Western Digital 750 GB My Book Essential USB 2.0 External Hard Drive WDH1U7500N (Black) | 
| Brand: Western Digital
List Price: $169.99
Buy New: $119.99
You Save: $50.00 (29%)
New (38) Used (1) from $119.99
Rating:  39 reviews
Sales Rank: 395
Media: Personal Computers
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Hard Drive Size: 750
Shipping Weight (lbs): 6
Dimensions (in): 0 x 0 x 0
Warranty: 1 year warranty
MPN: WDH1U7500N
Model: WDH1U7500N
UPC: 718037120812
EAN: 0718037120812
ASIN: B000XRI034
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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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
This elegant external hard drive, reminiscent of a book, is the perfect storage solution. It takes no more space than a paperback book. Collect two or more and they nest neatly together like volumes on a shelf. Installation is a snap because you don't really install this drive, you just plug it in and it's ready to use. A USB 2.0 simple connection offers convenience and compatibility among multiple computers. Dimensions - Height 6.5 x Length 5.4 x Width 2.1 Weight - 2.5 Pounds
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| Customer Reviews: Read 34 more reviews...
Western Digital MyBook Essential 750 GB - Nice Looking, Decent Performing External HD April 24, 2008
Mark (East Coast)
99 out of 100 found this review helpful
Western Digital 750GB My Book Essential USB 2.0 External Hard Drive, WDH1U7500N
My Western Digital hard drive collection is really growing. I got this new Western Digital MyBook 750 GB drive because I've had good luck with several other models and I wanted to step up in size. This is an attractive update to the Essentials line of external home hard drives. The performance is on par with other MyBook drives, but as capacity increases more people will want to step up to a version with faster FireWire connections. For that reason, if you can afford the extra cash check out the premium edition. Western Digital WDG1C7500N My Book Premium 750 GB USB2.0/FireWire External Hard Drive Also, you may want to explore different size options based upon your needs. More on this later.
Pros
+ Great price for 750 GB of capacity, which gives you some future growth ability
+ Works well on Windows Vista, XP and Mac OS X
+ 16 MB buffer is still acceptable for faster copying speeds
+ Transfer speeds still much better than portable passport drives
+ New sleek body, more pleasing to the eye
+ Turns on and off with your computer
+ Very easy installation, virtually plug and play
+ Integrates nicely with my growing stable of WD MyBook drives
+ So far so good, I haven't had any of these drives fail
Cons
- Because of larger size costing a premium, this ends up being a higher $ price per gigabyte than other drives like the 500 GB Essentials
- 750 GB capacity getting close to limit you would want for USB 2.0 and 16 MB buffer
- Larger disks like this one might be more prone to failure so you must handle gently
- Included software will only be useful for novice users; not useful for power users
- New shiny body attracts fingerprints and dust, may not appeal to everyone
- Transfer speed still limited by USB only connection, must step up for FireWire ports
- AC adapter for power, not USB powered
The Looks
The drive has a new shiny exterior that is the same shiny plastic that is used on the portable passport drives. Western Digital 500GB 2.5-inch Passport USB Portable Hard Drive Those cases scratch in transit, but since this is designed for home use I don't think that's a big deal. This surface also can attract fingerprints, but the new design has removed the need to touch the drive since the external button is now gone. The cosmetic changes to this drive may not appeal to everybody. For me, I like the new curved look of this drive.
The Features
Transfer speeds are acceptable. The 16 MB buffer is nice, but cutting it close for a external hard drive in the 750 GB range. 16 MB is becoming the new standard, but for larger 1 TB single drives the buffers have to get bigger. This guy is still limited by the 480 Mps connection speed of USB 2.0, but performs very well compared to WD's other drives. Just know that the USB2.0 speed rating can not really be achieved in production and you will get a fraction of that.
Removing the external power button was probably a minor change overall, but I liked the old way. In any event, you can still unplug the AC adapter and power it down from behind. As it is, it does power down with your computer, based upon the USB connection. Some may not be crazy about the extra connection for the AC adapter, but these guys perform faster and more reliably than the USB powered ones.
The software utilities included with this device are cute but not tremendously useful. Take my advice: just do cut and paste backups to this drive.
