Western Digital Launches 22 TB HDD for Consumers in Updated My Book Portfolio
by Ganesh T S on February 15, 2023 8:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Western Digital
- Storage
- HDDs
- DAS
- My Book
- My Book Duo
Western Digital's 22 TB hard disk drives hit retail in July 2022, with a trio of products catering to the prosumer and business / enterprise markets. Today, the company is announcing an update to their portfolio of HDD-using direct-attached storage products - the My Book and My Book Duo. These products now come in new SKUs utilizing 22 TB HDDs tweaked for consumer workloads.
The My Book is an external storage solution that comes with a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A interface and utilizes a single hard disk. It requires an external power adapter. On the other hand, the My Book Duo is a dual-drive solution with hardware RAID. By default, the drives are configured in RAID-0. The product also includes hub functionality. It comes with a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C interface and also has two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A downstream ports. Both products come with 256-bit hardware encryption support (requires WD Security software installation on client system to configure and use passwords). The WD Backup software component is also available for both systems in order to enable easy configuration of backups.
Previous WD My Book Duo releases used WD Red hard drives, but the company has not publicly confirmed the nature of the 22 TB HDD used in the new SKUs. No performance numbers were provided, but it is expected to be in the same ballpark as the previous generation SKUs.
| Western Digital's WD My Book (2023) External Storage Devices | ||||||||
| Capacity | Transfer Rate | Interface | Dimensions | Model Number | Price | |||
| 4 TB | Up to 250 MB/s, depends on model |
USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A | Height: 170.6 mm / 6.7” Length: 139.3 mm / 5.5” Width: 49 mm / 1.9" |
WDBBGB0040HBK | $95 | |||
| 6 TB | WDBBGB0060HBK | $119 | ||||||
| 8 TB | WDBBGB0080HBK | $140 | ||||||
| 12 TB | WDBBGB0120HBK | $237 | ||||||
| 14 TB | WDBBGB0140HBK | $280 | ||||||
| 16 TB | WDBBGB0160HBK | $330 | ||||||
| 18 TB | WDBBGB0180HBK | $300 | ||||||
| 22 TB | WDBBGB0220HBK | $600 | ||||||
| Western Digital's WD My Book Duo (2023) External Storage Devices | ||||||||
| Capacity | Transfer Rate | Interface | Dimensions | Model Number | Price | |||
| 16 TB | Up to 360 MB/s?, depends on model |
USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C | Height: 180 mm / 7.09” Length: 160 mm / 6.3” Width: 100 mm / 3.94" |
WDBFBE0160JBK | $440 | |||
| 20 TB | WDBFBE0200JBK | $668 | ||||||
| 24 TB | WDBFBE0240JBK | $900 | ||||||
| 28 TB | WDBFBE0280JBK | $1200 | ||||||
| 36 TB | WDBFBE0360JBK | $1500 | ||||||
| 44 TB | WDBFBE0440JBK | $1500 | ||||||
The company already has the new SKUs available for purchase in the retail market. The 22 TB My Book is priced at $600 (commensurate with the pricing of the bare 22 TB drives introduced last year), while the 44 TB My Book Duo is priced at $1500. A $300 premium for a RAID-0 / RAID-1 controller and a couple of downstream USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports appears very steep, but that is the premium the company expects early adopters to pay (and is par for the course, based on how the previous My Book Duo SKUs were priced at launch). The single HDD My Book looks to be a cost-effective solution for consumers looking for an off-the-shelf backup solution with high capacity requirements.
Source: Western Digital
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meacupla - Wednesday, February 15, 2023 - link
So the 18TB is $300, which is cheaper than the 16TB, and better value than the 14TB?Why even buy the 16TB model? Does the 18TB use SMR, where as the 14/16 use CMR?
Slaimus - Wednesday, February 15, 2023 - link
They are using current Amazon prices and the 18TB happens to be on sale.meacupla - Thursday, February 16, 2023 - link
Well, the WD 18TB goes on sale year round. Sometimes it's at Amazon, most times it's at Bestbuy.The price average is more like $260, with the lowest ever price being $210 or there abouts.
ballsystemlord - Wednesday, February 15, 2023 - link
Data-centers have been buying far fewer HDDs recently. So, the 18TB models have to be sold to someone. As of Mid Feb, 18TB HDDs, from one manufacturer or another, have been on sale for the past 5 months.Squeaky'21 - Saturday, March 4, 2023 - link
These are all CMR 'meaculpa'.Dr_Derpface - Wednesday, February 15, 2023 - link
"By default, the drives are configured in RAID-0."The ONLY reason for that is so they can market it as "44TB" instead of 22. Because with RAID-0, it's functionally useless as a backup device, and if you change it to RAID-1, you lose half of the advertised capacity. And if you turn RAID off completely, you would have been better off just getting two drives.
As a scratch disk for video editing? MAYBE? Nah, better to build an internal array of SSDs if you need the raw speed.
$1500 for 44TB that's only 44TB when risking the loss of all your data is borderline criminal, IMO.
ballsystemlord - Wednesday, February 15, 2023 - link
Umm, you have your primary HDDs and your backup HDDs.That's similar to RAID-1 but with manual copying instead of HW/FW/SW mirroring. How is that "borderline criminal"?
dizzynosed - Thursday, February 16, 2023 - link
The risk of of loosing all data in RAID-0 is ~doubled than without using raid.MrSpadge - Thursday, February 16, 2023 - link
Sure, but you still have the original data that you backed up.ballsystemlord - Thursday, February 16, 2023 - link
Then you'd buy 2 backup duo drives and copy the same data to both. Or just buy 2 backup single drives and copy the same data to both. It's just a matter of using your brain and a tiny bit of effort.