I’m a proud owner of a WD My Book 750 GB edition with FireWire 800 – a trusted system when it comes to storing my media and using a second partition for Time Machine – but I guess I’ll be making the switch to the newly announced My Book Studio Edition II pretty soon. Western Digital has, in fact, revealed this new My Book product that goes straight to 6 TB of storage in RAID, has a quad interface, and it’s compatible with Mac and Windows. The best part? Western Digital touts the model as “Mac-ready” with HFS filesystem out of the box and full Time Machine compatibility.
The My Book Studio Edition II comes with the usual FireWire 400, FireWire 800, eSATA and USB 2.0 connections – no, there’s no Thunderbolt or USB 3.0 here. Still, you should get pretty decent transfer times with FireWire 800 – I truly recommend you consider FireWire for your next Time Machine or SuperDuper backups.
The My Book Studio Edition II can be yours for “just” $550. You could get a new iPad for that price, I know, but if you’re serious about backups and external media storage (hello, iTunes) you should consider this. Press release below. [via Gizmodo]
WD Introduces 6 TB External Hard Drive to Support Increased HD Content Creation by Creative Pros and Mac® Enthusiasts
New My Book® Studio Edition™ II Offers FireWire® Performance and Huge Storage Capacity for Today’s HD Content Productions
IRVINE, Calif., March 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Western Digital® (NYSE: WDC), the world’s leader in external storage solutions, today introduced its My Book® Studio Edition™ II dual-drive storage system with a massive 6 terabytes (TB) of storage to meet the capacity needs of today’s creative pros and Mac® enthusiasts who create, store, edit and archive large HD video and photo files. The new capacity provides users 33 percent more storage than the previous capacity, while maintaining the same footprint.
Combining its extended 6 TB storage capacity and compatibility with Apple® Time Machine®, the new My Book Studio Edition II drive becomes an instant storage solution for a variety of professions including art and design, photography, legal and medical, and a host of other small businesses.
The system offers a quad interface providing maximum performance and flexibility including eSATA and FireWire® 800 when maximum performance is essential, and FireWire 400 and USB 2.0 when system flexibility is most important.
“Thanks to advancements in HD video devices including digital SLR cameras and HD video cameras, the quality and quantity of video content being produced by professionals and enthusiasts alike has grown at an astounding pace,” said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD’s branded products group. “The My Book Studio Edition II drive now available with 6 TB of storage provides creative individuals with the expanded storage and bandwidth they need to effectively shoot, edit, and safely store their video productions without the need to compress their videos or reduce the overall quality of them for the sake of available space.”
Extra-fast Performance and RAID Supported Configurations
Fast eSATA or FireWire 800 interfaces, combined with RAID-supported configurations, will yield the speed and responsiveness users need for a variety of tasks including fast, smooth video editing; rendering complex 3D objects or special effects, and saving/transferring enormous blocks of data in a fraction of the time it once took.
Formatted for Mac computers(1), these new storage systems feature:
Massive 6 TB capacity;
Extra-fast performance with four interfaces (FireWire 800/400, eSATA, USB 2.0);
Cool, eco-friendly operation with WD’s drives with WD GreenPower Technology that consume approximately one-third less power than standard dual-drive external storage systems and efficient convection cooling architecture and power-saving mode and designed without a fan to run quietly;
Automatic and continuous backup software;
User serviceability, enabling the user to open the enclosure and replace the drive inside;
Capacity gauge to see at a glance how much space is available on the system; and,
5-year limited warranty.
Pricing and Availability
My Book Studio Edition II dual-drive storage systems are available now at WD’s online store (http://www.wdstore.com/). MSRP for the My Book Studio Edition II 6 TB drive is $549.99 USD.
