Western Digital Mybook World Edition

Network hard disks, of which the new Western Digital My Book World is one, sit on a home network and allow users to copy files to and from their computers or from other devices.

For instance, you could use one to backup your files automatically every so often, or stick all of your music and video files on it and play them on a games console or media-streaming device.

The last My Book World we looked at, though, had a big flaw: because of the way it talked to the network it was very hard to use it to stream music and video. The disk relied on the user installing Western Digital's Mionet software, through which all communication was done. That was an extra hassle and an extra layer of complication.

Thankfully that's all been done away with in the new version which retains the name of its predecessor. It looks similar too, although it's a touch shorter and slimmer and there's a different status light on the front. All in all it's not a piece of hardware you'd be ashamed to have on show.

It was simple to set up, as explained in the quick start guide: just plug it into a network port and run the software on any computer. Some firewall software may cause problems at this stage but for us, with Windows Vista, it was a simple case of ticking a box to allow the program through. Then it was a matter of – literally – a couple of clicks to set the disk up with a drive letter on our computer, at which point it was ready to accept files.

Now that it has UPNP compatibility the My Book will talk to consoles such as the Xbox 360, or other media streamers, so that you can listen to and view files directly from it, and it comes with backup facilities so that you can get all your home computers archiving themselves to it automatically.

It's a little expensive for the 1TB model (perhaps around 20 per cent over par) and the 2TB model is much worse value for home users (such large hard disks are still extremely expensive). Still, it's easy to use, which will tip the balance for many people.