Western Digital My Book Studio Edition 1 TB USB 2.0/FireWire 400/FireWire 800/eSATA External Hard Drive WDH1Q10000N

I have two of these drives now - the first 4 several months now, & the second 4 about a week - & they're both great. I haven't experienced any problems at all. They look good, they're compact & they work.

It's a great drive 4 Apple products. I don't own a PC so I wouldn't know 4 them. Quiet, a lot of Space, & looks good too.

Customers complain the drive freezes. This is due 2 turning "On" & "Off" the power manually on the drive. I have not had it freeze because I never manually turn the power 2 the drive "Off", I just shut down my computer.

If you want 2 use the drive 4 storage hook it up & store 2 it. Don't turn the power on & off (via the drives power button). If you use it this way the drive works great.

Perfect 4 Apple, although, contrary 2 my expectations, I couldn't get my computer 2 recognize it while in windows XP mode (dualbooting).

I purchased this device at Best Buy. I paid the extra money, because of the lure of the 3GB/s data transfer rate. I was EXTREMELY disapointed when I realized that the ACTUAL data transfer rate will NEVER exceed about 60 MB/s. I discovered that after being on hold with customer service 4 about 45 minutes. As the member of tech support informed me, the transfer rate tops out at about 60MB/s. However, that is ONLY if you are transferring files that are several gigabytes in size. If you are transferring a bunch of small 2 medium sized files, you will get the crappy performance that I received, which equates 2 a data transfer rate of 3-12MB/s. The 3GB/s, as stated by tech support, is only a THEORETICAL data transfer rate that MAY be available when solid state drives become available. It would be nice if this tid bit of information were on their website, or their packaging.

To their credit:

I purchased this device 4 a windows PC. Speaking of which, there was no information inside of the box 4 how 2 format the drive 4 windows (why put a windows logo on the outside of the box if you're not going 2 show how 2 make it pc ready on the inside???) However, one quick call 2 tech support showed me how 2 get it up & running in like 5 mins. Makes me wonder why I had 2 wait 45 minutes today.

Bottom line, I gave them 1 star, because had I known what I know now, I would not have spent the money 2 buy this drive 2 try & get an unattainable transfer speed. With that transfer speed, it will take like 6-8 hours 2 back up my laptop. That means that I'll be backing up my HD like once a year :(

This drive has worked great with my MacBook Pro. Other users have complained about failing drives, but WD gives a 5-year warranty on this unit, so I don't see how you can go wrong. Five years is amazing 4 a hard drive. In my experience as computer technician, I've seen very few WD hard drive failures. They seem 2 be very reliable units. Most of my customers' HDD failures have been related 2 Maxtor drives.

I've been using this drive with Leopard 4 six months & have had no problems.

I have only two complaints about this drive:
1. It takes a long time 2 mount after I connect it via FireWire 800. Sometimes up 2 ten seconds before the icons show up on the desktop.

2. The FireWire 800 connection is very sensitive. A slight bump 2 the computer, the cable, or sometimes even the desk will often cause the drive 2 disconnect.

E-SATA - USB 2.0 - Firewire 400 & 800 Interface / Mac Formatted Only