WD debuts new My Book drives

Posted on Friday, September 11 2009 @ 0:55 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
Western Digital introduced smaller, sleeker My Book Essential and My Book for Mac desktop external HDDs:
WD® (NYSE: WDC), the world’s leader in external storage solutions, today introduced its new, smaller, sleeker My Book® Essential™ and My Book for Mac desktop external hard drives equipped with the new WD SmartWare™ software and hardware-based encryption. The new appliances visually present consumers' data in a software control center, providing them peace of mind that their precious photos, videos and files are securely protected. Available now at select retailers and the WD online store (shopwd.com), the new My Book Essential and My Book for Mac drives are offered in capacities ranging from 500 GB to 2 TB.

According to research firm Parks Associates, the average U.S. broadband household currently has over 120 gigabytes (GB) of digital media and files, which is expected to grow to over 1 terabyte (TB) of data by 2013. The accelerating shift from physical media (such as photo negatives, CDs and DVDs) to digital media (such as digital photos, videos and downloads) means that consumers’ real lives and digital lives are increasingly overlapping. And while 70 percent of consumers back up their content, the majority of these people are using manual, cumbersome methods such as copy and pasting to multiple CDs and DVDs, and less than 18 percent use software that automatically and continuously backs up their content. As a result, many consumers’ digital lives are unprotected and at risk.

When the My Book Essential drive is plugged in for the first time, the simple and intuitive first backup process launches automatically. The real-time visual interface of WD SmartWare software gives users a reassuring view of their back up as it happens. After the first backup, users’ files are backed up automatically every time they change or add a file.

My Book Essential and My Book for Mac drives also feature user-selected password protection combined with military-grade 256-bit hardware encryption, which scrambles files before they are stored. Typically found only on much more expensive drive systems, the encryption acts as a virtual padloc­k to keep users’ data safe.

“Keeping an extra copy of your digital life used to be a painstaking, manual task undertaken only by the most expert and diligent of users. WD’s new My Book Essential and My Book for Mac external hard drives, powered by WD SmartWare, have finally made it easy enough so that anyone can do it,” said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD’s branded products group. “WD’s new drives combine massive storage capacity, visual backup, and Drive-Lock security, so consumers can now actually see their digital life, safe in one place.”

WD SmartWare software works on Windows PCs and Mac computers. WD My Book Essential hard drives are designed for Windows-based PCs while WD My Book for Mac drives are preformatted for Mac computers and are compatible with Apple® Time Machine™, Apple’s integrated backup solution.

Price and Availability
The new My Book Essential drives are offered in capacities of 500 GB, 1 TB, 1.5 TB and 2 TB. My Book Essential drives are available now at select retailers and online at www.shopwd.com. MSRP ranges from $99.99 to $249.99 USD depending on model.


About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



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