Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsBuy it - Not hot, no encryption, Single Drive model works well
March 6, 2017
This review is about the SINGLE DRIVE 8TB version of the WD MyBook. Green & white cardboard box, black plastic drive case. No Encryption. Go ahead & buy it, it is ok. :-)
SPEED: 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. I did not time it or watch it closely. You can easily play movies or music from this drive without skipping.
HEAT: the drive did NOT get hot. Not even very warm while chugging away for almost a whole day relentlessly copying over 5 TB of data. The drive has vents on the 2 ends. You are supposed to put the vent side up, so the heat can exit. That means the drive will be standing on end, which is probably not how you were going to place it. There are rubber feet on the other end. I suspect that the people who said this drive runs hot did not stand the drive up as intended. You can not stack these drives, but you could stand several next to each other.
ENCRYPTION: There is NONE. That is GREAT news. I had heard that the drive was married to the case by hardware encryption. Without getting in to the reasons why that is a terrible idea, I'll just say that we don't have to talk about encryption here, because there is isn't any and that is fine. Before doing anything else, we reformatted as HFS+ for Mac, then copied over 5 TB of data.
I can tell you that if you remove the drive from the plastic case and pop it into a SATA "toaster" or other external sata case it works. The data is still there and useful. Yay! There are a lot of reviews saying that the drive will not work if removed from the case (unless reformatted), but I'm telling you it does work & all data is preserved. Maybe they did not reformat before starting a or maybe they have the dual-drive raid version. This means that if the case ever fails, you CAN put the drive into a different case & run with it as is. Great news!
NOISE: there is some vibration when the drive is running. A very low hum. It may or may not bother you There is no fan. The case has rubber mounts & rubber feet which help dampen the vibration. There is some minor vibration while running in the factory case, and also when running in a NewerTech "toaster". Neither vibrations are objectionable unless maybe you are in a recording studio.
CONNECTOR: USB 3 micro B. Just one.
POWER ADAPTER: is rated at 12v dc 1.5 A. Does not block multiple outlets in use, but it does protrude to the side. There may be a ferrite bead around the cord, near the end.
WHATS INSIDE THE PACKAGE: The drive, a warranty statement, USB to USB 3 micro b cable and power cable. Some packaging and a Need Help? card directing you to support.wd.com/contact No software is included, unless it was on the drive, which came formatted as ExFAT, but we reformatted it to HFS+ which is normal for Mac.
NO ACTIVITY LIGHT: I can hardly believe WD cheaped out by not providing an activity light. Weird, I wish it had one, but for the price/performance I'm not going to change my rating.
NO POWER SWITCH. No big deal. There is a wall-wart which isn't that bad. Does not hog more than 1 power outlet.
WHAT"S INSIDE the case: a single 8 TB WD drive (128MB cache) and a small triangular SATA to USB 3 board. (opening the plastic case is tricky! See how to on youtube & make sure you are looking at late 2016 or after. the case tabs are U shaped, pointing back at you. Very unusual & you are certain to break some tabs off. There are 3 tabs on one side, and 2 tabs on the other side of the same end. The feet end does not have actual tabs. Several credit cards, then Torx 10 and Phillips 2). Drive has a large white sticker. Model WD80EZZX. Rated at 5V 440mA, 12V 550mA DC. No jumper pins and no place for them. The bare drive feels pretty heavy compared to lower capacity drives. No software was included unless it was on the disk, which we ignored and reformatted for Mac.
All in all, I'm happy with this drive so far. At current price it is a real value and seems faster than a 'back up drive'. I'll update this review if my opinion changes, but this 8TB single drive is a Buy.
