Western Digital WDG1NC5000N My Book World Edition 500 GB Ethernet Network Storage System Reviews

• Bait & Switch

  
  By A1RYRGZ75IBQNY on 2007-06-01
  I recently purchased this product and from a basic hardware perspective it does the job. HOWEVER... WD failed to disclaim on the packaging OR in their instruction manual that in order to get the "Remote Access" that is the key piece of functionality you would want you have to use MioNet with a SUBSCRIPTION of $6/mo or $65 per year.
  
  They also fail to tell you that you are limited to 5 PC's using this per account using this software. This includes any PC on your local network. So instead of just mapping it like a regular drive you are forced to use up one of the 5 spaces you are allowed.
  
  The final piece of frustration is its lack of support for long file names. What year was this firmware written? I thought that had gone out with Windows 3.1? Needless to say, saving your MP3's to it forces an auto change of the long name to some abbreviation of the song name that barely explains what it is or who sings it.
  
  Overall I am disappointed that the large "selling feature" about this product is a hidden bait and switch with a subscription fee. From a simple file location for back-ups or storing some general data it's fine.
  
  
  

• Drive is great, with a few caveats

  
  By A3NXJDNTQK2YJL on 2007-12-03
  I have owned this drive now for about 6 months. In that time, it has performed well, with a few caveats:
  
  Skip the Mionet, unless you are really into sharing this drive on the internet. If you are, do a little googling, there are better (and cheaper) solutions. Read the Western Digital Help Site, FAQ answer 1531- it explains how to use this drive without Mionet on your own network. Read that BEFORE you install Mionet.
  
  Mionet is horrible. It seemed slow, buggy, and was always asking if I wanted to update it to a pay version.
  
  I am not a fan of the on/off switch. It looks cool, but it seems to have a mind of its own- never quite sure what it going on when I press it. The LED light show is cool, but since the cat is the only one who ever goes into the computer closet, I am not sure how much she really likes it.
  
  I use the drive in an NAS configuration, and it works great (see Mionet comments above). It may be a little slow, but if you are after speed, an NAS is probably not the best solution anyway. The setup was much easier than some of my other NAS solutions.
  
  The drive is reasonably quiet, and I don't see the thermal problems others have mentioned, although the location I have my drives is pretty cool. I also have not seen any of the long file name problems mentioned.
  
  This drive is one of my "online spares", so it is not on 24/7. However, when I do power it up, it comes up pretty quick, does it's IP address thing with my network, and is visible to computers within 20 seconds or so. Much better than other NAS products I own.
  
  No other issues- 4/5 stars only because of Mionet- WD should really know better.
  
  

• More then I expected

  
  By A3DRU856BXXA0R on 2007-06-06
  I was thinking whether to buy this product or not. I've read couple of reviews for this Hard Drive and people were not happy with it.
  This Hard Drive is small linux powered stand alone computer which has it's own IP address. You even access via telnet or browser and do all configurations. I was able to configure and map it as a separate drive to all my computers on the network. I did not use provided software (WD Remote Access powered by MioNet), but you can use it too for looking up this Hard Drive in the network when it sits behind bunch of the routers. MioNet gives you 5 free licenses for this hard drive, but again it's not nesseary to use this software at all.
  I've read some complains about firmware does not support long file names. Mine firmaware version 01.01.18 supports long file names and I do not see any problems so far.
  It's very difficult to make any statements about reliability at this point though.
  
  
  
  
  

• Great for backup and archiving. Too slow for speed intensive applications (e.g. video editing)

  
  By APSV02SOZ0LNY on 2007-10-08
  Set up and config is very easy. Driver for Windows Vista is now available from the web site. New firmware supports long file names. Comes formatted as NTFS.
  
  The only down side is that accessing the drive over the LAN is slower than if the drive were directly connected to the PC. I'm getting about 2 mega bytes per second.
  
  The other downer is that some features, such as being able to view the drive over the internet is a "premium" feature, which costs $8.00 per month.
  
  All in all, for backup, archiving, and centralizing files, this thing is great. I have several PCs in the house. This gadget let's me centralize music, photos, and back up everyones files. Also, I no longer have to worry about upgrading my PCs, since the important, "My Documents", folders are backed up.
  
