Western Digital WDG1U5000 My Book Essential Edition 500 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive Reviews

• Quick & Quiet

  
  By A364QJIR1XXX1 on 2006-03-31
  Visually appealing, extremely quiet operation -- just a slight ticking under heavy use. Very stable, with two long thin rubber strips keeping the case from moving. Installation is automatic on Win2000. Drive powers on and off automatically with the computer. Green ring of light on front flickers to indicate read/write.
  
  However, operation of the drive was quirky at first. Opening the root of the drive would always bring up the annoying software install menu. (The software includes Adobe Acrobat Reader, Google Toolbar for IE, and Picasa). To facilitate use with both Windows and Mac, the drive comes preformatted to FAT32. However, this limits file sizes to 4GB. Using Windows utilities to reformat to NTFS was simple and hassle-free.
  
  Note that a small slip of yellow paper in the box suggests downloading and installing an updated drive utility. Unfortunately, starting this updated utility brings up a blue screen of death, forcing a reboot of my Win2000 machine. Fortunately, the utility software is unneccesary.
  
  Were it not for this hassle, I would have given the drive five stars.
  
  UPDATE (March 18, 2008): The drive is STILL in perfect working order -- after nearly two years of weekday backups and a switch to XP. For months now, I have been using TrueCrypt for file encryption without any problems.
  
  UPDATE (May 12, 2008): Drive died over the weekend, causing the blue screen of death, and now makes sad clicking noises as it tries to mount.
  
  RIP
  
  

• Simple, Quiet, Well Constructed Drive!!

  
  By A1FUBPW8U2RYUY on 2006-05-14
  I was looking for a 300GB+ External hard-drive to backup my data, photos, music and home-videos. I wanted a rugged drive as I was planning to keep the drive off-site and transport it back & forth for monthly backups.
  
  I evaluated LaCie, Seagate and other alternatives on the market and found the My Book has comparable or better specs and was aesthetically more pleasing than most. I also liked the simplicity and the concept of the My Book. The footprint is also among the smallest in the industry for a 500GB drive.
  
  The drive looks sleek and is not intrusive or odd on a desk. The casing is made of hard plastic. It looks and feels rugged. The drive has "morse-code" vents which, beside looking funky, help keep the drive extremely cool. Drive operation is extremely quiet. When placed vertically there are 2 rubber strips on the bottom to prevent the drive from sliding or vibrating. Multiple drives can also be stacked on their sides - rubber feet are included.
  
  The setup is pretty simple, just plug-in the power and connect the USB cable. Windows XP recognizes and sets up the drive quickly. Look for the drive under "My Computer" - you're up and running!!
  
  The drive comes pre-formatted as FAT32. You can reformat it to NTFS with relative ease under Win XP. There is some included Google software which you can copy to your local machine or download from Google.com. The drive switches on and shuts down with your computer. You can also turn the drive on/off via a large button which is surrounded by the green indicator.
  
  The only thing I miss is the WD Backup software - which seems to be bundled as an incentive with the Premium My Book drive. Another feature that people might miss is the "One-touch Backup" button offered by competitors.
  
  Overall, I'm very pleased with this drive!!
  
  

• Don't waste your money

  
  By A9LUY9G1JYM2N on 2007-02-08
  I had 2 MyBook Essentials die on me in less than 2 months. WD said they will replace the drive (for the 3rd time) if I mail it in. Too bad I have over 300gb of data stored on my drive. The computer (or any computer for that matter), fails to recognize the drive. Comes up as Unknow Device. My data is more important to me then getting a new drive from WD. So I went and purchased an external case (Vantec NexStar3) and took out the hard drive from MyBook and placed it into the Vantec case. My computer had no problems recognizing the new external case. From what I've been reading online, lots of people are having problems with MyBooks. WD is refusing to reimburse me for the price of the new case. I will post on every forum/review site that has anything to do with MyBooks and let everyone know the truth about how bad the quality of these overpriced drives really is. If you are thinking of getting a MyBook, DONT!
  
  

• Highest failure rate of any external drives I have ever owned

  
  By A1VOZ7BSEHC3T0 on 2007-01-23
  I bought 2 of these, one in April and another in May. The first failed in August, the second in September. WD replaced them both, but then the first replacement quit in October. I have owned over a dozen Maxtor and Simpletech external USB and Firewire drives in the past without a single failure.
  
