Passport Essential 2.5" 320GB USB Hard Drive
by Western Digital Retail
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List Price: Our Price: $64.99 You Save: $115.00 (64%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Passport Essential 2.5" 320GB USB Hard Drive
Customer Review: WD My Passport: a great drive in 2 versions
Summary: 5 Stars
I just bought in quick succession two WD My Passport drives: a 500-GB Elite and a 320-GB Essential (actually 465 and 298 "real" binary GB, respectively), both for backup purposes. Since I have both models, I will be posting this review in both product entries.
First of all, why Western Digital? Well, I have two Seagate internal HDDs in my desktop PC and no complaints, but lately that company has been making a lot of serious flops and lost much of its reputation and reliability. I did consider the FreeAgent Go, but user reviews were discouraging, with reliability issues and a mysterious and frequent write error in Windows, for which Seagate offered no solution. Toshiba and Samsung models had even worse reviews - they just "died" after a short while. While Iomega models seemed to be good, their design was a bit awkward and bulky, and they were too expensive. And I didn't want obscure brands, or worse, one of those crappy adaptations of internal laptop HDDs in external USB enclosures - I don't trust those little Frankensteins. WD My Passport's reviews, combined with WD's reputation, were good enough to convince me that it was the best choice.
Why an Elite first? Because price difference at Amazon was only about $10, and I thought it was worth it. I could do without the Elite's matte finish (even though it does look and feel much better), the extra LEDs and the crappy extra software I won't use anyway, but I think the Elite is a much better deal because it offers 5 years' warranty, vs. 3 years for the Essential. Definitely no small thing, especially for HDDs and for such a small price difference.
Then why was my second one an Essential? Because I live in Brazil. I had a visiting friend from the U.S. and he brought me the Elite I had bought here at Amazon and shipped to his home, but Amazon doesn't ship electronics directly here, and even if it did or I shopped elsewhere, freight and customs duties would do away with any advantage. So, I had to buy the second drive locally, and here prices are MUCH higher than in the U.S., and the price difference between models was much greater. So, I had to settle for an Essential, but this was no tragedy - it's a great product as well!
Both are working very well, and I'm extremely satisfied. The performance of both models is exactly the same. Don't expect anything close to an internal HDD's speed: the USB 2.0 interface is much slower, and the drives don't even come close to USB 2.0's nominal transfer rate (480 Mbps, or 60 MB/s). SiSoftware Sandra benchmarked both drives at around 18 MB/s, but this appears to be the market average and a realistic expectation for this kind of drive. But keep in mind that external HDDs are primarily meant and designed for *off-line storage* and *occasional* access, unlike internal system drives, which are meant for fast, *constant* access and where speed is critical.
Attention, Linux users: I tested the drives on Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) and it recognized and worked flawlessly with them - and much faster than Windows: up to 28 MB/s, as reported directly by Gnome during a large file transfer.
I reformatted the drives in NTFS because I have some individual files larger than 4 GB, so FAT32 wouldn't do. I'm also using TrueCrypt for privacy - it's great free software, available for Windows, Linux and Mac, and it didn't affect the drives' performance the least bit: its on-the-fly encryption is faster than the drives' transfer rate even with the stronger but slower encryption algorithm "cascades."
The manuals (in PDF files that come on the drive but can also be downloaded from WD) could be better. True, there isn't much to say about a device whose function is obvious, which has no controls and works out of the box, but what about WD's recommendations for cleaning, or detailed technical specs, for example? They aren't there. My only other complaint is that the provided USB cable is way too short, and the drives didn't work with a longer spare I had. But these are really minor issues, and don't even scratch these drives' excellent value. I still give them 5 stars, because the hardware is great, and that's what matters.
Since both of my drives are brand new, I can't tell about their actual durability, but HDDs are ALWAYS a matter of luck by their own nature, and the least that can be said is that WD has a better reliability record than other brands.
For protection, I highly recommend the Assorted Colors EVA Hard Shell Case for Western Digital WD Passport. It's a nearly perfect fit for the drives (the Elite and the Essential are exactly the same size and shape), offers great protection with an outer hard EVA layer and an inner soft foam one, has a neat inside pouch for the USB cable, and it's cheaper than Amazon's current recommendation, the Case Logic Compact Portable Hard Drive Case, which according to user reviews is too large for My Passports (though good for the older and slightly larger Passport line) - the drive slides and bounces inside it.
In short: can you buy a WD My Passport with confidence? Definitely so! Then an Elite or an Essential? I'd advise the Elite because of the longer warranty, but you can't go wrong with an Essential either. Go for them!
Customer Review: Wrap it with bubble plastic, glue the usb cable in AND glue it in your PC as well.
Summary: 1 Stars
Why? Because I accidentally removed it from my computer while transferring data. So what, you may say - you get yourself some corrupted files.
No, all I got was physically damage sections in my hard drive. In other words, it rendered my Western MyPassport 320gb pretty much USELESS.
Well, I know I'm not supposed to remove it without properly ejecting it. But it wasn't my fault. It wouldn't be my fault either if by any chances the power went down, or my computer froze. Now, physically damage the hard drive for that? My computer froze and shut down a dozen times and it's internal hard drive is still doing fine thank you very much.
It would make a fine HDD - it's size is just right (not much bigger than an iPhone, not too small to lose it around the house). 320gb is a fair enough amount for my backups. Looks nice.
But now a few other cons to it: it scratches (its plastic case) too easily and the usb cable is SHORT. At least is a common usb cable, but then again, it should have come with a larger one so I wouldn't have disconnected it accidentally thanks to its freaking short cable.
After that incident, I tried to format it. You name it. I tried using its own recovery software - it wouldn't pass the initial tests - too much sectors were damaged. I tried formating it both Mac OS Extended Journaled and FAT32. I tried NTFS. Results: it would work for a few files, then after a large one it would simply crash. Or after a week or so of use, suddenly the data were all lost and it would tell "The Hard disk is in use and cannot be ejected". Oh great.
I tried to write 0s (zeroes) on it. I tried the secure erase (7 times writing zeroes on it). I even tried 32 times-secure erasing process. It wouldn't pass the first 10% - too much damaged sectors. Now, for a simply and accidental removal? I mean, come on! A freaking flash drive can be removed without being ejected and still work fine. Any other kind of removable usb gadget can be without any physical harm. It could simply lose its system files or something. It could have just fragmented the files. But no...
I'm not here to rant about whether the warranty policy should be and even if I had returned it I wouldn't be happy with this purchase. And that's what my review is about - an unfortunate purchase. I was expecting more from this, a bit more reliable than it actually is.
Again, if you wanna buy this, make sure you put it on an altar away from hands, dogs and natural phenomena such as wind, fire and rain. And make sure you use a super-duper long range usb cable glued on both ends - glue it on your HDD and on your computer. Don't ever, never, for any reason, even being your power, remove this piece of junk from your computer without ejecting it first. And if by any chances it freezes or corrupt data while using it and then it tells you that "USB Mass Storage is in use and C A N N O T be ejected", well my friend I wish you good luck. You never know what lies ahead with this worthless piece of junk.
Customer Review: Disappointing data transfer rate, although improved from the older generation Passport HDD
Summary: 3 Stars
This product is indeed excellent for its intended purpose, other than the data transfer rate. I realized that this review is listed as most helpful *critical* review. Although I urge the manufacturer to improve the data transfer rate to match that achieved by some competitors, I don't mean to discourage potential buyers.
One improvement made compared to an older version of Passport is that this drive spins down during inactivity. The previous ones (mine is 120GB in silver color case) didn't spin down, even when the host computer was in the sleep mode. Another improvement is the power requirement. This product worked fine with a MacBook on a single USB port, even when the Macbook is operated on the battery, not the AC power.
For Mac users, like any external hard drive, I recommend to format this drive in MacOS Extended filesystem with journaling option. You can do this with Disk Utility of MacOS X, found in /Applications/Utilities.
Between the old 120GB model (silver) and this 320GB model (Passport Essential series), I also noticed that this model is slightly smaller and thinner. Sure, it is easier to slide into a briefcase, but I will have to see how well it takes the normal shocks from daily transportation.
Now, the data transfer rate issue.
This drive ships formatted in FAT32. In that format, I get a benchmark of 16.8MB/s transfer rate when I write a single 2.0GB file into this drive. I formatted this disk in MacOS Extended (Journaled), which is a lot more modern file system, and run the identical benchmark. The result is 18.0MB/s. Both of the tests were performed when the drive is empty (hard drive slows down when the filesystem is nearing full capacity). My computer is an 8-core Mac Pro, and the speed of the host computer is not the limiting factor. This is a hugely disappointing result, indicating that they used a cheap chipset to interface the drive to the USB 2.0 port.
In comparison, my Western Digital SATA 2.5" 320GB laptop hard drive (which is in this product) achieves 35-50MB/s with the same benchmark when installed directly in a MacBook. Also, this same hard drive in a different USB interface case delivered 22-27MB/s in the same benchmark.