I've had no problem connecting this drive to Windows XP, Vista or Mac OS X computers. The only factor that should change whether or not you get this drive or another one would be size and connection type. Obviously, WD makes Pro and other versions of these drives that have firewire and SATA connectors. For most Mac users, firewire 2 connectivity is a must. Also, more 1 and 2 TB drives are starting to come onto the market. Check out the alternatives if you need more space or extra features offered by some of the multi-drive configs, including RAID.
Western Digital WDG1C5000N My Book Premium Edition 500 GB USB 2.0/Firewire External Hard Drive
Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 1 TB External Hard Drive
Western Digital WDG2T15000N MyBook Premium II 1.5 TB Hard Drive
Reliability
With every new drive I buy, I am more and more nervous of failures for larger capacity drives. The many unhappy posts here don't make me feel better. So I got this guy with a grain of salt.
Still, I'm going on six months with this drive and no failures to report. I hope it stays that way. I can only say that high failure reports are still a negative but hopefully they are improving their quality control. Perhaps gentle care has helped me to get lucky with these guys so far. You can be sure I'm going to post an update if this changes.
Conclusion
This drive is a great value for those who want a nice capacity drive. It's better to get a pair to guard against drive failures and backup your backup. Try to get it on sale.
Those looking for extra connectors (firewire, SATA) or a full backup solution for their main computer will most likely want to step up to the models with RAID.
Enjoy!
Easy setup, performs as described. July 26, 2008
Greg Coleman (Montana - USA)
19 out of 21 found this review helpful
Hard drives seem to have become a commodity with speed, failure rates and cost per GB being the important factors. I am pleased with the drive, it works as described. The one issue I'm having is with the automatic on/off feature. I'm using the drive with my dish network DVR. The drive senses when the computer is turned on and off to turn itself on or off. It does not get the message from the DVR and remains on. There does not appear to be a physical on off switch so I have to unplug the drive to turn it off. I would not buy this drive again for this DVR application. I believe it is a good value for a computer drive.
 Excellent drive, but may cause USB conflicts July 27, 2008
Dr. G. C. Corynen (San Francisco)
19 out of 34 found this review helpful
Due to increased photographic work, I needed an additional backup drive. After about two days of research, I limited my choice to Western Digital (WD) and Seagate. Given that Terabyte desktops are operating near the technological envelope, I reduced desired size to 750 GB. By pure coincidence, I happened to meet a WD engineer while on a beach in San Simeon(CA). He convinced me that his company's "WDH1U7500N Essential USB 2.0" was the best choice(surprise?), and I bought it.
Installation was easy and the disk was promptly recognized by my Windows XP SP3 system. Considering that backup software packaged on such disks - not only WD's - have been found to be generally unreliable, I decided to perform backups manually, and I immediately reformatted the disk into four NTFS sub-disks, thereby throwing away the included software.
Reading from and writing to the disk went well.......until I plugged in an additional USB 2.0 peripheral into one of the computer's OEM ports. The machine no longer recognized the WD disk until I unplugged the additional device and rebooted the system. All attached USB peripherals are OEM devices available at most computer stores. I spent more than two hours investigating the possibility of IRQ or memory conflicts, but I could not find any. I did notice, however, that system disk and peripheral names and labels had been changed, possibly causing a conflict there.
I should note that the additional USB device referred to earlier is a USB Hub with several USB outputs. One conceivable explanation is that this machine-driven hub is causing an electrical overload, or that the names and labels of its multiple outputs conflicted with the WD drive.
Based on poor opinions of WD support, I decided to remove the hub, and everything returned to normal. In an abundance of thoroughness, I should probably call the engineer who recommended the disk.
Dr. GC
 Had two fail September 10, 2008
R. Lyon
18 out of 19 found this review helpful
I bought two of these, one for Projects and one as backup. They both crashed in the same month. Not good for the Pro video world.
 RELIABLE - A GOOD DEAL August 28, 2008
Pigs (Indianapolis)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I just ordered my ninth one of these drives - they're perfect for use with the DISH Network HD receiver as external storage for recorded movies - 9 drives - no failures!
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