Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1 TB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive (Midnight Black)
by Western Digital
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Our Price: $246.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $129.99 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1 TB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive (Midnight Black)
Customer Review: Great 1TB Drive from Western Digital
Summary: 5 Stars
I own it for two weeks now, and so far it is the best western digital drive I ever owned. I have 4 ealier 500GB drives, and I was happy with them. and as soon as I heard about this 1TB drive, I planned to buy it immediately, but DID NOT. Why? because of those bad reviews written by others. They were very convencing. But somehow I have 20+ years believe in WD products quality so I bought it and below are my reply to the raised concerns:
1- USB connecter 2.0:
yes it is a new interface, but believe me, I hardly can unplug it from the HDD! contradict what other people are saying! it is very tightly secure in the drive without any loose problems! may be they have change it recently! but I am very happy with the connection
2- WD software:
Western digital website already published a firmware update to remove (hide) their annoying CD partition and avoid their new software. so basicly this problem is history.
I am using this drive in both windows 7 and Mac Book Pro at the same time similar to the older WD passport model but with smaller physical size, and really it is working like magic in both computers with full capacity of 999GB (yes I have reclaimed the full hard disk size after using the new firmware)
don't make my earlier mistake and do buy this great 1TB drive ... it is really worth the money, 1TB in such small size! wow
Customer Review: No problems...yet...?
Summary: 4 Stars
I just got this drive from Best Buy a few days ago, and so far it's been great.
I was a little annoyed at first when I found all those files already on the drive, but I was able to reformat the drive pretty easily. I actually tried using their dumb software for a minute, but I realized how buggy and clunky it is, so I decided to use Apple's built-in Time Machine program for backup purposes, and manually manage files I want to store on the drive. Piece of cake!
I'm starting to have a suspicion that all the people who have big problems with this drive are PC/Windows users. Maybe Windows won't allow you to reformat the drive and get rid of the software they put on there for you. Maybe Windows doesn't have a built-in backup "wizard" as they would call it. I don't know anymore.
I don't mean to turn this into an ad for Apple, but I used to be a die-hard PC person until I was forced to use a MacBook Pro for a year. Now I'll NEVER go back to a PC. Using the computer has become so much simpler and less stressful, not to mention better looking and more fun. I don't have to "clean" the operating system every two days. But I digress.
Are there any other Mac users out there who can weigh in on this drive and give us their experiences with it?
Hopefully, the drive won't break down on me two days after I post this. Then I'd have to remove my foot from my mouth.
Customer Review: Reliability is an Issue
Summary: 2 Stars
I have been waiting for a 1 TB portable drive that did not require external power for quite some time. When Western Digital released the 1TB My Passport Essential I was excited and purchased one immediately. I would have loved a 7200 RPM drive and an e-sata port but the portability and size was my main buying points. I work as an IT consultant and have seen every manufacturer drive fail at one time. I have been purchasing Western Digital passport drives for my current company for the past 2 years and have yet to have one fail. I purchased 125-150 drives of various size from 160gb - 500gb. This was the previous model without bloatware or a virtual CD-Rom. I used this drive for about 2 months as a data duplication of an internal drive and to transport data. This drive worked fine until it just failed without warning. This drive was never dropped. Western Digital had me send in the drive (at my expense) and I am currently waiting on a replacement. This drive should be avoided. Western Digital's previous passport model was great, but this new model is quite a letdown. Data duplication cannot be avoided as Western Digital does not provide data restoration service under their warranty. Ontrack can work wonders on recovering your data but the service is not affordable for most people. This model looks great but as others say, looks can be deceiving.Customer Review: Negitvie Response
Summary: 2 Stars
I have replied (2) times regarding this to "FUNNY MONEY" the same issue with this product and to this date, I have not received a reply. Currently deployed in Afghanistan for a year. Very disappointed!!! The TB that was just purchased was working great for about a week.
1 of Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1 TB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive WDBABM0010BBK-NESN (Midnight Black) [ASIN: B002OB49SM]
To whom it concerns,
Very happy with product that I just received. I have an issue with the product and want to know how and what the (2) year limited warranty covers!! My problem with this product is the main port of the product is not working correctly and is defective. The USB port is working properly, it's on the opposite side. I have to prop it in a certain angle in order for it to operate. I feel that this is an issue; I have loaded this product with family photo and working documents of importance to me. I'm currently serving a one year tour in Afghanistan. I just had this item for a short period of time please help or provide more information had to correct this problem with this product.
V/r
MSgt Hernandez
The only thing I can do is ask, sice I have not recived any info on what to do !!! Does anyone know how to how to fix the problem!!!
Customer Review: Buy something else.
Summary: 1 Stars
I purchased this product last month and I almost wish I hadn't. The idea is great, lots of storage on something almost as small as an ipod. I was very excited to get this thing plugged in and start filling it up. Well first the completely ridiculous "WD Smartware" program is just stupid and useless. The idea was great, auto backup. Well all it does is make a window pop up when you plug it in to ask you if you want to open the program and then it slows your computer down to a slow crawl. It also is not optional, you have to either reformat your drive, or go into the preferences and tell it to not open when you plug the drive in. That aside, even without the stupid program running, this drive slows down my computer to almost a standstill the entire time its plugged in, even if im not using it. Maybe it's my computer but i dont think so, my computer runs great with my 125GB WD external drive. so its either the fact that the 1TB drive is getting all its power from my computer or the thing is just made to slow everything down. It doesnt transfer files very quick either, i moved 70GB of music from my computer to it and it took over 4 hours, that is ridiculous. it only took 1 1/2 hours to be copied onto my 3 year old 125GB drive. I would say try to find a better alternative to this drive, you let us down western digital.