Western Digital WDH2Q10000N 1TB My Book Studio Edition II Hard Drive with Quad Interface FW400/FW800 USB 2.0 and eSATA

List Price: $303.99 Discount Price: $243.99

Features:

• Box Contents - Dual-drive storage system, FireWire 800 cable, FireWire 800 to 400 cable, USB cable, AC adapter, Software CD, Quick Install Guide, 5-Year Limited
• Lightning-fast FireWire 800 combined with RAID 0 (Striped) yields the speed you need for smooth video editing, rendering complex 3D objects or special effects and saving huge blocks of data in record time
• Designed to use only WD's GreenPower drives, this system uses about 30% less energy than standard systems and runs quietly because it doesn't need a fan
• 1TB = 1000GB Hard Drive Capacity
• Pre-configured to RAID 0 (Striped)

Customer Reviews:

Cheap, reliable storage for Time Machine [Posted on 2008-08-12]
Using this drive with RAID level 1 and Time Machine is an easy way to get backup storage you can trust for the Mac.

I prepared by downloading the latest driver from Western Digital and installing it instead of the driver on the CD. I turned off Time Machine so it wouldn't prompt me to use the drive the first time I plugged it in.

When the drive arrived, I followed the instructions on the quick start card to change the drive to RAID level 1. (This uses the second drive for redundant storage. If a drive fails, you just pull it out and replace it, without losing data.) Then I turned on Time Machine and clicked Change Disk.

The WD drives in the enclosure are WD5000AAVS "Caviar Green" drives. The rotation speed varies depending on a number of factors, mostly to save power. That's why the data sheet doesn't specify 5400 or 7200 rpm.

I tested the heat issue by copying files for an hour and then opening the enclosure. The drives were almost too hot to touch. However, I don't think this is an issue in practice, since the drives don't normally need to run for such an extended period. I would rather have them quiet--and redundant.

Seamless! [Posted on 2008-09-03]
Purchased this product and returned the exact product purchased at the Apple Store- a savings of $60+. I have an iMac and the device was immediately recognized and began the Time Machine backup. In contrast to some of the reviews, this device runs quite cool and I have not noticed any overheating despite running continuously.

Drive died after a year [Posted on 2008-09-08]
This drive started acting funky from the very beginning. It was noisy and the fan would come on for no apparent reason. It would appear that it may have just over heated itself into oblivion. I am hopeful that the stored data did not have the same result but with Western Digital's non-useful web site and almost non-existing support, I have my doubts. For a drive that the manufacturer should anticipate as being used for a backup device, its functionaing and technical support leave much to be desired. Contacting Western Digital by e-mail has turned out to be an utter joke where the only response you get is from an automated know-nothing. I ran the device in mirror image RAID mode for safety but that may turn out to have been a waste as well if I can't get any of my data back. I am hoping that WD will allow me to keep the drives, which I suspect are still functional (I doubt that they both failed) and send back via RMA the rest of the unit. They claim to respect the confidentiality of one's data but with the clutziness that I have seen so far, I have my doubts. An alternative would be to have them sell me a unit w/o the drives for a reasonable price.

Solid drive for my iMac media [Posted on 2008-09-25]
I bought this to set up as a RAID 1 drive to hold my media library for iTunes. (i.e. it's a mirrored 500GB drive). I'm very satisfied with it's performance. Really only has a slight delay waking up if not used for a little while and then operates almost as well as an internal drive. Especially with the FW800 interface. The size is minimal and the design fairly stylish sitting on my desk. I have a couple AppleTV's connected to my media library and it handles it with no problems.

Exactly what I was looking for.

Silent, Cool, Fast, Good Looking [Posted on 2008-10-01]
I have been Very happy with my purchase. It runs great on my Macbook pro. I run it in raid 0 as a storage backup for my photography business. It was easy to setup and runs very fast (I run it on FW 800)

I have had not had any problems with heat, though I do not run any programs off it etc. so i am not pushing it all that hard. As it is fanless, it is completely silent.

It also looks much better than the flimsy looking single drive versions IMO.

A+ for my uses.

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