WD 4TB My Book Desktop External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 - WDBFJK0040HBK-NESN,Black

Most of the attention this product has received here in reviews is for its most obvious role -- as a backup storage unit. I have found that this device functions VERY well as real time augmentation for your internal hard drive. I own a relatively new (August 2013) HP-ENVY 17 laptop with a screaming processor, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB internal drive running both Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. The machine has 4 USB 3.0 ports. No reason to put in 2.0 USB ports at all since 3.0 is backwards compatible. My first addition to the setup was a SIIG 7-port standalone (4 USB 2 and 3 USB 3) box to augment the four USB 3.0 ports on the computer. I now have a 64GB thumb drive by Silicon Power and the new WD My Book (both USB 3.0) each connecting to the laptop through the SIIG box. I was using an older Seagate 1TB drive as my backup, but I had begun recording the entirety of my CD collection and my ladys, as well -- in all this amounted to over 400 CDs. I directed iTunes to store everything on the Seagate, and I was not unhappy with any aspect of that decision EXCEPT the USB 2.0 connection to it left discernible lag time after making a selection through the iTunes interface. Upon receiving the WD My Book, I copied all my existing files from the Seagate to the WD. Since iTunes was looking for the F: drive whenever it was used, I renamed the Seagate and then made the WD unit the F: drive. I was quite pleased to find that the response time between the songs database and iTunes interface was faster than it had ever been before -- and that includes my time using my old Panasonic laptop where iTunes was accessing the C: drive. I have similar results for accessing photos and videos that are stored on the drive. If you have USB 3.0 available to you, I am sure that for most uses you will be pleased with the access time you get using this drive. My sample size is only a week, but to this point I am 100% pleased with the WD product.

I bought this unit to serve as an external hard drive for my Dish Network Hopper with Sling. So, while I cannot report on its performance as a computer file backup unit, I can say it has been everything I hoped for to store my recorded movies and TV shows on the Hopper. It simply plugs into the Hopper with a USB connection and is immediately readable by the Hopper as an extra hard drive. The playback seems nice & smooth and it is easy to transfer recorded content from the Hopper to the EHD -- and also from the EHD back to the Hopper. It does not copy the content -- it transfers it from one to the other and frees up the storage space on the source hard drive. One note of caution: The recordings made with the Hopper are done with proprietary coding by Dish Network. As such, the content can only be played back through the Hopper or other advanced Dish DVRs -- it will not be readable by a computer. So, as long as you are with Dish Network, this is an excellent way to double the 2 TB storage capacity of the Hoppers hard drive. A very good product.

I have a Mac Book Pro 2014 so when I went to try this external Hard Drive to expand my computers space, it took me a few trys because I did not know how to sync hook it up properly to the laptop (What I mean is configure the thing so it could work with my computer) After I opened it I plugged it in hoping it would just convert into a Hard Drive where I could drop stuff into it. But the thing is I didnt know you were suppose to convert it to be Mac only or PC only. So after a month I found a video on Youtube that helped me figure it out. I might make one my self to help people like my self who had no idea what they doing and just went ahead and tried to get it to work. So overall, its great! once you figure out how to plug it in and convert it to a Mac or PC only then it works like a charm!

On my Windows 10 computer I have been using a 500 GB external drive to back up with Windows Backup. This backs up all files and folders, creates a System Image and lets me create a repair disk on DVD. That was filling up the drive so I needed a larger one. I read all the reviews and a lot of folks were upset about all the included WD software, encryption, locks, etc. Heres my simple experience: 1. Plugged in the power to the drive...nothing happened, thought it was DOA. 2. Plugged in USB and it came to life when connected to computer. 3. Didnt open any software files from WD, the MyBook drive was recognized. 4. Didnt format the drive, just ignored the software contents. 5. Ran Windows Backup and it worked fine, took a few hours for 500 GB I have a full Back Up, no errors and system image. Made a fresh repair disk. The drive is virtually silent and is staying in idle mode with blue light on front. Simple and works for me. Im sure there are more elaborate solutions, but I dont think I need them for my personal computer. Hopefully it just keeps working for a few years at least.

