The underside features relatively tall rubber feet, and a label indicating the model and serial number of the unit (blacked out above).Īs promised, the drive is bundled with a quick-start guide, a warranty guide, K-tec 12v 1.5A power supply (as opposed to Asian Power Devices supplies formerly used) and the USB 3.0 cable. The drive itself feels fairly weighty, and no doubt because it is a six platter drive with 12 heads, pushing the envelope of what is reasonable in a 3.5″ drive. A Kensington lock slot is also provided for security purposes. A standard 2.5mm barrel connector is used for 12v DC input, with 5v provided by internal converter (thus eliminating a source of drive failure – switched 5v and 12v rails) as is standard with most modern external drives.
This unit uses the USB 3.0 microB connector, although on a few of my drives, it seems the connector shell was made a little too tight, making plugging the cable in difficult. The drive, like most other Western Digital external drives, is generously vented from all sides. A small “cut-out” section is used to bring attention to the branding in a subtle way, but also exposes the small slit for a light-pipe where the activity LED indication is provided. This is probably done on purpose, to avoid overheating from packing too many drives together into a block, as it enforces some air space between vertically aligned units as well, but also means that the drive enforces a vertical orientation which may make it prone to accidental toppling which could cause severe drive damage. The design, however, has curved sides and front, making it impossible to stack flat horizontally. The drive itself is mostly a shiny black fingerprint-attracting finish, and is designed to stand vertically, as a book in a bookshelf might.
The My Book series seems to be immune to this, at least, for now. Not that these features are often used by end users, but it seems the Passport series of drives have a habit of encrypting everything anyway and making people’s lives hell when it comes to data recovery. It’s interesting that they’ve been touting their security, as recent research seems to show that there are design flaws with some of Western Digital’s other USB based products. Interestingly, this drive comes with a three year warranty for Asia Pacific Region, which is one year more than a bare WD Green drive sold in Australia which only has two years.Ī quick start pictorial is provided on one side of the box, with some key features placed on the other.
The package includes the drive, software (pre-loaded), USB cable, power adapter and quick install guide.
The drive is a USB 3.0 device and comes pre-formatted in NTFS for compatibility with Windows machines, and requires reformatting for Mac OS. Only the top panel has information about the drive, which is placed in small text. The packaging seems to be a consumer-focused design with very little in the way of details, and only some mention of functionality that isn’t really part of the drive’s repertoire and more about the bundled third party software. The product is packaged in a matte finish, colour print cardboard box, featuring a gradient blue finish with images of the drive prominently placed on both sides. A side benefit, when you’re getting them shipped, is the added protection the retail packaging and physical construction provides. As a result, I settled on four Western Digital My Book 6Tb drives at a cost of around AU$320 each delivered – a price cheaper than you would pay for the internal bare drives. Sometimes you’re working with very large files and you have no other option.Īfter doing some shopping around, it seemed that the only easily available drives in Australia were the Western Digital drives.
This comes at about a 22% premium per gigabyte over that of the best value (3Tb) drives, but since ports, space and energy can be the scarce commodity, it sometimes makes sense to fork out more for larger drives.
a 6TB, rather than the more specialized SMR archive drive reviewed earlier which comes with write performance caveats, or the exotic and pricey helium filled Helioseal drives. Instead of buying just any drive, I’ve decided to fork out for the largest consumer PMR drive on the market – i.e.
In order to try satisfying this craving, I’ve decided to go on an all-out spending spree and grab myself some more storage. One thing power users know is that their appetite for storage is pretty much insatiable.