access it. A lot of people complain about loud fan, so as soon as I got my drive I upgraded the firmware so I never had this issue. I use firewire 800 and it runs...

Read Full Review

I really like it

Strengths: Size, RAID1, performance

Weakness: Bad reviews :)

I've had this drive on my iMac about a week and so far it's worked great. It took 5 minutes to reconfig it for RAID1 and it mounted perfectly and has not missed a beat. I use it for nightly backups so maybe I'm not hearing the "loud fan" everyone seems to describe. I do hear a fan, but it's no louder than a pretty quiet PC fan. I suggest buying it to listen for yourself. I could not find any...

Read Full Review

nice but noisy

Strengths: Price, excellent management of RAID

Weakness: Very noisy

I purchased two drives and set them up in a RAID 1 configuration using standard Apple Mac Os X software. It took about two flawless minutes, never having done such a thing before. Unfortunately, the drive fans are constantly running while the computer is on, and are extremely annoying. When you feel the drive itself, the top is quite warm, possibly explaining the necessity for the fans running.

Never Again.

Strengths: Its big.

Weakness: Loud, and unreliable.

We bought one of these to archive footage from DV tapes. After capturing 70+ hours of footage the drive started to loose files. I don't recommend this product. We are sending it back.

This is a POS in my experience...

Strengths: In theory: Blue LED "storage gauge", large storage POTENTIAL, RAID 0,1 ability, includes all the cables you would expect.

Weakness: Refuses to retain data. Firmware updated, took multiple installations just to recognize drive long enough to format. File system magically disappears!

The install disc is translucent, rendering it useless in some drives that can't read it. Limited and outdated tech support on website. Fan noise is least of your worries!

WD Pro Ed II 1Tb Ext HD

Strengths: Physical design, RAID controller software

Weakness: Noise, poor throughput

After using many Maxtor 1 Tb external hard drives, and considering previous good experiences with WD's 70 and 320 Gb units, I decided to give this unit a try. Unfortunately, it has proved to be much worse than the Maxtors, which seem to be workhorses. First, when the fans kick in, it is very noisy, and when you run it for more than 10-15 minutes, the fans will operate constantly. Generally after...

Read Full Review

Speak up! I am using my Hard Drive

Strengths: I\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'ve had mine for 4 months and have not lost any data nor any problems with the drive. I use it with FW400 and it seems pretty fast. Good for backups.

Weakness: LOAD FAN - sounds like a hair drier most of the time but when the HD heats up which is most of the time the fan kicks in to turbo drive which is VERY LOAD. Only 1 FW400 port is a big problem for me.

-- The drive is generally a good device for backup where you unplug it when not in use but if you plan to use it frequently you will find the noise from the fans to be a problem. -- Design of the device is bad, you can\\\\\\\'t really stack it so if you want to have more drives on your desk you will take up more precious desk space rather than less as they say in their ads. -- Only having 1 FW400...

Read Full Review