WD My Book vs. Elements (4TB)

[Tando991]

Hey

 

I am going to be buying either the Elements or My Book @ 4TB capacity.

 

I just want to know if there is actually any difference between them. There is a £5 difference and from the comparison chart in the description on Amazon the only differences I can see are that the My Book goes up to 6TB and has some security/back-up software on it.

 

I will only really be storing a lot of video and audio files and it will be on almost all the time that my coputer will be on.

 

Thanks

[Mighty_Miro_WD]

Hi there @Tando991!

 

There are two main differences between these two external drives.

 

First one is the hardware encryption that WD My Book has and WD Elements not, which means that the models that use a password are hardware encrypted by a circuit board for protection against unauthorized access. The Elements if it has a standard SATA connector can be connected as an internal.

 

And the second one is that WD My Book comes with automatic backup software, called WD SmartWare Pro, and with WD Elements you can download the free 30-day trial of this software.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Cheers!

[Tando991]

 

Hi there @Tando991!

 

There are two main differences between these two external drives.

 

First one is the hardware encryption that WD My Book has and WD Elements not, which means that the models that use a password are hardware encrypted by a circuit board for protection against unauthorized access. The Elements if it has a standard SATA connector can be connected as an internal.

 

And the second one is that WD My Book comes with automatic backup software, called WD SmartWare Pro, and with WD Elements you can download the free 30-day trial of this software.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Cheers!

 

That is perfect, all I wanted to know!

 

Thank you Mighty Miro

[patrickjp93]

I'm currently looking for an external drive myself. What's the R/W speed on these puppies?

[Mighty_Miro_WD]

I'm currently looking for an external drive myself. What's the R/W speed on these puppies?

 

Hi @patrickjp93!

 

There's no exact answer to what the R/W speed will be because performance may vary based on the hardware/system configuration (for instance, file transfer speeds will be affected by the size of the file). 

 

Theoretically, the maximum advertised speed for both My Book and Elements is up to 5Gb/s in USB 3.0 mode and 480 Mb/s in USB 2.0.

 

Cheers!