Western Digital My Book Live (2TB)

Western Digital’s My Book Live is effectively a cross between a full-blown NAS device and an external hard drive. It’s a simple looking affair, book-shaped (hence the name) with a single status-LED on the front.

Physical setup is exceedingly simple – plug in the power and Ethernet cables, and you’re done. There are no other ports to confuse you, no stands to attach or parts to assemble. Software configuration is almost as quick: using the included setup CD, I had the My Book Live connected via my router in well under five minutes. The installer popped a shortcut to the drive on my desktop (at my request), and that was it. The software includes a tray icon to show you the status of the drive, and to provide a quick-launch shortcut for the management web page.

Security is simple to configure through a web interface similar to those you find on routers: you can create multiple user accounts, each with their own private share and controllable access to other shares on the device.

The My Book will back up your data using WD’s ‘SmartWare’ software, or can act as a backup location for Windows Backup or Apple Time Machine.

Media streaming is provided via the common DLNA and UPnP AV protocols; this’ll get your media to Windows Media Player, Xbox, PS3 and other compatible devices, such as smartphones.

WD claims read speeds of up to 100MBytes/sec. I measured an average of 44MBytes/sec and a maximum of 54MBytes/sec, when working with large (100MB) files, connected via gigabit Ethernet. It’s not 100MBytes/sec, but it’s still seriously impressive for a single-drive NAS box. If you’re after compact but high-speed storage, this is it.