Western Digital 80 GB Passport 2.5-inch External Hard Drive

by Western Digital

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 3.1 x 6.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0006ZBHWY
• Item model number: WDXML800UETN
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 25, 2005

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description With all the videos, photos, games, music, and other files we keep amassing these days, there's always a need for more storage. Western Digital Passport Portable Drives let you instantly add portable storage for all the data you need to carry along with you. It's the perfect solution for carrying important files and e-mail between work and home or on the road, or for sharing large files between office and home, between Mac and PC. It's also a great way to back up your existing notebook hard drive for extra data safety.

The drives are offered in capacities from 40 to 120 GB and they offer great performance, thanks to an enclosed 5400 RPM drive. It's simple to set up, light and easy to carry, and requires no power adapter, as it's powered directly through the USB cable. Plus, the included WD Sync software lets you turn any PC into your own protected workspace.

Although an optional power adapter is available for the Passport, none is required since the drive is powered by the USB bus.

The Windows- and Mac-compatible Western Digital Passport is designed for toughness, offering maximum protection from data loss with a rugged, protective case and shock-tolerant 2.5-inch hard drive. The elegant, soft-touch case looks great, but it's also designed to allow the drive to run cool and quiet. The design also minimizes power consumption, prolonging laptop battery life (an optional power adapter is available for the few computers that limit bus power). On top of all that, the Passport is safety tested. In fact, it's one of the few external drives with certification to meet all applicable safety requirements.

Installation of the Passport is a snap because you don't really "install" this drive, you just plug it in and it's ready to use. There is no CD to install; the included software loads from the drive the first time you plug it in. The drive is powered by the USB bus, so there's no separate power supply needed. Meanwhile, WD Sync synchronization and encryption software lets you save your critical data, and take it with you. Plug your drive into any PC, edit files, read e-mail, and view photos. Then sync all of your changes back to your home or office computer. Note that this software is only offered for Windows 2000/XP, though.

What's in the Box
80 GB WD Passport portable hard drive, USB 2.0 cable, and quick install guide.

Product Description

Instantly add portable storage for all your business files, music, video, and games with a WD Passport Portable USB 2.0 Drive. This high-performance, 5400 RPM drive is simple to use, light and easy to carry. WD understands the importance of the information on your drive so weve designed a cool, rugged, shock-absorbing case to protect the 2.5-inch WD hard drive and the data on it.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

76 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Highly portable and stylish but watch for warranty!, December 30, 2005

By 

I. Peters (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Western Digital 80 GB Passport 2.5-inch External Hard Drive (Personal Computers)

This drive fits the bill perfectly when it comes to portability. I am using it as a backup drive as well as to transfer files between my desktop and my notebook. The installation was plug-and-play, it was immediately recognized by both the desktop and the notebook. To me, the speed that other users have identified as a little slow is not as important because most of all I needed something compact that does not weigh much when traveling.

The materials used are high quality, and the rubberized bottom helps to keep the drive from accidentally falling off the table. No complaints here.

I do, however want to mention 2 points:

a) The Passport drive works fine on my HP notebook (ze4805us) when plugged into its USB port, no external power needed. Since my built-in USB port is only USB 1.1, I recently bought a PCMCIA USB adapter to upgrade to USB 2.0. When using the Passport through this adapter, it does not work anymore. I thought ordering an external power supply for the drive would solve this issue, but it doesn't. The drive is recognized but becomes excruciatingly slow - what irony, since it is plugged into a USB 2.0 card adapter - to the point where it is absolutely unusable or stops responding altogether. Whether this is an issue with the notebook architecture, the card adapter or the drive I don't know but I wanted to mention this anyway in case someone was planning on having such a configuration...

b) Western Digital Customer Service is NOT great. I went to their website to register the drive for warranty purposes. After the process was completed and my drive was listed as registered, it showed up with a warranty period significantly shorter than 12 months. Of course I contacted them to inquire about that. Turns out, WD does not start the warranty when the customer buys the drive, but at the date the drive was manufactured! Needless to say: If you are unlucky enough to buy one that sat on the shelf for a month or two (like I was), your warranty will not be the full 12 months. After a few back-and-forth emails they forwarded my request to the appropriate department to adjust the warranty to the purchase date. It is now about 2 months later, and the warranty still hasn't been adjusted. But I was inundated with about 3 different customer satisfaction surveys in the meantime. I don't think this is acceptable at all thus only 4 stars for the drive because I have a feeling if you actually were to run into a warranty issue with WD, you'd probably be in for some hassle.

46 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Hard Drive ~ You Get What You Pay For, June 24, 2005

By 

Chino Racino "Someone You Can Trust" (Philadelphia, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Western Digital 80 GB Passport 2.5-inch External Hard Drive (Personal Computers)

I purchased this hard drive after my Maxtor external hard drive stopped working. [...] This hard drive is built to last. Unlike other external hard drives, you can travel with this one and not have to worry about it getting damaged. The cheaper external hard drives will easily break with the slightest of movements.

I have now owned this Western Digital hard drive for about 3 months and it works perfectly. Its speed is incredible and the ability to pull power from the usb is great. One less wire you will have to plug into the electric socket. I bring this hard drive to and back from work, so it has been pretty shaken up from all the travel and it still works like new.

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Works as expected..., June 8, 2005

By 

R Subramanian "MovieFreak" (Boulder, CO, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Western Digital 80 GB Passport 2.5-inch External Hard Drive (Personal Computers)

I bought the WD Passport 80 GB drive after reading a review on Tomshardware.com comparing the 40 GB version with the Lacie Porche firewire/USB 100 GB. The main differences between the two are:
(a) WD has a faster HDD (5400 rpm), and a rubber covering for the USB port (no water/dirt), as well as a rubber base (no slipping off tables?)
(b) Lacie has firewire+USB and a 8MB cache, but 4200 rpm drive (just saw a later model has 5400 rpm for $200).

[They say] cache doesn't matter for mobile HDDs, but HDD speed (rpm) does, especially if you plan to use the entire capacity (I am close to 2/3-rd now of the 80 GB). So WD had higher transfer speeds.

[...]

I also relied on the WD name (the Lacie looks cool, though). Plug and play with WinXP. Did a couple tests yesterday (write - copied onto WD; read - cut-and-pasted back from WD):

Batch 1: 208 MB, 26 files: write ~<10 Mbps; read ~>10 Mbps.
Batch 2: 245 MB, 284 files: write ~4.8 Mbps, read ~7.5 Mbps
Batch 3: 102 MB, 156 files: write ~4 Mbps, read 7.8 Mbps

Small, more files transfer slowly compared to big, less files. The WD speeds above appear lower than what [they] found, but are OK as far as I am concerned. I also use CopyTo, a synchronizing software ($10?), both work great and fast.

I also back up files on my 40 GB iPod - the WD is much bigger, about an inch on both length and width. But I don't mind, the WD stays in my backpack anyway.

The other HDD I looked at was the Seagate 100 GB/5400 rpm/8MB cache, for ~$215 (WD was $176 shipped from newegg - similar price as Amazon). But I didn't think the extra 20 GB was worth the extra $50, and cache doesn't seem to matter for backup per Tom.

I've had the WD Passport for over a month now, no problems so far. I'd recommend it.