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  • Overall Rating
    5 stars 5 Star Review
    Reviewed by: nd93

    Updated:05-02-08

    Duration of ownership:14 Days

    Strengths: Storage size is the biggest you can get in a 2.5; Uses common usb cable.

    Weaknesses: Sometimes low voltage usb cannot read drive.

    Overall Evaluation: I have 3 WD Passport drives. A 120GB, 160GB and now this 320 GB HDD. I use it for work and for personal use. It is great for backing up docs and photos. Because of this drive, I don't have to take a laptop home, I just lock it up at work. The drive fits perfectly in a pocket and is great for travel, when you do not want to bring a computer. I think this is a superb value and better than any 16 or 32 gb flash drive.

  • Overall Rating
    4 stars 4 Star Review
    Reviewed by: Starrx05

    Updated:04-22-08

    Duration of ownership:7 Days

    Strengths: Compact, elegant and fast. 3 yr warranty.

    Weaknesses: Attract fingerprint, no DC jack or USB connector for extra power

    Overall Evaluation: This model is currently the largest size you can get from WD for 2.5" HD. They seem to change the desing a little from previous smaller size (160GB and below). The plastic box is also diff. 2 major complaints: 1) it get dirty with fingerprints quickly. The black shinny finish is nice but not practically. The case is made of plastic and seems fragile. 2) No DC jack, and no extra connector on the provided USB cable for extra power. This means if your USB port doesn't supply enough power, you can't use this. WD surprisingly sell a dual head USB cable on their web site for like $20. I've seen cheaper 2.5" enclosures have one included. For this price, they should include that free and a carrying case or pouch too. They however upgrade warranty from 1 yr to 3 yr.

  • Overall Rating
    4 stars 4 Star Review
    Reviewed by: jholub5216

    Updated:04-21-08

    Duration of ownership:

    Strengths: 320GB capacity, only 1 USB [no power cable], works on every machine I've tested (about 10 Linux and Win), warranty, nice looking, faster than almost all USB flash drives.

    Weaknesses: 5400 RPM 15MB buffer... but then this is the only way it will operate with 1 USB for power, fingerprint magnet, no way to get inside enclosure without causing damage.

    Overall Evaluation: Formatted this guy right out of the box to NFTS, no problems... I had no interest in the supplied WD software as it is proprietary (Windows only) and I use TrueCrypt and SyncBackSE.Drive had transfer rates of about 32MB/s which is very good considering it's low power usage. This is better than every flash drive I own (even the expensive high speed ones). I run VMs from the drive on the run and it works great.My only two complaints. 1) fingerprint magnet in a major way! I ended up creating a makeshift cover out of an old dress sock.2) no way to get into the enclosure without damaging it... I would like to be able to reuse this nice enclosure, but apparently WD thinks I am too incompetent, or they are just being too **** proprietary.

  • Overall Rating
    4 stars 4 Star Review
    Reviewed by: mahesh115

    Updated:04-20-08

    Duration of ownership:2 Days

    Strengths: Compact and sleek, Nice color, Resistant, good speed

    Weaknesses: Did not find any so far

    Overall Evaluation: I liked and this 320 GB passport harddrive. When I first saw this product was amazed to know that 320 GB can be accomodated in such a compact design. I have been using the 500 GB book from WD but this was a great buy for me

  • Overall Rating
    5 stars 5 Star Review
    Reviewed by: jdramosgo

    Updated:04-18-08

    Duration of ownership:3 Weeks

    Strengths: Design and very small size

    Weaknesses: None

    Overall Evaluation: I'm using it under Mac OS Leopard operating system with Time Machine. I only had problem when connecting for the first time. The solution was to connect it to my PC with Windows Vista Premium Edition and then connected again in my iMac. The first backup took a very long time around 140 GB but later on the following backups using Time Machine was relative quick. The big capacity and the size make this portable hard drive a winner for me.

  • Overall Rating
    4 stars 4 Star Review
    Reviewed by: Got Gadget?

    Updated:04-14-08

    Duration of ownership:

    Strengths: Nice design, reliable, useful included software

    Weaknesses: Scratches easily, activity light in hard spot to view, no accessory power cable included (nor any socket to plug one in to, unlike previous models)

    Overall Evaluation: Being a bit of a hard drive 'collector', when I found out that Western Digital was rolling out a new model of the portable passport drive, I was excited to say the least. A bit of research revealed what I could expect... nice package, more resembles the MyBook series of drives than the slanted Passport drives. That's where the changes really stopped. In this iteration of the drive, there are no new features (save maybe for updated software), no new capacities, drive speeds, etc. It appears to be the same drive in a nicer package. Some needed features are missing, like an AC power adapter. Previous models also did not include an adapter, but one was available as an accessory, and the previous drives accepted AC power input. This model doesn't even have the socket for the AC power. The solution for using this drive on low power USB slots is to purchase a booster cable, that basically has two USB inputs and one mini-USB output that plugs into the drive. No luck if you have your USB slots already filled, but I'm sure that it will be fine for most users. All in all, it fits my needs, so I give it a rating of 4 out of 5, missing 5 only because of the absent power socket.

  • Overall Rating
    4 stars 4 Star Review
    Reviewed by: eDeals123

    Updated:04-12-08

    Duration of ownership:2 Days

    Strengths: 320 GB is the largest you can buy in a 2.5" portable drive. Western digital is the first to sell it.

    Weaknesses: 5400 RPM means it's a bit slower than desktop hard drives which run at 7200 RPM.

    Overall Evaluation: I don't see any advantage between buying WD's 320GB Essential Drive and WD's regular 320 GB portable drive. The case is different but that's all. Everything else is the same. So I wouldn't pay more for a "Designer" drive. Their "non-essential" drive has a nice look and performs just as well. This is perfect for a laptop since no AC adapter is needed. This drive sells for around $160 or about twice what their 160 GB 2.5" drive sells for.

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WD My Passport Essential Portable 320GB Hard Drive - Black
$69.99 • •Specs

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