Customer Reviews

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] This product is great for what it is, plenty of space but still a Hard Disk drive, which means it's loud, slower than an SSD and it seems the more media I add to it the slower it is to search through the folders. Great for backing up, it may have a faster connection than my 2 external SSD's but I wouldn't recommend using it as a cache or media disk for video editing. I use Adobe Editing Software so I now use the 2 SSDs for active projects and use the WD My Book for backing up old projects and footage. The biggest benefit is a bang for your buck. If you're looking for more storage space and don't need crazy fast transfer speeds, this is a great product, otherwise, I recommend using SSD, if you have the money for it.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] - A lot of space for the price (at the time this was purchased). - The 3-year warranty is great. - It tends to run hotter than other drives, topping out around 55C during long file transfers. Having some type of fan push air through the vents on the top or bottom of the case can drop these temperatures a lot. - The drive model number in my enclosure is a WD80EDAZ-11TA3A0 according to CrystalDiskInfo and HWiNFO64. - The top half of the enclosure is a fingerprint magnet.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] WD Desktop External HDD Highlights 8TB Storage Capacity USB 3.0 Interface Includes AC Adapter 256-Bit AES Hardware Encryption Includes WD Backup Software Acronis True Image WD Edition Software Windows & Mac Compatible May Require Reformatting Before Use Features With the 8TB My Book Desktop USB 3.0 External Hard Drive from WD it is easy to back up important files and create system backups using the included WD Backup software for Windows or Time Machine for Mac. In addition to simplifying the backup process for both Windows and Mac computers, this hard drive features 256-bit AES hardware encryption to ensure stored files remain secure. The My Book Desktop drive features a USB 3.0 port for fast data transfers and comes exFAT formatted for Windows and Mac, making it easy to get up and running in no time. Note: Compatibility may vary depending on user's hardware configuration and operating system. Reformatting is required for use with Apple Time Machine. General Features Complete Backup Equipped with WD Backup software for Windows and Apple Time Machine compatibility for Mac, the My Book desktop hard drive can back up your photos, videos, music, and documents. Password Protection with Hardware Encryption The My Book drive's built-in 256-bit AES hardware encryption with WD Security tools helps keep your content private and safe. Just activate password protection and set your own personalized password. WD Reliability Millions of people around the world trust their data to My Book desktop storage. Designed to meet WD's requirements for durability, shock tolerance, and reliability, they back up the trusted My Book desktop storage with a limited 3-year warranty. Watch the Power of My Book Come to Life We live hectic lives and generate tons of digital content. My Book desktop storage has massive storage capacity so you can confidently back up the files that make up your digital life. Do More with Discovery Included WD Discovery software connects to popular social media and cloud storage services, like Facebook, Dropbox, and Google Drive. Import your photos, videos, and docs to the My Book drive to help preserve your online life. WD Discovery can also be used to manage your drive with WD Drive Utilities. May require reformatting for other operating systems Easy to Use My Book desktop storage is ready to use out of the box so you can start transferring files, saving your memories, and backing up right away. It comes with all the software you need to help protect your data, including WD Backup and WD Security software, and is compatible with Time Machine. Compatibility Formatted exFAT for out-of-the-box compatibility with Windows 10 and 8.1, plus macOS 10.13 and later This without a doubt is the greatest external hard drive on the market right now at a great price & a brand the military use which is sn added bonus & make2s a person feel safer. I absolutely recommend this brand of external hard drive for all of your computer needs!

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] Plugged it in and it worked. Just what I wanted for mass storage. I do NOT leave it on and connected, using it ONLY when I have files to transfer. Files that are headed there go first to a 4TB USB drive that sits next to the computer. Every week I tranfer those files to a larger storage drive. I do conventional and astrophotography, images and video, and generate a LOT of raw image data. Even though I pare it down it still ends up being a lot. I don't do RAID and offsite duplicates .... if I lose my raw data I'll miss it but Western Civilization won't collapse because of it. Finished work is in duplicate, the raw data is not. Attached is an unretouched photo of actual digital photo data. : )

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] This MY Book external hard drive is excellent. 8TB is a good amount of space for any household. I use this hard drive as a backup to all my computer files which includes family photos, videos, etc. The design of the hard drive is also great, and installation took less than 10 minutes.

If you need a simple home server for streaming media files and sharing documents between users in a home network, this is just perfect. I know that there are more features such as accessing de server from the Internet but I do not need these. I use the Twonkey DLNA server which works very well with our smart TV. We are on Linux and 2 PC's are mounting this home server as an external drive for maintenance and archiving. I also like the energy saving feature which spins down the drive after some idle time. This saves energy and is preventing wearing out equipment. As I never had any problem at all I can recommend this for simple home server use.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] I needed an external storage for my files since I stream on Mixer constantly and my internal hd was getting full. So, I had this 8TB My Book delivered to my house. I've been using it since 5/26, and the last backup I have recorded was 6/18. Less than a month! I used all of the original cables and power supply, I didn't knock it over, and I tried all of the USB's on my gaming rig, so it's nothing I did. One day, the WD software and PC says it's unavailable, and disk configuration says it's RAW data instead of NTFS. My heart sinks... I'm so disappointed with WD. I have multiple old WD external HD's from them that haven't failed me, and this is the 2nd one I bought this year to have failed me. I originally bought a 5TB EasyStore from them as well earlier this year, and that failed too. Luckily, I didn't have anything important in that HD. Right now, I'm frantically trying to save old vids and data from the My Book external drive, and then I'll return it to the store for a refund. If I had run 'Error Checking' on both drives before using them, I would've known that both were going to die on me. Don't be me. Find a different product to store your data offline.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] This 8TB External Drive is fast and reliable! I'm getting another just for the book I'm writing.

[This review was collected as part of a promotion.] My previous 4TB MyBook lasted for years and died just after I spent funds replacing my 10+ year old home computer. In a pinch, I ran to the local Best Buy and purchased another MyBook (8TB) and then set up my CrashPlan/Code 42 account to restore my data. No problem--yahoo for offsite backup. The WD site and built-in software was new, unnecessary, and different. Regardless, all was set up, no data was lost, and I was fully functional again. That was in March 2023. This one died in November 2023. It made a funny noise for a few minutes one day, then poof. Nothing would work. I've now purchased a solid-state option from another manufacturer.

I like the size of this HD and I like the features it contains. A big problem, FOR ME, it that when I start my computer with this HD attached, it stalls and fully prevents the computer from starting up. If I unplug it, and start the computer, all goes as normal. At this point I can plug in this HD and carry on. This happens 100% of the time on my computer. I tried on a newer laptop, and it worked as you would expect - no issue, but with my older Dell XPS it is a no go. I've covered many forums looking for answers and it is common with some WD HDs and even moving around orders in BIOS doesn't help.