WD 4TB My Book Desktop External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 - WDBFJK0040HBK-NESN,Black

I purchased this drive largely based upon a specific need for a USB 3.0 product with 4TB of storage. I've owned many WD internal and external HD products over time and have not had any drive failures to date over many years. I purchased this drive specifically as a backup storage drive attached to a Synology 1813+ NAS unit. This required a reformat to EXT4 as the drive comes natively formated in NTFS. The Synology NAS schedules backup to this drive of selected folder shares using the "Time Backup" software available from Synology. I'm not utilizing any of the software included from WD with this drive (backup, cloud, etc.) as the Synology NAS has its own software for each of these purposes. The drive itself is similar in size to other My Book drives. The plastic casing is certainly not as nice as the aluminum finish on the WD My Book drives that I have for my Macs, but it is similar to the black of the Synology unit and overall looks good. The power adapter is reasonably sized (not a brick), and the unit comes with a USB 3.0 cord for use with its single USB 3.0/2.0 port. WD provides a 2-year warranty with this product. There are cheaper drives with similar specs available from other companies. However, having had drive failures with Seagate over the years, I'm unwilling to take chances with other options. It's important to backup your valued files, and WD drives have played a major role in my backup solutions over time. If I have issues with this drive, I'll update my review. This seems to be another winner from WD! Edit/Addendum: Following my review, another Amazon user asked me an excellent question, "Does the USB connection to the drive feel flimsy?" This is a very appropriate question given concerns raised with the prior generation of this same My Book device. While I don't own the previous My Book version in question, I did check the USB connector on my device. The supplied USB 3.0 cable seems to be stable in its connection to the rear port of the My Book case. I can't physically make it move horizontally or vertically with any significance - unless I were to apply excessive force. Modest attempts at movement of the USB cable did not disrupt the connection. I don't plan to move this My Book from one place to another (it's connected to my NAS), so I suppose that I won't be able to comment well on wear-and-tear issues with respect to the USB connector. Other My Book devices that I own are the Mac Firewire/USB 2.0 version. Those have never struck me as flimsy. Update 1/18/14: Since writing my original review, I've purchased a 2nd unit which I reformatted for Mac OS X and use for "time machine" backup. Both drives are functioning well and have had no issues. I'm still very pleased with the quality and function of the drives. Reading through a number of the questions regarding this drive, it's clear that the term "cloud backup" as assigned by WD to this drive is a bit of a marketing stretch. As has been noted by others, the "cloud backup" option is not intrinsic to the drive, but an add-on service provided by Dropbox and facilitated by WD software that a user may choose to run on an attached computer (I don't personally use or recommend that others use WD software). These drives are nothing more than a WD drive, in an enclosure, with a single USB 3.0 connection. If you are looking for "cloud" capability, other product options do exist. I do hope that WD changes its description of drives such as this in future marketing.

I've had good experiences with portable WD HDs before, so I picked this up mostly to save disk images of the computers in my house. This drive comes with software loaded on it for you to install: a utility to test and diagnose the drive, as well as a back up software solution; there is also a "driver" for this drive, but I'm not clear what it is suppose to accomplish since Windows recognized the My Book's full capacity without it. The utility is useful, but I didn't use the back up software -- rather I downloaded the "Acronis True Image WD Edition" software from WD's website. In fact, I installed Acronis, created a bootable Acronis disc, then uninstalled Acronis. I made an ISO copy of the bootable Acronis disc backup software. Acronis WD edition only works with WD drives attached to your computer. To test this portable drive I did a full erase filling the disc with zeroes (I used the Acronis bootable disc for this). What this accomplishes is that if there is a problem the software will tell me, and any defects will be replaced by good sectors through the SMART function of the drive. This took about a day and a half. I then tried to format the drive in Windows, I could not. Windows saw the My Book as two 2TB discs -- kind of strange. (Could a RAID 0 of two 2TB discs be inside what appears to be a single HDD?) Anyway, I zeroed the drive again using the supplied Windows WD utility and it only took a moment. That reset the drive so that it was viewed as one, blank 4TB drive in Windows. I then formatted the drive as NTFS with Windows. That took about a day and a half. So, there doesn't seem to be any defects. The drive works like regular drives, no funny business, and the drive is backward compatible with USB 2.0. This is a very solid and sturdy piece of equipment. Now, WD is known to supply back doors to the NSA. I'm suspicious by nature, but don't have delusions of grandeur so as to think the NSA actually wants to spy on me. I wonder why my firewall is telling me the WD utility is trying to call out several thousands times a day. (I have my firewall block this.) So my advice is to test the drive to your content offline if you're using the WD software and only use WD software when you're offline -- otherwise firewall block it or uninstall it. The Acronis bootable disc doesn't call home and is used offline.

I like this product so much I bought a second one. The first I use for storing feature films, concerts etc. in my home theater room. You can store several hundred feature films in the highest quality on this product with 6TB of memory and it connects to my DVR and provides three times the memory of the DVR itself. I use a second for all music files, photos, etc. and connect that one to a MINIX media player in my home theater room. While all of these files for films, music, etc. can fit on one box for now, I am anticipating the time when I will need to split them up and since I connect them to separate devices, it made sense to divide things up and prepare for the future. The WB My Book is very effective for storage and yes, you can use it to back up computer files too. It is quick for storing and retrieving, quiet, and offers a large amount of storage. This device is normally "on" at all times since it doesn't have an on-off switch. However if you connect it to a DVR, media player, or computer via a USB cable, and shut that device off for the night, you will turn this unit off at the same time.

