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Customer Reviews for Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB External USB 3.0/2.0 Hard Drive - Black
Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB External USB 3.0/2.0 Hard Drive - Black
Model: WDBACW0020HBK-NESN
SKU: 1251309
UPC: 718037770604
This sleek external hard drive features a dual USB 3.0/2.0 interface for wide-ranging compatibility and fast transfer speeds. Automatic, continuous backup keeps your data safe.
Average Customer Rating:
4.1
out of 5
(145 Reviews) 145
Rating Snapshot 145 reviews
5 stars
87
4 stars
29
3 stars
8
2 stars
5
1 star
16
83% of customers would recommend this product to a friend
(
121 out of
145)
Customer Reviews for Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB External USB 3.0/2.0 Hard Drive - Black
Review 1 for Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB External USB 3.0/2.0 Hard Drive - Black
good for my mac
Customer Rating
5.0
Posted by: DigitalBBQ
from San Francisco,CA
on 05/18/2012
Value for Price
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Performance
5.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
What's great about it: cheeper
What's not so great: no case for it
it's a good driver. But when it's working, it's not quiet.
This product has... Fast, Large capacity/good size
I would recommend this to a friend!
Compatible with...:Mac
+1point
1out of 1found this review helpful.
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Review 2 for Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB External USB 3.0/2.0 Hard Drive - Black
Great for storage, not so much for playing
Customer Rating
3.0
Value for Price
4.0
Ease of Use
4.0
Performance
3.0
Ease of Installation
3.0
What's great about it: Lots of space at a great price
What's not so great: Doesn't seem to be compatible with other items
I use my drive to store Vidx movies to play on my TV thru a DVD player. I've had it working for years with my WD 1TB storage disk. This new 2 TB drive is a USB 3, and for some reason, I can't seem to get it to read through my DVD player, even though it is supposed to be compatible with USB2.
This product has... Large capacity/good size
About me... Work with large multimedia files
I would recommend this to a friend!
Compatible with...:PC
+1point
1out of 1found this review helpful.
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Review 3 for Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB External USB 3.0/2.0 Hard Drive - Black
Is a good external hard drive
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
2.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Performance
5.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
What's great about it: That is easy to use and that is compatible with mac
This is my second external hard drive and wish a would have bough this first this is a great hard drive the thing I love the most is that it turn on by himself if a connected with the usb cable to my laptop I really love this product if in the future I need another hard drive I will definitely would buy this same product
This product has... Fast, Attractive design/portable, Quiet
About me... Budget Conscious, Need a simple backup solution
I would recommend this to a friend!
Compatible with...:Mac
+1point
1out of 1found this review helpful.
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Review 4 for Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB External USB 3.0/2.0 Hard Drive - Black
Packs a punch
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Performance
5.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
What's great about it: Love the space
What's not so great: Nothing so far
I am on a Mac and starting to work on some large video projects with Final Cut Pro. I had partitioned my hard drive on the laptop to carry the burden of transcoded media. I thought that this would come in handy if I wanted to edit on the couch! Well, I never do that. There is something to be said for sitting at a desk getting the job done. Anyway, I wanted to get rid of the partition I created, but needed to copy the files over to this drive first. There was a little one 116 gig of info. I thought it would take a couple of hours. After a quick format, I started copying. It took all of 39 minutes to complete the copy of all those files! AWESOME. I booted up FCPX, and all of my media showed up instantly. I ran through some of the film strips and was shocked on the speed of the drive and how smooth the files are moving. This is the best it has ever been for me. Time will tell for how long the drive lasts, but so far I am THRILLED!
This product has... Reliable, Included software is not useful, Fast, Attractive design/portable, Quiet, Large capacity/good size
About me... Budget Conscious, Technology guru, Work with large multimedia files, Gamer, Business Professional
I would recommend this to a friend!
Compatible with...:Mac
+1point
1out of 1found this review helpful.
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Review 5 for Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB External USB 3.0/2.0 Hard Drive - Black
Solid Product
Customer Rating
4.0
Value for Price
4.0
Ease of Use
4.0
Performance
4.0
Ease of Installation
4.0
What's great about it: Lots of memory and easy to set up for a great price
I bought it in a panic because my daughter's laptop had to be sent to a repair company and they recommended that we back up her hard drive. Since it was a rush job, I didn't back up her hard drive myself, but had one of my techy friends do it for me. He was impressed with the speed, ease of set up, and the price I paid for the external hard drive.
This product has... Large capacity/good size
About me... Budget Conscious, Need a simple backup solution
I would recommend this to a friend!
Compatible with...:PC
+3points
3out of 3found this review helpful.
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Review 6 for Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB External USB 3.0/2.0 Hard Drive - Black
Perfect!
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Performance
5.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
What's great about it: I'm amazed at how much storage one can get for so little money
What's not so great: It's all great!
Setup was easy. The only setup required was, since the drive comes formatted with NTFS and Mac can't write to NTFS, you have to copy the included software to your Mac; then open the WD Quick Formatter app. In just a few seconds the drive is ready to use.
