Storage With Style: WD MyBook Pro Edition

Access Time

Data Transfer Performance

As you can see, access times are pretty standard across the board, but read and write transfers show a huge difference between using the Firewire 800, Firewire 400 and USB 2.0 interfaces. Using the USB interface on the MyBook results in some of the slowest transfer rates we've recorded on a portable drive, but using the Firewire interface delivered the opposite, with some of the fastest transfer we've seen. So it's obvious what you should use, although it's really nice to have the flexibility of a USB 2.0 option if you're moving your data around.

  • About the 'intelligent drive management' I am not that sure. It may be better than drives, which do not power down at all, but it still annoying that you cannot switch off the drive completely. For example the Seagate drives behave the same way, but in addition you can switch them off, so they will stay off when you switch off and on your PC. The WD will power on every time you power on your PC, which I personnally do not like at all.
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