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WD My Book Live 3TB Personal Cloud Storage NAS Share Files and Photos

3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 1,466 ratings
$250.00
FREE Returns
3 TB
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Purchase options and add-ons

Digital Storage Capacity 3 TB
Hard Disk Interface USB 1.1
Connectivity Technology Ethernet
Brand Western Digital
Special Feature NAS
Hard Disk Form Factor 3.5 Inches
Hard Disk Description Desktop
Compatible Devices Desktop
Installation Type External Hard Drive
Color Charcoal

About this item

  • Centralize and share media on your home network
  • Back up all your PC and Mac computers
  • View your photo collection with your iPhone
  • Stream media to your entertainment center
  • Centralize and share media on your home network
  • Back up all your PC and Mac computers
  • View your photo collection with your iPhone
  • Stream media to your entertainment center

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WD My Book Live 3TB Personal Cloud Storage NAS Share Files and Photos
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Top Brand: Western Digital

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Product Description

Product Description

WD's My Book Live home network drive allows you to consolidate your media in one central location for everyone on your wired or wireless network to access and enjoy. Automatically back up your PC and Mac computers to one safe place and stream your media to your entertainment center.

From the Manufacturer

My Book® Live™ Personal Cloud Storage - Shared storage for computers, tablets, and smartphones.

Connect this powerful drive to your wireless router for shared storage on your home network that you can access within and outside the home. Share files with Mac computers and PCs, stream media to your television through your DLNA™-enabled devices, and access files remotely with the WD 2go app and website.

Create your own personal cloud.
Access your files at home or away with your Mac®, PC, smartphone and iPad®. Stream videos, music, and photos to your connected TV, game console or media player. Centralized storage and wireless backup.
Connect the drive to your wireless router to provide shared storage and wireless backup for all the PC and Mac computers on your home network. Brawn and brains for all your applications.
A built-in, high-powered CPU gives you the horsepower you need for the most demanding applications. Stream media seamlessly and transfer files without skipping a beat. Features at a glance
  • Storage and backup for PC and Mac computers
  • Remote access and apps for your mobile devices
  • Stream media to your entertainment center
  • Built-in 800 MHz CPU for uncompromising speed
  • 3-year limited warranty

Your media and files on your own personal cloud - Create your own personal cloud, without the monthly fees and mysterious location of your data. Store your media and files on the drive and access them securely over the Internet with any PC or Mac computer. Or, use WD's mobile apps for easy access with your tablet or smartphone. It's like having up to 3 TB of extra storage for your mobile device.

Now streaming to your HDTV - Watch your daughter's birthday party video or show off your vacation slideshow on your TV. The built-in media server streams music, photos and movies to any DLNA-certified multimedia device such as a WD TV Live network media player, Blu-ray Disc™ player, Xbox 360®, PlayStation® 3, and connected TV. DLNA 1.5 & UPnP™ certified.

Shared storage for all your computers - Now you can store your entire family's movies, music, photos, and important files to one place for everyone in the home to share. Just plug the drive into your wireless router so that you can store and access files with any PC or Mac computer in your home.

Automatic, wireless backup for all your computers - Protect your precious memories and wirelessly back up all the PC and Mac computers on your network to one reliable location. Windows users can use the included WD SmartWare software and every time you save something, it's instantly backed up. Mac users can utilize all the features of Apple® Time Machine™ backup software to protect their data.

Speed without compromise - Built with an 800 MHz CPU for maximum performance to power all your applications from streaming to remote access. Designed around the most recent advances in Ethernet chip technology, this product delivers best-in-class read speeds faster than traditional USB 2.0 drives.

Serve up your music with iTunes® - The drive includes iTunes server support so you can centralize your music and video collection and stream it to any Mac or PC with iTunes.

Easy to set up, easy to find on your network- Set up is a snap. In just a few minutes, you're up and running. Mac, Windows® 7, and Windows Vista® computers will automatically find your My Book Live drive in seconds. If you're running Windows XP, our simple discovery software makes it easy to set up the drive.

