Acronis True Image lets you recover everything, including system files, even if your boot drive is completely unreadable. If you have a need for complete backup for disaster recovery, Western Digital has licensed and branded Acronis True Image WD Edition software, which is available as download for free from Western Digital's support website. WD Smartware Pro can be linked to a Dropbox account, for cloud-based backup. The drive comes with Windows Backup and Time Machine support, as well as WD Smartware Pro backup software for timed or continuous file backups. Software support for the My Book Duo is good (aside from the NTFS driver if you're a Mac user in a mixed Mac/PC environment). The My Book Duo is more of a premium home backup drive. That said, the LaCie and Promise drives are made for high-availability environments, like engineering and graphics arts studios. Drive arrays with hot-swappable bays, like the LaCie 2big Thunderbolt 2 ( at Amazon) (Opens in a new window) and Promise Pegasus R4 ( at Amazon) (Opens in a new window), are easier to replace, though. Replacement drive assemblies from Western Digital will come with guide pins that make the process easy. You just pop the lid, unscrew a bracket, and slide the drive out vertically. If one of the drive assemblies in the enclosure goes bad, an LED light on the front panel will let you know by blinking red. (Opens in a new window) Read Our Promise Pegasus R4 Review The My Book Duo is also available in a 4TB capacity ($279.99), 6TB capacity ($349.99), and 12TB capacity ($649.99). The hub will help you use the drive with Windows laptops that have only one or two USB ports. You can connect an additional drive for more storage, plug in a mouse or keyboard, or even charge your phone or tablet using the ports. The dual USB 3.0 ports are unique among external desktop drives. The back panel has a jack for the AC adapter, a USB 3.0 micro-b port for the included USB cable, and two upstream USB 3.0 ports for additional storage and charging your devices like a smartphone or tablet. The silver-gray chassis has a charcoal-gray inset, where you'll find the drive's power light and RAID status lights. It measures about 6.5 by 4 by 6.25 (HWD) and about 5 pounds, so it's definitely a drive that will stay at your desk, rather than travel with you. The chassis is looks similar to the Western Digital My Book Thunderbolt Duo and the Western Digital My Book Studio ($399.97 at Amazon) (Opens in a new window), aside from the two status LEDs for the dual hard drives. Read our editorial mission (Opens in a new window) & see how we test (Opens in a new window). Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make better buying decisions. This is a little disappointing, because Seagate drives come with a NTFS driver for the Mac that lets you use them with both Macs and Windows PCs without reformatting (for example, if you need to quickly transfer data between systems in a mixed office). The drive will work with Macs, so long as you reformat the drive to HFS+. The default RAID 0 setting gives the best performance, so that's how we tested the drive. That way if one fails, you still have the second copy to work with. In a RAID 1 configuration, the My Book Duo makes two copies of each file: one on each physical drive assembly. Simply put, RAID 0 gives you one 8TB logical drive, JBOD gives you two individual 4TB drives, and RAID 1 gives you one 4TB drive that protects your data in case one physical drive assembly fails. You can use the included WD utility to reconfigure the drive for RAID 1 mirroring (4 terabytes), or setup as JBOD (just a bunch of disks). The My Book Duo comes formatted for NTFS, with two 4TB drives striped in a RAID 0 array (8 terabytes total space). This is one of the most spacious backup drives on the market. Music, photo, and video collectors, as well as other digital pack rats, should put this on their short list. Most external drives max out at 4TB or 6TB, but the My Book Duo ( at Amazon) (Opens in a new window) gives you a roomy 8TB of local storage. If you're on the hunt for a basic desktop-class external hard drive with lots of space, then the Western Digital My Book Duo ($449.99) is worth a long look. Involved process to replace hard drives.How to Set Up Two-Factor Authentication.How to Record the Screen on Your Windows PC or Mac.How to Convert YouTube Videos to MP3 Files.How to Save Money on Your Cell Phone Bill.How to Free Up Space on Your iPhone or iPad.How to Block Robotexts and Spam Messages.
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