  I would not recommend it for "live" use, such as for video editing or for use as virtual memory swap space.
  
  
  
  

• WARNING: Will not share many file types

  
  By A16691QALU2JFO on 2007-12-10
  Before you plunk down the bucks for this device, you should know that there are 38 file types that it will not share. Unfortunately those include some of the most popular file types (avi, ogg, quicktime, mp3, aac, and wmv). If you plan to share any file that involves sound or moving images (such as the ones from your digital camera) then this drive definitely is the wrong choice.
  
  
• Easy setup, then the trouble begins ...
  By A2P22EDDSZCJFY on 2007-12-20
  I purchased this drive for 2 purposes. First was to enable access to my own files remotely (like when away on business or vacation) and secondly to back up remote computers.
  
  While the setup wasn't too easy, and the included backup software a bit cumbersome and bloated, I did manage to gain control of the process through 3 trips to the WD website FAQ's.
  It turns out that this machine RESTRICTS sharing of certain file types based on their extension! If you have .MP3 or .WMV files, the drive won't share them (even if it is NOT copy protected (eg your own recordings or movies)). It also requires (undocumented) username and pwd when backing up system files (eg thumbs.db) which makes autobackup of my personal photo library impossible.
  
  Other people have commented on the slow speed of this drive, and I concur.
  
  Both remote and local network access to the drive is handled through a (minimally) customized version of Mionet, an internet based utility for sharing files, folders, resources, desktop, etc. It is a clever program which opens many aspects of your own computer to others whom you invite to share with you or yourself from another computer.
  The default (and non-overridable) settings for remote internet access to this drive is a 30-day trial of Mionet's complete service with downgrade to just data sharing after that. It's a good marketing plan, but I DON'T WANT even 30 days of unwanted access to my current monitor screen, webcam, etc, even by my family!
  
  I would have given this product 4 stars initially, but the more I used it the less happy I was:
  1) My IT dept at work will not let even the JAVA web based client install (because it requires port access and the corporate IT restricts this (rightly so), so I can't get to my work from home. I haven't yet tried this via a hotel's internet, but I'm not optimistic.
  2) I can't backup files from one remote site to my networked drive (this MyBookWorld) because of "authentication" requests.
  3) I can't access shared .wmv files (and a long list of other file types including .aac, .mp3, .wma, see WD web support page), so my home movies and music are not available when I'm away and also can't be shared with my family and friends who are out of state.
  
  All in all, this product is NOT for me, although it might be for someone, I just can't imagine who. Two stars, the second being for the fact that the hardware in fact worked.
  
  Am I crazy, or is anyone else upset that Western Digital should feel the need to protect files by their extension? Sony, Microsoft, and other content producers do a good enough job of it already with their Digital Rights restrictions (even government lawyers are jealous).
  
  
• So far an excellent network drive
  By AFDTVJG7RDWUY on 2007-07-17
  Setup was easy, I simply attached the drive via Ethernet cable to my home network and the drive could be found under My Network Places on both my computers. At this point I didn't load any of the included software and the drive functioned fine although sub-folders couldn't be viewed. I feel I could have left it this way for my backup only purposes but I went ahead and installed the included MioNet software. Now when I click on My Computer the My Book World Edition drive is shown along with all its sub-folders plus all the other drives associated with my two computers. MioNet seems to make everything shared. This was not a problem for me and I believe the shared drives are selectable. The drive is quiet and the on-off button works fine but per the instructions it has to be held down for a few seconds to respond. I use Windows backup and did not load the included backup software. Backups over the wired portion of my network work fine and take me about 2 hours. Backups over the wireless part of my network sometimes return an error and I must repeat the backup for it to successfully finish. I do not intend to use the Internet sharing and remote computer controlling features of MioNet after the free period test.
  
  
• Good Hardware But Horrible Software
  By A34VCCL1YO6D0I on 2008-05-05
  This is a strange bundle. I have had no problems at all with the hardware. The device setup on the network is fine with the web interface of the device. I can access the device no problem. I have not turned the unit off in two plus months and I have never had to reboot the device. The machine is quite and I don't hear it all in my work environment. I have the unit in a well ventilated area but it is very cool to the touch and I have no overheating worries. I can read and write to the device easily from any machine and in my network I have never had a problem. With NTFS formatting the device has 454 GB free space.
  
