A dear friend of mine got me a present that will sure last me for a long time. I received a Western Digital My Book Essential Edition 1 terabyte external hard drive. It is sleek, black, has a neon blue LED in the front and it’s easy to carry or fit in just about any space the size of a typical paperback book. I am happy with how simple it is to use My Book.

It works out of the box which includes the hard drive, an USB 2.0 cable and AC adapter. No waste of CD’s with product utilities because all the software you need comes pre-installed on the drive itself (good idea). The hard drive is also “smart” enough to be energy efficient and power on and off with my computer. With a prestigious brand name like Western Digital I know from experience this product is built to last, will pay for itself and will work every time.

The drive’s pre-installed WD Application Installer is a bundle of four programs including:


Google Desktop, Picasa and the Google Toolbar

Memeo AutoBackup (30 day trial) which is a one-time setup, backup application that allows you to preserve your data files with around-the-clock protection. Features include multiple destination backup and simple, intuitive file recovery.

Memeo AutoSynch (30-day trial) which safeguards your files using encryption with its simple, flexible sync plan setup and allows you to keep your latest work with you at all times.

And Copy Application Software which is a standard utility that allows you to back up the valuable software included on My Book to your internal drive.

My Book is compatible with Windows 2000/XP/Vista and Macintosh OS X 10.4.8+ and can only be used via USB. It is recommended that you have the latest service pack for Windows or Software Updates from Apple to enjoy your My Book out of the box. Since My Book is compatible with Windows and Macintosh the drive is preformatted as a single FAT32 partition. According to the User’s Manual the FAT32 file system has a maximum individual file size of 4 GB and the device cannot create partitions larger than 32 GB in Windows 2000/XP, but this limitation can be overcome by reformatting the drive to NTFS file system using the Disk Management utility.

Whether you’re a student, professional or occasional computer user, and especially if you’re a business owner, I strongly recommend you consider making a habit of backing up your files. I worked in IT for 5 years and I know firsthand the frustration and economic impact of data loss. Unfortunately hardware has a lifetime that may exceed its expectations or fail prematurely, but in case shit happens you should always have a backup, if anything for piece of mind. Fortunately for consumers and the IT industry the manufacturing costs of mass storage drives and devices are low enough that you can purchase a 1 TERABYTE (1,000 gigabytes) hard drive for less than $100 bux.