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Western Digital My Book Studio Series

N

nman040

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 6, 2008
58
0
I've got a couple of questions for those who have the Western Digital My Book Studio 2TB (users of the My Book Studios of other makes/capacities feel free to comment since I assume the "mechanism", for a lack of a better word, is the same just that capacities vary):

1)
Does it have problems going into sleep mode and waking back up? I've read reviews on some sites which said they go to sleep after a number of minutes and can take ages to get running again.
I've also read that they tend to freeze the comp while transferring files and sometimes they dismount when they go to sleep and have problems mounting back again (which can be solved with a restart).

2)
Is it absolutely necessary to install the programs that come on the HD? Is it right to assume that by not installing it I'll lose out on the capacity gauge monitor? Is there anything else I would be losing out on?
As much as possible I would like to avoid installing unnecessary utilities on my Mac

I am absolutely tempted to get me a 2TB My Book Studio but it seems that the My Book Studio range seems flawed when it comes to running on Macs. Amongst numerous reviews I've read here are a number from the Apple Store:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/TP...mco=NzM0ODkyMQ

Thanks for your feedback
 
I have one and finally disconnected it and went to the Time Capsule. I had problems with it locking up the computer at shut down. It worked fine for a couple of months and then all the sudden it started. Once I would disconnect it the computer would shut down. It even started making it hang on start up until you would disconnect.

Since I have switched to the Time Capsule I haven't had a problem. They now have the 1tb for $299 and the 2tb for $499 at the Apple Store.
 
jvette said:
I have one and finally disconnected it and went to the Time Capsule. I had problems with it locking up the computer at shut down. It worked fine for a couple of months and then all the sudden it started. Once I would disconnect it the computer would shut down. It even started making it hang on start up until you would disconnect.

Since I have switched to the Time Capsule I haven't had a problem. They now have the 1tb for $299 and the 2tb for $499 at the Apple Store.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your feedback.

A few questions:

1)What's the capacity of your Studio?

2) Did you install the drivers/programs that came with the HD?

3) What connection did you use?

4) And when did you buy it?

Apparently a firmware update takes care of it but heck, a firmware update for a HD?! lol absolutely unheard of.

I'm wondering if it affects just the early batches or is it a prevailing problem in all of them.

The 2TB My Book Studio is the one I'm particularly interested in but there are barely any reviews on it.

edit: I've read up a bit more and it seems like it runs flawlessly when formatted to run on Windows machines. The irony of it is that it's especially targeted for Macs
 
I had the 1TB and no i didn't install any software but do use Super Duper. I got it about 6 months ago at the local Apple Store.
 
jvette said:
I had the 1TB and no i didn't install any software but do use Super Duper. I got it about 6 months ago at the local Apple Store.
Click to expand...

Did you connect it via USB or Firewire?

Thanks again
 
I have two WD MyBook Studio hard drives (1TB model) connected by Firewire and have had no such problem with them, one is used for Time Machine and the other for additional storage. I have installed the latest firmware update and Drive Manager, and all works fine. The applicable downloads can be found at 'support.wdc.com'. First one was bought around 18 months ago, and the second one around 6 months ago. Hope this helps.
 
Im thinking of getting the 2tb studio edition II.
Running in raid-1 will give 1tb data mirrored.

I've had 2 wd external drives and they have been good.
none have failed or slowed down pc.
they switch off when the computer goes off.
but the performance isnt amazing, but that is over usb.
using firewire 800 should be a big boost
 
wheelhot said:
Hmm, why don't just get a Drobo and have ever expanding storage space?
Click to expand...

drobos performance is even worse than the wd mybooks.
also firewire 3200 will be here soon, i think its best to wait
 
Big Bad D said:
I have two WD MyBook Studio hard drives (1TB model) connected by Firewire and have had no such problem with them, one is used for Time Machine and the other for additional storage. I have installed the latest firmware update and Drive Manager, and all works fine. The applicable downloads can be found at 'support.wdc.com'. First one was bought around 18 months ago, and the second one around 6 months ago. Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

Which Mac are you using?

And FireWire 3200? When can we expect to see that?

I know USB 3.0 will be out by the end of the year. Hope it'll be in the revised macs by then
 
I'm still on the fence with this unit although I'm tempted. I find it tacky reposting the same comment but I have some questions on this similar thread here.
 