Ideal for

  • Storing your digital media collection on your wired or wireless network
  • Sharing videos, music, and photos with all the computers on your network
  • Backing up data from all the PCs and Mac computers in your home
  • Viewing photos and files with your iPhone®, iPad®, iPod touch®, or Android™ smartphone
  • Streaming media to your Blu-ray Disc™ players, game consoles, media players, or other DNLA/UPnP devices on your home network

What's in the box
Network drive, Ethernet cable, AC power adapter, Installation and software CD, Quick Install Guide.

Compatibility
Windows XP (SP3), Windows Vista, Windows 7
Mac OS® X Leopard or Snow Leopard
DLNA/UPnP enabled devices

For more great WD products, visit the Western Digital Store at Amazon.com



Home Network Storage
Comparison Chart My Book Live My Book Live Duo Shared storage for computers, tablets and smartphones. Dual-drive shared storage for computers, tablets and smartphones. Interface Gigabit Ethernet Gigabit Ethernet Capacity range 1 TB - 3 TB 4 TB - 6 TB Automatic Backup Compatible with Apple® Time Machine® Mac and PC compatible Unlimited computer backups Securly share files with unlimited users Stream to connected devices with integrated DLNA server WD 2go™ secure remote access WD 2go
File viewer mobile app WD Photos™
Photo viewer mobile app RAID 1 enabled for double-safe backup User serviceable

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WD My Book Live 3TB Personal Cloud Storage NAS Share Files and Photos

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Customer reviews

3.8 out of 5 stars
3.8 out of 5
1,466 global ratings

Customers say

Customers like the ease of installation of the computer drive or storage. For example, they mention it's simple to connect to their network and understand. That said, some complain about the connectivity. Opinions are mixed on performance, speed, quality, value, and ease of use.

AI-generated from the text of customer reviews

357 customers mention267 positive90 negative

Customers find the installation of the computer drive or storage to be fairly easy, straightforward, and simple. They also say it's simple to connect to their network, comes with basic file shares, and is easy to understand and populate with contents. Customers also mention that the iPhone apps are well laid out and easy to use.

"...The 2 TB drive is just as good and the set up and use has been very good. Can recommend both the 1 TB and the 2 TB version. Both are great." Read more

"...Set up the software on the Macs first, amazingly easy. Set up Time Machine, amazingly easy. Started backups, amazingly slow...." Read more

"...For me the best features are...- easy setup - great features - low price- fast Read speeds-..." Read more

"...Install was simple...." Read more

129 customers mention124 positive5 negative

Customers like the storage of the computer drive. They say it's a great personal cloud storage, with plenty of space to load your media. Customers also say it provides stable storage for a small home network, and is relatively cheap. They appreciate the speed and the fact that it'll stream movies and gigabit data.

"...and liked to make room for the next batch, this is a great media storage solution that is 50% more flexible and valuable than you think it is...." Read more

"WD My Book 2TB is a very good storage for music, pictures and videos which you don't access too often.Pros-..." Read more

"...Everything transfered over as it should and it now holds almost all of my data...." Read more

"The pros: Easy to set up, low power consumption, lots of storage..." Read more

487 customers mention321 positive166 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the performance of the computer drive. Some mention that it works well enough for their needs, while others say that it doesn't work.

"...Well, it worked fairly well for this. The only major problems I ran into was getting the installation software to work...." Read more

"Overall: This comes nicely plugged with functionality. It does work, but seems a tad buggy and fails to perform well at all...." Read more

"...Toshiba, I tried the Buffalo Linkstation.... great hardware, but terrible software which functioned just like Windows Backup - wouldn't make..." Read more

"...Performs very well.... On my Gigabit network, the Read speeds are good ranging 70-90 Mbytes/second for large file copies to my PC's..." Read more

335 customers mention117 positive218 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the speed of the hard drive. Some mention that the speed seems just fine, while others say that it's amazingly slow.

"...as the interface didn't respond well to my mouse clicks and was very sluggish...." Read more

"...2-26-2011: The units arrived in perfect shape, promptly, in good condition, as it is the norm with Amazon's service: simply great...." Read more

"...Digital went to technical support to report the underwhelming transfer speeds I was experiencing...." Read more

"...Set up Time Machine, amazingly easy. Started backups, amazingly slow...." Read more

224 customers mention67 positive157 negative

Customers are dissatisfied with the connectivity of the computer drive. They mention that it's only as good as the internet connection, it keeps dropping off the network, and the wireless connections are suspect. They also say that the device is randomly connected to their network and that it cannot be connected to a UPS or a power strip.

