Product Comparison: WD Elements vs Western Digital My Book

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WD Elements External Hard Drive for Mac (USB 3.0)

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Western Digital My Book Desktop External Hard Drive (USB 3.0)

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General Specifications

Brand

Western Digital

Model

Elements

My Book

Origin

China

About the Product

WD Elements™ portable hard drives with USB 3.0 offer reliable, high-capacity storage to go, fast data transfer rates, universal connectivity and massive capacity for value-conscious consumers.

The My Book desktop hard drive is designed to complement your personal style with a massive amount of space to store your photos, videos, music and documents.

Key Specs

Storage Drive Type

Portable

Desktop

Capacity

4000 GB

8000 GB

What customers say about "Key Specs"

WD Elements External Hard Drive for Mac (USB 3.0)

I ordered the 4 terabyte portable elements drive. I like it.
The drive is small, portable, and does exactly what it is supposed to do.
It is portable enough where you could unplug and drop it (carefully) into a bookbag or briefcase to transport.
It’s a great little External/portable hard drive. I personally use mine for my PS4 since this is USB 3.0 so it works with the console.
It's great having a greater amount of space rather than multiple smaller drives. The portability is good as well.

Western Digital My Book Desktop External Hard Drive (USB 3.0)

It's really fast. It's faster than my old seagate barracuda internal drive connected through Sata III. It has an average sequential read and write of 160 MB/s.
This model (I got the 6TB size) is available in sizes up to 8TB. A pretty massive amount of storage on a USB drive!
This generation has 8TB, 6TB, 4TB and 3TB single drive models. Dual drive 12TB and 16TB models are available too.
I love WD external hard drives, these large capacity ones in particular. This is my first 6 TB one, I have 12 other ones that are only 3 TB and 4 TB, I've only used this one for a little over a week, but so far so good.
I installed the drive and one week later, the disc became corrupt, preventing me from copying any new files onto the drive.
Was disappointed compared to previous products, did not set up correctly, had to download software to make it work.

Size & Weight

Color

Black

Height

0.82 in.

5.5 in.

Width

4.4 in.

1.9 in.

Depth

3.2 in.

6.7 in.

Weight

8.32 oz.

48 oz.

What customers say about "Size & Weight"

WD Elements External Hard Drive for Mac (USB 3.0)

Fast, reliable and with excellent size external USB Hard Drive.
I received the drive when promised and was happy with it's small size and that it was powered by the USB cable.
Thanks to modern technology, the new drives, have larger capacity, yet smaller size.
A compact size that is perfect for bedroom.
I love the small size of this 4TB storage drive and the fact that it is USB-powered.

Western Digital My Book Desktop External Hard Drive (USB 3.0)

A file backup hard drive made for desktops. Not made to be highly portable as in the smaller, pocket-sized versions; it's made as a book-sized appliance that sits next to your desktop computer.
There is only one plus, which is its big size.
I was surprised at the size and heaviness of it and. i
Great value, nice size. I am using this to back up my backup of family videos.
It should be very clearly stated the number and size of the drives inside, horrible packaging description and a huge waste of time.

Features

OS Compatibility

Windows 10/8.1/7

Windows, Mac OS

Interfaces

USB 3.0

Backup Function

Yes

Data Protection

WD Backup

WD Backup, 256-bit AES hardware encryption, Password protection with hardware encryption

Extras

Fast transfer rates, USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 compatibility, High capacity in a small enclosure, WD Quality Inside and Out

Password protection with hardware encryption, Easy to Use, Massive Capacity, WD Quality Inside and Out

What customers say about "Features"

WD Elements External Hard Drive for Mac (USB 3.0)

The Windows 10 File History and System Backup features are awesome.
Is there still a program included for encrypted auto backup? That was a fantastic feature!
Easy to install, easy to use, runs relatively smoothly and connects almost instantly to the XBOX.
Feels very solid, doesn't attract fingerprints. It's not as bulky as I feared.
Easy no brainer install, just connect, copy and paste. Good connect via USB.

Western Digital My Book Desktop External Hard Drive (USB 3.0)

Easy to set up. I just plugged it in and it was automatically detected by windows with no problems.
It comes with a 4ft USB 3.0 cable (much nicer than the very short My Passport cables!)
The drive is faster than I expected. It took about 1 day to copy 5.14 TB to it via USB 3. Those were mostly music files 3MB to 60mb plus some videos.
The top half of the hard drive uses the shiny black paint that gets covered in fingerprints as soon as you touch it.
The hard drive has no indicator light that shows it is on or receiving power. You can only tell by listening or if it's detected by your device / OS.

Included

Additional Accessories

USB cable

USB 3.0 cable, AC adapter, Quick start guide

Number Of Drives

Software

Data Lifeguard Diagnostic

WD Backup and WD Security software

Power

Power Supply

Via USB

AC adapter