My Book Essential 2 TB USB 3.0 WDBACW0020HBK-NESN VS SESN drive differences

WD External Drives External Drives for PC
1

Hi,

I am planning to buy My Book Essential 2 TB USB 3.0, but I find 2 models on sale, WDBACW0020HBK-NESN and  WDBACW0020HBK-SESN.

I would like to know what is the difference between them? and which one is a better option. Also what are the warranty details on them.

Thanks for your time.

2

Vikram

I went through all this last month whilst researching what to buy!

The Western Digital website is all clever CSS and pretty pictures but the dumb schmucks don’t even list half the products they have for sale - neither are they easily found!

I was completely confused after looking at the amount of models available on Amazon etc then comparing to Western Digital website site - which doesn’t even have any mention of them!

WDC need to list the drives along with the Manufacturer serial numbers so you don’t get caught out by clever internet salesmen conning you with a cheaper version!

There is complete confusion in naming My Books versions all over Amazon!

Anyway the My Book essential secretly hardware encrypts your data whether you ask it to or not! This means if you attempt to rescue your data by taking it out of the Western Digital box to plug into a standard Sata lead - you are screwed!

Spend your money on the My Book 3.0 2TB WDBAAK0020HCH-EESN

It is not encrypted by default (most backup software gives you that option anyway)

My Book 3.0 comes with a top class WD hard drive - a Caviar Black 7,200 64mb cache Sata 6Gb/s and USB 3.0

Mybook essential comes with a ‘green’ slower hard drive which is why its cheaper!

2TB is also a good size choice - cos Windows XP is limited to 2TB hard drives if you ever retro-fit the drive as a Sata internal & still rely on solid, stable XP!

You don’t get software with My Book 3.0

Try Cobian (free) data backup or Macrium or Acronis 2011 (about £20 uk) I think they sorted most of the problems after the new release.

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3

Thanks for the reply!

In this part of the world where I live, i have only those 2 options available… now i am in a fix, without knowing what I am about to buy I am very much skeptical about buying either of them.

If you can breif me the differences based on your research, it would be great. 

thanks for your time.

4

Hi there, those drives are exactly the same, the difference is the revision. The real model number is WDBACW0020HBK, all that follows after the dash is information related to the sales regions, firmware, production date, so it’s something that relates to the manufacturing process and/or batch.

The warranty is the same and worldwide for the model WDBACW, which is 2 years. And the drive inside those drives is a random drive, it can be a Caviar Blue, a Caviar Green, a Caviar Black or none of them as explained in this article. The drives are considered to be the same even with different drives and firmware because the firmware can be manually updated and the controller of the drive (Which is what truly matters) is and works the same no matter the drive inside.

Do you have more options? What are you looking for in a drive other that USB 3.0?

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5

Great bit of info - thanks!

So I fluked getting a caviar black 6Gb/s 64mb cache drive then?

I thought that was what the

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX - EESN

means (in the UK anyway)

PS

I used Hard disk Sentinel trial to read the USB drive specs and Temp!

6

I got my 2 drives the same day and one has a Caviar Green while the other a Caviar Black, they both perform the same according to a benchmark I did with HD Tune.

The exact revisions I have seen here on the boards are EESN, NESN, SESN, FESN and AUSN, but who knows if there are even more revisions.

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I am looking for a ext hdd, to back up all my data, since I am gonna replace my desktop. Other than a good relaible drive and bit future proof, with good amount of storage, with cheaper per GB price. 

Is there a better drive in this category that you can recommend?

SInce there is an external power adapter, what would happen if there is a power disruption in the middle of a transfer or when the drive is connected to the system?  Would it potentially corrupt the data in the drive?

8

I would recommend the drive without Smartware. If you loose power during transfer there is always a chance of corruption powered or USB powered. I would buy a powered drive USB drives seem to have more problems. Probably from the barely adequate power supplies many builders use. If you can afford it it would be best to get 2 drives. When you get the new desktop I would make sure you have 2 copies of all important before you dispose of or clean up the old desktop. I use 3 drives for backups 2 are synced copies the third I use for disk images.

Joe

1 Like
9

As the others have covered, the model number breaks down as follows:

WDBACW0020HBK-NESN…

WD = WD… that’s a no-brainer

B = this is a branded product

ACW = USB 3.0 My Book Essential

0020 = Drive Capacity: 002.0

H = 3.5-inch form factor, capacity unit is TB, one drive per enclosure

BK = Black

Everything after the dash is for WD’s internal use… it does not designate a different model… or really anything anyone other than WD could possibly care about. :wink:

But, for nosy folks:

N = Sales Region: Pan-America

E = External

SN = Standard Packaging

So, the only difference between an EESN, a NESN, and a SESN (or any of the other xESN markings), is where the original vendor who received the drive is located… E being Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and S being Multi-City Asia.

I must also recommend getting a powered drive, based of the numbers of power-related failures around here with the USB-powered drive.

If you have absolutely no use for the password/encryption, I’d also second the recommendation to get an Elements instead of a My Book Essential.  Not that I’ve had any problems with any of my MBEs, but the Elements is generally cheaper, so why pay extra for something you’re not going to use?

Yes, if you do have a power outage while the drive is in use, it can be corrupted, but that pretty much goes whether you have external power or USB power, unless you happen to have a beefy UPS feeding your PC, so it isn’t really a deciding factor.

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Nowt nosy about any of your post - cos there are loads of swindlers out there buying ‘grey’ market goods from all over the World flogging gear to unsuspecting punters!

Without that info about the serial numbers ordinary punters don’t know if they are getting a correct drive for their part of the World which is covered by the local WDC guarantee (say for a Europe RTB)

11

Dear backup

My thanks as well.  I had the same question as topic starter.

This mess at WD is really unbelievable ! Why do people need to ask such basic information about WD’s products.

Your post is very valuable, since WD does not even get close to clarify their own products. I guess that people working for WD do not clearly understand themselves the differences. 

You wrote …

“My Book 3.0 comes with a top class WD hard drive - a Caviar Black 7,200 64mb cache Sata 6Gb/s and USB 3.0”

Are you sure that this model ALWAYS contains this  same model harddrive ?

Personnally I doubt it, because WD tells at some webpage that they DO NOT guarantee the model / type of HDD within their external enclosures.  WD even writes on that page  that ANY type of harddrive might be built in, as long as capacity is correct.