  

• No Problems

  
  By AGXV8E7XK9J6H on 2007-04-23
  I got this drive because my 250 GB version was getting close to being full. So now I use this as my primary data storage drive and leave it in all the time and use my 2-250 GB as backup drives and unplug them when not in use. I have had this drive for about 6 months now and it has never given me any problems and I have had the 2-Western Digital WDG1U2500 My Book Essential Edition 250 GB Hard Drive for over a year with no problems. They are pretty small and fit nicely on a shelf near my computer and I can't even tell they are running over the computer fan so they are pretty quite. External hard drives are much better than internal, if your computer dies you still have everything right there and can plug it into another computer any time you want without opening it up, ripping things apart, setting jumpers etc. So if you are looking for a small, reliable, quite external drive, look no further.
  
  
• This is my second one
  By A1KGKPWWG61U42 on 2006-12-20
  I spent the past year digitizing my CD collection and when I outgrew my 200 gig internal hard drive I decided to go the external route. The My Book was a good choice. The drive is extremely quiet, takes up very little space, and does not get hot in normal use. I really like that the drive is smart enough to automatically go into stand-by when you turn off your P.C.
  
  The first thing you will want to do if you buy one is to delete the junk software that comes preinstalled on the disc. The second thing is to reformat the drive to use the NTFS file system, which is more reilable than FAT 32.
  
  The drive is not a speed demon but is more than adequate for streaming music. I recently bought a second one to backup the first. Unless you need the Firewire port, the Essential Edition should be adequate.
  
  
• Good Product Unless You Get A Defective One
  By A3W162WZYJRMBI on 2007-08-07
  Western Digital has a good reputation, and their products are generally good. But my situaiton was as follows: a couple of DAYS after installing it, I could no longer access it. I went to their support line, and, after a number of tests, it was clear that the product was defective.
  
  Amazon only refunds 50% of the value of opened and used products, according to their policy. Western told me to return it to the seller. I explained Amazon's policy, so they had me return to them and replaced it with a refurbished model. So even though I had the product only a few days, I have a used one in its place.
  
  The good news is the the refurbished one is working well. If return/replacement issues are significant to you, you might take this into account.
  
  New info: I and another respondent have had trouble with the hard drive info being completely lost. Apparently this is not the fault of the unit but the nature of hard drives. Leave it off when you do not need it. Even though it can take the heat, sometimes, when you turn your computer off (or on), a stray static charge can erase the info from your external drive. So use this as a storage drive (backing it up first) and leave it off except when you need it, and then turn it off.
  
  
• WD My Book 500GB USB 2.0 - a GREAT BUY!
  By A3T8WOFS5RD2IR on 2007-05-31
  I own five WD External drives and have not had any issues with any of them (the oldest is over 5 years old, is connected 24x7x365, and it's still working fine). My most recent two purchases have been a:
  
  "Western Digital My Book Essential 500GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive - 7200rpm"
  
  and a
  
  "Western Digital My Book 500GB Premium ES Edition Hard Drive - 7200rpm USB 2.0 & eSATA Dual Interface External Hard Drive"
  
  The "WD My Book Essential 500GB USB 2.0 Ext HD" - just has a UDB 2.0 connector (no eSATA or Firewire) but it works great and if you shop the sales, the price for 500 GB can be close to $100-140 (summer 2007).
  
  The "WD My Book 500GB Premium ES Edition HD" has both a USB 2.0 & eSATA connector on the back (use either one). Note, not many PCs today (2007) have an eSATA port on them. ESATA is faster than USB 2.0, but if you don't have a connector for that externally on your PC, then don't pay extra for it. (You can get after market external eSATA ports for a PC but there are different kinds, and depending on your PC, you need to get the 'right kind' for your PC, assuming you even have room in your PC to add one).
  
  Both of these drives came with easy to install instructions - just plug in the power, and then connect them to your PC, and away you go. Both came with USB 2.0 cables. The Premium ES Edition with eSATA did 'NOT' come with an eSATA cable. Both came with their own power cords - nice long ones too.
  
  Neither of these two can be connected directly to a network, but if your PCs are part of a home network, or small business type network, as mine are, then I just plug them into one of the main PCs and I put a "share" on the drive so that any PC on my network can access it.
  