  The software on the other hand is hideous. As noted by many other reviewers the software is difficult to setup, use and make useful. There are limitations on the number of machines that can hook up to the device through the internet. The access speed is variable and far less consistent then a hard drive on a PC itself. Also Western Digital caved into the RIAA and put in protection to allow music and video sharing through the internet. I travel and wanted to access my files remotely in a hotel room. Why is Western Digital playing referee with my content? If I illegally share the content then sue me. This makes about as much sense as cutting out your tongue so you never slander anyone. Silly talk in a PC gone crazy world.
  
  The Good:
  - Great Solid Hardware
  - Windows managed features work well.
  - IP accessed UI is easy to use.
  - Cool looking.
  - Quite and doesn't over heat.
  - Easy setup on home network.
  - USB connection in back of drive to daisy chain other hard drives to the network...Great Feature!
  
  The Bad:
  - Awful, awful software
  - WD has decided to filter your content for you like a good nanny....No Thanks!
  - The description on the box and website are not clear of the limitations of above
  - The remote access software limits the number of accounts.....why?
  - Parts of the software require a monthly service fee to get features that seem to be advertised as coming with the device.
  
  If you buy it for what it is, a network connected wired hard drive, then it is great. Ignore the software features advertised because they are pretty much useless. The device is solid and the price isn't bad. I just really wish they had not bundled any software instead of the mess they included. Five Stars for the hardware. Two stars for the software (the backup software was useable although very slow). Over all I give the device four stars as it is very useful even without the software.
  
  
• Try Something Else
  By A3J9BB81Z1R39G on 2007-05-02
  Although customer service was quick to replace, they told me I was out of luck for all of the data I lost.
  I'm a photographer that had 4 months worth of digital images stored on what I thought was a reliable drive.
  It started making clicking noises and would not show up on my desktop. When I called the company they knew right away that the drive was bad. I have a replacement now but am leery of trusting it....In the mean time my Lacie keeps chugging along.
  
  
• Not worth my time
  By A1JSX57KJW41M on 2007-09-12
  I bought this to help me build a truly wireless environment - it seemed perfect. External disk was the only thing that was still chaining me to a desk.
  
  I'm giving this two stars only because I think it's unfair to rate things 1 when one has used them in an off-label way - however, when the product description leads one to believe that it can function in a basic, compatable way... it should.
  
  A word to anyone who might try - you may have some very serious trouble using this with your Mac. Even if you are fairly tech savvy (I am) and it's supposed to just be an SMB device (it is), it just doesn't function very well without its partner software, as far as I've been able to determine.
  
  I have had crashes, endless disk grinds, and at least three losses of configuration - though I'll give it credit for not mangling my data. Support has been utterly useless with every question I've fielded them (why does the front light blink on and off with no activity? Is it really supposed to be *this loud*?)
  
  In total, it has been a royal pain in the butt and I wish I had just gotten a regular old USB drive - for half the price.
  
  
• Works great but is just slow.
  By A2MWF3ANE97US1 on 2007-09-24
  This product works great, just as described. I have had mine for 6 months and have had zero problems with it. The only issue with this product is that its read/write speed is slow as molasses. I use it to stream pictures over my gigabit network and that works fairly well. It actually streams my music fairly well also, the problem hits when the OS indexes the drive or any other operation calls it, then you get the occasional hiccup.
  
  Nothing major really just rare hiccups. In my opinion this makes a great network attached backup drive. For a streaming NAS take a look at the D-Link 323 for its speed at a good price.
  
  
• STAY FAR FAR AWAY
  By AQXGXRLUMEOZ6 on 2007-12-21
  This is a 1990s style piece of hardware - promise everything. deliver nothing. Perhaps it would work on a wired internet, but on a wireless - it's totally hopeless. The point of a large hard drive is so you can move large files and folder to it. Forget it. Every time you try to move a large folder onto the drive it cuts out your internet connection entirely and you have to reboot the drive and, many times, your router and modem. And then you don't This thing is a very expensive doorstop.
  
  
• Works great as a network attached drive
  By A1QJ10LEINDRWW on 2008-03-10
  I've been using this drive for over a month now and haven't had any problems with it since I uninstalled MioNet and the Retrospect back up program it came with.
  
