Customer Reviews

Western Digital 80 GB Passport 2.5-inch External Hard Drive

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This drive didn't work at all with my Powerbook, as a few other users have mentioned (wish I'd read more of the reviews rather than trust the 4 star rating). The issue has nothing to do with Apple's architecture, or anything else software related. The issue with this and other "USB" hard drives is that the USB 2.0 specification limits bus power to 500mA. Some notebook manufacturers, including Apple, abide by this specification and provide 500mA to the hard drive.

The problem is, 500mA isn't enough current to get this hard drive operational. Most desktops (including my PC, where this drive worked fine) will feed the device extra current exceeding the spec if needed. Some notebooks will as well, but this device does not abide by the USB 2.0 spec, so notebooks that won't exceed the specs will not operate this hard drive reliably. For mac users, and anyone else lucky enough to have a firewire port on their machine, I'd suggest going with that-- the IEEE1394 spec provides more power, so this isn't an issue with firewire self-contained drive.

I gave this drive a 5 star because out of the box it worked as I had hoped. There was some confusion on my part as to whether or not I would need an external power supply to use this drive. I have a Mac iBook G4 and it performed without a problem using the power from the USB port.

Before you buy this drive, be sure to Google "Cypress AT2LP RC42" and "western digital".

Until yesterday, I recommended this drive to everyone. Then my drive failed, prompting me for new hardware and to install a driver for Cypress AT2LP RC42. It appears that there is a chip in the drive housing manufactured by Cypress that is failing in drives left and right. (Class action suit anyone?)

The Western Digital support staff is no help. Act like they have never heard of this error. Offer no option to just switch out the housing. Will replace drive- but you lose all the data. There are $30 replacement housings available - but you void your warranty.

Bottom line - if you buy this drive, be prepared for it to fail. Keep everything backed up, because there will come a day that this drive will fail.

I really like the WD 80 Gig passport. It works great on my desktop. However, when I was traveling to a client's site, I found out it it does not work with the USB 1 port on my Toshiba Satellite laptop. I was told it did not have enough power to operate the drive. That's where WD falls FLAT!

WD is the ONLY one that sells a certified power cable ... there are no other distributors nor are there any after market cables. The cable in manufactured in Taiwan and there are no other manufacturers. Talking to WD's support group, they too are disappointed with WD's reliance on a foreign manufacturer as its sole source for their product.

So, if you own a laptop you may not be able to use the drive. I have been waiting six weeks and WD still has the cable on back order. Thank goodness I at least have a 1 gig pen drive I have been using to transfer files. A pain but at least it gets the job done.

Really frustrated with WD's sole reliance on foreign manufacturer.

Wild Bill

The USB port is sufficient to power the HD. Moreover, it is light and quiet.

Just to ring in on Apple laptop power problems with this product... It seems to be working for some new Macbook owners and not for Apple Powerbook owners (not a 1.5ghz 17" anyway). The USB power must be limited on the Powerbook line as I traded up from another (brand) portable drive that would not mount either from lack of sufficient power. Both (maybe all) portable drives need an a/c cord in addition to the USB cable for use with the Powerbook.... bummer.

I will say that WD and other portable HD makers need to make it more clear that these devised do not work for all laptop owners. They should list the products on their website that have been tested. Also, they should either include the additional a/c cord with the product or have them available for purchase along side the product in the store... and not for much $$. I've looked all around and I can only find the additional cable directly from WD and for $18 or so ($10 cost + $8 for shipping and handling).

Overall the drive works great with any desktop CPU I have used it on, but I purchased it to use with my Powerbook laptop. After talking to Western Digital Tech Support they told me that it will not work with any PowerBook unless you use an external power supply. USB 2.0 specification limits bus power to 500mA. Some notebook manufacturers, including Apple, abide by this specification and provide 500mA to the hard drive. 500mA isn't enough current to get this hard drive operational. So you need the external power supply. Would have been nice if Western Digital had designed their drive to be USB 2.0 compliant.