Western Digital My Book Elite 2TB

Full Review

Western Digital's My Book Elite 2 TeraByte external hard drive (model WDBAAH0020HCH) differs from the normal ones we have tested earlier, in that it offers hardware encryption, eInk labelling and improved backup software. Like its predecessors, it is designed similar to a hard-bound book and uses a desktop-like 3.5 inch HDD internally. It is passively cooled through vents on the top and back, so it is silent while in operation.

The front panel has undergone the biggest change compared to WD's older offerings. Instead of a slim LED capacity indicator, it uses an eInk display to show how much space is left on the drive. You can also use it to label the drive using the WD SmartWare software, which is definitely handy if you have more than one external hard drive. Because the display is eInk, the label will last for up to six months before requiring power again.

A single mini-USB 2.0 connection is available to connect to your computer - the same kind of cable used in the vast majority of digital cameras and portable hard drives. The plus point here is that in case you lose this cable, replacing it is easy (either use the same cable from another gadget or buy it from any shop at a cheap price). Considering the "elite" moniker that's part of the product's name, we would have preferred additional faster connections like FireWire 800 or eSATA.

Though formatted in NTFS by default, it will work with Macs as well. WD has included both Mac and Windows versions of bundled software on a reserved partition of the drive. This means even if you format the drive, the software remains accessible. The highlight of the included software is WD SmartWare, a configuration hub which lets you choose backup schedules, alter the eInk label and enable the drive's password-protected 256-bit AES hardware encryption. However, even hardware encryption is not a "bullet-proof" method of securing your data, as reported by us on this site some weeks ago. So just keep that in mind and try to keep really important data physically secure in your possession.

Backing up your HDD is fairly intuitive. WD's SmartWare automatically categorizes data on both your PC and the external hard drive based on file extensions. From here, you can choose which types of files to back up. However, you can't set your own custom extensions. As a result, obscure media formats will simply be listed as "other" and bundled with miscellaneous system files. WD SmartWare supports up to 25 sequential backups of the same file.

It manages reasonable read and write speeds when dealing with both small and large files, but isn't the fastest USB 2.0 external hard drive we've tested. A faster interface, like FireWire 800, would certainly have made a difference in our large file tests. As it stands currently, the USB 2.0 connection is the bottleneck in this case, just as with every other USB HDD/pendrive. You can view the read/write (MegaBytes per second) speeds achieved by this drive in the performance tab of this review.

Bottom Line

Western Digital's My Book Elite 2TB external hard drive offers intuitive backup options, 256-bit AES hardware encryption, and an e-ink capacity indicator. However, there are faster USB 2.0–based external hard drives that have passed through our labs. Also, it does not offer any alternative connections like eSATA, so copying large amounts of data onto it will take a long time. The price takes its toll on the rating though, and is an expected downside since this is positioned as a high-capacity premium drive.