Luckily, the results of our testing were very impressive. Performance: Huge storage capacity, solid read/writeĮasily one of the major benefits of the My Book is it’s massive 8TB storage capacity, but that’s worthless unless it runs at a decent speed. The friendly user interface is more intuitive than other bare-bones devices which rely on the File Explorer alone.Ī final note, the My Book is compatible with Apple’s Time Machine system and has 256-bit AES hardware encryption built in if you feel the need to secure your files with a password. After that, you’re free to use it like any other hard disk drive. These include Creative Cloud, WD Backup, Plex, and Norton Antivirus. This lets you import files from cloud storage and social media, and will sync all of your content.įrom here, you can set a password for the device and download a suite of apps as part of the Western Digital software package. Launch the Install Discovery app held on the storage device itself. Once it's warmed up, you’ll find it in your File Explorer. Once you’ve finished unboxing the My Book, plug it in via the USB-A port on your PC, and a nearby plug point. Lifewire / Jordan Oloman Setup Process: Included software and encryption Fortunately, a USB-C cable is under $10 at most online outlets, so it’s a relatively inexpensive fix if you do need to upgrade the connectivity capability of the My Book.

It’s not totally out of the question for other devices either, as Samsung’s T5 portable SSD provides both a USB-A and C cables.

Plenty of modern equipment is starting to switch towards USB-C, like Apple’s iPad and MacBook products. It’s a standard cable that will let you connect to a whole host of devices, but with the advent of USB-C, it would have been nice to see one of these in the box too. You get a USB-A 3.0 cable included in the box, but that’s about it. When in use, emits a hum and some vibrations, but the sound shouldn’t be loud enough to bother you as long as you keep it upright.Īside from the 12V plug socket port on the back of the device needed to power it, there is but one lone connector, a micro-B output port. Tethering the use of your storage to a plug socket makes it difficult to use when you’re out on the go in public, so this is certainly a better fit for consumers who want a storage device that is home-bound. This is due to the fact that it needs an external power source to function and is fairly heavy. Weighing in at three pounds, the 8TB My Book is heavier than most external hard drives, and will weigh down your backpack.Īs you can imagine, this means it's not really suited for the traveling creator, unless you’re just commuting between work and home.

Wd my book external drive