Western Digital Passport USB Portable Hard Drive (120GB, black)

• Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 15 reviews
• My rating: 0 stars

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• 5 stars

  Good Drive, but check your Bus Power

  by burgerearl on December 30, 2006

  Pros: Beautiful Drive, Compact

  Cons: You may have power issues on some laptops

  Summary: I was really excited about how this drives looks. Apparently, however, it doesn't conform to the official USB spec for power consumption. This may be just during the initial ...

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  Summary: I was really excited about how this drives looks. Apparently, however, it doesn't conform to the official USB spec for power consumption. This may be just during the initial spin-up, but it prevented me from using the drive on both a PC and Mac laptop. WD sells a cable that allows you to draw power from two USB drives, however it will cost you another $10 and it's currently out of stock.

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  6 out of 6 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 9 stars

  Close to perfect!

  by asemeco on January 24, 2007

  Pros: High-capacity; fast; no separate power source

  Cons: Attracts scratches and smudges like an iPod

  Summary: 1) Buy the carrying case. Also buy the power booster cable if you have USB power problems with Mac computers.
  2) Sync software won't do synchronization without encryption. Don'
  ...

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  Summary: 1) Buy the carrying case. Also buy the power booster cable if you have USB power problems with Mac computers.
  2) Sync software won't do synchronization without encryption. Don't sync your music! I only synchronize address book, calendar and browser favorites. Having those encrypted is perfect for me, in case I lose the disk.
  3) Always stop the drive (in Windows; on Mac, drag it to the Trash) before unplugging. If it won't stop, you probably have something still running and accessing the disk.

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  5 out of 5 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 3 stars

  Warning! Doesnt run on Dell D600 laptops & others

  by hcsknight on May 15, 2007

  Pros: Dont know yet

  Cons: Requires special USB cable for "some" laptops

  Summary: I recently bought a WD Passport, 120GB. Upon opening & plugging in, since it says it is "plug & play", I was very surprised to see it wouldnt work. Reading ...

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  Summary: I recently bought a WD Passport, 120GB. Upon opening & plugging in, since it says it is "plug & play", I was very surprised to see it wouldnt work. Reading the "Quick Install Guide" I discovered the following "A special cable may be needed for computers with limited bus power. For more info ... visit store.westerndigital.com..."
  
  The special "USB 2.0 Power Booster Cable" will set you back $10; per WD's online store.
  
  Here's the link: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/accessories.asp?ProdID=170
  
  Of course the special cable, which is simply a two head USB cable which combines the power from two USB ports into one USB mini plug, was "out of stock".
  
  No where on the product was the possible need for a "booster cable" noted.
  
  Below is the letter I left on the Western Digital web/customer support site: [and I send WD a copy of my reviews posted on Circuit City, here, PCMag, Newegg, Dell, PCConnection, etc....
  
  I recently bought two WD Passports. No where on the product packaging was it stated that a special USB cable, a "USB 2.0 Power Booster Cable", may be required for the drive to operate!
  
  To find out I have to shell out more money to get a drive to work is absolute BS! Now to find out that the product is "out of stock". Im really pissed. Im going to take this email & copy & paste it into the CNET, PCWorld, Best Buy, Circuit City, Wal-Mart and all the other "review" sites I can find.
  
  This is absolute CRAP!
  
  Most sincerely,
  J D

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  3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 5 stars

  Know Specs

  by andrewnc21 on April 6, 2007

  Pros: Size, speed, ease of use

  Cons: Errors are possible

  Summary: I have a Gateway notebook computer and this seemed perfect for it. It worked flawlessly with ease for about two and a half months and I started getting unrelenting "delayed ...