So I purchased the WD 4TB My Book External Hard Drive about 8 1/2 months ago. I bought it to expand the memory of my Xbox One gaming system. Keep in mind, that this needs an outlet to power it, not through a USB port. I hooked it up when it arrived, and everything worked swimmingly. I had ZERO issues with this hard drive. I have worked in the gaming industry for about 15 years now and I am not a novice with electronics. Basically, I know how to take care of my stuff. The hard drive was set up and used with no issues up until about a month ago. All of a sudden it stopped working. I have it hooked into top end surge strip, and had no power issues or anything like that. The HD powered on fine but was no longer recognizable from my Xbox or even my PC. I figured that maybe it was the data cable that came with it, so I replaced that and nothing. The HD has NEVER been moved, knocked over, or abused in any way, shape or form. It has sat on an open-aired shelf since I had it. It was not even used a lot because I didnt need it 24/7. Anyways, I knew the product had a 2-year warranty through WD, so I followed the necessary steps to get it shipped to them so I can figure out what is wrong with it. At this point, I just assumed it was just a bad Hard Drive itself. I left a note in the box stating the steps I took to try to figure out the issue(s). Basically, just to help them eliminate possibilities of defect. I received the Hard Drive back a few weeks later with a note stating internal damage and it was not covered under their warranty. How in the hell is there internal damage on a hard drive that was sitting on a shelf (minimally used)?? When I shipped the item back to them, I used more than enough packing material to avoid shipping damage from UPS. Now I am out $100+ because... why? There was nothing else listed as to what kind of internal damage, just that they wouldnt swap it for me. This is the worst customer service I have had since the Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death issues (if you know what I am talking about). I will NEVER buy another Western Digital product again.

For 6TB version. Im giving this 3 stars for now because I just got off the phone with WD tech support regarding the sleep/wake issue for these drives. I am a frequent Amazon shopper but this device I bought from Costco. I wanted to post this to help others who may have encountered the sleep/wake problem with this device as well as those that may be contemplating buying this and should be aware of the issue up front. The problem is that the drive will go to sleep after a period of inactivity or when the computer sleeps, but it would not wake up again. It not only would not wake up, it couldnt even be found using Windows Explorer or any other method that I tried. As the tech support person explained, the drive was designed to go to sleep when the computer does and then you have to unplug the drive and plug it back in for it to wake up again. I am not kidding, that was the process that was provided. I stated that the design was extremely poor (I think the term moronic was used) and said that any external USB drive that was intended to be used for backing up a computer needed to automatically wake from sleep when the computer wakes or when the backup software initiates the backup. After some consultation with unknown others, the tech person came back on line and explained the process (for Windows 10, but probably similar for 7 and 8) to inactivate the Power Management option on the USB controller. I did this for both the Intel USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller - 1.0 (Microsoft) and the USB Root Hub (xHCI). Go to Device Manager, find the Universal Serial Bus controllers, find the relevant controllers, right click each to see the Properties, click on the Power Management tab and UNCHECK the Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power option. I did this and ran a test (only one so far) by putting the computer to sleep and waking it again. The MyBook was still there and functioning (apparently), but the off period was not very long on that test. I will run more and report back again. I hope this cures the problem, in which case I will increase the rating to 4 stars. Not 5 because this workaround should not be necessary. I will drop it to 1 star if this doesnt fix the problem because in that case I will have a 6TB paper weight. 2016-05-09: I have tested this fix for weeks now and the drive will stay on longer but still goes dead eventually. Once after a week, once an afternoon. I cant see a pattern. I would not recommend this drive if you run Windows 10 and you want this drive to perform regular backups. Please note that I prefer WD drives in general and run several high capacity (12 TB) NAS RAIDS using WD Reds. But this USB drive is worthless.

This drive is big enough to backup all of my media files multiple times, meaning that I get six to twelve months of backup history and it seems to work well. I tried some 4 TB drives from other manufacturers but they cant be formatted in a way that is compatible with Windows Backup, which made them useless for me. Thats a limitation of Windows Backup but still, Im pleased that WD offers a way to make their drives compatible. You do have to reformat the drive before it will work with Windows Backup. It should work with other software out of the box. This article explains some of the steps involved in getting WD drives to work with Windows Backup. [...] We do have a problem if we reboot our desktop computer while the WD drive is plugged in -- the machine hangs during the BIOS initialization. We have to unplug the drive, start the computer, and then plug it back in. I dont know if this is a problem with the BIOS in my five-year-old DELL or if this is a problem with the drive.

I purchased the WD MY Book 6TB USB 3.0 hard drive after filling up a 4TB drive like it. Well, Im down to about 1TB left on the 6TB just from backups in just under 4 months so its been well used already. Its fast enough. I find both drives have issues on my Windows 8.1 machines about file properties if I try to move a drive from one PC to another - cant delete files or such where I have to take over file ownership of the files on the PC it was not installed on originally. I dont know if this an OS thing or just something about these drives. Frustrating to say the least; never experienced this on my Toshiba portable drives of which I have several. I do hope they are durable as I buy all drives knowing I will never send them back for repair or exchange once Ive begun real use of them (versus my original testing files) as my private data is on them. I wouldnt trust it out of my hands even if the data is encrypted. Its a gamble every time I buy a drive and I hope this gamble pays off in the long run. I have never installed the software that came installed on any drive.