  I mainly bought this drive for archive and backup purposes and as long as you don't install the software that comes with the drive, it works great. It was unusable with MioNet installed on my PC. About 50% of the time the drive could not be found or was off line. Retrospect is just as bad, it's problems (no space left on drive, can't find backup set, unable to perform backup and others)may be caused by MioNet. I would have rated this drive five stars if MioNet and Retrospect were usable.
  
  After I uninstalled MioNet and Retrospect, the drive works flawlessly and I haven't had any problems. It may not be the fastest drive on the planet, but I can stream a 640x480 MP4 video from the drive to my laptop.
  
  A nice feature on this drive is you can plug in another 500GB USB drive to add to your storage capacity as you need it. I'm not sure that it will do RAID however.
  
  I found Western Digital support pretty good. I had a few questions and they answered each within a day.
  
  If you want a network attached storage device, this one will work as long as you don't install MioNet.
  
  
  
  
  
• Good for beginners and to understand NAS, but not for power users
  By A28PCINNWJI17J on 2007-10-31
  Please note, that according to Western Digital support, this single raid drive does not "...have as many options as it [the CD-included manual] says it does. The single-drive MyBook World drives have not reformatting or RAID capability. I apologize for the confusion. -WDC Support"
  
  
  I found this drive overall to be appealing to the beginning and intermediate user as a way to get NAS (Network Attached Storage) on an external hard drive. Hardcore power users will find the transfer speeds to be very slow, and slower than they would expect.
  
  According to Western Digital, the hard drive is slower than its own Gigabit LAN (or any Gigabit option) to push, and will be a bottle neck. I have a Gigabit Draft N Airport Extreme (latest Gigabit 2007), and I'm using this on a iMac setup. It will not reach those speeds, nor anywhere near (but it did seem a slight bit faster, barely noticeable, than Wireless G speed on my older wireless router. HOWEVER, I've researched other speed times on other NAS drives (Cnet.com), and you can not expect to hit speeds like that anyway for many other competing NAS external drives on the market.
  
  So, for all of the other NAS drives out there (no matter how slow this one is), I'm sticking with this one (for now). It does get hot, so I've tipped it on it's side, and I'm forced to put 1/2" rubber feet bought from a hardware store to allow better circulation. On top of that, I've ordered a "Vornado Zippi" desktop fan, because I have doubts that this will stay cool enough to not wipe all of my data. And yes, I am paranoid of data loss, I've also purchased a Lacie USB 2.0 500gb harddrive to back up this My Book World Edition external harddrive, when this should fail, maybe due to its own overheating.
  
  On the good: It looks great, has a great LED display that's fun, and can be bought or purchased at many retailers (unlike other great competing hard drive companies like LaCie that can't be found at major chains). ALSO, it's easy to use and it's "Shared Storage Manager" accessible through http is user friendly.
  
  If you're wanting NAS, and want to try this out as a beginner without too many high expections, try this. However, if you have sensitive data, I recommend purchasing another backup drive (to mirror your MyBook with a third party software) or having a another serious backup plan.
  
  
• Stability problems
  By A3A5QSI9RS1H6F on 2007-11-02
  Major stability problems. Drive keeps disappearing, "fails to mount" for not good reason. The included software requires subscription. Cannot access drive directly (via usb/firewire), you *have to* access it via the network. Would not recommend it to anybody.
  
  
• Router Slows Transfers
  By A2F01K4GJS4VZ5 on 2007-07-20
  I ordered the WD My Book World with the networking capability and was not too happy with it. Yes it networks, but through a router your transfer speed drops from 1 GB to 3 MB per second.
  
  My goal was to have a simple easy home network drive to share files from a laptop and desktop. While successful, the speed was not worth the time or effort. Maybe it was a hardware issue on my end, because folks just love this WD product.
  
  After more discussions with the WD support line I returned it for a full refund.
  
  
• Functionally broken drive not worth anyone's time
  By A3NWYIFJHDHLN4 on 2008-01-05
  This drive suckers users into using proprietary software (even when mounting it as a drive in Windows, it still needs to run the Java app), has slow read/write speeds (my external USB drive operates about six times faster), and completely failed to transfer data on multiple occasions (and thus causing me to lose what I had left of my data).
  
