WD My Book Duo 12TB dual-drive, high-speed premium RAID storage

I bought this specifically to use it as an external storage option for my Xbox One, which was down to less than 10% available when they released the update that allowed external storage in early June 2014. If you are considering this drive as an external drive for your Xbox One system, I can assure you it handles the task quite nicely! When I plugged the drive into an available USB 3.0 slot on the back of the Xbox One, the Xbox One immediately recognized it as an external storage device, and asked if I would like to format the drive. Formatting was very straight forward and very quick. The Xbox One OS also gives you the opportunity to name the drive, which I kept at the default "External" so you can tell internal storage from external storage. Another nice feature is that the Xbox One gives you the option to always install new content to the external drive until it is full. If you select this option, then anything that is installed from this point forward will be installed to the external drive, as long as it is connected. It's a great drive, very quiet, very quick, and I have no issues playing games off of it rather than the internal drive. Again, if you are considering this for an external storage option for your Xbox One, do it!

Based on the drive itself and the backup software, I would have given this product 5 stars--it is very quiet in operation, quiet enough to be left running full time on your desk. The easy-to-use included backup software can continually backup files each time there is a change or you add a new one (or you can choose to do periodic backups), and even automatically can keep up to 25 earlier versions of files that you've modified (you set the number archived). Why then only 3 stars? Because the drive comes with drive utility software that has a glitch. After installing the drive, before doing anything else, I ran the drive diagnostics; it passed the SMART Status and Quick Drive tests (both very quick to run), but about 30% of the way through failed the Complete Drive Test, which takes hours to run. I ran all the tests again, got identical results, then called WD tech support. Based on my results, they said the drive was defective, and that I should return it to Amazon, which I did. Amazon quickly sent a replacement--which again failed the Complete Drive Test at around 30%. Another call to WD tech support, this time with someone more competent, and I learned that yes, the diagnostic software that is packaged with the drive is defective. He then had me download the utility software they use in-house and use it run a complete test. 16 hours later (I'm using USB 2.0, which probably runs slower than if using 3.0) the drive passed, and in actual use since then seems to be working just fine. So because WD is packaging the drive with glitchy utility software I had to spend hours running diagnostics, talking twice with tech support, and returning what was likely a perfectly good drive to Amazon. Ridiculous! One would think WD would test and de-bug their software before packaging it with a brand new drive. Bottom line: The hardware is good, but don't use the included diagnostic utility, it will give erroneous results (unless they've fixed it--and yes, I did check for updates before running it). Instead, if you want to check the drive integrity, download the Data Lifeguard Diagnostic program from the WD site (I used Windows version, didn't check to see if there is a Mac version) and run that.

I purchased this drive largely based upon a specific need for a USB 3.0 product with 4TB of storage. I've owned many WD internal and external HD products over time and have not had any drive failures to date over many years. I purchased this drive specifically as a backup storage drive attached to a Synology 1813+ NAS unit. This required a reformat to EXT4 as the drive comes natively formated in NTFS. The Synology NAS schedules backup to this drive of selected folder shares using the "Time Backup" software available from Synology. I'm not utilizing any of the software included from WD with this drive (backup, cloud, etc.) as the Synology NAS has its own software for each of these purposes.

The drive itself is similar in size to other My Book drives. The plastic casing is certainly not as nice as the aluminum finish on the WD My Book drives that I have for my Macs, but it is similar to the black of the Synology unit and overall looks good. The power adapter is reasonably sized (not a brick), and the unit comes with a USB 3.0 cord for use with its single USB 3.0/2.0 port. WD provides a 2-year warranty with this product.

There are cheaper drives with similar specs available from other companies. However, having had drive failures with Seagate over the years, I'm unwilling to take chances with other options. It's important to backup your valued files, and WD drives have played a major role in my backup solutions over time. If I have issues with this drive, I'll update my review. This seems to be another winner from WD!

Edit/Addendum:
Following my review, another Amazon user asked me an excellent question, "Does the USB connection to the drive feel flimsy?" This is a very appropriate question given concerns raised with the prior generation of this same My Book device. While I don't own the previous My Book version in question, I did check the USB connector on my device. The supplied USB 3.0 cable seems to be stable in its connection to the rear port of the My Book case. I can't physically make it move horizontally or vertically with any significance - unless I were to apply excessive force. Modest attempts at movement of the USB cable did not disrupt the connection. I don't plan to move this My Book from one place to another (it's connected to my NAS), so I suppose that I won't be able to comment well on wear-and-tear issues with respect to the USB connector. Other My Book devices that I own are the Mac Firewire/USB 2.0 version. Those have never struck me as flimsy.

Update 1/18/14:
Since writing my original review, I've purchased a 2nd unit which I reformatted for Mac OS X and use for "time machine" backup. Both drives are functioning well and have had no issues. I'm still very pleased with the quality and function of the drives. Reading through a number of the questions regarding this drive, it's clear that the term "cloud backup" as assigned by WD to this drive is a bit of a marketing stretch. As has been noted by others, the "cloud backup" option is not intrinsic to the drive, but an add-on service provided by Dropbox and facilitated by WD software that a user may choose to run on an attached computer (I don't personally use or recommend that others use WD software). These drives are nothing more than a WD drive, in an enclosure, with a single USB 3.0 connection. If you are looking for "cloud" capability, other product options do exist. I do hope that WD changes its description of drives such as this in future marketing.

Be sure to check the various sizes, as the larger drives sometimes are only a few dollars more. In recommend getting the biggest drive you can afford as sometime you may/will need it. The 3TB drive was only $20 more than the 2TB drive which isn't much for 50% more space.

If you're a Mac user setting up or erasing a flash, thumb or hard drive up with your computer is super easy follow these steps.

1. Plug in the the drive
2. Open up disk utility found in your applications folder inside the utilities folder
3. Next select the newly plugged in a hard drive and on the right-hand side you should see partition click on that.
4. Then inside that screen on the partition layout drop-down choose how many partitions you'd like to set up. I generally go with one partition and just use folders to organize my files.
5. Then on the right-hand side you can name the partitions and select the format. If you are transferring video files I highly recommend you choose Mac OS Extended as it can handle files over 4 GB. Sometimes it's good to make two partitions and one using "MS-DOS fat" or "ExFat" if you might be transferring files to and from a Windows machine. The reason is Windows machines and Macs can read and write to the "MS-DOS fat" format but your files will need to be under 4 GB each as that's the maximum file size it can handle.***
6. Then click apply and your Mac will create all the partitions you wanted and you're good to go.

*** The ExFat format is new to Mac OSX 10.9 Mavericks and doesn't have a 4gb file size limit the "MS-DOS fat" or Fat32 does but not all devices like cameras & digital devices can't read or write to it.
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Be advised, these Western Digital drives use AES HARDWARE encryption. If the USB fails on the device - you CANNOT recover your data. Of course, mine died on the fourth day I had it - and even Western Digital cannot recover the data for you (as the encryption key is IN the hardware of the USB. Had to take the drive out and format it (lost all data). I suggest getting a drive which has AES password encryption not on the hardware - this feature not only does not provide you with any more security - it provides a second point of failure for your device. Don't learn the hard way like I did...