  If you have important information on your PC, back it up! And if you are like me, previously my backups were stored right next to my PC (not good!) So, now, I use one of these 500 GB drives as the primary backup drive for my PCs, and I keep that right next to one of my PCs. But then weekly, I use the other 500 GB drive to backup the backup drive - and then I keep that one in a fireproof / waterproof safe. You can get these for $30-100, depending on their size, at office stores or online. I like the Sentry line of products.
  
  
• Stopped Working after two days
  By A2V07UDVHE1IL8 on 2007-02-11
  This drive installed flawlessly on a new DELL Windows Vista machine. However, after two days, it disappeared. Still waiting for WD Tech help to respond to a message. The driver somehow got lost.
  
  
• Great Hard Drive for a Great Price
  By A1RQ6V71W3UUQB on 2006-09-08
  Western Digital is the Rolls Royce of Hard Drives. I have two 500GB My Book Hard Drives that I use constantly for backing up.
  
  Pros: A sleek looking Hard Drive with an enourmous capacity. Just plug in and you're ready to roll. Utility software is unneccessary to install. Drive switches on and off with your computer. Alternatively you can switch it off manually by pressing the large black button on the Hard Drive's spine. I have kept my Hard Drive's on for 12 hours straight. While the Hard Drive's did become warm to the touch, I failed to notice the over-heating that other reviewers spoke about.
  
  Cons: None really. Maybe the day will come when the Hard Drive will be powered by the computer - so that an extra power supply for each Hard Drive will prove unneccassay.
  
  
• Stopped working after a couple of weeks
  By A3L6WH5S4DXW89 on 2007-02-09
  This drive worked well for 2 weeks and then was no longer recognized by the computer (running Windows 2000, although I've read of a similar problem by another user under Windows XP). Without a driver from the manufacturer (which I can't find on the site) I can't access my data. A real pain, and a complete disappointment. This is my third difficulty with a WD drive (two different models of their portable drives won't work on two of my labtop computers because the designers pushed the power requirements from the USB2 connections and they wouldn't spin up, which I find is a common problem). I'm avoiding WD drives in the future.
  
  
• don't buy
  By AFB34WYGHUJE8 on 2007-02-13
  BEWARE~~~~
  
  My Western Digital "My Book" started randomly shutting itself down. Emails to the Western Digital "technical support" have gone unanswered, and you can't call them to ask a question unless you sign up for the $14 a year "service plan".
  
  I'm switching to another brand hard drive. hopefully I can transfer all the information off this defective drive before it crashes for good.
  
  
• Quit after 7 days
  By A28P8ZQET4ICP1 on 2007-03-05
  First time I used it, it worked great and I took a backup, no problems. A week later, I wanted to take another backup and the drive would not power up.
  WD is replacing it under warranty (I had to ship the defective drive at my own cost), but what good is an external hard drive if you can not trust it?
  
  
• Wow, 500GB!
  By A2G31BUNV2GD70 on 2007-03-31
  +:
  
  * quiet
  
  * self shut down when not used for a few minutes
  
  * sturdy construction.
  
  -:
  
  * bulkier than other USB hard disks
  
  * no power switch (maybe there is no need for one)
  
  * come with FAT32 file system. Need to reformat to NTFS. (I am not using the tools in the disk)
  
  * the enclosed firewire cable is not the type for laptops.
  
  
• Looks nice...
  By AELD507G0LIX8 on 2007-09-05
  The "My Book" is an attractive looking external drive solution, however mine lived for less than a year before the dreaded "click of death" took its life. Also unacceptable was the continuous drive power-down, even with power-saving disabled for USB and the drive. I won't be buying another WDC unit...
  
  
• wd 500gb external usb
  By A175E1PFIKTOX6 on 2006-09-09
  Easy to install. Works on USB 1 and 2. No problems since I bought it
  
  
• Nice Drive
  By A24MN07JUN3QEI on 2006-09-25
  This is a really cool-looking external hard drive that hasn't given me any problems at all. I use it to backup DVDs and the USB interface is fast enough to play them. I plan on buying only these drives to store my ever-increasing DVD collection.
  
  
• Love it so much I want another
  By A305E9I232RAEY on 2006-11-12
  I bought this drive about 6 months ago and filled it with 400GB of MP3 audio. It's been under heavy use and works like a champ. I was concerned that USB might be too slow (given no Firewire port) but it's worked just fine.
  
