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Western Digital My Book Home 500GB External USB 2.0/FireWire/eSATA Hard Drive

Model number: WDH1CS5000N | SKU: 8475679

Elegant, reliable storage and continuous automatic backup make this 500GB external hard drive an ideal place to house your movies, music, digital photos and more. This model meets our Professional Series criteria Shop all products in our Small Business Center Take a product tour.

Average Customer Rating:

3.4 out of 5 (48 Reviews)

35 of 48 (73%) customers would recommend this product to a friend.

Customer Reviews for Western Digital My Book Home 500GB External USB 2.0/FireWire/eSATA Hard Drive

Review 21 for Western Digital My Book Home 500GB External USB 2.0/FireWire/eSATA Hard Drive

Customer Rating

4.0 5

Needed more memory 05/03/2008
By maxg12

What's great about it: has an off button, firewire (if you have a that kind of port very fast), hasn't broken yet
What's not so great: some times it gets slightly warm, but nothing out of the ordinary

"bought it on sale for $115 good deal. Good buy for someone who just needs more memory for a PC. Fits well on desk, but not for traveling..."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

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Review 22 for Western Digital My Book Home 500GB External USB 2.0/FireWire/eSATA Hard Drive

Customer Rating

5.0 5

Not Bad 04/28/2008
By ScottK from Worcester,Ma

What's great about it: Easy and fast set up
What's not so great: transfer rat using USB

"I would definetly recomend getting one. I may buy another . It was real easy setting up a 2 year old could do it."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

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Review 23 for Western Digital My Book Home 500GB External USB 2.0/FireWire/eSATA Hard Drive

Top 100 Contributor

Customer Rating

5.0 5

Excellent Back up 04/27/2008
By viditech from Denver, CO

What's great about it: connections, speed, easy to use
What's not so great: none

"excellent drive for all your back up needs. I had externals before that used USB but when I switched to this one with eSATA, transfer rates were so fast I didn't know what to do the rest of the time. if you still use USB it still seems to out perform my older externals on the same size files. a must get."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

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Review 24 for Western Digital My Book Home 500GB External USB 2.0/FireWire/eSATA Hard Drive

Customer Rating

5.0 5

Everything you want, nothing you don't 04/23/2008
By B8K2R from State College, PA

What's great about it: Ease of use, Quality, Elegance
What's not so great: No Cons...whatsoever!

"This is the perfect External HD. Priced right, you get GB for the Bucks and it's easy to use. All WD external HD are great! I have a USB powered HD also. I use the two to back up all my most important photos, music and files. Count on Western Digital! I do!"

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

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Review 25 for Western Digital My Book Home 500GB External USB 2.0/FireWire/eSATA Hard Drive

Customer Rating

4.0 5

Good Buy 04/21/2008
By JSB3 from Phoenix, AZ

What's great about it: 3 connection options, pretty fast once OS accesses drive
What's not so great: No eSATA cable included, Takes some patience waiting for the OS to access the drive

"Overall this is a good drive. It has worked reliably and was relatively easy to set up for intermediate to experienced computer users. They could have provided a bit more setup documentation for less expereinced users and it takes a little while for the Operating System to access the drive. But once set up, performance is as expected. Also it is nice that there are 3 connection options, but why only include the USB and firewire cables and not throw in an eSATA cable as well."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

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Review 26 for Western Digital My Book Home 500GB External USB 2.0/FireWire/eSATA Hard Drive

Customer Rating

4.0 5

Great Buy 04/20/2008
By Chema from San Diego, CA

What's great about it: Great Capacity for the price
What's not so great: Little Slow Accessing

"I got this HD on sale about a month ago, instalation is a snap with optional google software you can install, I did but unistalled it later. It takes a little time for the OS to access the drive, but once your in there is breezes through files and applications. Doesn't take up much room and it very slick an alegant, matches my desktop perfectly."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

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Review 27 for Western Digital My Book Home 500GB External USB 2.0/FireWire/eSATA Hard Drive

Top 500 Contributor

Customer Rating

5.0 5

A great buy 04/19/2008
By CableGuyJeff from Pasadena,CA

What's great about it: backed up everything in my computer
What's not so great: nothing yet

"A great little hard drive to back up all you pictures and videos. A must have if you value your data."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

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Review 28 for Western Digital My Book Home 500GB External USB 2.0/FireWire/eSATA Hard Drive

Customer Rating

1.0 5

Worst purchase ever 04/05/2008
By mygosh from Minnesota

What's great about it: Nothing at all
What's not so great: Everything you can think of....no joke

"ok well we bought this little hard drive with high expectations until we used it... I just backed up my computer, every photo, movie, memory. Reformatted the computer, (erased everything) and was hoping to plug the harddrive in and recover all my info, what do you know?!? it says the harddrive is incompatible and needs to be reformatted. I had tospend 2900$ to recover the information!!! and i would check out additional reviews on this product, because it has a 4:1 FAILURE RATE, Terrible product."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: No

0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

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Review 29 for Western Digital My Book Home 500GB External USB 2.0/FireWire/eSATA Hard Drive

Customer Rating

1.0 5

Disappointed 03/20/2008
By gunsmith from Wisconsin

What's great about it: lots of space for small bux...
What's not so great: Have to 'buy' license/software to use..