I have the 2TB MyBook Studio II. I bought it in November of last year and I have had zero problems with it hooked up via FW800. It comes out of sleep just fine. As for the software, if you want to change the RAID level then yes it is so I really don't think there is a reason not to install.
 
I have three Studio drives, and I have had some problems with the Studio II.

I have a mac mini media server that uses a 2TB Studio connected via firewire. I use the Studio as the boot drive, and it works flawlessly.

I have a desktop with a 1TB Studio II, and a 2TB Studio II. The Studio II's work fine for storage, but they cause problems when using them as boot drives. Sometimes, they simply won't boot. I have to disconnect them, boot onto my internal HD, then reconnect the drives. Then, I have to do something with the drives - open a file, anything. This seems to wake them up. Then I can reboot with the Studio II as the boot drive.

It's odd, and I haven't found an explanation. All drives are connected via FW800.
 
So, I'm looking at newegg everyday to see what's a good replacement to the WD Studio and this iomega minimax 1TB is the closest in its category that's receiving decent reviews.
 
I have a 500, 1T, 2T studios and a 500 mypassport studio. They all work very well. I have installed the turbo driver and ny portable 800fw disk is really fast. Use it for HD editing on the road
 
Oh please do not buy a mybook.

Western Digital makes absolute trash as of late. People can boo hoo and tell me I'm wrong all they want but 15+ years in IT and a room full of broken western digital mybooks that my company was forced to stop using because of the extreme failure rate says otherwise. (Mind you, these mybooks are the BROKEN ones, and they fill a freaking room!)

Your much better off getting a seagate or hitatchi drive and an external enclosure (I like icydock).
 
chrono1081 said:
Oh please do not buy a mybook.

Western Digital makes absolute trash as of late. People can boo hoo and tell me I'm wrong all they want but 15+ years in IT and a room full of broken western digital mybooks that my company was forced to stop using because of the extreme failure rate says otherwise. (Mind you, these mybooks are the BROKEN ones, and they fill a freaking room!)

Your much better off getting a seagate or hitatchi drive and an external enclosure (I like icydock).
Click to expand...

I respect your experience but everyone seems to have a similar horror story about different manufacturer's products. For me it is Maxtor products (now part of Seagate). I'm an IT consultant and have been "in IT" for a similar amount of time to yourself for what it's worth.

I've just bought a MyBook Studio Edition 1TB drive and so far it is running great over FW800 to my iMac. Very quick, very quiet and much quicker to perform backups than my Time Capsule, even over GB Ethernet. It comes with a 5 year warranty which is practically as good as a lifetime warranty because in 5 years I will probably have upgraded to something bigger anyway.

As long as you never rely on a single hard drive anywhere in your system and ensure that critical data is stored in at least two places (ideally physically separate) then the worst that can happen is you need to claim on the warranty if a failure occurs. Every manufacturer has gone through periods of hell with their products and it usually passes and goes back to normal. This can really colour people's opinions if, for example, they have bought a batch of 20 disks which happen to be from a bad batch and have early-life failures. I'm not saying this is what has happened to you but it can and does happen.

Craig.
 
craig1410 said:
.

As long as you never rely on a single hard drive anywhere in your system and ensure that critical data is stored in at least two places (ideally physically separate) then the worst that can happen is you need to claim on the warranty if a failure occurs.
Click to expand...

+495830480958

A lot of people never do this and one power surge or something worse like a house fire can wipe it all out.

I just had a user the other day freak out because she had her data backed up onto an external drive...however...she never kept it on the ORIGINAL drive. Needless to say the external drive failed and she couldn't understand the concept of backup in two places.

EDIT: +1 to craig1410 on Maxtor failures. I can't think of a time when maxtor EVER had a good run!
 
What kind of prices are people paying for Western Digital Firewire 800/FW800 external hard drives? I'd like to get a 1tb one.. maybe even larger if possible.
 
I have the WD mybook studio II 2tb edition running in raid 1, the only complaint I have is it does take a little bit of time to start up from sleep (30-40 secs at most).
 
craig1410 said:
I have 2 MyBook Studios and an Elements running. I understand the current worry with WD externals concerns the flimsy power adapter, which apparently frequently conks out. Should be cheap enough to replace with a generic adapter.
Click to expand...
 
i have the 2tb studio and i think its excellent - 75% quieter than a mybook 500gb fw i bought in 2007

ive had it 2 weeks though!
 
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