  I have a Seagate 200+ GB external HD and that thing is a dog. Always crashing and taking down Windows XP. But the WD My Book has given me no trouble whatsoever. So I'm going to get another one to replace that Seagate drive.
  
  Western Digital drive is compact, quiet, and runs cool. I bought a padded case at Eddie Bauer and occasionally carry it with me. No problems at all, whether at home or on the road.
  
  
• Died after 6 months
  By A3B32SHRAU4M49 on 2007-11-13
  Our family purchased 3 of these (1 x 250) and 2 of the 500's here. We use them to supplement storage realtime and also for backup. Wish I would have read the reviews here first!
  
  One of our 500 has just died. Most of the data is backed up (on another Western Digital unfortunately) but what a waste of time and money! We will not buy another Western Digital or Maxtor (similar experience) for a long time.
  
  Update: Our second 500 GB Western Digital died after just 2 weeks of "primary" use (it had been our backup). Ordered a Calvary unit and it wouldn't even turn on out of the box - customer service recommended returning it. We bought a Seagate FreeAgent. Quite and fast - so far so good....
  
  
• I'm Very Pleased
  By A1FR68QH6Z4YZM on 2007-05-06
  I got it, plugged it in, and without any wait, I started saving my data from my overloaded pc into this external hard drive without any problems. It runs cooler than most other external hard drives, and I can hardly hear it working. It must be reformatted to NTFS in order to take advantage of its large capacity, and that is no problem, either.
  
  
• Great value, ease of use
  By ACUYXGCMWVF7S on 2007-08-13
  I was looking for a good, reliable external HDD basically to archive media files. I'd rigged up some home-cooked external drives using old drives and drive enclosures, but the reliability had been spotty. The price was a main factor with the My Book 500 GB; it was actually cheaper than some internal drives of the same size.
  
  Pros: The unit is elegant, relatively quiet and non-intrusive. You can leave it plugged in at all times- it powers up and down with your PC, meaning this is an external HD you can actually use like an internal drive.
  
  Cons: It gets a bit warm, and sometimes seems to spin up for no reason.
  
  Bottom line: A terrific storage option. It looks good, performs well, and is reliable. I have NEVER had a problem with WD, and have owned literally dozens of their drives.
  
  
• Device Not Recognized
  By AE2GD378S55XK on 2007-08-17
  This was my third external hard drive; I thought the price for this device was too good to be true, but I had faith in the WD name. After more than an hour, I was still unable to get this hard drive to work. My previous two drives were a breeze to install, but this one was absurd. The online "help" was useless, and even the various tips and tricks from online reviews did not work.
  
  Even if I got the drive to work at this point, I'm still returning it. I need a drive I can rely on; if this one is so flakey right out of the box, what's it going to be like in a year?
  
  
• Very useful USB2 drive
  By A1FTI4E3ZJVBY4 on 2006-12-25
  This 500 GB drive works well with a Mac via USB2, and is very quiet. For a Mac, there's no installation of drivers and no software required, it just works (like everything else on a Mac ;-). I've used it with two different Macs without problems. The USB2 interface is slower than Firewire 400 in actual use, but as a backup drive it's more than fast enough.
  
  
• 4 and a half stars.
  By AKREQC0DQ1R0Y on 2007-05-29
  I also have the Western Digital My Book Premium Drive 500gb and when it was time to add more space I decided that I didn't need Firewire/400 and backup software. Even though they look like the same drive physically, the "Essential" drive looks cheaper. Probably because of the lack of Firewire port, the essential is slightly smaller in volume. The Premium edition had nice a nice hard feel and rubber footing around the edges of the top, back and bottom of the unit. However, with the essential, there's only 2 rubber footing on the bottom, thus it just feels cheaper than the premium.
  
  With that in mind, I think it's still a better value than the premium, since you're getting the same storage, you save 40-50 bucks by not having Firewire and backup software.
  
  Performance-wise, my 2 mybooks have been performing just dandy. I've only had the essential for a couple of weeks, the premium one I've had for I think about 8 months. I use it to backup all my video, music and photos and it's a solid performer. I transport them back and forth and only turn on the unit when I save data off my main powerhouse windows computer, then I use the drives to access my files off my Apple laptop at my loft.
  
