Western Digital MyBook! Warning - stay away!

LazyLion

LazyLion

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I mentioned in another thread that a friend of mine had offered me one of these... A Western Digital MyBook World Edition II - 1.5 terabyte version.

I got it for a R1000.00 because a previous customer had returned it and said it did not "suit" his needs.

Well, some of you know there is a caveat when buying these things - if you are using the WD anywhere software that it comes with, you know that software filters out a ton of media files, like DivX and MP3s and will not allow transfer of those files. I was aware of this and did not plan to use the WD software. I just installed the drive to my network (It is NAS), and mapped the drive on my home computers.

But, the other thing they don't tell you... is that this drive is slow.... painfully slow... like 10 Mbps slow. It is supposed to support 100 Mbps or even 1000 Mbps on gigabit networks... but that is a flat out lie. It rarely goes above 10 Mbps... in fact nobody knows anyone who got it to do that.

There are supposed to be hacks out there to fiddle with the linux firmware that powers the drive, but the main problem is thought to be a hardware limitation on the actual processor that powers the unit.

There are a ton of angry users on the WD forums who are crying foul of WD to advertise this drive in the way it does and have it perform so badly! And plenty of web pages out there and reviews mentioning just how freaking slow this beast really is.

So anyway, I tell you this so you can warn anyone else to stay away from this thing. In my case I only paid R1000.00 which means I can still rip out the two 750 Gb WD hard drives inside and install them in a computer...

I'll put two smaller drives in and use the unit as a document server or as redundant back-up.

But for those who forked out over R3000.00 for this dog... I feel sorry.

Caveat Emptor.... :rolleyes:
 
The_Librarian said:
R3k for something which doesn't work properly? :eek: :sick:
Click to expand...

It took me 36 hours to copy 400 Gb of data :(

It would be faster to remove the drives and copy the data manually.

Unfortunately the internal drives are formatted with the Linux Ext3 file system.
 
The_Librarian said:
Pity you can't "upgrade" the linux software to FreeNAS...
Click to expand...

a linux guru could probably do it with ease... but I'm not touching the firmware... unless WD issue a software update.

The drive does have a USB port for drive expansion only... but can only read NTFS (not write) and R/W FAT32.

I use teracopy... and teracopy tells you the transfer rate in the title bar of the copy dialog... that's how I know it never went over 10 Mbps.
 
cyberarmy said:
That's why I am planning to get a enclosure with eSATA rather than USB 2.0...
Click to expand...

This is not USB 2.0... it is ethernet. The drive is Network Attached Storage... it runs on your LAN and is therefore supposed to transfer at the speed of your LAN. My LAN supports Gigabit (1000 Mbps).. the routers are D-link Gigabit and the NICs are Realtek Gigabit.

So while it SHOULD run at 1000 mega bits per second... it is only running at 10 mega bits per second.

The limitation is not the interface... the limitation is somewhere in the drive's hardware or firmware.

A USB 2.0 interface should give you a transfer speed of 480 Kbps (Kilo bits per second).

But if you can find a eSATA interface (that actually works) then it would be fastest.
 
Garyvdh said:
- if you are using the WD anywhere software that it comes with, you know that software filters out a ton of media files, like DivX and MP3s and will not allow transfer of those files.
Click to expand...

What is the point of this ? A hard drive which does not allow certain files?
 
um.. using USB 2.0 there isn't a huge difference to eSATA..

and Gary, yes technically the network can run at 1000Mbps, but i've never seen a drive hit a constant transfer over about 350Mbps or 35 MB/s

you sure its not running at 100Mbit ethernet.. cause that would cap the drive at +-10MB/s
 
4cer said:
um.. using USB 2.0 there isn't a huge difference to eSATA..

and Gary, yes technically the network can run at 1000Mbps, but i've never seen a drive hit a constant transfer over about 350Mbps or 35 MB/s

you sure its not running at 100Mbit ethernet.. cause that would cap the drive at +-10MB/s
Click to expand...
There isnt? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA#eSATA_in_comparison_to_other_external_buses
daveza said:
What is the point of this ? A hard drive which does not allow certain files?
Click to expand...
Who designed the thing? The RIAA/MPAA? :confused:
 
bwana said:
There isnt? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA#eSATA_in_comparison_to_other_external_busesWho designed the thing? The RIAA/MPAA? :confused:
Click to expand...

