In The Zone | WD My Book, My Passport And SmartWare Launch: External HDD Array Extended

WD My Book, My Passport And SmartWare Launch: External HDD Array Extended

littlelion | 29 September, 2009 13:45

In 2000, the first commercial USB flash drive had a scant storage capacity of 8 megabytes. Today, you can buy a 256 gigabyte USB flash drive in simple terms. The big leap took less than a decade. Mechanical hard disk drives (HDDs) took more than 50 years to reach 256 gigabytes. Certainly, USB flash drives and other flash-based external storage devices are fast becoming more advanced than ever before.

WD My Book Essential

But in spite of this rapid development, external HDDs remain popular among consumers, mainly because they are less expensive than their non-mechanical counterparts. Nevertheless, manufacturers such as Western Digital (WD) are working zealously to make external HDDs not only price-attractive, but appealing in terms of physique, storage size and features. WD realized that way of thinking by unveiling their latest line of My Book and My Passport HDDs, along with the new SmartWare software.

New My Book HDDs

With storage capacities ranging from 500 gigabytes to 2 terabytes, the new My Book Essential and My Book for Mac desktop external hard drives are equipped with a military grade 256-bit hardware-based password protection mechanism, providing users with peace of mind that their photos, videos and files are protected from illicit access. WD also employed its GreenPower Technology on these drives to make them energy efficient, lowering their internal drive power consumption by up to 30 percent. These drives would go into sleep mode during idle times.

WD My Book For Mac

New My Passport HDDs

The new My Passport Essential and My Passport for Mac drives come in a range of colors including Pacific Blue, Real Red, Cool Silver, Midnight Black, and Arctic White. The new offerings are packed with storage capacities spanning from 320 gigabytes to 1 terabyte, and are 20 percent smaller than the previous generation My Passport.

WD My Passport Essential

WD SmartWare

The most interesting feature of WD’s new external HDDs is the application software called SmartWare. According to the representatives from WD, SmartWare is designed for average consumers. Given that target market, SmartWare has a simplistic interface that offers few features. Users have limited options to customize the application.

WD SmartWare software features:

•    Visual backup displays that show content in categories and shows the progress of backup;
•    Automatic, continuous data backup will instantly make a second copy whenever you add or change a file;
•    Retrieve valuable data to its original location whether it’s lost data or the file has been overwritten;
•    And customizable data backup that allows users to set drive security, run diagnostics, manage the power settings, and more from the WD SmartWare control center.

WD My Passport Essential SE

The Rationale

The improvements which WD applied on the latest My Book and My Passport HDDs can be summed up into two: increase on storage capacities and simplification of data management. If one would ask why, WD based their action on a far-sighted study conducted by the research firm Parks Associates. Using the average U.S. broadband household as their subject, they estimated that each consumer has over 120 gigabytes of digital media and files, which is projected to grow to over 1 terabyte of data by 2013.

WD My Passport for Mac

Additionally, while 70 percent of consumers back up their content, the majority of these people are using manual, cumbersome methods such as copying and pasting to multiple CDs and DVDs, and less than 18 percent use software that automatically and continuously backs up their content. WD is offering the latest My Book and My Passport HDDs as alternative solutions to these dilemmas.

WD SmartWare has a user interface (UI) that displays content categories and confirms that your files have been backed up.

In our opinion, WD’s decision of choosing My Book and My Passport to label their external HDDs is considerably a marketing success. Whatever was running on mind of their marketing team when they decided on the brands mentioned, they effectively reached the subliminal psyche of their target markets, particularly in the case of My Passport. In our office alone, there were times that our colleagues synonymously thought My Passport to be an actual travelling passport. In any case, both matters are valuable possessions for a frequent traveller. For either first-time buyers or those who would like to renew, the prices of these new My Book and My Passport HDDs are generously shown below for quick reference. All drives are covered under a three-year warranty plan.

My Book Essential Edition – 3.5-inch USB 2.0 Personal Storage	MSRP	My Book Mac Edition – USB 2.0 Interface	MSRP
WDBAAF5000EBK-SESN (500GB)	PhP 4,900	WDBAAG0010HCH-SESN (1TB)	PhP 6,900
WDBAAF7500EBK-SESN (750GB)	PhP 5,500	WDBAAG0020HCH-SESN (2TB)	PhP 13,900
WDBAAF0010EBK-SESN (1TB)	PhP 6,900
WDBAAF0015EBK-SESN (1.5TB)	PhP 8,500
WDBAAF0020EBK-SESN (2TB)	PhP 13,900

My Passport Essential – USB 2.0 Interface	MSRP	My Passport Mac Edition – USB 2.0 Interface, Mac Formatted	MSRP
WDBAAA3200ABK-PESN (320GB)	PhP 4,600	WDBAAB3200ACH-PESN (320GB)	PhP 4,600
WDBAAA5000ABK-PESN (500GB)	PhP 6,500	WDBAAB5000ACH-PESN (500GB)	PhP 6,500
WDBAAA6400ABK-PESN (640GB)	PhP 8,200	WDBAAB6400ASL-PESN (640GB)	PhP 8,200
WDABM7500ABK-PESN (750GB)	PhP 9,200
WDABM0010BBK-PESN (1TB)	PhP 12,500

comments

VDSVF

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expensive

fer de lance | 05/10/2009, 22:53

I still find these drives quite expensive.

expensive

budget_boy | 17/10/2009, 10:04

True. A 1TB WD HDD can cost only around 5k. Just buy a generic HDD enclosure (around 500?) and you can have a 1TB external HDD at around 6K.

reasonable

sierra33 | 23/10/2009, 17:37

Then buy the WDBAAF0010EBK-SESN model (1TB). It costs only 6.9k.

WD My Book, My Passport And SmartWare Launch: External HDD Array Extended

comments

VDSVF

expensive

expensive

reasonable

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