Western Digital My Book Studio Ii

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Western Digital My Book Studio Edition II review: Western Digital My Book Studio Edition II

Western Digital My Book Studio Edition Ii

Dong Ngo

SF Labs Manager, Editor / Reviews

CNET editor Dong Ngo has been involved with technology since 2000, starting with testing gadgets and writing code for CNET Labs' benchmarks. He now manages CNET San Francisco Labs, reviews 3D printers, networking/storage devices, and likewise writes almost other topics from online security to new gadgets and how technology impacts the life of people around the earth.

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v min read

With up to 6TB of storage and back up for both RAID 0 and RAID 1, the My Book Studio Edition II is the largest dual-bay external hard drive to engagement, in terms of storage space. It comes with multiple types of peripheral connections and allows users to replace its internal difficult drives easily, equally long as they use PowerGreen difficult drives made by Western Digital. Unfortunately, the bulldoze doesn't support USB three.0 and takes a long time to exist recognized by a computer or to come up out of sleep mode.

The Expert

The <b>My Book Studio Edition II</b> offers up to 6TB of storage, features RAID 0 and RAID 1, and supports USB ii.0, FireWire (400/800), and eSATA connections. The drive is fast and affordable.

The Bad

The My Book Studio Edition II doesn't support USB iii.0 and internal hard drives made past other vendors. It runs hot, seems buggy at times, and doesn't come with an eSATA cable.

The Bottom Line

The My Book Studio Edition Two makes a decent direct-attached storage solution for those who demand to extend a computer's storage space or want a large backup drive. The drive's rather buggy firmware might turn many users away, notwithstanding.

To make up for this, it offers fast performance and comes with a price tag that won't break the bank at merely around $500 for 6TB (or $270 for 4TB and $180 for 2TB). If you lot're looking for a large and easy-to-utilise external difficult drive for your desktop reckoner, peculiarly a Mac, the My Book Studio Edition II is worth consideration.

Design and features

Drive blazon	3.v-inch-based dual-bay external hard drive
Connector options	USB 2.0, FireWire, eSATA
Size (WHD)	3.87x6.54x6.06 inches
Weight	v.2 lbs
Bachelor capacities	2TB, 4TB, 6TB
Chapters of test unit	6TB
OSes supported	Microsoft Windows (Vista, 7), Mac OS 10.5 or later
Software included	WD Drive Manager, WD Anywhere Backup

The My Volume Studio Edition II has exactly the same design every bit the previous model; it looks similar a airtight book. The bottom of the device is one side of the "book" and the elevation is the door for the two drive trophy. The door can be pressed to open up and the hard drives tin and then exist pulled out to be replaced easily, without any tools.

On the front, the drive has a large vertical white light that shows the status of the bulldoze. On the back, the drive has an assortment of peripheral ports including USB 2.0, FireWire 400/800, and eSATA. It comes with all cables for the above connection types, except for the eSATA. It's a lilliputian disappointing that information technology doesn't support USB 3.0. This is understandable, withal, as the bulldoze is made primarily for Macs, which don't currently support USB 3.0.

Also on the back, you'll notice a power button that turns the drive on or off. Nosotros noticed that the drive seemed to go into slumber, or low-ability, mode after existence idle for about 10 minutes or so, and information technology would take about 2 minutes to wake upwards. There'due south no manner to prevent it from doing this, unfortunately. While in slumber mode, the drive would sometimes unmount itself, and this proved to exist problematic for those who sporadically need quick access to it. The drive would also accept about 2 minutes to be recognized past the operating system, which is a very long fourth dimension compared with other external hard drives. All this makes the bulldoze seem "buggy" at times. Hopefully this will exist resolved via a firmware update.

Though the hard drives are hands replaceable, as mentioned above the My Book only works with GreenPower SATA difficult drives made past Western Digital, and comes preloaded with two of them. The review unit of measurement we received came with ii at 3TB each, configured in RAID 0, offer a total storage amount of 6TB.

Although preformatted with HFS+ file configuration for Macs, the My Book can be reformatted for PCs hands, using the included WD Bulldoze Manager software. It comes with a software CD that includes a manual in PDF format, WD Anywhere Fill-in software, and the WD Bulldoze Manager utility. The utility enables you to alter the RAID configuration from RAID 0 to RAID i and vice versa. It too helps quickly format the drive. In our trial, the included version of WD Drive Manager didn't piece of work equally expected, and nosotros had to download the updated version from Western Digital's Web site before we could manage the bulldoze's RAID configuration. Note that because of the limitations of the legacy standard, the drive, especially in the 4TB and 6TB versions, works just with Windows Vista, Windows seven, and Mac OS x.5 or later. In our test, it took about twenty minutes to change the drive'southward setup from one RAID to another.

Performance
The My Book Studio Edition Two performed well in our testing.

In tests with eSATA the drive registered 98.8MBps for writing and 109.2MBps for reading. These numbers were very fast and close to those of a typical USB 3.0 external hard drive. In USB ii.0 tests, it scored 26.5MBps and 46.1MBps for writing and reading, respectively, slightly higher than the boilerplate among USB two.0 drives.

In FireWire 400 test, the drive scored 20.2MBps for writing and 42.6MBps for reading, once more, about the average, which met our expectations. Nosotros didn't test the drive with FireWire 800 as our exam motorcar wasn't equipped with this type of connection.

Other than the slumber fashion issue mentioned above, the bulldoze worked well in our tests. It seemed hot, all the same, later being used for an extended amount of time.

CNET Labs external hard bulldoze functioning scores (in MBps)
(Longer bars betoken better performance)

Read

Write

WD My Volume Studio Edition 2 (eSATA)

109.2

98.8

WD My Volume Studio Edition II (FireWire)

44.half dozen

20.2

WD My Book Studio Edition II (USB 2.0)

41

26.5

Service and support
The length of the warranty is the most important thing for storage devices, and Western Digital delivers. The company backs the My Volume Studio Edition II with a generous five-year warranty. At the company's Web site, y'all'll observe a section dedicated to the drive where you can notice all you need in terms of support.

Conclusions
The My Book Studio Edition Two makes an affordable backup and storage solution for both Macs and PCs. Its intermittently and seemingly buggy firmware and lack of back up for USB iii.0, however, make information technology less of an ideal home direct-attached storage device.

Score Breakdown

Design vii Features 7 Performance 7 Support ix

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Source: https://www.cnet.com/reviews/western-digital-my-book-studio-edition-2-review/

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