  I used this drive on a G band 54mbps wireless router. The drive was slow to rescan when doing simple tasks like changing songs in Winamp, and music and movies hiccuped every few minutes. This made both completely unlistenable and unwatchable. You can forget trying to install games on this drive.
  
  Not only is the drive flawed on both software and hardware ends, but Western Digital uses a strange format for the drive and locks users out from reformatting it into a faster or more common filesystem such as NTFS or FAT32!
  
  I really wanted this drive to work but had to get a refund; it fails on so many fronts that it's unforgivable.
  
  
• I Should Have Known...
  By A3896U7U71FJ9R on 2008-03-06
  Messed with this drive for a week trying to get it to work properly over wireless 'N' with XP and MacOS machines. All machines could read but writing was an issue for one of the XP boxes for some reason. Loaded up 50GB then the drive quit.
  
  Bottom Line:
  - Little or no documentation - you gotta' rely on forums;
  - It's very slow over wireless;
  - Would 'quit' in the middle of large write jobs - over 1GB;
  - I'm stuck with it after the failure (WD will send me a replacement)
  - As mentioned, whatever you do, don't install MioNet
  
  
  
  
• horrible overheating problem
  By APT5IIOFA93K6 on 2008-05-15
  I'm not that against Mionet, I won't mind if I can't share some particular files, as long as it WORKS, which unfortunately didn't for the most of time.
  I initially put it into my enclosed AV rack, and frequently found it started to flash the infamous "double blue ring" on its own after I waked up in the morning, which made it completely unusable.
  I did some search, found lots of complain on the similar issue and realized it's due to the overheating problem, I then moved it out of my rack and put on the top of a table, it got slightly better but after about an hour the flash ring came back again.
  I'm curious to know, is there any fix to this problem? is it possible to add a venting fan?
  
  
• 500GMy Book World Edition Not Good fo Macs
  By AURLSN5HOPVJD on 2007-08-27
  This would not be good for macs if you're looking to access it outside your network. But it works, and not the fastest. If you have a pc, it would be the best. I'm looking for another one. By the time I get something that works for me, i should have a few terrabites. LOL
  
  
• Lousy remote storage/access
  By A17SLBLEIYNP98 on 2008-02-28
  This roduct sounded to good to actually work as claimed, & sure enough it falls very short. When hooked up through the network (which is required for anywhere access) the included software doesn't work that great. It's pretty slow & not always reachable even on the local network. It's poor performance really shows when you're trying to access from outside.
  Very big disappointment.
  
  
• Really slow and does not work on my desktop
  By A3BGVTL7EHFDE6 on 2008-03-02
  The harddrive is very very slow when hooked up through the router. My wife uses it to update her iPod and it takes an hour.
  
  Another problem she has is that the HD sometimes doesn't show up as being online in windows explorer.
  
  I installed the software on my desktop and it blocked my connection to the router and the Internet and the of course the HD.
  
  On the bright side it's quiet and looks nice, which is good since I would hate to have something that did not work properly but also annoyed me with a loud noise.
  
  It also accepts 230v which is nice if your traveling to Europe.
  
  UPDATE 11/2008
  
  After I upgraded my PC with a new Vista 64 bit the HD stopped working. Apparently western digital does not support this operating system. Calling WD is also impossible. They will only talk to you if you bought the product less than 30 days ago.
  
  I have bought my last Western Digital product ever.
  
  
• Piece of JUNK
  By AD1N3IEERP38E on 2008-05-25
  I bought this drive and the USB interface to the PC started failing within 6 months. ( I searched on line and found this is a very common failure with this drive).
  I sent it back via RMA, and I had the new one less than 24 before it too started failing. DONT BUY THIS Piece of JUNK!.
  
  
• Unreliable
  By A1BGC53I6UUA9H on 2008-09-14
  Do NOT buy this drive. Western Digital My Book is unreliable. I've had two of these drives, and they both died after a few months of very light use. In both cases, the drive suddenly started making the infamous clicking sound of death, and all the data was lost.
  
  
• A decent little machine
  By A35CJCRNV85UVY on 2007-07-17
  I received this as a gift about a month ago. Its a neat little machine. It doesn't work like a regular external HD, it actually serves as a storage server on your network. Any of your computers can access it; I suggest mapping it as drive Z on all of your PCs.
  