  They do come with small power bricks, but overall I like the black design, it goes nice with my PC but doesn't look that great next to my powerbook.
  
  
• Power Hungry! Read this if you're having problems or are buying this new
  By A7VGOOVZ8XGQU on 2007-06-23
  If you get a message about "USB Device Recognized" and then your computer launches the Device Driver Wizard, YOUR DRIVE IS UNDERPOWERED. Cancel the wizard, don't even bother trying to install a driver. The MyBook does not have any drivers, and does not need any. I'm a little dissapointed that WD would let this slip by, but this fix is simple - plug it into a less crowded power strip, or into the wall by itself. It's a bummer, but not enough to knock a star off of an otherwise perfectly great product.
  
  I love this drive, and bought one for my mother, too. It works great (so long as it's got enough juice). It's smaller than I thought, has a longer than average power cord and is picked up by my laptop and tower instantly and easily. There are no drivers - just plug it in and you've got access. Linux Defender mounted this drive and BartPE recognizes it, too - makes this a great recepticle for data recovery.
  
  USB2 is basically the same speed as firewire. You'll get the same speed but spend less if you add a $15 USB2 PCI card to your computer (if your computer doesn't have USB2 already) instead of getting the more expensive (non-"Essential") versions of this drive for the firewire connection. Plus, you'll have upgraded your computer to USB2 for thumbdrives and whatever else.
  
  
• THE WORST PIECE OF JUNK IMAGINABLE
  By A3QD5RF812MZZF on 2007-09-04
  I bought this produce about 6 months ago and it just completely died last week. All of my data was lost and there was no way to recovery it unless maybe paying over $500 to see if a company could get it for me. The worst part is that Western Digital has THE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE that any company could have. They won't even answer any questions about why this happened and why are they not responsible for recoverying my data that was lost because they make a horrible product. DO NOT EVER BUY A WESTERN DIGITAL PRODUCT.
  
  
• a bit slow but I like it
  By A1THF6KP7O4AAE on 2007-09-13
  I bought the Western Digital 500GB My Book Essential Edition because my 250 GB Acomdata external hard drive was 65% full, I wanted to get still more files off my computer, and I want to have duplicate copies of all files in at least two different locations in case one of the drives should fail (all hard drives can fail).
  
  I do not leave my external drive running all the time; in fact I do not even leave the USB cable plugged in unless I am going to use it; I turn the drive on only when I want to copy files to it. I therefore wanted a drive that is hot-pluggable (i.e. can be turned on and off while the computer is running) and I wanted an on/off switch on the drive. Although my new WD drive does not have an on/off switch (the large button in the middle is NOT an on/off switch on my unit), I find that it really does not need one. I power up my computer and all its accessories with a power strip; if the USB cable is unplugged when I power up, the WD briefly turns on, sees that it is not connected, and turns off. When I want to use it, I plug the USB cable into the computer and it turns on automatically. When I am finished using it, I right click the external hard drive icon in my system tray, select "safely remove hardware", tell it to stop, and it then turns off automatically. This behavior is equivalent to having an on/off switch.
  
  Since other users have said that the WD drive runs hot, I left mine turned on for a few hours to see how hot it would get. Mine gets slightly warm but certainly not hot.
  
  Some reviewers have said that WD drives are slow. When I first began transferring files to mine I was getting transfer rates of 18 to 20 MBps for most of them; this is about the same as I got for my 250 GB AcomData before I began to fill it up. However, there were a few files that transferred at 1 or 2 MBps; I assume that these files are scattered across the internal drive on my computer, and the transfer rate was slowed by the seek time. As a test, I picked one of the slow files, 716 MB, and transferred it to the WD and then to my 250 GB AcomData (which is currently 65% full). Transfer to the AcomData took 294 sec (about 2.44 MBps) and transfer to the WD took 374 sec (1.91 MBps). This suggests that the WD is about 25% slower than the AcomData. I do not know what the WD performance will be like when it starts to get full, but this does indicate that its reputation for being slow is not undeserved.
  
  I followed the suggestion of another user and removed the junk software that came preinstalled on the drive before using it; I copied the junk files to a CD in case I might want them in the future (not likely). The junk software included autorun files (which I hate), Adobe Acrobat, Google toolbar, Picasa etc.
  
