Expanding its lineup of consumer-friendly, easy-to-use external hard drives, Western Digital Corp. recently introduced the My Book World Edition family of shared storage appliances. This new series allows consumers and home office workers to securely access their digital content, such as photos, home videos and documents, and share it with family and friends from anywhere in the world as if that content were stored local to the user. The terabyte (TB) model is equipped with a dual-drive configuration and RAID capability.
Anywhere Access is WD’s new software for simplifying access to digital content and breaking the barriers of physical proximity to that content. Part of it is the unique Data OnHand feature, which makes My Book World Edition active in Windows Explorer and Windows “Save As†and “Open†options whenever the user is connected to the Internet. This streamlines access to the content for users, even if they are thousands of miles away from their appliance and eliminates task-heavy logging into and out of third-party Web access systems. It operates independently of any specific PC, so the original host computer does not need to be powered on.
“Using this appliance is like carrying as much as a terabyte of content with you wherever you go and knowing that your personal content is safe at home. This new concept in storage enables virtually limitless accessibility to family, friends and associates for sharing and backup,†said Jim Welsh, vice president and general manager of WD’s Branded Products group.
The My Book World Edition also enables friends and family to share digital content such as photos and documents anywhere in the world without the hassle or insecurity of having to upload it to a third-party Web site. Road warriors will appreciate the ease with which they can retrieve an important presentation and other documents while traveling, as well as the ability to remotely back up their laptop/notebook data to their storage device. Small workgroups can easily share critical documents over the Internet or within a local network without the need for a separate, and often cumbersome, FTP server.
The two new models are compatible with wired and wireless networks and equipped with a lighted on/off button; easy-to-use backup software; a unique capacity gauge LED that allows users to discern at a glance remaining storage space; and a three-year limited warranty. They come with EMC Retrospect Express backup software; one Ethernet port; one USB 2.0 port to instantly add more storage; intelligent drive management features and LED activity lights. The primary model has a capacity of 500 GB and Edition II includes all of the same features in a dual-drive system for 1 TB of capacity.