"...(set up by my work and not uncommon) and I have been unable to try to connect to the drive without the domain data associated...." Read more

"...not come around to that... again, the speed.. makes it difficult to transfer so much data for the first time... But I will try to do it at some point..." Read more

"...My drive is now easily accessible as a music source, much like a connected iPod...." Read more

"...Following the troubleshooting guide, it seemed that wireless connections were suspect, so I switched to a network cable for the computer with the CD...." Read more

215 customers mention92 positive123 negative

Customers are mixed about the quality of the computer drive. Some mention it's a solid drive with some nice features, and is very reliable. They say it' s well made and a great bare bones drive for a basic home network setup. However, others say that the reliability is poor, hard drives do fail, and they become corrupted after a few days or a week.

"...on a new drive...when this thing works, it is GREAT... just the reliability is poor...." Read more

"...2-26-2011: The units arrived in perfect shape, promptly, in good condition, as it is the norm with Amazon's service: simply great...." Read more

"...The files are not HD, just normal DVD rips.Conclusions:..." Read more

"...This drive is perfect for viewing movies on your wifi enabled TV, with your mobile devices and well accessing your files via a web browser, but the..." Read more

202 customers mention105 positive97 negative

Customers are mixed about the value of the computer drive. Some mention that it's not a bad price, it'll be a nice network server for the money, and has no monthly fees. On the other hand, others say that it is a horrible product, completely worthless, and seriously flawed.

"...For me the best features are...- easy setup - great features - low price- fast Read speeds-..." Read more

"...Yes, this is a bit redundant, but considering the difference between 1TB & 2TB was only about $30, I strongly suggest going big...." Read more

"...I would still highly recommend this drive because the price is very good for the storage space. If you need a high end NAS, this is not it...." Read more

"...(yes, this thing emails you to tell you how it's feeling) and it was not happy. Rebooting. Flashing lights...." Read more

94 customers mention46 positive48 negative

Customers are mixed about the ease of use of the computer drive. Some mention that it's simple to access from various I-products, convenient, and inexpensive. They also say that it is very easy to configure password-protected shares and enable SSH access. However, others say that the implementation is shameful, the user interface needs to be simplified, and that it’s a bit clumsy and counter-intuitive.

"...NAS drives at the moment, tremendously easy to use, a nearly friction free user experience..." Read more

"...When it comes to the Windows Backup, there is some conflict that I cannot resolve...." Read more

"...While this may not seem important it will allow you to keep multiple versions of your files in case you need to go back more than one version...." Read more

"...Configuration:A few gotchas here as well. The registration failed several times before the drive was able to contact the WD website and..." Read more

A must have for everyone!
5 Stars
A must have for everyone!
After opening the box I noticed the weight of this product which was heavy, Does not feel cheap & looks good and blends in with my router. Setting it up for sharing wasn't that hard, But will take about 30 minutes, And depending on how much music/photos/videos you're planning on storing on it, It might take sometime. I added 23K songs and took about 1.5 hours.After hooking it up, you just go to the website wd.com/setup follow the steps then you're all set. Takes time but very easy to do.Best thing I like about this is the fact I can be out at work or where ever, Take a few picture's and instantly upload to my WD My book from anywhere with the WD2Go app (Which is free) No my music go where ever I go! I love that....
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Top reviews from the United States

C. Weaver
5.0 out of 5 stars Has Some Problems, But......
Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2013
Capacity: 1 TBVerified Purchase
I got this NAS storage unit to let me back up my small network of two Dell computers. (A GX-270 and a Dimension 3000.) I really didn't intend to use this as a cloud or media server only as a NAS. Well, it worked fairly well for this. The only major problems I ran into was getting the installation software to work. Under XP it was very hard as the interface didn't respond well to my mouse clicks and was very sluggish. You would click on a menu item and it would take what seemed like forever for it to register on the screen. (I had a few times when it didn't seem to react at all. On one app, it wouldn't install it and on another it installed it but I had no idea it had as I rec'd no on screen indication that it did. As for Win Vista and 7 the software seemed to work better there. It appeared that WD seemed to have checked it out better on those OSs than XP. (I understand why but this cost them a star.) As for the drive inself the only problem I really ran into was learning to use it. I use hand written batch files to run my private data back ups and after getting the WD drive set up right, they worked great without a problem. I also use back ups from Win 7, Win Vista, and, as I said the two Win XPs. After minor setting up pains, these two went well. I had the Quick View drive monitor running on the Dimension as that's not my gaming system and I like to keep background running apps few on it. All my drives "see" the WD drive fine so my backups run great. If you get one of these make sure to check the CD user's manual before you install and use. I does help you out. I also suggest not leaving the HD power down set on. I've had more trouble with this feature left on than turned off. The default it on but can be turned off or the time on value can be changed in the web feature settings app. Overall, not a bad purchase.

