Western Digital announced yesterday that its My Book line of external drives will be fitted with 2 TB of storage, the largest single-drive capacity so far.
If there's one thing most multimedia consumers have figured out, it's that the hard drive can fill up mighty quick. The iPhone and iPod Touch are classic examples, featuring access to the Apps Store and iTunes right on the main menu. It's extremely easy to purchase and download tons of content--applicatio ns, books, and music of course--which can easily eat up credit cards like candy wafers. Jump on the PC and download movies through iTunes, and suddenly that huge hard drive mounted within just isn't enough to store all of that multimedia goodness. With that said, this consumer went out and picked up a 1 TB Western Digital My Book for $120 over the weekend. Now said consumer wants to kick himself in the butt for not waiting just a tad bit longer.
Yesterday Western Digital said that its My Book series of external hard drives will now feature 2 TB of storage, making it the largest available capacity in a single-drive system. The company will offer four 2 TB models: My Book Studio Edition , My Book Mac Edition , My Book Home Edition , and My Book Essential Edition . These drives won't come cheap however, ranging from $329.99 USD to $379.99 USD, depending on the model. That's quite a chunk of change, and consumers may actually want to wait a while until a larger drive hits the market, thus reducing the 2 TB price tag.
According to WD, all four models feature the same characteristics: they save power by going into standby mode after ten minutes of inactivity. A capacity gauge allows consumers to see exactly how much capacity is available on the drive (Essential Edition excluded, sorry), and the Kensington Security Slot allows users to secure the drive to the desk using a Kensington lock kit (sold separately). The drives also sport SmartPower and Safe Shutdown features, the former allowing the drive to power on and off with the PC while the latter prevents the drive from shutting off until the last bit of data has been written.
As for the separate models, the Studio Edition and the Mac Edition are formatted for Mac computers, however the Studio Edition is equipped with high speed FireWire 400/800, eSATA, and USB 2.0 interfaces. On the other hand, the Mac Edition only offers the USB 2.0 interface, and comes with a 1-year warranty as opposed to the Studio Edition's 5-year warranty. Additionally, the Home Edition and the Essential Edition are formatted for the PC, with the former offering high-speed eSATA, FireWire 400, and USB 2.0 interfaces; the Essential Edition only offers the USB 2.0 interface. As for the warranties, the Home Edition carries a 3-year limited warranty whereas WD offered no warranty information for the Essential Edition.
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