Product Description

This elegant external hard drive, reminiscent of a book, is the perfect storage solution. It takes no more space than a paperback book. Collect two or more and they nest neatly together like volumes on a shelf. Installation is a snap because you don't really install this drive, you just plug it in and it's ready to use. A USB 2.0 simple connection offers convenience and compatibility among multiple computers. Dimensions - Height 6.5 x Length 5.4 x Width 2.1 Weight - 2.5 Pounds

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #98 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Western Digital
• Model: WDH1U5000N
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 6.50" h x 2.10" w x 5.40" l, 2.50 pounds
• Hard Disk: 500GB

Features

• Includes - External hard drive, USB cable, AC adapter and Quick Install Guide
• Smart and energy efficient - Turns itself on and off with your computer
• Saving and organizing your digital photo collection
• USB 2.0 Serial Bus Transfer Rate - 480 Mbits/s
• System Requirements - Available USB port, Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later

From the Manufacturer
Are you running out of hard drive capacity? Do you need to archive some important digital documents, photos, or music? This elegant external hard drive, reminiscent of a book, is the perfect solution. It takes no more space than a paperback book. Collect two or more and they nest neatly together like volumes on a shelf.

What It Holds:

•     Up to 142,000 digital photos
•     Up to 125,000 songs (MP3)
•     Up to 12,000 songs (uncompressed CD quality)
•     Up to 38 hours of Digital Video (DV)
•     Up to 220 hours of DVD quality video
•     Up to 60 hours of HD video

One gigabyte (GB) = one billion bytes. One terabyte (TB) = one trillion bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending on operating environment.

Product Features: Easy to set up, easy to use - Installation is a snap because you don't really install this drive, you just plug it in and it's ready to use. USB 2.0 interface - A simple connection that offers convenience and compatibility among multiple computers. Fits right in - Takes no more space than a paperback book. Collect two or more and they nest neatly together like volumes on a shelf. Smart and energy efficient - Turns itself on and off with your computer. PC and Mac compatible - Works with both Windows® 2000/XP/Vista and Mac® OS X 10.4.8 or later

Ideal for

• Instant storage
• Easy to use
• USB 2.0
• Saving and organizing your digital photo collection

System Requirements

• Available USB port
• Windows® 2000/XP/Vista™
• Mac® OS X 10.4.8 or later

Package Includes

• External hard drive
• USB cable
• AC adapter
• Quick Install Guide

Which external drive interface is the right choice: USB, FireWire, eSATA, or Gigabit Ethernet? The right choice depends on compatibility with your computer and how you want to use your device. First, look at the connections on your computer.

Note: For convenience and flexibility, choose a WD hard drive with both USB and FireWire interfaces
(available in dual and triple interface configurations) or with both USB and eSATA interfaces.

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Customer Reviews

Great product!
I bought this to clear some space on my 3 year-old iBook, as well as to backup important files from law school. It's a fantastic product and so far I'm very pleased with it! It's quiet, it has a ton of space, it's easy to use, it's easy to set up, and it's works very well. I'm happy with how reliable it seems and has been so far. No problems at all. It does take a little bit to load, but not very long. Overall, I'm very glad that I bought this Western Digital product. I was confused about which external harddrive to buy, and I'm glad I got this one!

Western Digital MyBook
I never thought that my hard drive would crash, and that I would lose all my photos, bank records, and important documents. But guess what...it did and I lost everything! So, I learned a lesson the hard way...back up your data! My son and friends recommended the WD MyBook external drive (500GB) as the best back up drive for the money. Amazon's price was the best around and the free shipping sealed the deal for me. It arrived in perfect condition within a few days after I placed my order. I am not a techie, but it was really easy to install. Just plug it in and the software takes care of the rest. Within minutes, I was backing up my photos and files. It couldn't have been easier.

Sleep mode makes drive a boat anchor on your system.
Here's the problem. This drive goes into sleep mode after 20 minutes of inactivity on the drive.

So I am working on my computer, I load up my image editing software and the software - which used to load in seconds - checks all the drives connected to the system.

This wakes the WD MY BOOK up from its sleep. Which takes about as long as I take to wake up in the morning - or so it seems.

Then after an eternity (in CPU cycles) it wakes up and my software continues loading.

Ok, so you don't edit images? Click on "My Computer" It will show a list of all your hard drives. WAIT FOR THE WD MYBOOK to wake up...

NOW you see them.

This hard drive basically slows your entire system to a crawl while it waits for the drive to wakeup every time it is in sleep mode. The net effect is to drastically decrease the usability of your entire computer.

And can you turn it off? Not that I've found. It just shuts down after 20 minutes of inactivity (the external hard drive - not your computer) so that any time you need to access it, or worse - anytime your computer THINKS it needs to access the My Book, you WAIT and WAIT and WAIT.