"The machine works ok, but I had no idea that the owner would have to buy additional 'license' or software in order to make this thing work.. I have another WD product that I plugged in two years ago and it's working like a Timex.. Why should anyone have to purchase additional items in order to use this machine?
I won't buy another WD product unless no other fees are necessary.. Unfortunately, I round-filed the box already and can't return this item.

Make SURE you keep the box and all contents!!"

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: No

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Review 30 for Western Digital My Book Home 500GB External USB 2.0/FireWire/eSATA Hard Drive

Customer Rating

4.0 5

Great "portable" drive 03/03/2008
By Gusmon from Burlington, Washington

What's great about it: Lots of storage capacity
What's not so great: Noisy

"I give this drive a 4 only because I am an experienced PC user and had no trouble getting it to work. But the "manual" could be a liitle more detailed for inexperienced users. Also, the drive is a bit noisy but otherwise it does its job."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

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Review 31 for Western Digital My Book Home 500GB External USB 2.0/FireWire/eSATA Hard Drive

Customer Rating

3.0 5

Bare Bones at best 02/23/2008
By MisterWizard

What's great about it: 500gb for a good price
What's not so great: absolutely NO docs, or eSATA cable, software only on drive..no included disk

"Ok, 500gb for $140 in an external enclosure with USB, firewire, and eSATA is a pretty good deal, but there is absolutely no documentation save a rather vague "quick start" page in about 20 languages. Agreed, the hookup is fairly simple, but how much more could it cost to help out novice users who aren't comfortable with even simple setups.?
I'd also gladly give up the supplied USB cable for an eSATA cable. USB can be bought anywhere, eSATA is a little harder to find, and if thats how you plan on connecting the drive you're going to have to hunt and spend more money.
It also appears that Best Buy doesn't carry eSATA cables.
Overall, a good deal, not quite a "great" deal."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

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Review 32 for Western Digital My Book Home 500GB External USB 2.0/FireWire/eSATA Hard Drive

Customer Rating

5.0 5

Works fine for me. 02/15/2008
By bigchump

What's great about it: Can use firewire, usb or SATA
What's not so great: LED way too bright. Software is awful. Uses FAT32.

"I've had mine for over a month now with no problems. I use it as a network backup drive for four different computers. I tried both usb and firewire and decided on the firewire because it's actually faster when there's a lot of usb devices connected. If you want SATA you'll have to supply your own cable.

Vista64 found this drive without any problems.

I deleted all the backup software from the get go. Anything that has the word "trial" means you'll probably have to pay for it later on.

FAT32 works for me because I rarely move files larger than 20mb. For large files I would recommend formatting to NTFS and using the SATA connection. The speed of this drive with firewire is adequate -- but it's no speed burner.

The drive goes to "sleep" after about five minutes of inactivity. I haven't figured out any way to change that yet. It only takes a few seconds to wake up so I can live with that - but it is a little annoying at times.
That bright LED doesn't make any sense to me. It's nice to see when the drive is doing something but that thing is just plain obnoxious. After a few days I turned the drive backwards so I don't have to look at it anymore.

Even though this thing is named "book" I would never stand it on end. It's prone to falling over, some of the vents are blocked when standing "book style" and I suspect the drive will last longer when laid "flat".

500 gigs of reliable storage is a bargain for $170 as far as I am concerned. I've had more than a few WD drives and never had a problem with any of them.

Hope this was helpful..."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

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Review 33 for Western Digital My Book Home 500GB External USB 2.0/FireWire/eSATA Hard Drive

Customer Rating

5.0 5

A very good external drive 02/13/2008
By SpinyLobster

What's great about it: eSATA and Firewire support; excellent backup software
What's not so great: None

"The 500 Gb MyBook Home Edition actually lives up to the hype. It is virtually silent, cool-running, and as reliable as any of Western Digital's internal drives. The backup software included in MyBook Tools is very easy to set up and performs flawlessly--as close to set and forget as one can get without eliminating interaction completely. The backup software runs in the background only when other processes are idle, so system performance is nearly unaffected. The only criticism I have is that the built in capacity meter, which consists simply of a series of four lights on the "spine" of the "book" is nearly useless. Overall, this is very well put-together package and I highly recommend it for general system and large-drive backup."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

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Review 34 for Western Digital My Book Home 500GB External USB 2.0/FireWire/eSATA Hard Drive

Top 1000 Contributor

Customer Rating

2.0 5

Better options available 02/12/2008
By HDKING from Flint, MI

What's great about it: Capacity, quick access
What's not so great: loud, bulky

"This drive has a few good features. The storage capacity is good, when my PC attempts to access it it does so rather quickly for an external drive but that's about all I can say good about this drive.

