Western Digital WDG1U5000 My Book Essential Edition 500 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive | 
| Brand: Western Digital
List Price: $329.99
Buy New: $195.00
You Save: $134.99 (41%)
New (4) Used (2) Refurbished (1) from $116.44
Rating:  291 reviews
Sales Rank: 3200
Color: Black
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Hard Drive Size: 500
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4
Dimensions (in): 11.6 x 8 x 4.7
Warranty: 1 year warranty
MPN: WDG1U5000N
Model: WDG1U5000N
UPC: 718037117843
EAN: 0718037117843
ASIN: B000EXRSVM
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Store and back up your music, photos, videos and important documents with this external hard drive | | • | Easy to set up and use with built-in installation software | | • | Simple user interface features USB 2.0 connectivity | | • | Device holds up to 500 GB of data | | • | Measures 5.55 x 2.25 x 6.71 inches (WxHxD) |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Product Description
Is your computer loaded with photos, music, video, and all sorts of important files? If so, you should make extra room, back them up, and keep them safe on Western Digital's WDG1U5000 My Book Essential Edition 500 GB Hard Drive. This reliable, easy-to-use external hard drive is the perfect storage solution for all your precious digital assets. 
Save and back up all your digital assets with the My Book Essential Edition Hard Drive. View larger. | 
Simple, easy-to-use design. | 
Connects to your computer via USB 2.0 interface. View larger. | 
The elegant case takes up very little space. | Installation is a breeze because you don't really "install" anything -- just plug it in and it's ready to use. There is not even an installation CD because all the included software loads automatically from the hard drive the first time you plug it in. The My Book Essential is all about simplicity. Just plug it into your computer's USB 2.0 port and you're ready to start saving and backing up your files. But that's not all. Western Digital uses a smart design to make the My Book Essential look as good as it performs. The elegant case resembles a book and takes up very little space on your desk. Plus, it stacks horizontally and allows two or more drives to nestle neatly together like encyclopedias on a shelf. Inside the stylish exterior is an exceptionally fast, ultra-quiet, cool-running hard drive. Last but not least, the My Book Essential is equipped with free Google software that searches your drives, manages your photos, and simplifies Web searches. My Book Essential Edition Hard Drives are ideal for:
- Simple add-on storage for your files, music, photos and movies
- Adding virtually unlimited storage with multiple USB 2.0 external hard drives
- Archiving the music stored on your MP3 player
- Adding plenty of space for digital video capture and editing
- Saving and organizing your digital photo collection
Note: For higher performance and automatic backup software, consider the My Book Premium Edition 500 GB Hard Drive.
What's in the Box
My Book Essential 500 GB USB 2.0 external hard drive, USB cable, AC adapter with power cord, and quick install guide.
Product Description
Package Includes: WDG1U5000 MyBook, USB cable, AC adapter with power cord, Quick Install Guide The Western Digital WDG1U5000 MyBook is a small, simple, elegant and very easy to use portable memory tool. Just plug it in, and you've got plenty of room to back up and save your valuable data, music, photos, and movies. Plug it into your computer's USB 2.0 port and start saving -- it's all about simplicity. The 500GB hard drive will store either 142,000 digital photos, 38 hours of Digital Video (DV), 60 hours of HD or 200 hours of DVD quality video. It can also hold up to 125,000 songs in MP3 format, or 12,000 songs in uncompressed CD quality. Serial Transfer Rate(USB 2.0) - 480 Mbits/s (Max) Read Seek Time - 8.9 ms Track-To-Track Seek Time - 2.0 ms (average) Operating Systems - Windows 98SE/Me/2000/XP or Mac OS X 10.2.8 (or higher) Requires available USB port Physical Dimensions(HxLxW) - 6.71 x 5.6 x 2.25 (170 x 141 x 57.2 mm) Weight - 2.90 lbs. (1.32 kg)
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| Customer Reviews: Read 286 more reviews...
 Quick & Quiet March 31, 2006
Kevin Brancato (Alexandria, VA)
144 out of 149 found this review helpful
Visually appealing, extremely quiet operation -- just a slight ticking under heavy use. Very stable, with two long thin rubber strips keeping the case from moving. Installation is automatic on Win2000. Drive powers on and off automatically with the computer. Green ring of light on front flickers to indicate read/write.