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  Summary: I have a Gateway notebook computer and this seemed perfect for it. It worked flawlessly with ease for about two and a half months and I started getting unrelenting "delayed write" errors. The small print disclaims that you may need extra power to run it on a laptop. But it worked fine for months. Nevertheless I bought a powered USB hub and I still had the same problem. I tried to format it and got numerous sector errors. After a failed attemt to format, the drive will not read at all. WD will replace it with no problem but I have to pay shipping and I really dont want to have to deal with this thing anymore. I am yet to have a good recommendation for external hard drives. ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR DATA! Never assume everything is safe on one drive.
  -Andrew-

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  2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 8 stars

  Essential for any computer user.

  by keebler80 on October 16, 2006

  Pros: Very light weight, fast, looks professional, easiest setup, no ac adapter.

  Cons: Backup software isn't to my liking.

  Summary: The Western Digital Passport WDXMS1200 is just what I was looking for to backup all my data. I nearly lost all my computer data and decided to by a extenal ...

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  Summary: The Western Digital Passport WDXMS1200 is just what I was looking for to backup all my data. I nearly lost all my computer data and decided to by a extenal hard drive to keep my files alive well beyond the life of my computer. At less than 4oz this baby is wonderful. I hate thumb drives because they're too easy to lose and not enough storage. At 4 oz it weighs barely more than my Razr phone, and big enough to know that I'm not going to leave it in a pocket and put in through the wash (you know who you are). Who it's for:
  
  The professional:
  Going from computer to computer it's neccessary to keep your files with you, and to be able to take them home at the end of the day. It's small size and light weight would allow it to fit right into a briefcase without you noticing a difference in weight. It loads onto a computer without the need for drivers just like a thumb drive. I use a Windows 2000 machine at work that restricts users to load programs on their computers. This is totally plug and play.
  
  Home user:
  There are only 2 truths in life, laptop batteries never last as long as the manufacturer states and computers will eventually crash and die. I've had to learn that the hard way before. I have over 4000 family photos and I'm not letting any of them just sit on my laptop, waiting to be lost. MP3's take up a insane amount of space. Give your computer's hard drive a well deserved break and put your music on an external. It makes it a lot easier to transfer songs amongst other computers (legally of course) without the need for iTunes or other 3rd party software. The transfer rate isn't too bad either.
  
  The backup software is it's downfall. Sure it'll automatically sync with your computer and keep files updated. It will even will encrypt the drive with a password which was a plus for me. The downfall however is the it stores the files as random data that can only be used by the backup program, and the 'wdsync' program isn't like windows. For example, if you have 5 MP3's on the external hard drive and you want to play them you can't just highlight them all and play them into windows media player (or what ever you use) you could only play one at a time, opening them after the end of each song because the MP3 files are in different folders split up into multiple encrypted files. I recommend using the program only to create backup files of your hard drive that you would never use unless you lost your computer files. Otherwise treat the drive like any other hard drive and save MP3's pictures, word docs, etc in self made folders.
  
  It's taken some getting used to, but having an external drive is great. Those 3.5" externals are great for the price and amount of storage but most people don't need more than 120GB, and who wants to carry around a 1 pound hard drive + an a/c adapter? Not me. USB plug and play is wonderful. I picked mine up at Buy.com for $139.

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  2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 4 stars

  There are probably better options elsewhere

  by TomSellers on February 12, 2007

  Pros: Convenient

  Cons: The companion software is atrocious

  Summary: The drive performs as an external drive pretty much as expected, but don't even think about using WD Sync (Also known as Dmailer). I had to email them just ...

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  Summary: The drive performs as an external drive pretty much as expected, but don't even think about using WD Sync (Also known as Dmailer). I had to email them just to get it to install as a non-evaluation trial version. Then the hair-pulling fun began. It wnated me to install some updated versions and offered to do so. Subsequently when I would try to launch the program it would hang and even Ctrl-Alt-Del would not kill it, I would have to reboot. Once I could get it to run, I could not figure out how to password protect the drive. After waiting 5 days for their tech support to contact me, they simply said: "If you want to encrypt your files, you must use WDSync instead of Windows Explorer in order to copy your files from your PC to your external hard drive.
  ". Simple enough, right? Well, fire up the software and try it, you cannot even find a way to do it with what must be the worst non-intuitive interface you could care to work with (perhaps because it was developed in France, presumably by developers who are not native English speakers).
  