those are the technical maximums of the different buses, yes eSata will be slightly faster but not hugely... you just not gonna get the burst rates that HDD's sometimes hit, but for constant throughput, let me ask you ... how often does your drive transfer at 300MB/s ?

as i said for single drives just doing transfers of data, to external.. it will be a matter of it'll take 2 hours over Esata and 2 hours 10 minutes over Usb maybe...
 
4cer said:
um.. using USB 2.0 there isn't a huge difference to eSATA..

and Gary, yes technically the network can run at 1000Mbps, but i've never seen a drive hit a constant transfer over about 350Mbps or 35 MB/s

you sure its not running at 100Mbit ethernet.. cause that would cap the drive at +-10MB/s
Click to expand...

Yes, I am quite sure... Windows reports my LAN connection in my system tray as running at 1.0 Gbps

..and it transfers files superfast between computers on my network... it is just this drive which runs so slow.

@bwana ... this hardware is a perfect example of what happens when you allow political interest and pressure groups to dictate how you produce your products.
 
4cer said:
those are the technical maximums of the different buses, yes eSata will be slightly faster but not hugely... you just not gonna get the burst rates that HDD's sometimes hit, but for constant throughput, let me ask you ... how often does your drive transfer at 300MB/s ?

as i said for single drives just doing transfers of data, to external.. it will be a matter of it'll take 2 hours over Esata and 2 hours 10 minutes over Usb maybe...
Click to expand...
My understanding - and feel free to correct me should I be mistaken - is that eSATA is an external SATA2 and is considerably faster than USB2.

It's a simple enough theory to put to the test once spinrite is finished doing its thing and I have the PC back together. :)

EDIT - http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r19322821-eSata-vs-Sata-II-vs-USB2 - 'howie' was kind enough to have already done the testing - even threw in a FW400 drive for good measure.
 
Last edited:
by the way... one other point.

When you e-mail Western Digital support about this... they just completely ignore you.

Their support page says "we will get back to you within one business day"...

but if your question is about the performance of the MyBook World Edition II... you get no reply whatsoever.
 
4cer said:
um.. using USB 2.0 there isn't a huge difference to eSATA..

and Gary, yes technically the network can run at 1000Mbps, but i've never seen a drive hit a constant transfer over about 350Mbps or 35 MB/s

you sure its not running at 100Mbit ethernet.. cause that would cap the drive at +-10MB/s
Click to expand...

If you RAID 0 two drives you can get up to 70-80MB/s tranfer speeds. (or more)
 
Garyvdh said:
by the way... one other point.

When you e-mail Western Digital support about this... they just completely ignore you.

Their support page says "we will get back to you within one business day"...

but if your question is about the performance of the MyBook World Edition II... you get no reply whatsoever.
Click to expand...

OK, they did finally get back to me... this was their response....

------------
Thank you for contacting Western Digital Customer Service and Support.

Our internal testing and what we've seen from other customers show that the MyBook World's will transfer speed is 24-40Mbps (3-5 MBps) on a local network. The drive does not move data quicker because that is the maximum throughput that the enclosure's CPU can handle.

We never advertise sustained transfer rates on any of our internal or external drives. Instead, we advertise the interface speed that the drive supports. The 3-5 MBps is a sustained transfer speed whereas 10/100/1000 is an interface specification. Similarly, we advertise our internal drives with SATA-150 or SATA-300 interface compatibility but the sustained transfer rate is not 150 or 300MBps. Nonetheless, the MyBook World will show a 1000Mbps interface connection when connected to a Gigabit-capable router.
------------

It is true that the box does not explicitly state that it will support a sustained transfer speed of 100 or 1000 Mbps......

BUT... the box has the "Gigabit Ethernet" logo featured in two prominent places on the packaging. Why put the Gigabit Ethernet logo on the box if it cannot support it?

I am extremely disappointed in Western Digital! :mad:
 
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