Western Digital My Passport Studio 500 GB FireWire 800/400 USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive (Silver)

by Western Digital

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.1 x 1.9 inches ; 6.4 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B001I8TWOI
• Item model number: WDMT5000TN
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 14, 2008

Product Description

Capacity: 500 GB

Western Digital Digital My Passport Studio Hard Drive WDMT5000TN Hard Drives - External

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars WD 500gb passport studio 2.5 drive FW 800, December 26, 2008

By 

Petr Jerabek (Santa Fe, NM) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Western Digital My Passport Studio 500 GB FireWire 800/400 USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive (Silver) (Personal Computers)

PROS:
This has spacious 500GB drive. Very quiet. Small size. I really like the LED that indicates operation and rough capacity taken. The FW 800 is much faster then USB, that was my reason to get this drive.

CONS:
the provided cables are too short for me, so i had to use longer 3rd party FW 800 cable. The case is plastic. i would like aluminum.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast, Small & Sleek, December 25, 2008

By 

Travis B. Stevens "-Travisimo" (Knoxville, TN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Western Digital My Passport Studio 400 GB USB 2.0/FireWire 400/FireWire 800 Portable External Hard Drive WDMT4000TN (Silver) (Personal Computers)

I'm a digital artist responsible for photography, high definition motion graphics and overall general graphic design, print and web. I got my passport for Christmas this year and I couldn't be happier.

Firstly, My main machine is a MacBook Pro laptop. My work computer is a Mac Pro and 99% of the computers I work on in my industry are Macs. So this review is from a Mac Users perspective. Windows users beware (apparently this drive will require a reformat.)

I had read a bunch of reviews talking about the difficulty of the short thick fw800 cable and I have got to say they're unfounded. Sure it's thick, no lie there. But it's completely manageable. The package also comes with a USB cable and a FW400 cable for ultimate compatibility (which is Ideal for a freelancer who is constantly working on many types of machines.) And the best of all IT DOESN'T REQUIRE A POWER SUPPLY!!!

For what it's worth i found the drive to be physically appealing and very small & light weight. Compared to a GTECH 500GB GDrive. It comes with a pretty slick carrying bag (to hold the extra cables as well as the drive.)

The drive comes with about 280~ mb of drivers and Documentation in every possible language on it (install-delete imo) After that i did some basic workhorse transfers on them. I moved my entire 36 gig Aperture Library and my 45 gig iTunes library on the drive and it was finished by the time i went in to check on the progress the first time. I was planning on checking on it at least 3 or 4 times. That was a nice surprise.

All in all this drive deserves 5 Stars easily. What this drive doesn't deliver in affordability It easily makes it up in literally every other aspect of it. (I wouldn't knock off a star off any other FAT formatted external for having to reformat it to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) so i don't think the previous 4 star rating was deserved.)

Now, because i hate reading reviews that are all praises and no criticism and as much as i hate to try and find anything wrong with this product I guess i would say they default "turbo" icon after installed those drivers is pretty ugly and something i changes immediately.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great external drive for Mac users, good for Windows with some extra work, November 28, 2008

By 

Jerry Jackson Jr. (Cincinnati, OH United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Western Digital My Passport Studio 400 GB USB 2.0/FireWire 400/FireWire 800 Portable External Hard Drive WDMT4000TN (Silver) (Personal Computers)

The Western Digital My Passport Studio is a wonderful update to one of the best portable external hard drives on the market. The elegant design has been improved with a "soft-touch" finish that makes it easy to hold and won't collect fingerprints. Mac users will benefit from the HFS+ formatting, and PCs can use this drive as well with a little extra work. The solid performance is complemented by a convenient capacity gauge and the ability to use USB, FireWire 400, or FireWire 800 ... assuming your computer has one of the ports in question.

As a mobile storage solution, the Western Digital My Passport series continues to prove that it is simply one of the best.

Pros:

* Attractive enclosure ... and no more fingerprints!
* Nice sliding port protector and capacity gauge/activity indicators
* Perfectly portable
* Simple to set up and use
* Solid performance

Cons:

* The My Passport "Studio" edition is a little expensive than the regular My Passport drives with the same capacity
* HFS+ formatting means Windows users will need to reformat the drive or use special drivers

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