22 Terabytes on a Single Drive! WD My Book External Hard Drive Review

VIDEO INDEX:
00:00 - Intro
00:38 - Price Point
00:52 - Comparison to WD Elements Drive
01:16 - USB Port, Cable, Power and Kensington Lock
02:27 - Compatibility
02:43 - Noise & Capacity
03:31 - Performance - Blackmagic Speed Test
04:13 - Performance - CrystalDiskMark Test
04:37 - Game Console Compatibility
05:16 - Backup Plan
06:05 - Shucking
06:53 - Encryption
07:05 - Conclusion

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[CraigLong]

You're right. A backup is most important with any drive which means you need another 22TB drive.

[daveschmarder-]

I was thinking about my first hard drive, a Seagate ST225 at 20mb. Amazing the progress of the last 30+ years.

[US_Joe]

Hi Lon - Funny this came up. I bought one of these and returned it - extremely slow. I was NOT getting the 250mbs expected. I seem to doubt the rpm. My solution was - I purchased the same size WD Gold at a comparable price and mounted it in a fanned external case ($29). Working like a charm ! Getting up to 275 mbs. BTW: This forces me to get another for obvious reasons. Just an FYI my friend - Regards👍👍👍

[gcraig]

Considering the lifespan of many hard drives these days, I certainly hope no one trusts one of these devices to be their only backup. I recently had a WD drive in an external USB enclosure mechanically fail at less than three years of backup use. Thankfully I have the same data backed up on two other devices so I didn't lose irreplaceable data.

[off-the-label]

Does it make a lot of thumping and grinding noise? Mine does and noticeably vibrates.

[KameraShy]

As they are compressing more and more data into the same space, I seriously wonder about the potential failure rate of these devices. From both internal and external causes. How does the failure rate of this drive compare to its earlier ancestors?
As for cost, I just checked and the 14 TB version (which I have purchased a few) is going for $220, which would give 42 TB storage for about the same price while reducing the impact of a 22 TB single point of failure. I use them for multiple layers of backup, including offsite rotation.

[wngimageanddesign]

Relying on these large capacity external drives is a fool's errand. You always need a 2nd identical capacity drive in order to have a backup for security. So, it's actually a $1, 200 cost for 2 drives. Backing up data is at a minimum, triple redundancy...a backup of the backup and usually stored off sight.

[jmr]

For offline backup I open these and plug them directly into my SATA port. Then backup my data to the drive and put it back in the enclosure. I've done that with previous versions of this drive. I don't keep USB hard drives plugged in and turned on accept one connected to my DVR. I believe the heads are parked when you turn the drive off properly. You only have to worry about them being fragile when they are powered on.

[condorX]

Note 2 my future self.

The #1 killer for external hard drive is heat. It's crucial you get an app that monitor it. I recommend Crystal Disk info.

Temperatures higher than 50°C are too hot for the drive, putting its sensitive and critical components at risk.

This is what happened when it get hot.

Parts of the circuit board might get burned or melt, making it difficult to read or write data.

Prolonged high temperatures will decrease the lifespan of a hard drive.

Electrical components can degrade and potentially fail.

The metal discs (or platters) that store data can expand and contract, causing damage to other components or even a head crash.

Warped platters can prevent the retrieval of data.

[davecool]

Got this same drive last month and it’s been great so far. Only annoyance is that the heads are pretty loud.

[superbaggio]

super thanks Lon, always straight to the point videos simple and informative

[CantankerousDave]

$582 with just one drive… Yikes. I can think of cheaper ways to live dangerously.

[samanthagriffinv.]

Perfect for running a Plex server you have lots of storage to use for you totally legaly obtained movies and or tv shows/music

[zapapnt]

Lon, to keep your external drives (and other things) from slipping around on your desk,
get some no slip shelf liner (netting type), from Walmart and cut pads, to place under
whatever is slipping around. 😁✌🖖

[mrtiff]

All your eggs in one basket when this goes up in smoke

[bmiller]

I would use it for backing up and streaming my movies.

[GamerFromJump]

PlayStation 4/5 supports up to 8TB. But you can only play PS4 games straight from the external drive. PS5 games _can_ be stored on the external, but must be moved back to internal storage to be played.

XBox One/Series can support up to 16TB, but are otherwise the same as PS5. XBox One, as well as OG XBox and 360 titles supported through backward compatibility, can be played straight from the external. Xbox Series titles, and XB1 titles that have been upgraded to Series specs, must be moved to and played from the internal drive(s). It is considered a Series game if it has an *X|S* logo on the game tile in the interface.

[DarkDrake]

Is it possible to watch movies on Sony Bravia 2017 TV through it?

[MisterMister]

Just shucked two of my 5tb elements. The components used to make these are shockingly scant and simple. If found on deals amd sales, they’re not bad propositions for the purpose of shucking them.

They’re running in my terra master DAS.

[mingkee]

Just for your interest
WD My Cloud Home can be used as NAS with login
You have to assign an IP and enter with the IP
Enable local access and setup username and password, and done.
You can even access from outside without the app (just SMB client) using port forwarding