Western Digital My Book Mirror Editions are a great new form of data storage and backup. Western Digital is known for high quality external storage drives, but they have now added an extra layer of security with the ability to set RAID 1 or 0 on the Mirror Editions. Whether you need external storage for business or personal reasons, these drives are worth looking into.

These units are currently available in two sizes, 1-terabyte, and 2-terabyte. Suggested retail prices ranges from $289 (for the 1-terabyte unit) to $549 (for the 2-terabyte unit). These prices are a bit of a hit on the budget, but can easily be found at discounted prices. Regardless, Western Digital has proven themselves and their drives are worth the money.

The overall design, of the My Book Mirror Editions, is sleek. They are encased by a black shiny casing, shaped like a book, and only measure around 6.54″ x 6.06″ x 3.87″. Additionally, it only weighs around 5.2 pounds. There is a blue LED light that indicates the units’ status with different blinking intervals, and is conveniently located on the front panel of the box.

Users have the option of setting up RAID 1 or 0 on the Mirror Editions. For a truly mirrored device, you would use RAID 1. This gives users access to half of the storage space indicated on the unit. The other half is used for a replica of your data. RAID 0 enable users to store data on the entire storage space, but lessens the amount of security as the data is not replicated on the second drive.

The Drive Manager is accessible via a small icon in the system tray. Simply glancing at the icon gives users instant access to the units’ capacity, status, and temperature. It also gives users overall RAID health. Users can also change RAID configurations through this tool; however, changing RAID configurations from 1 to 0 (or vice versa) will wipe all data on the drive.

Western Digital implemented an application called WD MioNet, which allows users to access their drives via the internet. You can now access your data regardless of where you are at. Additional applications and software are available, some of which are WD Anywhere Backup, a 30-day trial of Memeo Autosync, Google, Desktop Search, and Picasa.

These units are so easy to navigate, and use, that anyone – of any skill set – can find their way around. Additionally, software installation is a breeze. This being said, you do not have to be technically savvy to operate the Western Digital My Book Mirror Edition.

There are two drives in the Mirror Editions, which is what makes RAID 1 possible. Each drive can be easily removed, and replaced, if necessary. The unit can only connect via USB cables, as there are no FireWire or eSATA ports on the device.

If you are looking for an external drive for data backups, and would like a little bit of security with it, the Western Digital My Book Mirror Edition is the right move. With a little bit of bargain hunting you can add this unit to any network with a small dent in your pocket book.