Western Digital lets loose mammoth 4TB external hard drive

It doesn’t seem so long ago we were oohing and ahhing that an external hard drive could hold a terabyte (TB) of data, then a couple... and the march continues unabated. Western Digital (WD) has followed on from its 2TB MyBook with the release of the 4TB dual-drive My Book Studio Edition II.

Designed for the Mac faithful, the 4TB My Book is formatted for Mac computers and compatible with Apple Time Machine for automatic backing-up. The dual-drive RAID 0 configuration (which improves speed but doesn't provide data redundancy) and high-speed interfaces (eSATA and FireWire® 800, along with FireWire® 400 and USB 2.0) combine to deliver fast data transfer needed for smooth video editing, rendering 3D objects and special effects or saving large quantities of data.

The drive can also also be mirrored in a RAID 1 configuration and although the systems are user serviceable, meaning users can swap new drives in and out, the choice of drives is limited to WD’s GreenPower drives, which consume approximately one-third less power than standard dual-drive external storage systems. This restriction is because the system is fanless, relying on efficient cooling architecture and power saving mode to keep the unit’s temperature down.

The rate of increase does make you wonder: how much do we need? The way we're all gorging on digital content and will continue to do for some time, the answer must still be: more, please. Much more.

For the time being, My Book Studio Edition II dual-drive storage systems are available at select retailers or from WD’s online store. Recommended price is USD$650.

With 4 TB of storage space across two drives the new My Book Studio Edition II external storage systems support RAID 0 functionality and