While it has a USB 3.0 interface, you don't need 3.0. It works fine with USB 2.x which is just a little slower. I backed up my MacBook Pro hard drive overnight with Time Machine. Subsequent backups now take only a few minutes.
This product has... Reliable, Fast, Attractive design/portable, Quiet, Large capacity/good size, included formatting software works well
About me... Budget Conscious, Work with large multimedia files, Need a simple backup solution
I would recommend this to a friend!
Compatible with...:Mac
+3points
3out of 3found this review helpful.
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Review 7 for Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB External USB 3.0/2.0 Hard Drive - Black
Great for backup
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Performance
5.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
What's great about it: keeps up with your documents
This is a great external hard drive.I recommend it highly.
This product has... Reliable, Included software is not useful, Fast, Attractive design/portable, Quiet, Large capacity/good size
About me... Budget Conscious, Need a simple backup solution
I would recommend this to a friend!
Compatible with...:PC
+2points
2out of 2found this review helpful.
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Review 8 for Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB External USB 3.0/2.0 Hard Drive - Black
Easy to install even for beginers
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Performance
5.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
What's great about it: Great transfer speed, can do back-ups automaticlly
What's not so great: none
I definitely recomend this product to anyone looking for good hard drive wth a lot room for your files as back-up or storage.
This product has... Reliable, Fast, Attractive design/portable, Quiet, Large capacity/good size
About me... Budget Conscious, Work with large multimedia files, relibility, easy to follow software
I would recommend this to a friend!
Compatible with...:PC
+2points
2out of 2found this review helpful.
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Review 9 for Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB External USB 3.0/2.0 Hard Drive - Black
Reliable and great transfer speeds
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Performance
5.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
What's great about it: Plug and Play.
I bought this drive for storing and editing ACVHD files with Adobe Premiere 5.5.
I have had no issues with drop frames or lag times in loading the clips. Finding a USB 3.0 external drive was important for my work and this Drive meets the demands for HD video editing.
I have had no issues with drop frames or lag times in loading the clips. Finding a USB 3.0 external drive was important for my work and this Drive meets the demands for HD video editing.
This product has... Large capacity/good size
About me... Work with large multimedia files, Business Professional
I would recommend this to a friend!
Compatible with...:PC
+1point
1out of 1found this review helpful.
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Review 10 for Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB External USB 3.0/2.0 Hard Drive - Black
Great For The Price
Customer Rating
4.0
Value for Price
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Performance
4.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
What's great about it: The space to price ratio
What's not so great: usb 3 is not for everyone
This is working great so far! The installation was tricky since i had to install a usb 3 card. but the drive is plug and play. no issues with drivers or compatibility. I will be getting another one soon!
This product has... Reliable, Attractive design/portable, Quiet, Large capacity/good size
About me... Budget Conscious, Technology guru, Work with large multimedia files, Need a simple backup solution
I would recommend this to a friend!
Compatible with...:PC
+1point
1out of 1found this review helpful.
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Review 11 for Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB External USB 3.0/2.0 Hard Drive - Black
Great Back Up For You Computer
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Performance
5.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
What's great about it: When Set Up Is Complete! It Will Automaticaly Back Your Files
What's not so great: I Can't Fine Nothing Wrong At All?
This Has To Be One Of The Best Back Up Systems Made? Never Had No Problems With This Western Digital Drive?
This product has... Reliable, Included software is not useful, Quiet, Large capacity/good size
About me... Budget Conscious, Work with large multimedia files, Need a simple backup solution
I would recommend this to a friend!
Compatible with...:PC
+1point
1out of 1found this review helpful.
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Review 12 for Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB External USB 3.0/2.0 Hard Drive - Black
Easy to install, use on multiple PCs
Customer Rating
4.0
Posted by: PCStorage
from Huntington, New York
on 04/19/2012
Value for Price
5.0
Ease of Use
4.0
Performance
4.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
What's great about it: Simple install, easy acces to storage
My book installed quickly and download times are great. USB3 and its own power source are all added benefits. Much cheaper in the long run that multiple memory sticks
This product has... Reliable, Fast, Attractive design/portable, Quiet, Large capacity/good size
About me... Work with large multimedia files, Need a simple backup solution
I would recommend this to a friend!
Compatible with...:PC
+1point
1out of 1found this review helpful.
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Review 13 for Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB External USB 3.0/2.0 Hard Drive - Black
Seems like a great drive but software disappoints
Customer Rating
4.0
Value for Price
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Performance
5.0
Ease of Installation
4.0
What's great about it: Easy to setup
What's not so great: Software
I bought this drive to backup my three computers to the one drive. The disappointing thing was I couldn't use the software that came with it to backup to a mounted drive so I had to use the windows backup software.
This product has... Fast, Attractive design/portable, Quiet, Large capacity/good size
About me... Budget Conscious, Need a simple backup solution
I would recommend this to a friend!
Compatible with...:PC
0points
0out of 0found this review helpful.
