Accessories(8,468)
Computer Cards & Components(1,298)
Computer Memory(890)
E-Readers(1,108)
Hard Drives(4,335)
Laptop & Netbook Computers(4,893)
Mice & Keyboards(3,005)
Monitors(1,347)
Networking & Wireless(8,851)
Optical Drives(450)
Printers(2,760)
Software(2,881)
Tablets & iPad(10,883)
USB Flash Drives(780)
Top-Rated Products
Reviews Home >
Computers & Tablets Reviews >
Networking & Wireless Reviews >
Home Entertainment Networking Reviews
Customer Reviews for Western Digital My Book Live 1TB External Home Network Drive - Black
Western Digital My Book Live 1TB External Home Network Drive - Black
Model: WDBACG0010HCH-NESN
SKU: 1258302
UPC: 718037767864
Stream media to your Blu-ray Disc player, gaming consoles or other DNLA/UPnP devices from this network drive that features Ethernet chip technology for read speeds up to 1000 MBps.
Average Customer Rating:
3.2
out of 5
(38 Reviews) 38
Rating Snapshot 38 reviews
5 stars
13
4 stars
8
3 stars
2
2 stars
5
1 star
10
55% of customers would recommend this product to a friend
(
21 out of
38)
Customer Reviews for Western Digital My Book Live 1TB External Home Network Drive - Black
Review 1 for Western Digital My Book Live 1TB External Home Network Drive - Black
over heats and does not work, back up properly
Customer Rating
2.0
Value for Price
1.0
Ease of Use
4.0
Performance
1.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
What's great about it: ??
What's not so great: overheats in a cool room
but something else
it over heats and no firmware to upgrade, called support and they told me to up grade !
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
I use it in...:Large home
+1point
1out of 1found this review helpful.
Share this review:
Review 2 for Western Digital My Book Live 1TB External Home Network Drive - Black
Nice Personal "Cloud" Storage
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: Convenient, easy access of files
What's not so great: Instructions could be more detailed
Great personal "cloud" storage unit allows you to avoid storing your files on someone else's server. Easily accessible where ever you are even on my iPhone/iPad (3G)
Fits right in with my other WD drives and WD SmartWare
The documentation is somewhat lacking. It takes some tinkering to figure out how to manage "shares", "users", "Twonky", and other aspects of the drive.
This product has... Easy to set up, Reliable connection
About me... Budget Conscious
I would recommend this to a friend!
I use it in...:Small home
+3points
3out of 3found this review helpful.
Share this review:
Review 3 for Western Digital My Book Live 1TB External Home Network Drive - Black
Great backup system
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
5.0
Ease of Use
3.0
Performance
5.0
Ease of Installation
3.0
What's great about it: lots of storage for the dollar
What's not so great: a little challenging to set up, but not too bad
Device works great. can connect phone,computers etc VIA WIFI.
Range is great, fast and solid unit.
Range is great, fast and solid unit.
This product has... Fast connection, Secure connection, Reliable connection
About me... Budget Conscious, Business Professional
I would recommend this to a friend!
I use it in...:Large home
+2points
2out of 2found this review helpful.
Share this review:
Review 4 for Western Digital My Book Live 1TB External Home Network Drive - Black
Error msg's from day one
Customer Rating
1.0
Posted by: MrsKSC
from CO
on 03/14/2012
Value for Price
1.0
Ease of Use
1.0
Performance
1.0
Ease of Installation
1.0
What's great about it: Able to network with this drive
Thank goodness I had hired to geek squad to set up my system because it took 2 geeks to set up this drive and have it stop saying that it was over heating and thatit was at 900% capacity. Then in a couple if weeks the same error msgs started all over again! That's when I decidedbasba non-geek that I needed to replace it. Was liking the part where I could access shared items from my phone, but wasnt worth the hassle of having its problems
This product has... continuous error messages
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
I use it in...:Small home
+2points
3out of 4found this review helpful.
Share this review:
Review 5 for Western Digital My Book Live 1TB External Home Network Drive - Black
Don't buy unless you are a rocket scientist!
Customer Rating
1.0
Posted by: limie
from TX
on 02/16/2012
Value for Price
1.0
Ease of Use
1.0
Performance
1.0
Ease of Installation
1.0
What's great about it: Nothing
What's not so great: everything
I spent the best part of two weeks working on this and it still did not work.
Don't even think about asking for help they are so slow to respond you could go away on vacation and back before getting a reply. When they do reply it will not help you.
Good Luck to anyone buying this product.
