Review on 💾 WD My Book Essential 1.5 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive - Reliable Storage Solution by Darrell Shreves

BAD: Cheapest electronics I've ever laid hands on. Taking this thing is like taking a piece of tofu. If the outer plastic was thinner, my fingers would go through. As another person commented, I had to "snap" the back panel when removing it from the box (the box itself was undamaged). When I plug in the DC connector I can feel the board on the other side moving. Finally, I have no idea why, but they now use a mini USB connector, which doesn't hold the cable as securely as a standard "B" size connector. I have other devices that use this mini USB and they hold the cable much better. Long story short, I have an older MyBook and expected something like this. not even close. The older one weighs about twice as much, is covered in aluminum with rubber edges so you can place the drive in any position, and the plastic connector panel is very durable. GOOD: It works and is pretty fast. This nasty firmware/software was pretty easy to uninstall. So it behaves like my old MyBook - just a simple plug-n-play hard drive. I bought this drive primarily for use with their WDTV Media Center. I wanted to make sure the drive was fully compatible, and it is. However, given the choice, I would probably look to other manufacturers if I just needed backup or portable data storage.