Western DigitalWD 8TB My Book external hard drive, Desktop HDD with Password Protection, USB 3.0, SuperSpeed USB, software for device management, backup, hardware encryption, works with PC and Mac, Black

Excellent product. This is the second one I've purchased in the last four years. It is very easy to install on a Mac and comes with very handy software to secure your drive with password protection. I use this one as a backup for the old one. Reliability and speed have been excellent. I have the 18TB version, which is massive capacity for storing anything you want. I would highly recommend it.

I've been using Western Digital drives for years, as anecdotally I've found them to be more reliable than Seagate. Thus far, this 14TB external drive is no exception. I regularly write and read data from this drive and find it to be more than capable of large data transfers whilst staying cool and quiet.Inside the enclosure is a white label 14TB drive, which I believe to be a varient of the WD Red NAS drives, which bodes well for reliability. Via USB 3.0, I am getting around 200mb/s read speeds and 180mb/s write speeds, which is excellent for a HDD, especially via USB.The drive isn't silent when operating, but it's certainly much quieter than my Toshiba N300 drive which easily drowns out the WD when both are being used. The drive also runs cool, topping out at around 45C when writing in an open air environment with plenty of ventilation.The only complaint I would have is that WD are still not using USB-C connectors, having to keep a specialised USB Micro-B cable around is a real pain when everything else I use has USB-C. It's a minor complaint, but the difference for a manufacturer to use USB-C over Micro-B is around 25p per connector, so it's definitely doable from WD's side.Pros:- Runs cool and quiet with proper ventilation.- Large capacity for the money.- Shuckable should you want to remove the drive from the enclosure (this does void warranty).- White label WD drive inside, similar to a WD Red NAS drive (but much cheaper).Cons:- USB Micro B.- Can slow down after an hour or so of solid writing, but you won't find a hard drive that doesn't do this.Overall, thus far I'm very happy with the drive, sustained writes maintain a decent speed and it stays cool and quiet when in use. I've had several external WD drives and all are still working to this day, so I have confidence that this one will continue to do so too. Though if you have crucial data, you should always back it up, no drive will last forever!

When my NAS volume went "read only'' upon resizing storage pool (could be a software bug, could be just me, doing something dumb and unnescessary), I decided it's time to scap RAID5 and go RAID10 - as I had no means to do a backup of full RAID5 capacity anyway (remembering that RAID is not a backup... and losing 60tb of personal data would hurt a lot). I figured it'd be easier to just have one unified backup - than to salvage my current 18tb of photos and videos with my small collection of 5tb and 2tb external backup drives.36TB was within best price/performance bracket, as of March 2024. Anything less would not cover my NAS capacity in RAID10, and the 44TB version (which I would have prefered) was unreasonable 300 GBP more.Design & noise: I like the discreete black box design. But I wouldn't want it on my desk due to noise - same as my NAS. That's why they both live in a corridor's shoe racking... 3.5'' spinners are noisy, and this is no exception. I also wish there was a simple external button to disable the blinking white LED (I think design-wise it looks fine, however...) - I have LED's disabled on my NAS and Wi-fi router, but I can't do it on this one (maybe through wd software?). With everything enabled, it'd look like a Christmas tree down there, and I don't want it.Speed & reliability: As I'm writing this, my NAS is pulling out - 7 TB, 500 item - chunk of backup with sustained speed of 90-100 MB/s. There are random bursts of 200+ MB/s, followed by dips to 86 MB/S, but 90-100 MB/s is an average. Highest I've seen is 310+ MB/s - but that's isolated file/start of copy (which is a good speed for 3.5'' dinosaurs, imo.). I'm sure there's plenty reviews and benchmarks with speeds out there (that I haven't bothered to check) but this is what I get. I have it connected with the default USB-C-to-A cable provided - in out of box configuration. The NAS in question is TS-464 in RAID10, loaded with 4x WD gold drives, and I have it attached to one of the usb 3.2 gen 2 spec ports (orange one, at the back). Sustained speed is a bit underwhelming, but not unexpected - especially with data integrity check enabled. Thankfully, I'm not in a hurry, and I am more concerned about reliability. Unfortunately, I cannot comment on that, after just a few days of usage. It absorbed 18 TB backup without a hickup (though it took days...). I'm hoping, that restore will be the same. From there, only time will tell.Final thoughts: I see this as a good BULK BACKUP storage unit.I wouldn't trust it with 36 TB of non-backup data, as it is - in RAID 0 configuration. Marketing says "Free up valuable space on all your computers. Store and back up your photo, video, and music collections, and important documents in one reliable place". Not a good idea, imo. Even if the drives are reliable, failures do happen, and losing so much data would be terrible. More reasonable option for non-essential single copy storage would be RAID 1, but then you're looking at rather slow (in the age of nvme's), rather noisy, and feature-plain storage unit, with annoying white LED, and a price tag of 600+ GBP for 18 TB. In that case, I think even just two bay NAS makes more sense, even if it's a few hundred GBP more.But as a simple, user-friendly connect-and-backup solution, this is a good value.