What drive is inside my WD My Book?

[zw-gator]

I have a WD 500GB My Book - Essential Edition

Is there anyway to determine what drive is inside the enclosure?

 

[miles01110]

Open it up. Or look at the serial/model number in System Profiler and see what Google can tell you about it.

 

[ayeying]

Most likely a 500GB 3.5" Western Digital Green Edition drive with variable RPM speeds. SATA 3.0Gbps connection.

 

[chrono1081]

It would be a western digital drive.

I have about 300 broken western digital mybooks in another office and all of them are western digital drives inside.

 

[Makosuke]

Most likely a 500GB 3.5" Western Digital Green Edition drive with variable RPM speeds. SATA 3.0Gbps connection.

This is almost certainly the case--they use the cheapest Green ones in the Essential cases because there's no speed advantage to a faster drive when the external interface is USB, and the lower power allows for smaller power supplies.

I actually really like WD's Green series (both my home and work servers use them), but the "variable" RPM claim is apparently marketing crap--they're pretty much fixed at somewhere around 5400RPM, not variable at all. The variable might refer to the fact that each drive spins at a somewhat different speed, as opposed to the same one varying its speed.

Regardless, it isn't of much consequence unless you tear the thing apart to use the drive in another case or as an internal.