Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: mybook, mirror, raid | Themes: Desktop Computers, Business Notebooks
1. Style
It’s tough to make a 2 TB external hard drive look cute. Western Digital’s new My Book Mirror Edition, the next in a long line of My Book desktop devices, looks like a lot like its predecessors: Black, heavy, and ever so slightly menacing. Like a type-cast bodyguard, but for your data. Western Digital managed to make this 2 TB even more intimidating than the one it is replacing — the My Book Premium Edition II. Where the Premium had a blue ring for an LED indicator, the Mirror Edition has a blue vertical slit. The Premium had a shabby, matte look, but the Mirror Edition is now coated in a fancy piano black finish. The effect is a more serious-looking piece of desktop hardware, though no doubt owners of non-black computers would favor a silver, white, or colorful exterior option.
Cramming two 1 TB drives into a 6.5" tall by 6.1" deep case is an impressive feat. That the entire thing weighs just slightly over 5 pounds is a relief. The Mirror Edition is portable only in the sense that it can be picked up and moved around, but it isn’t slim enough (3.9" thick) to toss into a messenger bag with a laptop. This is a piece of desktop hardware. The top and backside of the drive aren’t glossy black, they’re made from perforated plastic instead. These tiny vents — in the shape of dots and dashes — help the drive to keep its cool, but rumor has it that they spell out phrases in Morse code. We’d appreciate it if any Morse-readers would decipher the columns and tell us in the comments section what the drive has to say for itself. If this drive could talk, we think it would say “To protect and serve.”
These dots and dashes work pretty well because the drive never gets hot to the touch, though it does stay very warm. Also, be warned that when handling the drive (moving it from place to place) and grasping the sides, the plastic walls creak a little bit and give slightly under pressure. You don’t want to stack anything on top of this drive.
Style Score: 3.5/5
- Next page Usability
it's not called a drive...the drives are inside...it's called an "enclosure"
Actually, it is an external drive.
It looks like Morse code, and you can desipher letters in the plastic, but they read nothing (just two lines, read forwards and backwards) ETENESTT, TTSEANETE, EHSETENT, TAETESHE. In Morse code, some letters (like A and N) use the same digits, just backwards
It looks like Morse code, and you can desipher letters in the plastic, but they read nothing (just two lines, read forwards and backwards) ETENESTT, TTSEANETE, EHSETENT, TAETESHE. In Morse code, some letters (like A and N) use the same digits, just backwards
It looks like Morse code, and you can desipher letters in the plastic, but they read nothing (just two lines, read forwards and backwards) ETENESTT, TTSEANETE, EHSETENT, TAETESHE. In Morse code, some letters (like A and N) use the same digits, just backwards
It looks like Morse code, and you can desipher letters in the plastic, but they read nothing (just two lines, read forwards and backwards) ETENESTT, TTSEANETE, EHSETENT, TAETESHE. In Morse code, some letters (like A and N) use the same digits, just backwards
Yeah, I know it's an external drive...the part you call the drive, in the article, as in, "handling the drive (moving it from place to place) and grasping the sides, the plastic walls creak a little bit and give slightly under pressure. You don’t want to stack anything on top of this drive.", is actually the "enclosure" or "housing"...as in ENCLOSING or HOUSING the drives.
Sure, I am nit picking, but say the drives are great and the electronics are fine, but the housing falls apart; you cannot then correctly state that the drive broke because the "drives" are still fine and would still work.
It’s tough to make a 2 TB external hard drive look cute.
from wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Digital_My_Book
The Morse Code message written into the drive case is made up of a selection of the words 'personal', 'reliable', 'innovative', 'simple', and 'design'.[15] The first occurrence of 'innovative' on the My Book Pro and My Book World Edition features an error and reads 'innovateve'.
I'm assuming they've kept the morse code message uniform throughout the mybook series.
royalcrown a word's meaning comes not from it's hard-line definition, but from how it's used by a majority of people. Language is not mathematics. Most people would call Western Digital's system here a 'drive'. They would not be wrong, and neither is Rachel, except in a technical sense. Calling it an 'enclosure' is not only incorrect in a technical sense it is incorrect in the way people speak; to most of us, 'enclosure' would mean something provided that you put things in to, not something that comes already filled.
If you want to nitpick then be right; Western digital calls it a system, and that's what it is - 2 hard drives in an enclosure with software and hardware so it can be used in a 'Raid 0 or 1' configuration. If you want to be right, technically, call it a 'hard drive system'. If you want to communicate correctly, then use the language people understand; most would call this device a 'drive' over an 'enclosure'. Western Digital calls it a 'System'. Since I like to be right technically and say things in a way most would understand, I'd call this thing an external hard drive backup system. Off the cuff, though, I'd call it a 'drive', certainly not an 'enclosure'.
It’sQuote : STILLQuote : tough to make a 2 TB external hard drive look cute.
It's not 2 1TB drives it's 2 2TB drives as with the mirror edition something gets copied onto 1 drive the "mirrored" on the other for data protection. Just thought I should clear that up. You may want to edit the article.