Even if your desktop Mac still has plenty of way left on its inner movement , maintaining an external backup is always a smart idea . If you ’d rather be safe than drab , the My Book Pro Edition 500 GB USB / FireWire hard drive gives you spate of breathing way for your motley file , plus enough space for your computer backup .
The rounded bound and silvery finish of the My Book ’s plastic typesetter’s case give it the style of a shining , medium - sized book , but the circular blue activity leave on its “ spine ” give you important data . For instance , the indicator area allow you know at a glance how much stay storage is available ( in 17 percent increase of total capacity ) , although activating this lineament requires installing an OS X driver . The only other software included with the movement is EMC ’s Retrospect Express back - up utility .
instal the My Book is as easy as plug in the drive ’s power adaptor and connecting the ride to your Mac using one of the driving force ’s USB , FireWire 400 , or two FireWire 800 ports . A generous six feet of cable gives you freedom to place it anywhere within your workspace . In operation , the My Book is unremarkably in standby mode and spin itself up as it ’s accessing your information .
In execution testing , the My Book Pro Edition turns in quite respectable stats when compare to small capacity screen background drives we look at of late : it equal the others in all mental testing , even outfox out the fastest drive — the LaCie d2 Hard Drive Extreme with Triple Interface 300 GB ( ) — in the Photoshop test by five seconds . The My Book Pro Edition represents the top end of this stock of drives , but less poser in the My Book sept have FireWire 400 and USB , or USB alone , and are available in a multifariousness of content from 80 GB to 500 GB .
timed trials
plate = bit : Seconds
How We screen : We ran all tests with the FireWire drives connected to a dual-2.5GHz Power Mac G5 with Mac OS X 10.3.9 install and 512 MB of random access memory . We screen the driving using FireWire 800 . ( In case where a campaign does not have FireWire 800 , we use FireWire 400 . ) We replicate a folder hold 1 GB of datum from our Mac ’s hard driving to the external concentrated thrust to try out the thrust ’s write pep pill . We then repeat that data file on the external drive to test both understand and compose speeds . We also used the driveway as a dinero magnetic disc when running our scurvy - memory Adobe Photoshop CS Suite test . This psychometric test is a set of four tasks execute on a 150 MB filing cabinet , with Photoshop ’s memory set to 50 percent.—Macworld Lab Testing by James Galbraith and Jerry Jung
specifications
Macworld’s buying advice
Desktop Mac user looking for a broad and speedy extra 500 GB of reposition should consider the Western Digital My Book Pro Edition 500 gibibyte . The My Book is luggable , though its desktop form cistron makes it more suitable to sitting on a shelf rather than take it with you . It ’s fast , attractive , and its USB , FireWire 400 , and FireWire 800 embrasure give you maximum flexibility when connecting it to your Mac .
[ Jeffy Milstead is a Macworld Lab alumnus and writer live in San Francisco . ]