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Review 14 for Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB External USB 3.0/2.0 Hard Drive - Black
Easy to use plug and play, no software required.
Customer Rating
5.0
What's great about it: Great value for the price and transfers easy from one PC to another
What's not so great: Not real fast, but that is to be expected with a USB external drive
Great price and plenty of storage space. I had a problem with my hard drive and needed to back up about 60 GB. This was too much for a flash drive and it fulfilled the purpose. I now use it store most of my large downloads, pictures, and videos.
This product has... Reliable, Attractive design/portable, Quiet, Large capacity/good size
About me... Budget Conscious, Work with large multimedia files, Need a simple backup solution
I would recommend this to a friend!
Compatible with...:PC
+1point
1out of 1found this review helpful.
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Review 15 for Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB External USB 3.0/2.0 Hard Drive - Black
A no brainer to use on my DVR, truly plug and play
Customer Rating
5.0
Posted by: Hook3712
from home
on 04/17/2012
Value for Price
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Performance
4.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
What's great about it: Great value, lots of storage for the price!
What's not so great: a little slow but well worth it.
I use this to expand my DVR storage and I am very pleased. Ideally it would allow multi-user access (I have a dual-tuner DVR) but that my be a function of the DVR and not the external drive itself. That's what I would put on my wish list. For my use it is perfect. Truly a plug and play installation and I won't be running out of storage space for a long time to come.
This product has... Attractive design/portable, Quiet, Large capacity/good size
About me... Budget Conscious, Need a simple backup solution
I would recommend this to a friend!
+1point
1out of 1found this review helpful.
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Review 16 for Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB External USB 3.0/2.0 Hard Drive - Black
Good product
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
4.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Performance
5.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
What's great about it: Easy set up
Easy to set it it up. worked as advertized and not bad looking
About me... Need a simple backup solution
I would recommend this to a friend!
Compatible with...:PC
+1point
1out of 1found this review helpful.
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Review 17 for Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB External USB 3.0/2.0 Hard Drive - Black
Unstable connection to PC
Customer Rating
2.0
Value for Price
3.0
Ease of Use
2.0
Performance
2.0
Ease of Installation
3.0
What's great about it: Lots of storage for the price
What's not so great: Consistently drops connection to PC
I capture all pictures and videos digitally and purchased this as my internal hard drive was quickly filling up. As I was moving my files from my internal drive to this drive (~265 GB), it must have lost connection at least 5 times, breaking the transfer process. I also back these files to a separate machine on my home network and have noticed my nightly backups failing due to a lost connection. I connect it via USB 2.0 and have had no other issues in the past.
Fixing the dropped connection is as simple as powering off and back on the device, but I shouldn't have to do this. I'm hoping that with time this device starts behaving better, but as of now it's a pain.
This product has... Attractive design/portable, Quiet, Large capacity/good size
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Compatible with...:PC
+3points
3out of 3found this review helpful.
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Review 18 for Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB External USB 3.0/2.0 Hard Drive - Black
Using it for Wii
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
4.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Performance
5.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
I have bought this to put my wii games I have partitioned it into 2 drives leaving everything on it and Turning the NTFS into a Fat 32 format and making the other into a Fat 32 and formatting it with my WBFS Manager turning it into a Unformated format...Reads the Wii games Great.. Couldn't as for a Better 2TB Hard Drive.... :'D
This product has... Reliable, Fast, Quiet, Large capacity/good size
About me... Gamer, works great for wii systems
I would recommend this to a friend!
Compatible with...:PC
-1point
0out of 1found this review helpful.
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Review 19 for Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB External USB 3.0/2.0 Hard Drive - Black
Perfect add on for Dish Network DVRs
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
4.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Performance
5.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
What's great about it: Out of the box success
I purchased the unit to backup and transfer TV programs that were stored on 2 Dish Network DVRs.
I simply connected the drive to the DVR via the included USB cable; when the DVR powered up, it recognized and reformatted the drive without a hitch. In no time, I was transferring TV programs (SD & HD) to the drive and restoring them to my 2nd DVR. No problems, no experience needed; truly an appliance when used in this application.
The drive is quieter than the DVR's internal drive. The one minor inconvenience is that the drive's power switch (rear mounted) does not work, but the power cable easily unplugs.
This product has... Reliable, Attractive design/portable, Quiet, Large capacity/good size
About me... Budget Conscious, Business Professional, Need a simple backup solution
I would recommend this to a friend!
Compatible with...:PC
+3points
3out of 3found this review helpful.
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Review 20 for Western Digital My Book Essential 2TB External USB 3.0/2.0 Hard Drive - Black
Works great!!
Customer Rating
5.0
Posted by: mhunsr
from Augusta
on 04/05/2012
Real easy to use, I have already put 1TB of info on it and no problems.
This product has... Reliable, Quiet, Large capacity/good size
About me... Work with large multimedia files, Gamer
I would recommend this to a friend!
Compatible with...:PC
+2points
2out of 2found this review helpful.
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