  What I don't like about this device is the software which comes with it, "Mionet." Basically, Mionet is a company that makes remote access software. A stripped down version of their remote access program comes with the My Book.
  
  So, to use the remote access feature of this product, you have to have a mionet account. Its free, but its constantly pandering to you to upgrade to 'premium.' Its quite annoying.
  
  This is what I did, and its kept me happy with this product.
  1. Connect MyBook to network
  2. Install drivers and Mionet (you have to) on each computer
  3. create basic Mionet account
  4. Uninstall Mionet
  
  This way, I don't have the software running on my PC at all times. If I want to access the Mybook while away from home, I just go to [...], sign in, and use the Java interface there.
  
  Overall, 4 stars b/c its great having this device on my network. The remote access feature could use some serious work
  
  
• Simple and Perfect
  By A3D8MV9TMEDF2D on 2007-09-14
  Firstly, i should say it is really good product. If you read some reviews which are about this product, you should have some questions. Maybe, you read review which says there are some problems. I don't agree this because i started to use this products 1-2 months ago and there isn't any problem. Also, i can use it with my Mac. You just need router or modem for using. Everything is ready to go :)
  
  
• Good for backup over LAN
  By A2FCH9Q85FG3S6 on 2008-03-19
  I purchased this drive to do automatic backups on a couple of computers at work. Installation was straightforward. Drive has been running for about two weeks with no problems.
  
  PC Use
  Backup is easy to setup. The EMC Retrospect HD (for WinXP) that comes with the drive is slow. The MioNet application will allow to access the contents of the hard drive from everywhere in the Internet.
  
  Apple Use
  Unfortunately the MioNet application is not available for MacOS. However, one can attach the drive as a CIFS device. I am currently performing backups with Retrospect Express that came with a Maxtor external hard drive.
  
  Administration
  The web-base administrative application is easy to navigate, create shares, accounts, give permissions etc.
  
  Configuration and performance
  LAN via LinkSys BEFSR41 router at 100Mbps.
  Mac backup performance: 125MB/min (20Mbps) via Retrospect Express (Maxtor edition), attached as CIFS device.
  
  
• Evaluate your need.
  By AILL9R6N5V1S8 on 2008-04-14
  I bought Western Digital WDG1NC5000N from Circuit City but returned it the very next day. These are the reasons...
  
  1. This product will work ONLY through a router. I confirmed this with WD customer support also. Router should allocate IP then only your computer will recognize this hard drive. This means that typically you cannot carry this to your office and take backup from there.
  
  2. Very very slow data transfer. I started copying 18GB before going to sleep, by next day morning (after approx 7 hrs) it copied only 7GB.
  
  Even their customer support person told me that this drive will be very slow since it is connected through router and not directly with your computer. I must admit, greated use of this drive is that you can access your data through network.
  
  Overall, this drive will be very useful for people who want to access data through network (monthly fee may apply) but i dont suggest this for a normal home-office user. Now you decide..
  
  
• Not the setup or service I expected...
  By A3RO53A0756WHK on 2008-04-25
  Sorry but after weeks of tech support from WD, conclusion is that the drive kinda works, but really doesn't.
  
  Maybe you should move on to another option.
  
  
• Not developed on Earth
  By A2P2U2E7A8YSRD on 2008-05-03
  What a horrible mistake this purchase has been!
  
  First of all the drive is surprisingly slow -- too slow to use really. 1GB data transfers take over an hour; I swear a tape backup would be faster.
  
  The Mionet software interface is horrible. Files can only be shared with Mionet registered users.
  
  This product was not developed on Earth -- avoid at all cost.
  
  
  
  

• Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2B for System Builders - 1 Pack
• Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate FULL VERSION [DVD] [OLD VERSION]
• Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium FULL VERSION [DVD] [OLD VERSION]
• Case Logic HDC-1 Medium EVA External Hard Drive Case (Black)
• Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit for System Builders [DVD]

• Ziotek USB 2.0 Cable A Male To A Male, Beige, 3ft
• Apple iPod nano 4 GB Silver (3rd Generation)
• Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Router
• Western Digital My Book Essential 500 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive WDH1U5000N
• Western Digital WDG1U5000 My Book Essential Edition 500 GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive