WD My Passport Essential Portable 320GB Hard Drive - Black

My Passport 320GB hard drive

Posted 1 year ago - I already had a 80GB WD Passport and was very pleased with it, but needed more space. On the basis of my past experience with WD, I bought the 320GB WD My Passport and it hasn't disappointed me. It works well and I've had no problem with it. I highly recommend it.

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Silent, Sleek, quite portable to carry in pocket

Posted 1 year ago - I wanted to have portable drive with maximum capacity available and with no need to connect power cord to it. This portable one would just need USB cable for data transfer and you are done. As this is portable drive, and it is meant to be carried, whenever needed... just to be on safer side keep your important stuff as backup in DVD or other drives.. so that if accidently this portable drive gets physically damaged by hit or drop, you should be safe and incur minimal important data loss..

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Huge capacity for a good price

Posted 1 year ago - I use a number of WD harddrives at home and in the office. None of them has failed on me so far. I purchased the 320gb version recently. It looks even more beautiful and works like a breeze. No complaints at all.

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Continued Portability, Capacity, and Design Success by WD

Posted 1 year ago - Western Digital continues with what it has been doing right with its My Passport line of drives. This updated line codenamed "Essential" uses the same internal drives as previous Passports. The only difference is the case, which has undergone a slight redesign. The newer case is even smaller, has more rounded edges, and lighter in weight. The status indicator has also been moved to the back of the case, which may be a welcome alteration to those who find the blinking activity light annoying. Other than the aesthetic changes, this Passport Essential drive is still as portable, reliable, and easy to use as ever.

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Carry your data with with BIG hard drive in a small, stylish package

Posted 1 year ago - 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.

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Large capacity portable hard drive

Posted 1 year ago - 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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Super portable, very nice external drive

Posted 1 year ago - 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 damn proprietary.

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Would like a replacement USB cable

Posted 1 year ago - It has a short in the USB cable, (defective) I would like to have a replacement USB cable sent to me. The drive still works but I have to hold the cable in place. Thanks

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Perfect!!!

Posted 1 year ago - A great HDD that enables to back up your important documents and take ti anywhere. It also a great companion to take to work and on flights. Installation and use are as simple as Plug-n-Play The drive on this is a 5400rpm. I wish they were able to provide 7200rpm disks in this compact capicity.

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My Passport 320GB portable hard drive

Posted 1 year ago - I bought the unit on the recommendation of my wife, who has been using the 250GB Passport happily for over a year. It seems to be meeting my needs. I don't know whether to attribute the problems mentioned above under "Weaknesses" to the drive or to my Vista operating system on my Toshiba laptop.

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Great portable storage...highly recommended!

Posted 1 year ago - WD Passport 320 GB is a great portable storage. Its perfect for travelling since it usb powered. It also have a big capacity considering the size. The transfer rate is decent, 5400 rpm. The only weakness that I could find is the cover is easily scratch; but it's not a big deal for me. In overall, I highly recommend this product especially for traveller who needs extra storage minus bulky hard drive.

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Western Digital Passport 320GB

Posted 1 year ago - I've been using this product to perform system backup using my norton ghost. The portability of this product is amazing and the price in which I got it is a really good bargain.

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Big stuff in a small package

Posted 1 year ago - 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.

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Largest size for 2.5" Ext USB drive

Posted 1 year ago - 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.

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WD My Passport Essential External 320GB Hard Drive

Posted 1 year ago - 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

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