Don't even think about asking for help they are so slow to respond you could go away on vacation and back before getting a reply. When they do reply it will not help you.
Good Luck to anyone buying this product.
This product has... Unreliable connection
About me... Business Professional
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
I use it in...:Large home
-3points
1out of 5found this review helpful.
Share this review:
Review 6 for Western Digital My Book Live 1TB External Home Network Drive - Black
poorly designed user interface
Customer Rating
1.0
Value for Price
1.0
Ease of Use
2.0
Performance
2.0
Ease of Installation
1.0
What's great about it: it;s looks
What's not so great: poor design
I purchased this unit in sept. it worked fine out of the box until i did a firmware update then user interface which was web browser based would not appear and it is the only safe way to shut it down so i had to unplug the thing to turn it off and the the only way to turn it on is to plug it in no on off switch the only access is the nic jack the unit was nice to use as a personal cloud at first. sadly powering off by pulling plug i lost all my media so i took it apart happily i reformatted the one terabyte drive and ordered a nas enclosure 160 dollars wasted.
This product has... Unreliable connection
About me... Budget Conscious, Heavy media streamer
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
I use it in...:Small home
+1point
1out of 1found this review helpful.
Share this review:
Review 7 for Western Digital My Book Live 1TB External Home Network Drive - Black
network hardrive
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Performance
3.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
What's great about it: storage
What's not so great: connection
i buy this drive 2 years for not crash and work fine. network not reliable. u can not access 2 or 3 computer to a drive at the same time so easy disconected. storage is great to hold music, software and movies.
easy setup and install . set static IP met the IP of the router I would recommend. don use back up software
easy setup and install . set static IP met the IP of the router I would recommend. don use back up software
This product has... Unreliable connection, Secure connection, Easy to set up, Easily expanded
About me... Budget Conscious, Computer technology challenged, Heavy media streamer, Technology guru, ripper 200 movies
I would recommend this to a friend!
I use it in...:Large home
0points
0out of 0found this review helpful.
Share this review:
Review 8 for Western Digital My Book Live 1TB External Home Network Drive - Black
Performs as desired, Install was not difficult.
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Performance
5.0
Ease of Installation
4.0
I purchased this device to use as NAS for wireless backups from a laptop. I did not use the provided software. Instead I located the device IP address through a router inquiry and then connected using the web interface. Set a static address, gave it a network name, set up users and shares. I am running Vista 64 Home Premium so I connected using Connect Network Drive. I then used Vista's Backup and Restore to perform an initial full backup. Backup and Restore now performs an incremental backup on a weekly basis. This drive is now doing exactly what I purchased it for.
This product has... Easy to set up, Reliable connection
About me... Budget Conscious, Technology guru
I would recommend this to a friend!
I use it in...:Small home
+3points
3out of 3found this review helpful.
Share this review:
Review 9 for Western Digital My Book Live 1TB External Home Network Drive - Black
Keep looking... This product is not a keeper!
Customer Rating
1.0
Value for Price
1.0
Ease of Use
1.0
Performance
1.0
Ease of Installation
1.0
What's great about it: Looks nice, low-ish price
What's not so great: Poor performance
Bought this six months ago. Software isn't intuitive, performance is slow, and the other day it stopped working. When it came back to life the front LED had given out. I stopped using it but keep an eye on it and it's on and off all the time. Too late to return to BB, so I have to live with it. I'm not a happy camper. Hopefully WD will replace it since there's a 3-year warranty. I'll update on that part.
Note: I'm on a gigabit network with new Cisco wireless router, new Belkin switch, new-ish Samsung TV, PS3, and new MacBook Pro, so this should not be slow at all. It never performed well from the start. I can't even do a Time Machine backup to it as it hangs every time. Bought a FireWire G Drive since Thunderbolt is still too pricey for my taste. No troubles yet. Wish I would have taken this WD back a long time ago.
BOO!
Note: I'm on a gigabit network with new Cisco wireless router, new Belkin switch, new-ish Samsung TV, PS3, and new MacBook Pro, so this should not be slow at all. It never performed well from the start. I can't even do a Time Machine backup to it as it hangs every time. Bought a FireWire G Drive since Thunderbolt is still too pricey for my taste. No troubles yet. Wish I would have taken this WD back a long time ago.
BOO!
This product has... Unreliable connection, not easy to set up, slow connection, high failure rate, poor performance, doesn't work well with time machine, loud
About me... Budget Conscious, Heavy media streamer, Technology guru, Business Professional
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
I use it in...:Small home
+6points
6out of 6found this review helpful.
Share this review:
Review 10 for Western Digital My Book Live 1TB External Home Network Drive - Black
What a disaster
Customer Rating
3.0
Value for Price
2.0
Ease of Use
1.0
Performance
1.0
Ease of Installation
1.0
What's great about it: Nothing that i saw
What's not so great: Smartware is no good
Installed on system (Windows 7 home premium) Smartware corrupted windows. Took tech support and remote access to remove. Drive was never recognized. a buggy product at best.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
+5points
5out of 5found this review helpful.
Share this review:
Review 11 for Western Digital My Book Live 1TB External Home Network Drive - Black
very difficult installation
Customer Rating
4.0
Value for Price
4.0
Ease of Use
1.0
Performance
2.0
Ease of Installation
1.0
What's not so great: The firmward/software conflict must be resolved before it gets to the consumer.
I had three long conversations with tech support, including having them take over my screen, to get the unit installed properly as I kept getting a notice that the unit was overheating when it was not. Now that the conflict between the new firmware and the new software has been resolved, the problem has gone away. The tech reps were pretty good, especially the last one, who finally solved the problem.
I would recommend this to a friend!
0points
2out of 4found this review helpful.
Share this review:
Review 12 for Western Digital My Book Live 1TB External Home Network Drive - Black
Great product for the price
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
5.0
Ease of Use
4.0
Performance
4.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
What's great about it: Price for teh capacity
What's not so great: no issues
I was looking for a 1TB network drive for streaming media to various devices in my home after my 2nd Le Cie drive poopped out. I've had no problem with WD internal drives, so I figured I'd give this product a try. Went in easy, and has been running fine ever since.
I would recommend this to a friend!
+1point
1out of 1found this review helpful.
Share this review:
Review 13 for Western Digital My Book Live 1TB External Home Network Drive - Black
Initially was working. Then Failed!
Customer Rating
3.0
Value for Price
3.0
Ease of Use
1.0
Performance
1.0
Ease of Installation
1.0
What's great about it: Price
What's not so great: Worked for 10 minutes?
Initially, when hooked up the drive, the network detected it. Installed the software and ran the diagnostics that came with it. All is good. When trying to add files, it would not work. Checked all operating lights on unit..ok. Checked the network and the drive is not there.. Tried to reset, re-install, and reinstall software. Drive still not recognized. Returning today. Price and idea behind a network drive is good, but not worth the aggravation.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
+2points
2out of 2found this review helpful.
Share this review:
Review 14 for Western Digital My Book Live 1TB External Home Network Drive - Black
Don't buy it - it's unreliable
Customer Rating
1.0
Posted by: GrappaGourmet
from Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
on 10/12/2011
Value for Price
1.0
Ease of Use
2.0
Performance
1.0
Ease of Installation
2.0
What's great about it: Nothing
What's not so great: Reliabilty, speed
I've bought this product in May, 2011. Today, only 5 months later, it's dead.
This unit never had a fair performance. It was always slow, leading constantly to a "rainbow ball", for Macs, or "hourglass" to Windows. After the third or forth firmware update (why so many?), it remained corrupted. I suggest people to read the reviews, before taking the risk of buying this. Please, please, read the posts in WDC Community Boards and you will see what I mean.
This unit never had a fair performance. It was always slow, leading constantly to a "rainbow ball", for Macs, or "hourglass" to Windows. After the third or forth firmware update (why so many?), it remained corrupted. I suggest people to read the reviews, before taking the risk of buying this. Please, please, read the posts in WDC Community Boards and you will see what I mean.
Unfortunately, I can't return it to WD nor to BestBuy from Brasil, as the cost would be prohibitive.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
+2points
3out of 4found this review helpful.
Share this review:
Review 15 for Western Digital My Book Live 1TB External Home Network Drive - Black
Great Network Device
Customer Rating
5.0
Value for Price
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Performance
5.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
MyBook Live was very easy to install and migrate into my wireless home network and I was able to save files from my old external hard drive to this one in a snap.
I would recommend this to a friend!
+1point
1out of 1found this review helpful.
Share this review:
Review 16 for Western Digital My Book Live 1TB External Home Network Drive - Black
Good Value
Customer Rating
4.0
Value for Price
4.0
Ease of Use
4.0
Performance
3.0
Ease of Installation
3.0
What's great about it: Customer service was great help setting up
What's not so great: Very slow
Product does what it is supposed to do. The back up software is a little weak and extremely slow but does what it is supposed to do.