Update: 10/23/14
OK, at first this drive did give me some problems but since I reworked my systems and didn't install the WD software on any of the new systems, this drive has worked great. It's set as the backup location for all the Windows system's backup and restore settings and works well on these. The little back up bat files I use continue to work well and I've noted that the drive has updated it's own bios at lease once. (I've set it to tell me by e-mail if there's a problem.) Since it's been a while since I got this drive, I've had a number of power outages and glitches and the drive, to this point, has always come back up. I consider this purchase a really good one!

Update: 3/16/15:
I already have a 1 gig version of this item, and this is just to add that the review above is for the 1 TB drive. The 2 TB drive is just as good and the set up and use has been very good. Can recommend both the 1 TB and the 2 TB version. Both are great.
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David Burkhart
3.0 out of 5 stars Good features, Bad performance
Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2013
Capacity: 2 TBVerified Purchase
Overall: This comes nicely plugged with functionality. It does work, but seems a tad buggy and fails to perform well at all.

Western Digital claims on the packaging that their My Book Live can achieve transfer speeds up to 100MBps. Just like anything else, when reading the manufacturer's performance claims, pay special attention to the phrases like "up to" or "as little as". It most assuredly means that you'll never see those levels of performance.

I've done a moderate amount of troubleshooting to try and boost the performance, much more than the average user. So, just to be clear, I've given this device an undue amount of benefit before posting this not-so-shiny review. I also want to point out that I am reporting MBps (MegaBytes Per Second) and not Mbps (MegaBits Per Second). So, 100MBps is the same as 800Mbps or .8Gbps (80% the maximum bandwidth of a gigabit network).

To test, I connected the My Book Live directly to my laptop, an HP Pavilion DV7 with a gigabit Ethernet port, using the supplied Cat 6 cable. This configuration is considered by Western Digital to be "optimal". I found the My Book Live's feature of automatically adjusting to mimic a crossover cable extremely convenient, since I don't have any handy at the moment.

Write speeds have an early burst rate around 17MBps. But, this quickly slows during the first 10 minutes and hovers around 8MBps. My old Seagate USB 2.0 drive shovelled the same set of files into it's mouth at speeds around 28MBps.

I found reports in tech blogs that the Twonky Media Server greatly hinders the performance. So, I tried disabling that, rebooting the router, and running another test. It did improve things, but only by about 1MBps. Western Digital's website points the finger at firewalls and anti-virus software. I doubted such interference, but entertained the idea anyway by disabling both of mine and running another test. My instincts were correct - no difference.

Surprisingly, I did see a substantially improved speeds when transferring files between folders of the MBL. Very large files transfer in excess of 17MBps while numerous small files slow performance to around 11MBps. Insight: I should point out that the files are indeed being transferred on the MBL and not just reassigned to different folders. My initial tests of transferring files to the MBL put them into the default Public root folder. I later setup my own root folder and needed to transfer the files there. And, since the two root folders have different access privileges, the files have to be physically copied. Moving files between subfolders with the same inherited access privileges usually would have just reassigned their locations and would have been nearly instantaneous.

I gave a couple of calls to Western Digital. First, I called sales to get the scoop on what an interested buyer should expect in performance. The Sales Representative stated that buyers should be able to realize transfer speeds between 400 and 600 MBps (yes, megabytes per second). He was either a terrible liar or... uh... not so tech-savvy. Even the low end of that claim is more than triple what a gigabit network can support. I had already turned off my listen-carefully mode. But, I wanted to see how he evaded being called out. So, I pointed out that even the box only says "up to 100MBps". He quickly recovered and said the 100MBps was the transfer rate when connected through a 10/100 network. But, that would be a whopping 8 times the rate that it supports. Clearly he simply did not understand the difference between a bit and a byte.