However, operation of the drive was quirky at first. Opening the root of the drive would always bring up the annoying software install menu. (The software includes Adobe Acrobat Reader, Google Toolbar for IE, and Picasa). To facilitate use with both Windows and Mac, the drive comes preformatted to FAT32. However, this limits file sizes to 4GB. Using Windows utilities to reformat to NTFS was simple and hassle-free.
Note that a small slip of yellow paper in the box suggests downloading and installing an updated drive utility. Unfortunately, starting this updated utility brings up a blue screen of death, forcing a reboot of my Win2000 machine. Fortunately, the utility software is unneccesary.
Were it not for this hassle, I would have given the drive five stars.
UPDATE (March 18, 2008): The drive is STILL in perfect working order -- after nearly two years of weekday backups and a switch to XP. For months now, I have been using TrueCrypt for file encryption without any problems.
UPDATE (May 12, 2008): Drive died over the weekend, causing the blue screen of death, and now makes sad clicking noises as it tries to mount.
RIP
 Simple, Quiet, Well Constructed Drive!! May 14, 2006
S. Singh (Glen Allen, VA United States)
100 out of 104 found this review helpful
I was looking for a 300GB+ External hard-drive to backup my data, photos, music and home-videos. I wanted a rugged drive as I was planning to keep the drive off-site and transport it back & forth for monthly backups.
I evaluated LaCie, Seagate and other alternatives on the market and found the My Book has comparable or better specs and was aesthetically more pleasing than most. I also liked the simplicity and the concept of the My Book. The footprint is also among the smallest in the industry for a 500GB drive.
The drive looks sleek and is not intrusive or odd on a desk. The casing is made of hard plastic. It looks and feels rugged. The drive has "morse-code" vents which, beside looking funky, help keep the drive extremely cool. Drive operation is extremely quiet. When placed vertically there are 2 rubber strips on the bottom to prevent the drive from sliding or vibrating. Multiple drives can also be stacked on their sides - rubber feet are included.
The setup is pretty simple, just plug-in the power and connect the USB cable. Windows XP recognizes and sets up the drive quickly. Look for the drive under "My Computer" - you're up and running!!
The drive comes pre-formatted as FAT32. You can reformat it to NTFS with relative ease under Win XP. There is some included Google software which you can copy to your local machine or download from Google.com. The drive switches on and shuts down with your computer. You can also turn the drive on/off via a large button which is surrounded by the green indicator.
The only thing I miss is the WD Backup software - which seems to be bundled as an incentive with the Premium My Book drive. Another feature that people might miss is the "One-touch Backup" button offered by competitors.
Overall, I'm very pleased with this drive!!
 Don't waste your money February 8, 2007
A.K. (Dallas, TX)
53 out of 60 found this review helpful
I had 2 MyBook Essentials die on me in less than 2 months. WD said they will replace the drive (for the 3rd time) if I mail it in. Too bad I have over 300gb of data stored on my drive. The computer (or any computer for that matter), fails to recognize the drive. Comes up as Unknow Device. My data is more important to me then getting a new drive from WD. So I went and purchased an external case (Vantec NexStar3) and took out the hard drive from MyBook and placed it into the Vantec case. My computer had no problems recognizing the new external case. From what I've been reading online, lots of people are having problems with MyBooks. WD is refusing to reimburse me for the price of the new case. I will post on every forum/review site that has anything to do with MyBooks and let everyone know the truth about how bad the quality of these overpriced drives really is. If you are thinking of getting a MyBook, DONT!
Highest failure rate of any external drives I have ever owned January 23, 2007
D. Kommel (San Dimas, CA USA)
29 out of 42 found this review helpful
I bought 2 of these, one in April and another in May. The first failed in August, the second in September. WD replaced them both, but then the first replacement quit in October. I have owned over a dozen Maxtor and Simpletech external USB and Firewire drives in the past without a single failure.
No Problems April 23, 2007
Brian Koch (MI United States)
29 out of 31 found this review helpful
I got this drive because my 250 GB version was getting close to being full. So now I use this as my primary data storage drive and leave it in all the time and use my 2-250 GB as backup drives and unplug them when not in use. I have had this drive for about 6 months now and it has never given me any problems and I have had the 2-Western Digital WDG1U2500 My Book Essential Edition 250 GB Hard Drive for over a year with no problems. They are pretty small and fit nicely on a shelf near my computer and I can't even tell they are running over the computer fan so they are pretty quite. External hard drives are much better than internal, if your computer dies you still have everything right there and can plug it into another computer any time you want without opening it up, ripping things apart, setting jumpers etc. So if you are looking for a small, reliable, quite external drive, look no further.
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