Western Digital has added three new models to its My Book external hard drive series: My Book Home Edition, My Book Office Edition and My Book Essential Edition.
The drives offer automatic, continuous backup, synchronization and encryption of data, and each feature a capacity gauge to show how much space is available on the drive. The SmartPower feature powers the drive on and off with the computer.
The Home Edition comes equipped with a drive activity light and a power-saving feature that causes the drive to go into standby mode after 10 minutes of inactivity; the company said it will also “wake up” automatically when the user is ready to use the drive again.
The drive features USB 2.0, FireWire 400 and eSATA interfaces. It is protected by a three-year limited warranty and comes equipped with a Kensington security slot that is said to work with a Kensington lock kit to secure the drive to a desk.
The drive also comes with Google Toolbar, Google Desktop and Picassa software.
The Office Edition features a USB 2.0 interface, comes equipped with a Kensington lock slot and is protected by its own three-year limited warranty. It also comes with Google’s Toolbar, Desktop and Picassa software.
The office drive offers MioNet DriveAccess so that users can access the drive from anywhere and securely share the files on it for free for the lifetime of the drive, according to Western Digital.
The drive is said to feature tools that allow users to take control of the desktop remotely, to share a computer screen for online meetings and to gain access to files on any of the user’s computers.
The Essential Edition is equipped with a USB 2.0 interface and is protected by a one-year limited warranty.
The drives offer storage capacities ranging from 320GB to 1TB. They are available now for suggested retails ranging from $129 to $379 depending on model and storage capacity.