My next call to Western Digital went to technical support to report the underwhelming transfer speeds I was experiencing. He responded that I should be realizing a (much more realistic) 20 to 40MBps. After describing my setup, he diagnosed that I must have a faulty My Book Live and that I should return it. I chose to dispense with arguing the similarity between my report and countless others. I chose instead to defer my decision to return the unit for now.

Update: 2013-07-04

I reluctantly decided to keep it, given the similar priced alternatives were all getting repeated reviews about sketchy performance. It seems to be holding up fine so far. And, the underperformance hasn't really gotten in the way yet. Though, I haven't been exercising it very much.

I am still working with tech support to get their cloud service (WD-2-Go) working. Their cloud service is supposed to be able to grant specific access privileges to specific sub-accounts. So far, I only have access through the default "admin" account. So, I can't share access with anyone without giving them all-access through the admin account.

Also, My Book Live comes with a "Public" folder which can neither be restricted nor removed. So, whomever I share access with, even if read-only access to one specific folder, will also have access to fill up the entire drive or to wipe out anything I might want to keep in the Public folder. I would have rather not had the folder than to have no control over it whatsoever.

Update: 2013-07-05

Before you grab up My Book Live thinking the network access and Web Access (WD2Go) functionality is "all that", you should read this latest update about these features.

Note the following features and distinctions between network access and Web Access to the My Book Live:

Network Access: My Book Live Users
- My Book Live user passwords are separate from WD2Go account passwords.
- My Book Live user passwords are not required unless setup and are not restricted.
- All My Book Live users have read and write permission to the "Public" root folder.
- My Book Live does not restrict users or folders with regard to storage amount.
- Any My Book Live user with access can completely fill up the My Book Live.

Web Access: WD2Go Accounts
- WD2Go account passwords must be at least 8 characters.
- The WD2Go account password for the "owner"/"admin" must contain characters in at least two of the following categories:
> Uppercase letters
> Numeric digits
> Special symbols (unspecified as to which ones)
- WD2Go account passwords are separate from My Book Live user passwords.

If a My Book Live user password is setup, the user must supply two separate passwords in order to access the My Book Live through Web Access.

In order to use Web Access (WD2Go) on a Windows computer, a Java program embedded in the WD2Go website will create a logical volume (a.k.a. drive) for each "share" (root folder) that you want to connect to. Once you have connected to a share, you are done with the website. From then on, as long as you have internet access, you can continue to use the logical volume as if it were directly connected to your computer.

To connect to a share:
1. Navigate a browser to the WD2Go website.
2. Login using a registered e-mail account and password.
3. Select your My Book Live (likely the only thing that shows up).
4. Enter your My Book Live network password (if you created one).
5. A warning should pop up about the JavaScript program attempting to run. Allow it to run.
6. Click the button next to the share.

To disconnect from the share and free up the logical volume's letter, simply repeat the above process.

I should mention (mainly for the techies our there) that Web Access uses a WebDAV connection for each share being connected. The reason I mention it is because historically, WebDAV connections are known to have problems from within Windows 7 and 8. In fact, I have just recently given up trying to establish a WebDAV connection from my Windows 7 computer to my new web host. (Well... not really - I seldom can walk away from a technical challenge.) However, the WebDAV connection to the My Book Live appears to work flawlessly on the same computer. My Book Live uses Windows NT 4.9 Server as its operating system and my new web host uses Linux. Hmmm...

For compatibility reasons, these WebDAV connected My Book Live shares are served up through Web Access using the legacy FAT file system. However, technical support assured me that the underlying file system was actually NTFS. A quick check of the properties of these logical volumes oddly shows each one with a capacity and used/free space identical to that of the System Volume (the C: drive). Once again, technical support had to assure me that this glitch in Windows had nothing to do with My Book Live or its shares. I just hope that I don't wind up with a message one day saying something like, "the logical volume does not have enough space available" when there is actually plenty.