Basically I purchased this drive to make a backup of data on my original wd my book live duo which is running RAID. Basically the data on the drive is not data that needs to be updated on a regular basis, Its just videos, pictures and some music. The drive maybe connected for about a week or two to do a backup and then disconnected and put away in the event I need the backup. Once I copy all data to this drive I then verify the data by re-copying the files to a different location to make sure that I can get my data back. Ive had one of those wd my book live duo with RAID go bad and had to return the entire unit. After I received the replacement, I recopied the data from the usb drive that I kept in a safe place onto the replacement wd duo drive. The process of backing up and restoring my data went by pretty simple. Unfortunately the original USB drive (Seagate) died after four months and was sent back for repairs/replacement. I have no idea when Im going to get that replacement back! Anyway, Im using Windows 8.1 with a system with usb 3.0 ports, I had a problem connecting the drive cable to the actual drive. The connector on the drive arrived bent and I had to pry the connector on the drive a little wider so that the cable would fit in it. Before I give any speed info on the 4TB WD My Book USB 3.0 let me give you and idea of my system and network configuration first. Intel i7 3770 3.4GHz Intel DH77DF ITX Motherboard Crucial Ballistik 16Gb DDR3 PC3-12800 Memory Intel 335 SSD 240Gb Hard Drive 6Gbs Antec ITX Vesa-110 Case Windows 8 64bit Upgraded to Win 8.1 Onboard Intel Pro Gigabit Ethernet Cisco/Linksys E3200 a/b/g/n Gigabit WiFi Router Belkin 5-port Gigabit Switch Cat 6 Cables 3 - 4Tb My Book Live Duo Running In RAID (Gigabit Connection) 4 - WD Live Media Hub 1TB (Gigabit Connection) The info is based upon the speed shown under the Win 8.1 file copy details. The files are approx. 500mb up to 8Gb in size and everything is copied to and from the WD 4TB USB 3.0 external hard drive. (The test was done using 200Gb of the same video files for each test). I noticed the speed would drop a little as it started to copy the next file in the queue but it would regain full speed after a couple of seconds. Reading data to and from the 4tb wd usb 3.0 drive was basically the same for each port or internal drive tested. Here are the reading I got: Using Gigabit Ethernet to the WD 4tb connected to USB 2.0 Port Min - 24 MB/s Max - 38 MB/s Using Gigabit Ethernet to WD 4TB connected to USB 3.0 Port Min - 43 MB/s Max - 68 MB/s Using Internal SSD 6GBs Hard Drive to WD 4TB connected to USB 3.0 Port Min - 59 MB/s Max - 76 MB/s Basically reading and writing from the WD 4TB USB 3.0 gave me pretty much the same results. In my opinion; for an external drive it seems to transfer files pretty fast and Im able to move 2TB of video files over Ethernet to this external drive in approx. 7-Hours, Usually when I use a USB 2.0 port it takes almost 15 Hours. The only problem I found was the USB 3.0 port on the hard drive needed a small screw driver to force open the metal connector that was not allowing the cable to connect to the drive. This was a real bummer if youre not a DIY or careful type of person then chances are youll be returning the drive since one false move and the inside plastic connector of the USB female end on the drive could end up broken voiding the warranty. The next thing I found is that the drive may takes a couple of seconds to spin up from sleep mode which it seems to enter quite frequently, maybe some folks may or may not find this annoying. Some folks may say the are having trouble waking the drive as a share when it goes to sleep as a network drive but Ive not experienced this problem on mine so far. It may take a little while to respond from sleep mode but it does come up after a few annoying seconds later. I hope this helps you understand what youre getting if youre planning on purchasing one of these drives. In closing, Id say this is a pretty decent drive although it could be a bit cheaper on the price in regards to the Seagate central 4TB USB 3.0 but Ive already given up on the reliability of the Seagate drives to even consider them.

Ive had two external HD from Western Digital before. My first 2TB hard drives master boot record became corrupted. Through some tinkering some family and I were able to connect it to another computer to copy the data to another HD. Unfortunately, I only had another small (160G) HD in which to transfer data to my new laptop and another smaller HD. Dilema. So, I found this, which was exactly what I needed. When it arrived I connected it to the laptop with the fault, yet somewhat frazzled 2TB HD, and began to copy segmented amounts of data. Once all was done, I was able to format the older 2TB drive which is now in a new enclosure. So far this WD HD has performed perfectly. Ive split the data into different HDs to decrease the chance if this happens again. Ive never had any problems with any Western Digital product. When plugged in, if not in use, it will go into Idle mode. If you click on it to use it again, it may be slow to respond or may say Not responding briefly. This is normal because even though it is ON, it has gone to SLEEP. Saves power and wear.