| Article Index |
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| Western Digital 1TB My Book Pro Edition II Review |
| Page 2 - RAID/Operation/Conclusion |
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RAID:
The My Book Pro Edition II Pro has 2 internal 3.5” desktop hard drives, like you would find in your home PC, and Western Digital have by default set the drives up in a RAID 0 striped array to give maximum speed and the ability to use 100% of the drive space. I personally think JBOD would be a better idea, as the USB and Firewire connections are never going to stress the data throughput rates of even one of the drives, let alone a striped array, plus if one drive dies you’d only lose at most ½ your data, not all of it like in a RAID 0 array, but maybe that’s just me.
If you don’t want to use a RAID 0 array and are willing to sacrifice a whopping 50% of the drive space, the included software gives you the option to reconfigure the My Book into a RAID 1 mirrored array, which is an ideal solution for data security, as even if one drive dies, all the data will remain safe and accessible until the faulty drive is replaced, the only downside is it cripples your massive 1TB drive down to a mere 500GB, so it’s certainly a sacrifice.
In Operation:
Once installed, the My Book will appear as just another hard drive in My Computer or on your MAC desktop, so it’s as easy to use as your main hard drive. The data speeds are as good as can be expected from USB or Firewire, and it’s best if you can make use of the Firewire800 connection, as with the RAID 0 setup there’s oodles of speed to spare, and as I mentioned earlier, it’s unlikely you’ll ever max out the drive speed through these connections, but best to go as fast as you can I always say. If you change the array from RAID 0 to RAID 1, there’s no difference in how it connects or operates, aside from the reduction in capacity.
The included backup software is quite capable when running a basic backup, and has reasonable configuration options, but all in all it is rather basic software, but good enough for most home users. It managed a full system backup of our test bench totalling 9GB through the Firewire400 connection in about 15 minutes, not too shabby at all.
Conclusion:
The 1TB Western Digital My Book Pro Edition II we tested today is a very well priced and value for money external drive system, very easy to use and compatible with both Windows and MAC PC’s across the board. The unit is however a little limited in terms of features and connectivity (i.e. eSATA would be really useful) but if it’s bulk storage space you’re after, this will fit the bill perfectly.
OzHardware Rating – 8/10
This product can be purchased online at www.techbuy.com.au (Direct Link)