This convenient method of using My Book Live shares as an extension of a computer raises some security concerns. First, if you dare use Web Access from a computer that's not yours, beware of accidently leaving it connected. You could unwittingly give Johnny Q. Public access to your confidential and irreplaceable files. And, even if you do remember to disconnect, the connection information may still remain stored somewhere in a hidden cache or a recoverable deleted file. Second, digging into the Windows registry, I was able to determine that the connection information appears to be stored at a system level. This means that if you share your computer with someone else, a separate password protected Windows User Account will not protect your otherwise private shares.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Shwetank Verma
4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
Reviewed in India on November 10, 2014
Capacity: 3 TBVerified Purchase
Easily configurable...Best for Streaming Videos/Audio to Smart TV.
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Holmwood
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent product with a few caveats
Reviewed in Canada on October 2, 2011
Capacity: 3 TBVerified Purchase
Fantastic value, sub $190 in later 2011, if you need just what this does. Some significant shortcomings. A rip-off at list price of $299, but who pays that? Obviously as time passes, prices will fall and this will rapidly be obsoleted.

This device sits off your wired network, and acts as a network attached storage (NAS) device. If you don't have a wired network, then it's probably not the best thing to buy. (indeed, if you don't you're probably mostly better off buying a USB/eSATA drive, which will be cheaper).

The advantage of this type of drive is that it will serve media (video, images, and audio/music) without any computer in your network being on. Nice.

This lets you pull videos (and other media) off it to your PS3/Xbox 360 (maybe Wii), or Android phone/tablet, or iPhone/iPad. All while your computer(s) are off/busy. Note that the Android/iPad/iPhone functionality is annoying in that to function properly on Apple devices, it eschews DLNA and relies on a custom WD app to provide a mere 24 hours of access at a time (based on obtaining a PIN and typing it in to your mobile device).

Annoying.

Straight DLNA (talking to and feeding video to ultra-modern TVs/consoles) works nicely, and WD includes a v5 build of the Twonky media server in the firmware. (Basically this lets the box chat to PS3's and the like). Downside of this is that it doesn't include the features of Twonky 6, so specifically it doesn't support playing MKV's on a PS3 or Xbox. Pity, as the device is theoretically capable of doing so.

It includes backup software -- note that this is not imaging backup -- which seems to do a decent basic version backup of documents, media, data, etc., as long as you specify what is to be backed up. This is definitely not "quick disaster recovery" backup, but they don't claim that it is. This is more "oh dear, someone deleted the wrong file last week" type backup.

Configuration is reasonably straightforward; WD has clearly gone to some lengths here. Once I got the device installed (a marginally painful process given that WD didn't seem to consider one might follow firmware update instructions during installation), it worked very nicely.

A fairly elegant (though sluggish) web interface made most tasks very easy.

Compared to low-cost NAS's from other companies, this is reasonably polished and performs quite well, as long as you can accept that WD doesn't supply/support more advanced versions of the media server they bundle.

If you want a low-cost reasonable quality NAS, and are prepared to put up with WD's bizarre software limitations (e.g., 24h limits on mobile access, no MKV), this is an excellent choice. I bought one, and liked it so much I bought two more, though I remain irritated at the lack of support for MKV on the PS3.
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Rolly de guzman
5.0 out of 5 stars Good item
Reviewed in Japan on August 27, 2014
Capacity: 2 TBVerified Purchase
It so very nice and good quality item
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Arpan Arora
1.0 out of 5 stars One Star
Reviewed in India on November 10, 2014
Capacity: 3 TBVerified Purchase
Still waiting for the pickup of the drive to be returned.

I got the wrong product...
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BD
2.0 out of 5 stars Problems with Remote Access
Reviewed in Canada on June 17, 2012
Capacity: 3 TBVerified Purchase
Bought this a couple of months ago. Works well for accessing across internal network, although write speeds are a bit slower than expected. The problem is with remotely accessing the drive. It can be difficult ensuring that your firewall/router/anti-virus software doesn't stop access, but after that there I am having problems accessing the drive through the remote access website, wd2go...sometimes its works, sometimes it doesn't. A quick search of the forums will show lots of issues that others are dealing with, many still unresolved, including mine. I think there are still bugs to work out and WD seems to be working on them, but I would have bought a simple external harddrive and used a service like Logmein instead.
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