WD 3TB My Book Desktop External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 - WDBFJK0030HBK-NESN

I now have two of the 3 TB drives and one of the 4 TB drives (I've had the 4 TB drive for a little over a year now). I have not had any issues with any of them. I have an external drive that is a bit faster, but for the price point these are good drives and hard to beat. I can generally maintain 105+ MB/sec write speed over the USB 3.0. For approximately $50 more I could have gotten an external drive that is significantly faster, but for writing once then reading as necessary these drive fit what I need them to do without my feeling that the writing time is excessive even when transferring fairly large files. Note: If you are using Windows, then you must go to the device manager and apply the setting for this drive to where it is set for better performance in order to get maximum Write speeds. There is also an option to turn off the power saver mode to keep it from constantly having to start back up between writes if there is going to be significant time between writes, and if you are more interested in speed than power consumption and possible drive wear. If you don't do those things, then you will not get the best write/read performance due to the drive powering up at the start of the read/write and/or Windows treating the drive as a USB quick release drive. Both of these settings change how quickly files will be written to the drive but for different reasons. As always, how you choose to apply these settings are up to you as the user. Personally, I attach these drives to one computer and rarely move them afterwards. So, I have no need of being able to unplug them from the system without using the windows disconnect USB device option first. I'll take that extra step on the odd occasion when I might need to move one of the drives for the added speed the rest of the time. I turn off the energy saver because I don't like waiting 10 sec or more for the drive to start writing after I try to move something there. I don't worry as much about extra wear from it being on as I get tired of the wait. That is how I like to use them. You should do what works best for you.

I love this hard drive. It is quiet and sits next to my pc. I did not buy this to be a portable hdd, however it is just that. Very small and compact. However, what I use it for is as a repository for all of my media. I have all of my pictures, movies, music on it. I then run mezzemo (just upgraded from tversity it is so much better) as a media server. I can watch all of my movies througout the house via xbox 360, ps3, blueray devices, smart tvs. It works great. I would recommend to anyone. I also can back up my entire computer to this hdd if I want too. The best part is that if I want to take the drive with me on vacation or whatever. I can bring my whole movie, music, picture library with me. When I do, I can that watch all of this via my lap or on a tv through my laptop via a hdmi out. So that is why I chose this particular model.

Nice product. Be sure you are familiar with setting up computers/software if you buy this. Step 3 on the box says "install the backup software" but there is none included in the package. Panic. Will I have to return it? No. You simply have to figure out where to find and download the appropriate software from the internet, and there are NO instructions on how to do this. Fortunately I've worked with personal computers a LOT, have an engineering degree, and was able to read between the lines enough to get it all done. Once set up with the software installed, this is an excellent tool for backing up your operating system, pictures, files, etc. (basically everything on your computer). It also allows continuous file updates. Very intuitive, easy to use, and graphically informative after it is up and running. Plus it works with Dropbox for additional capability. It appears to be ideally suited for Windows 10. Now I'm happy I bought it, AFTER getting over the temporary frustration of not knowing where to find the associated software, checking for prerequisite software, and updating the software after downloading. Voila! Just what I needed.

I have used Western-Digital HD's (Hard-Drives) since the days of DOS and found them to be well-made, reliable and always dependable. So, the addition to my computer of a pair of “My Book” 3-TERABYTE external drives was a no-brainer. The problem with today's “cloud” computing are: (1) it cost the user fees to use; (2) the user will be out-of-luck if their PRIMARY connection device (computer, notebook, tablet or phone) FAILS and they cannot get to "the cloud"; (3) the “cloud-based” server MIGHT get hacked or hijacked by outsiders (remember it happened to the FEDERAL government, several retailers and banks, etc.) and the user’s data might be lost or tied up for an unknown period. I choose to keep all of my images, scanned-in documents and other needed digital information on a couple of these “books”. In case of fire or emergency, I grab 3 things: the “Colored Bag” (with my vitals – VIP ID docs, insurance, $$$ & weap) and these two HD drives (simply unplug the USB and power cords from the back) and I’m gone!!! The proprietary WD software can be used for password protection and security or the drives can be used as simply another listed drive to the operating system. Files can be moved, copied or deleted just as on any other drive connected to the system. Even if one does use cloud computing, these drives make EXCELLENT LOCAL BACK-UP units. The plastic shipping-box bottom (that holds the drive in the packaging box) makes an excellent desktop “stand” with a small footprint next to your primary device. Lightweight and compact, it comes with AC power adapter and a USB cable. Compatible with Windows NTFS format for Windows VISTA, Windows 7 / 8 or higher. (Must be reformatted for Mac OS X.) The drive has a 2-yr limited warranty, but I’ve still got WD drives from the 1990’s working reliably and without failure despite being remounted in several computer upgrades throughout the years. I’ve installed and used Maxtor, Seagate, Sony, Toshiba, and Conner hard drives in the past. I’ll go with the Western Digital brand anytime.