  As an added bonus, because I was not careful, the sync feature wiped out my Quickbooks executable files on the Source computer because it was not in the folder on the Passport Drive. Would have been nice if they had at least put a confirmation warning window in it to protect people like me from myself! So, I still cannot encrypt the hard drive contents, cannot use the sync feature without paranoia, and I cannot get it to launch half the time while I wait another 5 days for the support in France at DMailer to get back to me. Perhaps Western Digital should think about developing their own applications to bundle with their drives rather than use rebranded OEM software from France.

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  1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 8 stars

  Attractive, sleek, and best of all: reliable.

  by ikojones on May 14, 2008

  Pros: Small, very portable, fast, sleek, silent, reliable.

  Cons: Scratches easily. Provided USB Cable is very short. Only one interface.

  Summary: I purchased this hard drive about five months ago at a chain store's Christmas sale. I've tried to stay away from Western Digital drives, especially after hearing things ...

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  Summary: I purchased this hard drive about five months ago at a chain store's Christmas sale. I've tried to stay away from Western Digital drives, especially after hearing things about their reliability. But, this was a 120GB hard drive for only $50, and that was a deal that I just couldn't resist. I didn't even think about what I might do if I would up with a $50 (very nice looking) paperweight. I just went and bought the drive.
  
  For those of you who actually are concerned about reliability issues, I have had no problems with the drive. It gets lugged around in my backpack to and from school, and that doesn't appear to have had any affect on the reliability of the drive (although, that is the cause for the scratches). Overall, it's excellent. If you're looking into a fairly inexpensive, small, sleek portable hard drive, I can most certainly recommend the Passport.
  
  Five months later, I'm still happy with my purchase. The drive is sleek, silent, speedy, and extremely attractive. I don't really need it to work cross-platform, so that's never been an issue. I don't know anything about software included with the drive; I wiped it and reformatted it as an HFS+ drive. The only bad things I have to say about the drive are that it scratches quite easily (but who really cares... scratches can be filled in), and the USB cable that is provided with the drive is very short. It's only about 6 inches long. This is fine in some instances, but there are times when I wish I could have the drive farther away from the computer. Also, the drive is only USB 2.0. Still, I'm very satisfied with my purchase. Even at its MSRP, the drive is still an excellent value.

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• 7 stars

  Does the job you want it to.

  by lxsgs on April 20, 2008

  Pros: Small. Light. Quick. Problem free.

  Cons: Could be smaller.

  Summary: I would but it again.

  Summary: I would but it again.

• 3 stars

  encryption warning

  by biskywealthy on December 5, 2007

  Pros: looks good

  Cons: encryption and sync is useless

  Summary: Unbelievable that WD should only allow encryption on it's dodgy sync software.
  Can't save encrypted files without using sync - and if you do, you can't view
  ...

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  Summary: Unbelievable that WD should only allow encryption on it's dodgy sync software.
  Can't save encrypted files without using sync - and if you do, you can't view them or open them properly.
  
  As an unsecured unit appears OK - but that is not what the product claims to be...dumb and dumber...stick to Maxtor - they know what they are doing.

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• 9 stars

  Close to perfection

  by sbcolorado97 on November 14, 2007

  Pros: Quick and runs on most operating systems

  Cons: Doesn't run on Windows 98 or previous Windows system

  Summary: Have had the product for 6 months and the only, only flaw is that Windows 95 or 98 will not recognize it. Have not tried it on Windows 200 system. ...

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  Summary: Have had the product for 6 months and the only, only flaw is that Windows 95 or 98 will not recognize it. Have not tried it on Windows 200 system. Works fine on Windows XP and Vista. Quick read and transfer of data. Very lightweight and stylish product. Well worth the money!

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