  Overall I am happy with the drive, it is hot pluggable, transfer between my two external drives is quick and easy (I use edit/copy & edit/paste rather than drag & drop), I can leave it running for several hours without overheating, it is inexpensive (especially on sale) because it is USB only and does not come with backup software which I do not need, and it is fairly small (only a tiny bit larger than my 250 GB AcomData). Although it is a bit slower than my AcomData, the difference in speed is not important for my applications.
  
  
  
• Music, movies, data...lost!
  By A2XKU8QSD86RD2 on 2007-09-15
  I have had my drive for about three months. Well, yesterday, I had to update my graphics driver, which I did, but then my computer started to "hang" on shut-down and log-in. Initially, I thought, "Stupid NVIDIA!" and spent the better part of the day trying to get some questions answered. Ultimately, I decided to unplug all of my peripherals, including the WD drive, to decrease the load on start-up. I also uninstalled several programs. Turns out the root problems was this external drive. Once it was out of the picture, everything started to operated like it should have been. I don't know what happened to this drive, but my computer won't recognize it anymore, and I've probably lost about $1,000 in downloaded movies, music, and data that I had backed up on it. I'm going to continue trying to get it to operate for at least a few hours so I can transfer my data back (if I ever can), but this drive has really created some high-level headaches for me. I can't say I would recommend it, although a back-up is certainly a smart investment. I've used hundreds of jump drives on my system in the past with no problem. It seems this drive should operate on the same plug-and-play principle. If you want to reduce the stress in your life, look somewhere else for a more reliable back-up drive.
  
  
• remote access is very slow; access problems
  By A2X5BNY9XRNGRA on 2007-08-17
  I purchased this drive so my family could share photos on a single drive that was accessible through the internet. While access is adequate from home, it is extremely slow for others so no one uses it. I have also had problems with accessing the drive. When I try to sign on, it says the drive is offline. It took more than a week to receive help from WD and they were unable to solve the problem. They referred me to the software vendor - I was never able to reach them. For some reason, running Registry Mechanic fixed this problem. I regret not having returned this drive during the 30 day period because now it just sits there unused.
  
  
• Cheap storage and easy to use!
  By AFNXLCLBDL6AZ on 2007-08-27
  I bought this drive a week ago for $110 and think it's a great value. At $0.22/gig, it's relatively cheap storage, although still nowhere in the ballpark of home-burned DVDs, where a 4.7 gig disc costs approximately $0.25 per piece (or about $0.05/gig). Of course, the home-burned DVDs are not reliable for long-term storage and aren't always practical for archieving media that you want instant access to. I'm backing up everything on both formats (DVD and my new WD external HDD). Truly critical media (wedding photos, video of baby's first steps, etc.) are backed up on duplicate DVD's and/or my computer's main internal hard drive. Neither format (DVD or HDD) is going to last forever, but hopefully my redundancy will prevent me from loosing any media.
  
  As for the drive itself, I'm very happy with its performance. It runs quietly, other than the sweet creaky/frog/cricket sound of any HDD. It was 100% plug-and-play on my Windows XP (SP2) home system. It took me maybe 45 seconds from the time I plugged it in until I was writing data. I chose not to install the optional Google software yet. Until I upgrade around the holidays, my system is a dinosaur and I don't want to give up any computing power for background indexing.
  
  Speed would probably be my only criticism at this point. If you're reading or writing a lot of data at once, it can drag using USB 2.0. I haven't clocked it with any precision, but I'd estimate a write speed of about 30-50 gig/hour - with me using other applications while it writes in the background. I looked into other drives with firewire, eSATA, etc., but for my purposes, price was more important than speed. I'm not dumping huge quantities of data at once, and once it's on there, it's for archieving purposes, so I don't need to be accessing it regularly. When it fills up, I'll buy another.
  
  Those who gave this HDD bad marks either had unrealistic expectations (if you want more than USB 2.0 speed, be prepared to pay 50-100% more) or had this drive fail on them. Eventually, if my drive fails (I should say when, as no HDD lasts forever), I'll be unhappy too, but I haven't owned this drive long enough to comment on its long-term reliability relative to other HDD's out there.
  
  It's not "blazing fast" and it won't last forever (nothing will, even magnetic tape, which I consider the best long-term storage media, but who wants to deal with tape?!). But if you're looking for a cheap and extremely easy backup solution, I would highly recommend this drive!
  
  Joe Sirbak
  
  

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