STORAGE, 250GB PASSPORT PORTABLE
by WESTERN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES
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List Price: Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of STORAGE, 250GB PASSPORT PORTABLE
Customer Review: I couldn't live without my Passport.
Summary: 5 Stars
I recently purchased the WD 250GB Passport after using a Maxtor One Touch external hard drive for the last three years. I have a very specific use for this portable device which, as its name suggests, is roughly the size of a passport. I use it for the backup storage of my entire iTunes music library consisting of more than 10,000 songs maintained on my desk top computer (with a Windows 2000 operating system) and on my IBM T41 Thinkpad (with a Windows XP operating system). (It holds up to 62,000 songs, or 71,000 photos.) It works without any problems whatsoever on both systems. Based upon my personal experience with the WD 250GB Passport, there are at least six reasons why I would recommend this state-of-the-art portable hard drive to anyone considering purchasing such a device:
1. It is compatible with either a Mac or PC as storage unit.
2. It utilizes a USB connection and requires no external power source.
3. It features Google software for searching and managing files.
4. It is light-weight (weighing less than 4 ounces), has a sleek, glossy black design, and mine included a padded black case.
5. It is very easy to use, even for someone (like me), who isn't too computer savvy.
6. It offers a 3-year limited warranty.
G. Merritt
Customer Review: My first portable, mass storage device. Works flawlessly!
Summary: 5 Stars
For a while now, I wanted to backup my critical files/data on a device I can keep at another physical location, in case the slim chance of 'an act of God' (or theft) should occur. I've been using 'USB flash drives' and CD-ROM's up until now, but realized they are much more limited and cumbersone, due to the quantity I need. Enter this wondrous, small, portable 'Western Digital' 250GB drive I picked up at 'Costco'. It is truly 'plug and play' with my 6 year old PC (Compaq P3, 1 GHz) running Windows XP, service-pack 2, and required no special software installation on my part. The USB cable works fine. My only slight concern is that in the hour or so of transferring some of my data files to it, the unit got very warm to the touch. As anyone knows, heat is the number one enemy of any electronic device, so in the future, I may just engage in shorter length transfer times, to be safe. I am also seriously contemplating purchasing a Mac 'all in one' desktop later this year, so I am hoping that I can easily transfer my PC files from the 'WD Passport' to the new Mac without any issues. For now, this thing is a godsend, and gives me 'peace of mind'. If it proves reliable over the years, my '5 star rating' will stand.Customer Review: something i have been waiting for for some time
Summary: 5 Stars
I got mine from Circuit City on sale about 150. I do a lot of travel and i needed a small footprint but large capacity external HD and this is the one I have been waiting for. Previously I had been used a LaCie 250GB which was larger in size and also need to have an external power supply. the LaCie drive external power supply is not only bulky but a pain in trying to connect to the drive and carry around. Further the whole drive broke down after a few months. It was hard to find an external drive which is small in footprint, large in capacity, and DO NOT require an external power supply. Finally thanks to Western Digital, they now have it. I am happy with everyhing thus far. The only con i can find are - the rubber cover for the mini USB connection could be a bit early to break off and also a bit fragile. Also the black shing surface shines but could scratches easily. It is best to have a case to go along with it. I am now trying a "amentities bag" I got from Northwest Business Class and I put the socks they gave you inside, and then the drive and the USB cord. Seems to protect the drive very well. Overall excellent product for the 1 month i have been using it, thus far.
Customer Review: Compact size with a large capacity
Summary: 5 Stars
The Western Digital Passport line of hard drives is excellent. After using a 160 GB hard drive for 6 months, I realized that the reliability and ease of use of this drive was hard to resist. Priced competitively to other manufacturers, it has a great value.
I purchased the 250 GB hard drive to augment my portable storage to keep all of my necessary files without having to resort to finding an outlet that most external hard drives require.
The most important thing to do before using this drive is to Quick Format it in NTFS to handle larger files (> 4GB). It comes from the factory in FAT 32.
It is a quiet drive and runs without the heat that most plug-in externals have.
Constructed of lightweight plastic it is portable but not 'fragile'. I have accidentally dropped mine a few times without adverse effects.
It's big use is for laptop users and academics who need large amounts of space in a small footprint. With the low key glossy black finish, it's simple styling is not an eyesore. A USB cable is provided.
Highly recommend this line of external hard drives.
Customer Review: Plug and Play, Even for Macs
Summary: 5 Stars
I just purchased this item because I found what I think was a great deal for the price, what with the WD Passport being so small and portable with such a massive amount of storage.
Initially, I was very worried that it would not work with my Macbook Pro (which I purchased November of 2006 and am running Leopard on). There were so many reviews and forums of people who have encountered problems with the drive so I was hesitant to open the packaging. However, I finally did it and plugged it into my Mac.
At first, nothing loaded for a few minutes but it finally mounted and I sighed with relief. It worked!
As a Mac user (who occasionally uses Windows) I used Disk Utility to partition my drive-- 175GB has HFS+ (the Mac read and write format) and about 60GB for FAT32 (which works for both Windows and Macs). The upside to using HFS+ is that it is faster at file transfers than FAT32 and also does not have a file size limit (FAT32 is limited to 4GB transfers). So keep that in mind if you have a Mac and are considering getting an external harddrive.