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Item#:N82E16822136175

Western Digital My Book Essential 2.0 500GB USB 2.0 External Hard Drive WDH1U5000N - Retail

Western Digital My Book Essential 2.0 500GB 3.5" External Hard Drive - Retail

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Manufacturer Warranty

Beyond any applicable Newegg return policy, this item is warranted independently by the product's Manufacturer. Below is a summary provided for convenience only and may not be accurate or current. Use this link for full details.

Manufacturer Limited Warranty period (parts): 1 year
Manufacturer Limited Warranty period (labor): 1 year

Manufacturer Contact Info

Manufacturer Product Page|
Website: http://www.wdc.com/en/index.asp?Language=en|
Support Phone Number: 1-800-275-4932
Support Website|
View other products from Western Digital

Return Policies

This item is covered by Newegg.com's Standard Return Policy.

Return for refund within: 30 days
Return for replacement within: 30 days
Restocking Fee: Yes

Western Digital's My Book Essential 2.0 is the latest evolution in their long history of back up devices. This 500GB drive has been outfitted with a USB 2.0 interface for high speed data transfers and near-universal compatibility. With the plug and play USB connection all you have to do is plug the drive in and it is ready to use.

A capacity gauge on the front panel lets you know how much room you have left on the drive. The rest of the housing is designed to vent heat away from the drive to keep it cool and save your data. The drive is Energy Star certified and turns itself on and off automatically with your system.

Review Summary (read more reviews)

58%

14%

10%

12%

Product Rating:
Total Reviews:	198

Great little drive

Reviewed By: Freshgrease on 7/1/2008

Tech Level: somewhat high - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year

Pros: Fast and complementary to my black rack server and Antec 900 gaming rig. So far so good *knocks on wood*.

Cons: I've dropped it a few times, and the casing pops off in areas. Easy to snap back. I really hate that this isn't powered via USB, but what should I expect out of a 3.5" drive enclosure. Having to use a power cord made this troublesome to use in my cluster de crape (the cluster of computers, home theater, and TVs).

Other Thoughts: I recently built a silent low-wattage 4U iStarUSA rack-server with a 5-bay hot-swap SATA array. Easy to plop this baby out and throw it into the mix of other HDDs. Runs cooler than my Segate main drive. I've used this to download bittorrent for over a year. I am impressed by its quality. I <3 Western Digital.

17 out of 18 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes

Sensitive to older USB ports/PCs

Reviewed By: smartsurfer on 6/13/2008

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year

Pros: The drive is a decent low cost external USB 2.0 HD.
The internal drive itself is a SATA drive and is robust. Good physical engineering for dampening, vibration and noise.

Cons: Unfortunately, "low cost" in this case comes with a price - reliability and compatibility. Be careful about plugging this unit in to older USB ports like I did which can fry the electronics. It comes up with "unrecognized USB device" Never had this issue with other branded external units. (see other thoughts)

Other Thoughts: When my external unit's electronics got fried, the data was more important to me, so I searched the web and located others like myself with similar dead units. I popped the unit open to extract the HD and placed in my PC (drive is good and works great). To bad that corners were cut in an otherwise great product.

6 out of 6 people found this review helpful. Did you? Yes

Quick Specs (view all30)

Model	WDH1U5000N
Interface	USB 2.0
Capacity	500GB
Form Factor	3.5"

Review Summary (read all 198 Reviews)

58%

14%

10%

12%

Product Rating:
Total Reviews:	198

Dependable and decent drive

Reviewed By: on 8/13/2009

Tech Level: high - Ownership: more than 1 year

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Sleek design with piano black case. Simple and easy set up and it also spins down the HDD when not in use saving power and also wear and tear on the HDD.

Cons: The USB cable they give you is a bit short and its a Mini B type connector for the drive instead of a standard B type connector which isn't really a con but with the amount of regular B type cables that I have and with the size of the unit the choice of the connector makes no sense in my mind.

Other Thoughts: I haven't tried any of the software available on it. I just deleted it all. I'm sure it works fine. I haven't run into any trouble on it. For those who do you probably just are one of the unlucky few where probability doesn't go your way and you get a unit that passed QC but is destined to die due to some minor mechanical or electronic fault in the device. Everyone gets a dud or dead electronic once in their lifetime and sure sometimes its because there is a serious electronic or mechanical fault in the device but other times there are millions of other users who's devices work fine its just that your one of the unlucky ones where probability doesn't swing your way.

Did you find this review helpful? Yes

lot of g's for low price

Reviewed By: jerry m on 8/12/2009

Tech Level: somewhat high - Ownership: 1 week to 1 month

Pros: lot of gb's for the price,looks sleek,and nice,runs cool,

Cons: none as of yet

Other Thoughts: i have always had good luck with WD externals..i keep the wd 80gb passport 2.5" in a fireproof safe for over a year now,and still works excellent.

Did you find this review helpful? Yes

Wonderful

Reviewed By: ezbakejustin on 8/8/2009

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 day to 1 week

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Extremely fast transfer speed, very quite, no set up required much like a flash drive.

Cons: Having to plug the drive into its own electrical outlet but I knew about this going into it.

Other Thoughts: Great price for a great drive

Did you find this review helpful? Yes

Model
Brand	Western Digital
Series	My Book Essential 2.0
Model	WDH1U5000N
Performance
Interface	USB 2.0
Capacity	500GB
Physical Spec
Form Factor	3.5"
Dimensions	6.5" x 5.4" x 2.1"
Weight	2.5 lbs.
Features
Features	Easy to set up, easy to use - Installation is a snap because you don't really install this drive, you just plug it in and it's ready to use. Fits right in - Takes no more space than a paperback book. Collect two or more and they nest neatly together like volumes on a shelf. Smart and energy efficient - Turns itself on and off with your computer. PC and Mac compatible - Works with both Windows 2000/XP/Vista and Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later
Manufacturer Warranty
Parts	1 year limited
Labor	1 year limited

Introduction

Highlights

	High Performance Hard Drive The Western Digital My Book Essential (Model WDH1U5000N) features a high-performance 500GB hard drive so you can store your movies, music, applications and documents for easy sharing with your friends and even back up your system.
	USB 2.0 Interface The Western Digital My Book Essential (Model WDH1U5000N) features a USB 2.0 interface for fast data transfer speeds of up to 480Mbps and plug-and-play connectivity.