I would recommend this to a friend!
0points
0out of 0found this review helpful.
Share this review:
Review 17 for Western Digital My Book Live 1TB External Home Network Drive - Black
Not the best total solution
Customer Rating
2.0
What's great about it: Super Simple Photo Upload App
What's not so great: Speed, WD Support, dated firmware not updated
I purchased this for the main purpose to use as a NAS based Media server to stream audio to my Yamaha RX-V867 receiver. With a full TB, I have plenty of room to use it for backups for some other devices as well. Hooked it up and install was not much of a problem, easy enough. Speed on the network was a little slow, and I have Gigabit Ethernet running throughout the network where it is wired.
My biggest complaint though, is the firmware and the fact the Western Digital is including a version of Twonky Media Server that is over a year old. They are also not going to update the Media Server. Flat out will not do it and you have to download and install the newer version yourself so if you want that you will have to know a bit about linux, and then you have pretty much voided your warranty. So, something to think about.
The good thing about it is that it has a really easy to use app for file and picture access over the web. Nice to be able to take a photo and directly upload it to your home NAS over the web via your iphone. That is easy enough for even my wife and daughter to use. It even can stream media to an iphone or ipad across the globe.
My ultimate solution was to pick up a Buffalo Technology Linkstation Pro. It has the latest version of Twonky, much more stable and interacts with the file structure much more efficiently. The MyBookLive would not pick up changes to things like playlists or directories for quite some time, like maybe days. The Buffalo is instantaneous.
Overall, I could not recommend this product to a friend, unless they had very very simple requirements, and had all day to wait on a backup to complete.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Other Best Buy Products I Recommend
Buffalo Technology LinkStation Live 1TB External Network Storage System
(4)
Buffalo Technology LinkStation Live 500GB External Network Storage System
0points
1out of 2found this review helpful.
Share this review:
Review 18 for Western Digital My Book Live 1TB External Home Network Drive - Black
So Far
Customer Rating
2.0
Posted by: 7ftchkn
from Las Vegas
on 08/31/2011
Value for Price
2.0
Performance
1.0
Ease of Installation
3.0
What's not so great: Permissions are useless
I ordered on my phone while in the store shopping for something else and they made sure to make me wait as long as they possibly could before handing over the drive even though it was ten feet from the online pickup area. So far the drive has dropped off the network and hasn't been that easy to access from my Linux box. I'm not sure why they have folders and permissions though. When accessing the drive from my TV I can see everything regardless of the folder or permissions. I wouldn't go with this device or Best Buy's online purchasing while in the store again.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
-3points
2out of 7found this review helpful.
Share this review:
Review 19 for Western Digital My Book Live 1TB External Home Network Drive - Black
Very Easy Setup/Price is Worth it
Customer Rating
5.0
Posted by: Scout1
from Lexington Park, MD
on 08/19/2011
Value for Price
5.0
Ease of Use
5.0
Performance
4.0
Ease of Installation
5.0
What's great about it: Very easy to set up/ runs fast without software installed
What's not so great: Nothing yet
I have been reluctant to purchase this and any other network drive for that matter. After looking at reviews, I took a chance. I simply brought this drive home, plugged it into my network, pushed a firmware update and was up and running in no time. NOTE: I did not say that I installed the software that came with this drive. You simply don't need it. This is a Network (ethernet) drive, so using windows to find the drive on your network is all it takes. A lot of reviews say that after loading the software, which is a resource hog, they were having issues. I took that and decided to simply "add a network location" on all of my computers. None of this software that came with the drive is running on any of my machines.
So again, Plug the drive into your network. Login to your router and find the IP address that was assigned. Simply type that IP address into your Web Browser and set up the drive. After you are complete setting up the drive, simply add a new "network location" within windows"
I would recommend this to a friend!
+15points
15out of 15found this review helpful.
Share this review:
Review 20 for Western Digital My Book Live 1TB External Home Network Drive - Black
Works for the most part
Customer Rating
4.0
Value for Price
4.0
Ease of Use
3.0
Performance
3.0
Ease of Installation
4.0
What's great about it: Ease of setup, price
What's not so great: problem with photo app
I have had this hard drive for about two months now, and it has worked well for me. I have all of my files stored on this drive and have mapped it to look like an internal drive. The only problems I have had with it is the photo viewer app. The app connects to the drive, but it doesn't find any pictures. Not a big deal, I didn't buy it for the app and other than that it has performed vary well.
I would recommend this to a friend!
+1point
2out of 3found this review helpful.
Share this review:
