News - Western Digital rolls out 4TB My Book World Edition II

[HEXUS]

Dual-drive My Book World Edition II touts extra-safe back up.

Read more.

[jim]

So you can get a version that has 4GB of storage, with two drives in a RAID 1 setup.

Am I missing something?

[scaryjim]

So you can get a version that has 4GB of storage, with two drives in a RAID 1 setup.

Am I missing something?

Yes, about 3,996GB of storage

You make a good point though. When *did* WD produce a 4TB consumer hard drive?

[bsodmike]

There will be 2x 2TB internal HDDs, hence ~4TB as RAID0; or so I'm guessing. Going from 1.5TB per drive to 2TB doesn't feel like a stretch.

I just picked up 2x 2TB Studio II units myself; am planning on running them as 1TB RAID0 weekly backups for all my data.

[jim]

Yes, about 3,996GB of storage

You make a good point though. When *did* WD produce a 4TB consumer hard drive?

Self

[Terbinator]

So theyre advertising it as 4TB becuase there is 4TB of volume however, theyre mirrored so you actually only get 2TB ?

You cant even get 4TB internal desktop hard drives from WD can you ????

[bsodmike]

So theyre advertising it as 4TB becuase there is 4TB of volume however, theyre mirrored so you actually only get 2TB ?

You cant even get 4TB internal desktop hard drives from WD can you ????

Nope, I do not believe 4TB drives are commercially available (yet, from anyone, or WD for that matter). RAID0 striped you get ~4TB, give or take a bit or RAID1 mirrored you'll get 2TB of backed up storage.

When I was last looking at HDD options for a potential PC build, I saw that 1.5TB drives were out. Hence, I imagine it can't be too far off for single 2TB units to be available; but for single 4TB units (now) is definitely a leap...

On the Studio II units, with the little app I can change it from RAID 0 to RAID 1 (etc) where it will re-setup the RAID array. I'm assuming you can do this with a 'World' edition though. Out of the box, I presume that it'll come as striped RAID0.

[Terbinator]

You can get 2TB single drives...

[jim]

You can get 2TB single drives...

Indeed you can, Caviar Green WD20EADS and Enterprise Green RE4-GP, with a Caviar Black expected soon.

Regarding my earlier post, clearly it's just badly worded in the article and it's two 2TB drives, I was just pointing out the inconsistency

[Terbinator]

i meant it foe the guy above my 2TB comment So my initial interpritation was correct epic win !

[bsodmike]

Indeed you can, Caviar Green WD20EADS and Enterprise Green RE4-GP, with a Caviar Black expected soon.

Regarding my earlier post, clearly it's just badly worded in the article and it's two 2TB drives, I was just pointing out the inconsistency

Well actually the first post says,

Dual-drive My Book World Edition II touts extra-safe back up.

That's the clue in the pudding

[scaryjim]

Given that the article says

Available in capacities of 2TB or 4TB, the My Book World Edition II - pictured right - houses a pair of hard drives configured as a RAID 1 array,...

it is somewhat misleading - the usable capacities are (presumably) 1TB and 2TB - the fact that the box contains 4TB of storage is a little moot if I can only back up 2TB of data onto it. Weaselish marketing spin, methinks...

[bsodmike]

Given that the article says it is somewhat misleading - the usable capacities are (presumably) 1TB and 2TB - the fact that the box contains 4TB of storage is a little moot if I can only back up 2TB of data onto it. Weaselish marketing spin, methinks...

Can one not put them into RAID0? With my Studio II units I can change it from RAID0 to RAID1 (or vice versa). Sure, RAID0 4TB isn't the best for backing up but it at least doesn't mean they are lying, completely LOL.

They should make it more clear on the packaging though, i.e. state it has TWO physical drives, each of size X GB and that in RAID0, so much will be available and in RAID1 so much will be accessible. It's hard to imagine that they would get anything out of misleading consumers as in most cases they can be returned to the retailer within a certain number of days.