Yahoo Shiny | Western Digital My Passport Essential 160GB USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive (Midnight Black)

Recommended buy | Western Digital My Passport Essential 160GB USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive (Midnight Black)

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	• Western Digital My Passport Essential 160GB USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive (Midnight Black) Western Digital Western Digital average customer review:based on 166 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Completely versatile...

...high capacity, compact, convenient, and style. The fashionable and functional combination of this hard drive gives it the stars and ratings it deserves. I can recommend this to anyone looking for reliable storage.

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I bought this drive because my laptop has a 60gb hard drive and I needed some extra space so I was hoping to find something in the $50 range but then I saw this and knowing western digital as a name brand I bought it. It came in just a few days and when I looked in the case I saw a solid black hard drive then I opened the case to find a shiny black thing with the equivalent shininess of a mirror! You almost feel like you shouldn't touch it or that they should include a cleaning cloth. It also contains a 6 inch USB cable. When you plug it in for the first time on a Windows XP a window will popup and ask you what you want to do with the drive. I recommend that you run the software provided. It opens up WD Sync which is quite helpful as it is part backup part storage. I selected my files and clicked sync then suddenly I get the message Power Surge on USB port. So I tried it again in a different port and I worked fine. I recommend this drive to anyone who needs backup and storage on the same drive.

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Recommended buy

I needed this external hard drive because it's portable and convenient plus my macbook's internal hard drive had too little space. It's very easy to use (just plug and it works!) and should have more than enough memory for everyday needs (pictures, videos, etc.). The pleasing aesthetic is also a plus!

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Not the fastest, but they get the job done.

I love these little hard drives. I have quite a few, in different colors, but Amazon sent me that e-mail saying "review your recent purchases" and this one popped up. So, orange wins.

Western Digital does not have the best reputation when it comes to their consumer hard drives (or their hard drives in general, I guess). Seagate tends to be the product of choice in terms of reliability. When I have really critical data, I always go with Seagate. When I'm making backups or carting around files I go with Western Digital. I've never had a drive die from either manufacturer so I'm not sure how much statistics play into it.

Western Digital won me over with their consumer line, however, because they're really attractive and small drives. Small makes it practical and easy to cart around (which I frequently do) and attractive is always a plus. The different colors make it very easy for me to know what drive is holding what without explicit labeling.

The drive is not known for its write speeds. In fact, I believe they are among the slowest (if not the slowest) in their class. There are several other 2.5" 5400 RPM drives in USB 2.0 enclosures that can outperform the My Passport Essential line by a significant margin. I believe it's up to about 3 MB/sec in some cases, but I don't remember exactly and you should check if this matters to you. To me, it doesn't. I'm generally not writing a ton of data. I'm not capturing digital video (from a DV tape)--which is something I wouldn't recommend using these drives for. I mainly put movies and other video I want to watch while traveling on the drives. Sometimes I'll back up my computer, too. Nothing mission critical, though, but that's the sort of paranoia I'd have with any portable drive. Given their line of work, they're just naturally more prone to failure.

But on the plus side, the drive has some pretty good read speeds. They're almost as good as the write speeds are bad. They're not best in class, but they're close. I looked through my magazines to find the read and write speeds so I could actually give them to you. I've seen this data in three different magazines. The one I'm referencing in this case is Laptop Magazine (August 2008, p. 84). The read speed (which tied for second place in their review) is 25.2 MBps. The write speed, which was the slowest in their testing, is 13.5 MBps.

If you're a Windows user you're going to get a little bit more than just a drive. I'm not, so I can't tell you much about the software features included on the drive. I just use it simply as a drive. If you're running Windows, WDSync is an included application that will help you sync your files as well as other things like web bookmarks and e-mail. You also get Google Desktop and 128-bit encryption. Again, this is Windows only.

The case of the drive, while attractive, is still glossy plastic and if you've ever owned anything made from glossy plastic you know it can take a bit of a cosmetic beating. It's always a shame to buy something attractive and then see it show signs of use, but that's a fact of life. It's not like you're buying this drive to put behind a glass case. If you keep it in a padded bag where it won't rub up against anything that'll scratch the surface, it should stay in great shape. I have a 100% cotton bag and my drives look just as good as when I bought them.

Lastly, one benefit of owning this drive is the three year warranty. If it does break all by itself (meaning you didn't pour milk on it or smash it with a hammer, for example), Western Digital will replace it. But you know what a warranty is so that was kind of pointless to mention :). It is nice to know you can get a replacement, though. It doesn't compare to Seagate's five year warranty, which has a very good replacement procedure, but being covered is nonetheless a big plus.

Overall, these are not the best portable drives you can buy. However, they're very inexpensive, good looking, easy to cart around and they get the job done.

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Pack up your office files and take them home. Carry thousands of songs or pictures. Synchronize files between home and office and encrypt everything on the drive for added security.These elegant portable drives are simple to use, light and easy to carry, and require no power adapter -- they are powered directly through the USB cable. Comes with sync and encryption and Google software.