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JUNE 21, 2008 My Book® Studio Edition™ II
The My Book Studio Edition II arrived at a very low moment in a list of many low moments in my long computer life experience. My computer had just crashed. At one point in the past I had a computer with a RAID 1 hard drive setup so all files saved to the C: drive were also mirrored (copied) to the second one in the Raid. This was a perfect setup as I have always been undisciplined as far as backups go. That older computer bit the dust four or five years ago. Its replacement did not have a RAID 1 setup. After the recent crash I decide to try to be a better keeper of my files. The My Book Studio Edition II is a major part of that plan. Package Includes
System Requirements Since I am now very cautious about what I add to this new computer I sent an email to the Western Digital marketing person who then set up a conference call with some nice folks at Western Digital. As I went through the setup they helped to give me strength. Actually there were only five easy steps and I was ready to roll. I did cheat a little by downloading the manual from the WD website so I had it in hand ahead of time. Their hand holding was not really required but it made me feel good. The Setup CD did most of the work. The drives came formatted for a Mac (FAT). I have many videos that exceed the maximum files size under FAT so I used the software to do a quick format to NTSF.
WD Anywhere Backup After creating a backup plan I started the backup process at 5:50 PM. The job was completed at 6:00 AM the next day. This included a total of 54,824 items and used 187.4 Gigabytes of space on the WD My Book Studio Edition II. The backup was done using the minimal configuration that did not include files saved in any subdirectories of my program files. An example of this would be the websites I manage using NetObjects Fusion. I went back to WD Anywhere Backup and added all the directories that held those files and others. I ran the backup again and those files were quickly added to the drive. They now update automatically when any changes are made to them. I like the little box that opens in the lower right corner of my desktop each time I create a new file or update an old one. WD anywhere Backup saves a list of errors so you can check to see if any files were not backed up and the reason for their exclusion. I found 63 files listed. They were an error 9. The explanation for error 9 is that the file path name was too long. You are allowed up to 250 characters including the path and the name of the file. Most of these were Music titles or PDF files. I had copied a number for folders from a backup drive into My Documents and buried them in 3 or 4 levels of folders. This was easily corrected and, when done, the files were added to the WD My Book Studio Edition II.
It is my hope that none of you will ever experience a complete computer failure. Of course that is wishful thinking. I strongly suggest you add the WD My Book Studio Edition II to your computer. It is a winner. If you cannot find the bucks for one ($599.99) or have already spent your tax rebate, I highly recommend the WD My Passport Elite 320 Gig at $169.99 Retail list is $199.99. (SEE ARTICLE) If you are doing nothing to save your files you need to get started with some sort of backup effort NOW!
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Doesn’t that title sound imposing? So is the actual product. The 
The WD My Book Studio Edition II is enclosed in a nice gray metal case. The top has dots and slots in it that look like Morse code. These openings allow for heat release. The drives do seem to produce less heat than others I have worked with. Press hard on the top just above the front of the case and it pops opens. You can see the two drives inside the enclosure. There are two grips and one hand screw that allow you to remove a drive without tools should it require replacement. If this should happen you purchase a new drive, place it in the enclosure, start things up and the Raid 1 setup will copy the good drive contents to the replacement and continue its backup as it did in the past.