The drive is very reliable after several years.

Works beautifully on my Xbox One. Visible difference in loading times.

Pros: 1) Very large digital storage space and reasonably portable 2) It is affordable 3) Quiet (No audible noise unless I get right up next to it) 4) No heat issue 5) Fast read/write speeds 6) Works right out of the box 7) USB 3.0 cord is sturdy Cons: 1) Annoying Utility Software 2) Glossy exterior can attract fingerprints easily Update: I formatted the Drive and using it without its Utility Software...

この製品を2015年10月に購入し、Macbook Pro13 Mid2012にて使用していましたが、8ヶ月ほどで急に接続が途絶えたりとアクセスが不安定になってきました。 そこで修理を依頼したところ、「良品との交換」となり、アメリカからそれが送られてきました。 その後しばらくは問題なく使用出来ていましたが、交換から2年10ヶ月ほど経過した2019年4月に、突然アクセス不能となってしまいました。 市販のディスクユーティリティー等を試してみても認識できず、内部に保存されてあるデータは結局取り出すことができませんでした。 異音やアクセス不安定などの症状があれば新しいHDに交換するのが常識ですが、そのような前触れ無しにいきなりアクセス不能となってしまうようではWD社のHDを再び使用する気にはなれません。

I confess to not having spiked it in via the usb 3.0 yet, however the unit appears 100% and should perform as robustly and reliably as all my other WD products, NONE OF WHICH (Western Digital only) I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED A PROBLEM WITH!! I can only say this about Western Digital products - others hard drive manufacturers like Samsung hard drive division (since bought by Seagate, which subsequently was then bought by Western Digital) have in past proved dismally unreliable, and customer service was lacking in my several experiences with these brands, as well. G-Tech, now owned also by WD, proved the worst ever experience, worse even that the dismal Samsung and the dismal Seagate. And it wasn't even about the products, which are ok. It was the executive attitude there at G Tech in California toward us global consumers (distrustful, arrogant, smug and self-satisfied, and blatantly outwardly hostile) that gave me the utter creeps, as I experienced a certain executive at that company (G Tech) who was downright sleazy and paranoid when I dealt with her on a matter related to their product line - I own 4 G Techs, but would never bother with that brand no matter who owns them now, as the company's core team as represented by this key marketing employee has demonstrated some lousy attitude toward customers, I discovered. Lady Marketing exec at G Tech, if you read this you know who you are and you simply suck as a brand builder and aren't half as smart as you think you are, you smug wonk. I will never forget that B%^$#& executive at G-tech and I hope her bosses threw her to the curb by now like yesterday's trash, for she is indeed a true brand liability. She knew so little about the technology she was representing as a Marketing head, and it was via her that I realized how far we consumers are being conned on pricing for these basic peripheral, and how little we are respected and valued by the executive team that gets paid the nice salaries there at G Tech. Get over yourself lady Marketing head at G Tech, you know who you are and yer shi^ ain't that special. She reminds me of the scumbag cd music execs at the big name music studios from an earlier era who were disdainful of both consumers and the recording artists as well – just give them their go^da8n money and everyone be damned... G Tech execs are just not likeable people, I discovered. They have issues. Moving on... WD is the reliability leader in the external hard drive realm. So assuming this WD unit performs as it should (which I have no doubt it will), I will comment on the speed of the Amazon transaction itself... It was expedited with great efficiency and precision. Yet another win for Joe Consumer, as this unit was at a "great" price point. Now if this general product category would only begin to lower its prices and keep them there, I would be thrilled. As it is, one has to be patient until such a deal as this price point makes its appearance. I feel these hard drives are generally selling here in Canada for more than is necessary for WD and the others to turn a profit, and I wish they would rethink their pricing strategy to enable consumers to avail themselves more of this technology with less concern for the high prices. More units sold (greater economy of scale) will net WD great profits and will benefit consumers simultaneously, as opposed to socking it to us with these (on average) $250-$300 per 6TB drive prices... this reminds me of the way the cd was used to exploit / extort the western consumer into parting with more cash than was necessary to purchase a simple prerecorded cd. The vinyl album pricing (moderate expense) soon enough gave way to the duplicitous collusive industry pricing of the cd industry, which became something of a rip-off. With external hard drives, they don't need to go for the kill price to succeed, but these consolidated hard drive manufacturers (and WD owns quite a few recognized hard drive brands under its umbrella). In my opinion, the industry jacked hard drive prices some years ago complaining their manufacturing infrastructure in Thailand was compromised due to destructive typhoon. OK, boys that ship has sailed long ago and you have your Porsches parked in your garages and your new home renos done now, so lay off on the overheated prices for these pretty basic pieces of modern technology that will in some few years essentially be obsolete tech. OK I'm done now. But WD does make a great hard drive regardless, so buy WD as they have earned this loyalty.

El precio está muy bien. EL paquete tardo un poco en llegar pero sin ningún problema. Lo único malo es que como casi todos los WD, su diseño de plástico puede llegar a hacerlo un producto fragil. Es importante saber que si planeas estarlo moviendo de un lugar a otro, conviene comprar un disco portátil que ademas no requiera un eliminador de corriente como este. Fuera de eso, el producto es bueno, con mucha capacidad y velocidad, es USB 3.0