The Western Digital My Book Essential Edition is an external hard drive.  I use it for recording audio and also as a back up and storage device for Pro Tools sessions and audio files.  For this, it has served me well and I can't say that I have any complaints about it thus far.  It does its job well and I generally don't feel that it is going to die on me (although I know that all hard drives only have a certain life span.)  The version of this hard drive that I have it one of many drives that I use, but is suitable for just about any type of use.  Even though I don't usually record directly to an external hard drive, the Western Digital My Book Essential Edition can definitely do that if you need it to and is equally as useful as a back up drive.  It is made of all quality parts (or so I am told) and has good specifications when compared to other external hard drives that are out there.  The price of the Western Digital My Book Essential Edition makes it a great choice for users on any budget as it is quite cheap as far as hard drives go, but isn't cheap enough that you would feel that you are getting a piece of junk.  I've had my Western Digital My Book Essential Edition for about a year and it is still going strong.  As long as you treat it properly and don't drop it or anything like that, it should last a good amount of time.  This being said, I never trust hard drives and if you didn't know this already - back up your stuff no matter what!  All in all, the Western Digital My Book Essential Edition is a sturdy hard drive that will be able to get the job done.