Western Digital My Book Studio 3TB review

If you have yet to upgrade to USB3, or you’re working from a laptop or Mac that can’t be upgraded, FireWire 800 is still the fastest way to access your files. Western Digital’s My Book Studio has both FireWire 800 and USB to provide extra compatibility, so you should always be able to access your files even on an older PC.

The silver brushed metal design of this external hard drive is clearly aimed at Apple Mac owners, but Windows users will still appreciate WD’s SmartWare backup utility. It’s able to monitor your entire hard disk, specific folders or even file type categories, so only your important files are saved. The interface is very easy to navigate and incremental backups mean that after the initial scan it will only refresh the files you change, rather than the entire backup image.

Performance when testing using USB shows the limitations of this interface. Large file writes of 28.3MB/s and reads of 17.4MB/s are about what you should expect, as are 15MB/s small file writes and 27.1MB/s reads. However, if you have a USB3 or Thunderbolt equipped PC, these will feel quite pedestrian.

The My Book Studio now sits in an uncomfortable middle ground, targeting Mac users that have yet to upgrade to either a USB3 or Thunderbolt equipped system. Unless FireWire 800 is a must-have, the cheaper Seagate Backup Plus desktop 3TB is a better buy and it’s got USB3 for when you upgrade your computer.