Western Digital 320 GB Passport 2.5" USB 2.0 Hard Drive
by Western Digital
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List Price: Our Price: $139.99 You Save: $60.00 (30%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $56.99 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Western Digital 320 GB Passport 2.5" USB 2.0 Hard Drive
Customer Review: Great and cute
Summary: 5 Stars
Stylish, small, simple, easy. Love it. Own a few of different sizes. WD has never let me down.Customer Review: Neat little quality drive
Summary: 5 Stars
Works well XP & Vista. Get the case package as well to keep it safe & tidy. Good price.Customer Review: great disk , save my PC's life now
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great , fast and small disc drive which i can really recommend.
Customer Review: Western Digital Passport 320 GB - Nice Looking Portable External HD
Summary: 4 Stars
Western Digital 320 GB Passport 2.5" USB 2.0 Hard Drive
The 320 GB passport is the largest one available and has a lot going for it. I own several portable hard drives in the Western Digital passport lineup and so far so good. I couldn't be happier. Some smaller sizes are priced more attractively. Passport hard drives also come in a new and slightly thicker essentials version. They are very similar other than the slightly different form factor. Both are great for mobile backups of data, but both are also slower to copy large backups than their A/C powered MyBook big-brothers.
Pros
+ Largest current capacity available in this line of products
+ Nice portable form factor that easily connects via USB
+ USB powered, no A/C required, which is great for portability
+ Works well on Windows Vista, XP and Mac OS X
+ Easy to set up disk encryption for security and privacy
+ Nice looks, in my opinion better looking than the new essentials version
+ Turns on and off with your computer or easily ejected via system tray
+ Easy plug-and-play installation
+ Integrates nicely with my growing stable of WD MyBook drives
+ Included software may be useful for some novices
+ 320 GB capacity is just about right for most users
Cons
- Somewhat slow file transfer speeds for larger backups
- Included software not useful for power users
- Shiny body attracts scratch, fingerprints and dust
- Have to spend your cash to get a case that should have been included
- At this price less of a value than the 250GB passport
There's also a newer version that isn't out on Amazon yet and an Elite version.
The Looks
The drive has a nice shiny exterior with an offset shape with a blue activity light. The case can scratch in transit and the surface also attracts fingerprints and dust. But the look is still nice and you can easily purchase a case or holder for the drive if it bothers you. Most versions don't ship with the included case, but you can pick it up for $10 or $15. CaseLogic Small External Hard Drive Case (Black)
The Features
I had no problem connecting this drive to any computer, including Windows XP, Vista and Mac OS X. Keep in mind this is a USB 2.0 device so ancient computers may not yield the same results.
Transfer speeds are ok but definitely slower than the A/C powered MyBooks. This guy is still limited by the 480 Mps connection speed of USB 2.0, but performs somewhat slower than this when performing large backups. The USB2.0 speed rating can not really be achieved in production and you will get a fraction of that. But it's a trade-off that's worth it since it's USB-powered.
The software utilities included with this device will be most useful for beginners. I tested the backup software in particular but found it to be slow and impractical. I mean REALLY slow. It works, but cutting and pasting is better. Take my advice: don't use these utilities and just do cut and paste backups and saves to this drive.
Reliability
I've had good luck with the passport line of drives. They seem to have lower failure rates than many MyBook drives, though I also own those and haven't had issues their either. Maybe my gentle care has helped me to get lucky with these guys so far. Maybe it's because these drives are generally off when in transit. Regardless, these guys have held up fine.
Conclusion
This drive is great or those who want a portable drive for backups on the run. You can get this 250GB WD Passport Portable Hard Drive 250 GB/Go version for around $100, versus the $150 charged for the 320 GB. That makes the 250 GB unit a better value than the 320 GB on a $ price per GB basis. Still, some will need the 320GB capacity in one drive. Other than price and capacity there is no real difference between them. If you're like me, once you try these you will end up getting several of them anyway. Get one soon!
Enjoy!
Customer Review: Form follows function?
Summary: 4 Stars
I've got this little gadget about a week ago and am happy with the functionality. I was surprised to find out, that in contrary to the Toshiba HDDR250E02X (250 GB) the WD works on my USB 1.1 Port of my old Thinkpad without any trouble (besides the low transfer speed of cause ;-)). The WD works fine, is recognized immediately by the OP and it is fast.
Besides I am a lttle bit disappointed about a cosmetic aspect. The HDD sits in a neat plastic enclosure with 4 rubber pads (1 at each corner). After the first usage I figured out, that the HDD is rocking on my desktop, caused by the fact, that the housing has slightly twisted (because of the heating up?). Since then my WD does not sit firmly on any flat surface anymore which of course does not have any influence on its functionality but decreases the overall impression.