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Western Digital My Book Studio Edition 500GB Firewire 400 / 800 & eSata External Hard Drive | 
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| Brand: Western Digital
Category: CE
Buy New: £81.00
New (26) Used (1) from £69.05
Rating:  32 reviews
Sales Rank: 2217
Media: Electronics
Fragile: No
Batteries Included: No
Hard Drive Size: 500
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.6
Dimensions (in): 53.9 x 21.3 x 65.4
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of the product.
MPN: WDH1Q5000E
Model: WDH1Q5000E
UPC: 718037121406
EAN: 0718037121406
ASIN: B000W9KI42
Release Date: October 7, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 27 more reviews...
 Excellent drive and service from Amazon November 18, 2008
D. Mccourt (Wales, UK)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I looked at a lot of reviews for this (on Amazon and elsewhere) and plumped for this drive because of its excellent connectivity. I'm a Mac user and Apple seem to be moving away from Firewire towards USB so I wanted to ensure the best of both Worlds. My G5 Mac has Firewire 400 and 800 and I wanted to try the Firewire 800 speed. It is very fast. I copied 160GB in around 2 hours.
The drive itself is small, neat and very quiet; a few clicks here and there but nothing too noticeable, The lights are a bit distracting if the drive is in use a lot like mine but I put it out of direct view and it is fine. The usage guage is useful but the included software on the drive has a drive capacity monitor built in which is more accurate.
The drive comes with Memeo backup software, which as others have noted is a 30 day trial. When I visited the Memeo site it notes that there is a product key to the software somewhere on the WD printed 'collateral' (as of 18.11.2008). I looked over the info and found it is on the bottom back of the printed quick set-up guide. So the software is fully functioning and free. It works really well, is very simple to use and backs-up files incrementally as soon as they are changed. This means the drive is in constant use and there is no scheduling facility.
If like me, you want to mount the drive from another networked computer to back that computer up you need to buy some other software from Memeo to do that (AutoBackup Premium which is about 35GBP). You can try it out for 30 days for free. This lets you back up to a networked mounted drive.
So I can backup two networked Macs (total of around 200GB of files) for 150GBP which is a great peace of mind if you have valuable work files like me.
I'd also like to comment on Amazon's excellent customer service. The first drive I bought amazingly didn't come with a power adapter (which is set-up as a US plug but takes seconds to change to a UK one) or Firewire cables. It arrived Saturday morning and I followed Amazon's return procedure. By Sunday a new one was on its way to me and Monday morning it arrived and the old one was collected. Absolutely fantastic. This is what customer service should be like and for this peace of mind alone, Amazon should be your first choice. It certainly will be for me from now on.
 Solid Performance November 16, 2008
Mike of Alsager
I've had this disc for 12 months now and (touch wood) it's been very reliable. It's quiet and compact, was easy to install and does what it was bought for, i.e. provide the first line of backups.
I've occasionally had problems of it not appearing on the desktop when I start up my Power Mac but pressing the reset button and then rebooting or using Disk Utilities to manually mount it seems to do the trick. Manually ejecting the disc seems to be the main cause of this problem, it seems best to leave it to do it's own thing.
I wasn't able to get the supplied backup software to run, I don't know if this is Intel Mac specific, but since others have not been impressed with its features I didn't bother to persevere with it. I have used Apple's Backup (available as part of the .mac/MobileMe subscription), I'm still running Tiger so I don't have Time Machine.
A couple of gripes: the price has dropped by around 30% since I bought my disc, and 12 months ago 500Gb sounded huge, now it doesn't and I'm considering getting the 1Tb version.
There must be 2 versions! October 21, 2008
Dan (London, UK)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
From reading the comments posted here by other reviewers, I can only assume that WD have two versions of this drive. Most of the negative comments are about noise and unreliability (usually the people with a negative experience seem to have suffered from both).
Fortunately, I'm on the lucky side of the fence. As I am sat here in a silent room with the WD MyBook Studio placed on the desk in front of me, I can tell you that it is neigh on silent. Noise is a subjective thing but I a) hate loud noises and b) have superb hearing (measured that better than average last time it was checked).
In fact, my 24" iMac makes more noise and to be fair, the computer is almost silent - anyone who owns one will know just how quiet they are.
Now, that's when the drive is idle. OS X does a fair job of keeping external drives spun down when not being accessed, so anyone would expect it to be very quiet. A lack of internal fan ensures that the only audible noise comes from the WD Eco Drive which is designed to be quiet anyway.
When I do access data stored on the unit, there is a 2-3 second pause (assuming I've left it alone long enough to spin down in the first place) before the drive gracefully, and again quietly, spins up. At full tilt with 80Gb of data being copied to it via firewire, I can still say that the noise is by no means intrusive - perhaps a quiet whir of the platters and the low frequency thudding of the head moving when data is being written to the device.
Some of you may be thinking by now that I'm a silence freak. As it happens, I am, and proudly so. I have my computer and the drive in the same room as my high end home cinema equipment and would simply not tolerate background noise that might interfere with my listening experience.
With regards to reliability, yes, I've heard stories of these drives dying and can only say that I've been fortunate enough to avoid that isue. I think its a small number, percentage wise, of drives that fail, Western Digital have a long standing pedigree for making reliable hard discs. The issue certainly isn't from heat as I'd once suspected, covering the cooling vents on the top of the unit feels about as warm as putting your hand close to your leg but not quite touching it.
Summary:
Clearly my experience has been a good one, there is some warmth but this is far from the heat and noise given off by say, a Playstation 3. The drive i have is a welcome addition to my computer setup and I can only wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone looking for a Firewire 800 capable device of this capacity.
Good luck with whatever purchase you eventually make.
 seems improved over a year's time. September 25, 2008
Ms. Rong Qiang
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I got one same time last year, It broke down 3 times, and the last one is so bad, I have to order a replacement drive. So I agree with most review it's noisy and break down easily.
Interesting to note, the recent replacement drive is much more quieter, maybe the hardware has finally improved.
I just have to warn all user who is ordering a replacement drive, if you are using the advance replacement service with a credit card guarantee, it's best to send your broke down-drive early. It took me 3 weeks clear the hold on my credit card even though I've send my broke-down drive straight away using special delivery.
 Don't touch with Barge Pole August 26, 2008
nubeyfan (UK)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I bought this based on Macworld review and the star rating and positive reviews I'd read on line on Amazon (although only the first few). Within 2 hours of use it just switched its off. Thought it might have been something I had done so mounted again & after that every time my Mac went into sleep mode it just switched itself off and disappeared from my desktop. And also when using Time Machine. Tried the online advice (frighteningly there was an awful lot of it with similar problems), which was to download the new driver from WD (Difficult enough as even WD don't refer you by the correct name for it). After that I lost all contact. Switched it on & nothing, apart from the nice light on the front of it. Tried changing to USB & nothing. Tried to get help from WD support (don't make me laugh) & nothing. Eventually 12 days later, and after I had returned it, I got some advice "Reset it". That was it. No how, or "if that doesn't work". WD advise that you shouldn't return it to store if you have trouble but contact the customer support which they give you free for 30 days from register of problem. But it might take that long to START getting reasonable answers. Also think the star system used for reviewing this product is misleading. If it dosn't work it's a "0" no matter what it's potential.
At the end of the day there seem to be enough people out there that have had a good experience: but I'm guessing 70% at best & 50% worst. UNFORTUNATELY even if there was a way to fix it, I've lost all confidence. So I can't recommend it, but my advice if you do buy it and you get any trouble early on, don't wait, just return it.
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