Customer Reviews

Western Digital My Passport SE for Mac 1 TB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive (Silver)

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

I've been using a Lacie drive for a few years now with my Mac. I use Time Machine to keep regular back-ups. Time Machine is great as it reminds you when you haven't backed up for 10 days and it only backs up changes so after the first back-up, it's pretty quick.

My Lacie drive is getting full and I've been looking around for a replacement so I was thrilled to get a chance to review this for Vine. It's a one Terabyte drive and weighs only 6.7 ounces. And it's small too! 4.3 x 3.2 x 0.7 inches. It could easily fit in your purse or laptop bag.

My previous drive is a Firewire drive which is quicker then USB, but it's also MUCH bigger and not easily portable. I did my regular back-up on Time Machine on my old drive and then selected 'switch drive' and selected the My Passport icon. There was no initial set-up needed and it backed up almost 400 G of data in under seven hours - I left it overnight the first time and when I woke-up it was done. It works great with Time Machine so you can retrieve your data easily by date or all at once.

There is included softwear for smart back-up and storage but as I use Time Machine already I didn't need it to back up my computer. I will update this review if I try it as it does have some interesting features such as backing up on the spot whenever you add or change a file. You can also lock and password protect the drive as well.

Pros:
Small size.
Easy to carry around.
Large Capacity.
Plug and play for Mac and Time Machine.

Cons:
USB is somewhat slower to back-up then Firewire drives.

We've used Western Digital drives before and have found them to be very reliable. A great, small ultra portable drive for your Mac. Highly recommended.

Upon arrival, it came in such a small box that I thought it was something else. How can 1 TB be in such a small devise? I'm not sure, but it's there. And it's great that it runs off of USB power, it doesn't require a separate power source like other external hard-drives. Plugged it in to my Mac, started loading it up with pictures, movies and songs and performance was great. This is what plug and play was meant to be.

It had been a while since I had purchased a WD My Passport drive. Having had a good experience from past WD portable products, I decided to get this as my main backup drive for my MacBook Pro using Time Machine among other things.

I wasn't aware about this SmartWare software that came with the drive. This is partly my fault for assuming that whatever software that came with it, it could be easily deleted like most other software thrown in portable drives from other manufacturers. This is not the case with WD's SmartWare. It comes in a form of virtual CD (VCD image) on the hard drive.

*** There is no way to remove this and reclaim the 650MB it consumes ***

The only way to kill the annoying pop-up and disk mount when you plug it into your Mac, is to run the configuration utility for it and select, disable from appearing/mounting. You have to download the latest version of the utility, and also the latest firmware for the drive. It felt like a chore, cause I hate installing crap I don't need on my Mac in the first place.

This is pointless in a Mac (considering that this drive is marketed as a Mac drive in the first place), as you will use Time Machine for backups over this crappy utility. I can see this option perhaps useful on a PC and even on a PC, I wouldn't use this myself.

I regret purchasing this and I'm disappointed in WD forcing this to the consumer. At least give us the option to reclaim the space. I know 650MB isn't that big of an impact on a 1TB drive, but that's not the point. When you reach the maximum capacity of the TB, you'd be agreeing more and more with this review.

When I ordered this, I wasn't paying attention. It is for a Mac OS and I have Win 7. When I received it, I went to WD's support page to get the instructions for reformatting this drive. I reformatted it for my system and it works great. I get 930GB after formatting, more than enough storage for my files. I love the elegant silver matte finish. Its size is much smaller than other 1TB external drives and it barely weighs much, so it is truly portable. I have two other WD external portable drives and they have always worked well. I am quite pleased with this product.

I bought WD Passport for Mac 1TB few days ago and I'm loving it! It's so easy to use "caveman can do it"... seriously, you can start using it just by attaching the cord (included in the product) to the drive and your computer and start coping/moving files to the drive. I read some negative reviews about the software (SmartWare) that comes with the drive, but know this... YOU DO NOT NEED TO INSTALL IT TO USE THIS PRODUCT! If you don't like it don't install it, it's that simple (you can uninstall it if you already installed it, go to "Extras" folder in the Smartware VCD and you'll find the uninstall application there). I use the product for backing up files using Time Machine and move files manually from my work laptop. I highly recommend this product.

It looks great but is a CONSTANT struggle to use. It refuses to eject/unmount, and when I DO finally get it to do so, when I plug it back in it's not recognized. I am constantly having to use Disk Utility to get it to work. I'm going to get all this stuff backed up somehow then reformat as FAT32. Maybe that will work. Seriously, this is a huge disappointment, I have 4 other Passport drives but this is the only HFS one, and I've never had a bit of trouble with the others.

Maybe if I had gotten this free like many of the other reviewers I'd like it better but I doubt it. Because no drive should ever be this much of a headache to use.

This is my fourth Western Digital external hard drive, and the first one I have had that was ready-made for my Mac. I have had formatting problems with getting the drives to work with my older Mac, but with the help of Western Digital's tech support I got the Western Digital My Book Elite 1 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive running just fine and have used that for about a year.

When this little silver bullet showed up, however, it was love at first sight. This is a 1 TB like the "My Book Elite," but is easily half the size and makes the Elite look like a clunky old dinosaur. About the same size of a paperback book, this "My Passport SE" is highly portable and convenient.

The fact that this is Mac-formatted was a dream. Plug and play. Out of the box and hooked up to my computer in seconds. Time Machine is no problem. Everything works as advertised.

As far as speed, drive-size and such, there is no real advantage over the "My Book Elite," but as far as engineering goes this "My Passport SE" blows my old drive out of the water. It is powered from the USB, so I don't need to find a plug-in in my already over-loaded outlets. Sleek. Portable. Shiny. This drive is every good thing.

I am very pleased with this product. Nice compact size, works with Time Machine right out of the box. The included tools do a good job. I love how easy it is to password protect.

USB 2.0 is not as fast as firewire BUT the firewire products seemed to be bigger. I gladly accepted the negligible difference in speed.

And on a appearance note, I love the fact it is the same silver as my Macbook Pro. Makes a nice overall impression.

Highly Recommend.

had the product for one week and the drive crashed.....never going with WD again. Customer service was a joke. They wanted to charge me $100 for data recovery. Don't waste your time.

So far, so good for 4 weeks. Was never impressed with WD HD's for Mac, and used a Lacie Little Disk for mobile storage away from main desktop TM back up-- another Lacie. If this little guy holds up, I can definitely see a conversion happening.

Pros:
Quiet, efficient back up that is roughly the size of iPhone 3G! A TB more than handles the back up, plus other items I may want down the road.

Con:
The cable! Seriously WD...why introduce this complexity (the only mini-USB device I own)? Take a note from the Little Disk and just build it in. I'd rather have the bulk added in the form of 'built-in,' than bundled loosely in my pocket or bag. Better yet, add a Firewire 8 connection, and convert all Mac mobile storage users.