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.
