Helping Consumers Keep Their Digital Lives Safe in One Place

LAKE FOREST, Calif., Sept. 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- WD® (NYSE: WDC), the world's leader in external storage solutions, today introduced its new, smaller, sleeker My Book® Essential™ and My Book for Mac® desktop external hard drives equipped with the new WD SmartWare™ software and hardware-based encryption. The new appliances visually present consumers' data in a software control center, providing them peace of mind that their precious photos, videos and files are securely protected. Available now at select retailers and the WD online store (shopwd.com), the new My Book Essential and My Book for Mac drives are offered in capacities ranging from 500 GB to 2 TB.

According to research firm Parks Associates, the average U.S. broadband household currently has over 120 gigabytes (GB) of digital media and files, which is expected to grow to over 1 terabyte (TB) of data by 2013. The accelerating shift from physical media (such as photo negatives, CDs and DVDs) to digital media (such as digital photos, videos and downloads) means that consumers' real lives and digital lives are increasingly overlapping. And while 70 percent of consumers back up their content, the majority of these people are using manual, cumbersome methods such as copying and pasting to multiple CDs and DVDs, and less than 18 percent use software that automatically and continuously backs up their content. As a result, many consumers' digital lives are unprotected and at risk.

When the My Book Essential drive is plugged in for the first time, the simple and intuitive first backup process launches automatically. The real-time visual interface of WD SmartWare software gives users a reassuring view of their backup as it happens. After the first backup, users' files are backed up automatically every time they change or add a file.

My Book Essential and My Book for Mac drives also feature user-selected password protection combined with military-grade 256-bit hardware encryption, which scrambles files before they are stored. Typically found only on much more expensive drive systems, the encryption acts as a virtual padlock to keep users' data safe.

"Keeping an extra copy of your digital life used to be a painstaking, manual task undertaken only by the most expert and diligent of users. WD's new My Book Essential and My Book for Mac external hard drives, powered by WD SmartWare, have finally made it easy enough so that anyone can do it," said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD's branded products group. "WD's new drives combine massive storage capacity, visual backup, and hardware encryption, so consumers can now actually see their digital life, safe in one place."

WD SmartWare software works on Windows PCs® and Mac computers. WD My Book Essential hard drives are designed for Windows-based PCs while WD My Book for Mac drives are formatted for Mac computers and are compatible with Apple® TimeMachine™, Apple's integrated backup solution.

Western Digital My Book Essential Edition Photo provided by Western Digital Corp.

Price and Availability
The new My Book Essential drives are offered in capacities of 500 GB, 1 TB, 1.5 TB and 2 TB. My Book Essential drives are available now at select retailers and online at shopwd.com. MSRP ranges from $99.99 to $249.99 USD depending on model.

WD SmartWare Software
WD SmartWare software features:

• Visual backup displays that show content in categories and shows the progress of backup;

• Automatic, continuous data backup will instantly make a second copy whenever you add or change a file;

• Retrieve valuable data to its original location whether it's lost data or the file has been overwritten; and,

• Customizable data backup that allows user to set drive security, run diagnostics, manage the power settings, and more from the WD SmartWare control center.

My Book Essential
The new WD My Book Essential and My Book for Mac drives with WD SmartWare software feature:

• Smaller, sleeker, more streamlined design and elegant book-like shape that takes up minimal space;

• 256-bit hardware encryption and password protection for peace of mind knowing that data is protected from unauthorized access;

• Illuminated capacity gauge lets user see at a glance how much space is available on the drive;

• USB 2.0 interface - for convenience and compatibility among multiple computers;

• WD GreenPower Technology™ lowers internal drive power consumption by up to 30 percent, a sleep mode reduces power during idle times, and a power-saving feature turns the drive on and off with your computer;

• Planet-friendly packaging derived from recycled materials to minimize waste;

• Ready to plug-and-play with Windows PCs; and,

• 2-year limited warranty.

The My Book for Mac drives are plug-and-play ready for Mac computer users and compatible with Apple TimeMachine.

About WD
WD, one of the storage industry's pioneers and long-time leaders, provides products and services for people and organizations that collect, manage and use digital information. The company designs and produces reliable, high-performance hard drives and solid state drives that keep users' data accessible and secure from loss. Its advanced technologies are configured into applications for client and enterprise computing, embedded systems and consumer electronics, as well as its own consumer storage and media products.

WD was founded in 1970. The company's storage products are marketed to leading OEMs, systems manufacturers, selected resellers and retailers under the Western Digital® and WD brand names. Visit the Investor section of the company's Web site (www.westerndigital.com) to access a variety of financial and investor information.

Western Digital, WD, My Book and the WD logo are registered trademarks; My Book Essential, WD GreenPower Technology and WD SmartWare are trademarks of Western Digital Technologies, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. Other marks may be mentioned herein that belong to other companies. All other brand and product names mentioned herein are the property of their respective companies. One gigabyte (GB) = 1 billion bytes. One terabyte (TB) = one trillion bytes. Total accessible capacity varies depending on operating environment.