I actually bought 3 of these drives and one make a lot of noise, one is fine and one the case power supply failed completely just out of warranty.

I had to rip the drive out of the enclosure and hook it up inside another PC. Works great as an internal SATA drive.

These books are very big and bulky considering the drive itself could be put in a much smaller enclosure.

I paid a really good price so i figured I could deal with that.

Overall I think these drives leave a lot to be desired and there are better alternatives out there."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: No

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Review 35 for Western Digital My Book Home 500GB External USB 2.0/FireWire/eSATA Hard Drive

Customer Rating

1.0 5

Worst Purchase 02/11/2008
By tboule123

What's great about it: Small, compact and sleek.
What's not so great: No instructions, no backup cd, poor installation guide.

"As stated by another buyer the drive came with no inrtructions except a pictorial installation guide, which according to the website was incorrect. The wedsite was difficult to navigate and had very litte information on the Home edition product. I would not recommed this product to anyone. Locked up the computer twice, had to restore to earlier date."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: No

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Review 36 for Western Digital My Book Home 500GB External USB 2.0/FireWire/eSATA Hard Drive

Customer Rating

4.0 5

This was a good buy! 02/10/2008
By joem0926 from cerritos, CA

What's great about it: Easy connection, different connection options
What's not so great: Didn't like the included software, bright light

"Got this to back up my pictures and sound files. Was easy to setup, just plug and play. What I didn't like was the backup software already on the hard drive. Didn't like the fact it was a 30 day trail for the software and if you use it, you will be forced to buy it. I downloaded a freeware backup program and all is good now.
The front LED light is like a night light, I just turn it off when I shut down my PC."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

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Review 37 for Western Digital My Book Home 500GB External USB 2.0/FireWire/eSATA Hard Drive

Customer Rating

4.0 5

Great Storage/Backup for Laptop 02/10/2008
By CarlH

What's great about it: Lots of Storage, Easy Installation, Automatically Turns on with Computer
What's not so great: Included Memeo Software only trial version

"Bought this external hard drive as a backup medium for my laptop. I purchased this mainly because of the reasonable price and large capacity (about 3x my laptop's hard drive). It has lots of features I like, including that if it is attached to the computer's USB port, it turns on automatically with the computer. It doesn't take up much space on the desk, and can be easily "daisy chained" with other Mybooks to form a larger drive bank. The only problem I have with the unit is that it only includes trial versions of the Memeo Autobackup and Autosync software, which I found annoying at best. The software works well, but I did not feel I should have to pay for it again, when previous external hard drive purchases came with similar software, but in the full version, not requiring a separate purchase of the activation code."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

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Review 38 for Western Digital My Book Home 500GB External USB 2.0/FireWire/eSATA Hard Drive

Customer Rating

4.0 5

Good multi-purpose back-up drive 02/10/2008
By pennstatevr6 from Washington, DC

What's great about it: Sleek from factor, USB and Firewire ports, value
What's not so great: Slow spin-up, only 5400 rpm, touchy power button

"Purchase this drive as a shared back-up depot for my home. Have it hooked up to an older iMac G4 via FireWire, then shared via the network. Arrived formatted for windows and have decided not to reformat as most computers on the home network are Win-PCs.

So far good performance in read/write over the work and directly. Great value compared to some of the other drives, specially when on sale.

The case's form factor isn't standard, being wider, taller, and fatter than your typical external drive but I like it's dancing white LED's and black color. You also can't beat the flexibility of USB, firewire, AND eSATA."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

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Review 39 for Western Digital My Book Home 500GB External USB 2.0/FireWire/eSATA Hard Drive

Customer Rating

4.0 5

Nice product 02/09/2008
By seef

What's great about it: price per gigabyte, on sale, sleek design
What's not so great: just the basic version of the my book

"Good backup device for the price point. Too bad for the (short) 1yr warranty. What's up with that?
As a note, someone stated that its not 500GB in another review. Nah, he doesn't know enough to be saying that. 500GB (base-10) is 500,000MB. 500,000 / 1024^2 (1MB)= 476837 or 476GB addressable by the operating system. Blame the base-2 math, not the product. As drives become larger, that difference will more noticeable."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

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Review 40 for Western Digital My Book Home 500GB External USB 2.0/FireWire/eSATA Hard Drive

Customer Rating

5.0 5

Excellent device 02/08/2008
By JoeInVA from Virginia Beach, VA

What's great about it: Connectivity to anything
What's not so great: Doesn't look as nice as the Studio Edition

"Out of the box it was autodetected, installed and worked like a champ. The Studio Edition looks much nicer but (see my review under the Studio Edition) couldn't get 2 different ones working, neither could the Geek Squad."

Would you recommend this product to a friend?: Yes

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