I went out and picked a shiny new western digital my book hard drive today since it is on sale at Future Shop. We use the older version of this external drive at work and I really like it because it is really quiet and has an auto on-off feature to make sure you get a good night sleep.

Unboxing photos after the break!

Edit: Here’s my quick review of the drive now that I’ve had a day with it.

There’s no real need for cooling since the hard drive is quite smart about shutting itself off when it is not active. Even when it is active, the temperature of the casing at the top is still not much warmer than 30 degrees. The front LEDs are actually light directed from the back, so they are not annoyingly bright when they sit pretty on your desk.

The rubber feet on it are actually quite good at doing its job of keeping the hard drive from being knocked around and muffing the sound of the hard drive vibrations. Its also really nice that I don’t have to remember to flip off the drive when I turn off my laptop for the night (I like my super quiet sleep).

I have not yet tested the back up software that is shipped with the hard drive, but maybe I’ll write a fanboy article if I do end up using it regularly.