My Setup: HP Pavillion 17t, 6th Gen Skylake Core i5, 7200 RPM HDD, 16GB RAM, USB 3.0, Win 10. My Review: I’ve been using a 3TB Western Digital MyBook for about two weeks now and feel like I have a pretty good handle on it. Bottom line is that I like both the hardware and software. First the trivial: It’s really pretty; all glossy black with rounded corners and a blue power/activity LED that perfectly matches my backlit keyboard. Second: It works pretty well. Plug in the power supply and USB cable, then set it next to your PC. Cooling is by convection, so it’s quiet if not completely silent. Software is already on the drive and configuration is straightforward. I’m a believer in WD storage so that’s all good, and there are two well designed apps to run things. Things like diagnostics, a sleep timer and an erase disk feature. WD Smartware lets you define the source and target (you can backup to non-WD internal/external drives and the cloud as well), plus an advanced setting for geeks. There is a file backup option, and you can define the save frequency from continuous to monthly, plus enable or disable your plan. Retrieve lets you choose to restore to the original location or a designated folder. Software can be updated either automatically or manually. My initial backup was about 115GB and took just under 40 minutes. With all the space available, I also use File Explorer to drag and drop folders like Pictures, Documents, etc. I’ve even tried working from it directly, in effect using it as my primary drive, without delays or other issues. BTW: It’s smart enough to sleep when my PC sleeps and shuts down with Hibernate or Power Off. The website is extensive, and as it turned out, really useful. After a few days of smooth sailing, I killed the unit by trying to partition it into separate volumes. From dead in the water, I downloaded what I needed to wipe the disk (no, not with a cloth), reinstall the software, and got up and running within a few hours. All in all, this is a very satisfying package that I confidently recommend… especially since I don’t fully trust either iDrive or OneDrive.

It's fast, cheap and it has proven reliable thus far. It uses USB 3.0 for a direct connection to your machine. The 5400 rpm drive runs nice and cool. It comes formatted as NTFS, as opposed to the "Mac Version" which comes pre-formatted as HFS. Anyway, it isn't writable out-of-the-box if you're using Mac OS X. WD does offer downloadable applications to reformat the drive, but it's easier just to use Mac's Disk Utility to format it as HFS+. It takes just a few minutes to reformat it. If you're using it to expand your machine's storage, then this is a great choice. I also have a 128 GB Transcend Jet Drive which is a more sleek, and portable option, but it's about the same price, much less storage space and the write speeds for 1+ GB files isn't noticeable. I recommend partitioning the drive in a different formats if you plan on using it for more than just desktop storage. I bought this to double as a media storage device that I could connect to my TV via USB. For most modern TV's, you no longer need an external media server to deliver your digital movies. Instead, you can just use the TV's USB interface. However, Roku players and most TV's don't support HFS. Even Roku actually claims to support it, but it doesn't in my experience. So long story short, consider creating a partition pm the drive formatted as NTFS or ExFAT before you load all of your files onto it. It requires its own power supply (as opposed to bus power), but it's lightweight and portable. The plastic casing is on the cheap/flimsy side, but the product looks decent. It's quiet and well-ventilated.

Super Quiet. Very Fast. Runs way cooler than I expected. In the past 22 years of computing, I've had just about every brand of drive available. I can honestly say that most drive brands are pretty reliable but WD still tops my list of the most reliable drives. I've only had one WD quit and even that was after four years of service. In the past 6-7-8 years or so, I have had several back up drives in service, most of them Seagates. The choice to go with Seagate was nothing other than price at the time that I needed another drive. However, even though the Seagate drives have been reliable so far ( I did have two quit though) they seem to not run as smooth as the WD drives. I can hear the Seagate drives spinning and I can feel my desk (ever so slightly) vibrate. I have a 27" iMac that makes no noise and does not have even the slightest bit of "machine" vibration emitting from it. So this week when I decided it was time for another drive, I decided even before checking prices that I was going to go with a WD drive this time. I was pleasantly surprised to find not only this drive, but at the price Amazon had it for. I really wanted the 4TB just for future expansion but decided that the price difference was too great so I opted for the 3TB. I got it yesterday. As soon as I plugged it in I had to check to see that it was running. Dead silence and zero spin vibration. AWESOME! I reformatted it to work with my Macs and transferred 1.3 GB of back up data in no time. I verified the backup and the data was correctly transferred error free. I obviously can't tell you how reliable this drive is but hopefully, as with all of my other WD drives, internal and external, I expect it to be working years from now as well. I will give this a month and see if I still feel this way about it. I suspect I will.

We've had this drive several weeks, so I can't much about its long term reliability. For the short term, the drive works fine, however I bought it to do system file backups of my entire system for five computers. Unfortunately, the software provided by WD does not do system backups, so I had to use the system backup routine for Win 7. It failed each time (after running 8 hours or so.) I thought the WD drive was bad, but then I noticed that the same failure occurred when backing up to a different hard disk. Problem solved by purchasing and downloading a backup program from the internet that would do whole system backups and restores. The backup file the downloaded software produced stored nicely to the WD My Book hard drive. I used the program with the WD My Book to backup, an XP, Win 7 and Win 8 computer. So, the WD drive is okay, however the provided software does not do system backups. If you want to be able to reproduce the complete data on your hard drive, including the files in SysWow64, etc., the WD drive and its provided software will not do this. You do not need the WD provided software to use the WD MyBook portable hard drive.