I would give this product 4.5 stars if the product delivered 35MB/s.
Also as a comparison, Passport 120GB drive delivered only 8MB/s while an average laptop HDD of that size delivered 25MB/s.
I routinely copy a lot of data in and out of my portable hard drives every day, and any slight improvement in the data transfer rate can save minutes every time I use it, and to me, this difference is worth paying extra few dollars to use a faster interface chip. I truly wish that the manufacturers print the actual data transfer rate rather than the 480Mbit/s nonsense for USB 2.0 interface, which no one expects to see.
Customer Review: Excellent value for the money and portable to boot
Summary: 5 Stars
For the price, you can't beat the capacity and portability of these Western Digital My Passport Essential Portable Hard Drives.
Western Digital has a long history of producing dependable drives.ss
The housings are well designed and, with a bit of care, you can dissemble them should the need or desire arise. The drives themselves are workhorses. They are not the fastest, but they are more than adequate for most purposes.
I generally don't comment on other reviews of the same product, but there seem to be a number of misconceptions about this product thst should be clarified.
First, these portable hard drives are for usse only with USB 2.0 ports. Period. Machines three years old and older may not have USB 2.0 ports.
Second, hard drives are electro-mechanical devices. Hard drives do fail unexpectedly whether they are a day or year or more old. Hard drive failure is not predictable. So it you plan on using this or any hard drive to back up your precious family photos, financial records or doctoral thesis, make sure you have a second or third backup!
A couple of minor criticisms of the product. The supplied USB cable is on the short side. On the other hand, how long a cable do you need with a portable drive? In any event, USB cables are readily available and relatively inexpensive. A bigger and more important criticism is that Western Digital does not provide a cable with a second USB connector for use on those computers where a single USB port doesn't provide enough power. Finally, WD doesn't include a carrying case. Small things, to be sure, that wouldn't cost Western Digital a lot of money to include, but they don't.
You won't find any competent network administrator who doesn't have multiple backups and the reason for this is that hard drives do fail!
So if you entrust your valuable data to a single hard drive, you are making a big mistake. Always have at least two and preferably three backups that you update frequently. And don't assume that your backups are reliable. Test recovering data from them from time to time.
You might be able to recover some or all the data from a failed hard drive, but it can be a very expensive or troublesome process.
Just remember: if it's worth backing up, it's worth backing up at least twice. That's what the IT pros do - and it's what you should do with your valuable data as well.
Sorry for the digression, but I just wanted to correct the misimpressions that some people have left about these drives.
The Western Digital My Passport Essentials are solid, inexpensive, portable and very useful hard drives.
Jerry
Customer Review: Warning! please read. bad company policy
Summary: 1 Stars
I just want to write and let the world know what kind of company this is. I have owned 3 Western digital (WD) hard drives. All 3 have not lasted longer then 2 years, the most recent has only lasted 1 yr.. 4 months. But the kicker of this situation is the external hard drive WD make have a warranty of 1 year. but the internal Hard drives that are inside the units have a 3-5 year warranty. So I called WD because the hard drive inside the case went bad. So this is how the call went.
The phone rang, and I got contacted to someone over sea's and could barely speak english. I told him my problem and he said sorry it's out of warranty and there is nothing he could do. So i said the hard drive inside the unit has a 3 year warranty. he said well you bought the external hard drive so you only get a 1 year warranty. I was going no where with him so I asked to speak to a manager.
Mind you it's bad enough I lost all my info, but now I couldn't get a replacement. so the manager comes on and says there is nothing he can do. I said to him because I buy the complete package the WD makes I get punished. and if i went out and bought a internal hard drive and put it in a case i'd get a 3-5 year warranty? he responded back, yea. I said dont you think this is a little unfair? and he said sorry. So then trying to be slick I said ok so what if I take the Hard drive out will i get the 3-5 year warranty? he said no you'll void the warranty because they marry the case and the hard drive as 1 unit so they know the hard drive came out of it. But his way of solving the situation he said is they offer a service to recover the data, I asked how much does that cost. he said about $3k. I asked to talk to his manager and he sad it would take 48 hours for them to call me back. (still waiting)
Long story short, if you are interested in buying a western digital I recommend buying a internal hard drive and putting it in a case which are very cheap. Just search external hard drive case, and tons will pop up. by doing this you'll get a real warranty.
I hope this helps others from getting screwed. Good luck