Customer Reviews

Western Digital 120 GB Passport Portable USB 2.0 External Hard Drive (WDXML1200UEBN)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you need a device to carry data between your office 1, office 2, and perhaps office 3, all being desktop, this device may work for you. However, be careful in selecting the USB cable. Some cables don't have enough current capacity, and the drive may not start. With some cables, you have to play with the connector to make sure the disk spins up. I think most desktop computers, when connected directly to the box or a powered USB hub, this disk can spin correctly.

If you need a way to exchange data among laptops, or between desktops and laptops, this product probably won't work for you. It is more likely to be a source of frustration to say the least. The power supplied by laptops via USB is most likely insufficient to spin up this drive. Mac's are known not to work with these drives. Some PCs may work but even then it'll eat battery very fast. For these applications, you might want to use flash memory sticks (limited to 8GB max, and more commonly 2GB or 4GB) or powered external HDDs (can be as large as 1TB, but much bigger than Passport). If pocket hdd is most desirable, get an iPod 80GB and use it as a HDD.

Some other manufacturers ship their pocket HDDs with a booster cable, with two USB ends that plug into the computer. One plug is for data plus power, another is just for power. This type of cable can double the power taken from the computer, and can make it work with Macbook. However, Western does not ship their products with such cables, and they do not actively sell such cables.

Another problem is that the bare HDD in this product is fragile. It doesn't take the level of shock that 3.5" HDDs can take these days. If you drop it on the floor, there is a high chance that the drive is killed. So be very careful in using adequate protection when carrying this drive.

One thing I noted is that this disk does not spin down even during a long period of inactivity, or even when the host computer is put to sleep mode. Why is that??

What I like to see is a pocket HDD with internal battery like iPod. iPod never has insufficient power problem with MacBooks because it has internal battery to spin up the disk. Of course, iPod disk is smaller, slower and more expensive than the disk in Passport, but why can't WD or Seagate make these drives with iPod battery? Most people use these disks just to sync the data at the beginning and at the end of each shift. So the battery can charge up for hours between minutes of use, and it is sufficient especially if the disk is allowed to spin down. So it appears to me that incorporating a small battery is a simple solution. Why they don't do it for extra $30 is beyond my understanding.

A macbook pro doesn;t have enough power to spin up the drive. Before you buy this, check to see how much power your USB ports put out. Most are 500. This needs 1000. You can buy a power supply or a USB booster for it, but they seem to be permanently out of stock at WD, which means the drive is totally useless to me.

I purchased 2 of these drives from Dell and not complaining at all! They're extremely quiet, very light, and don't require power cord (even though it comes with the drive). I'm using both of them at the same time with my Dell E1705 laptop. Have had them for about 2 months.

P.S. I'm talking about silver ones. Wanted to buy 160GB black ones but changed my mind after reading some of the reviews here. Would rather buy a couple more of silvers.

I like this little portable drive. It works well with my Macmini but does not work with my Powerbook G4. I probably would have to use the electrical cord but the defeats the purpose.

Worked for almost a month. Luckily this piece of junk started to flake out on me (started making grinding noises) before it totally bit it. So I bought another drive (320GB Lacie) and transferred my files just in time; this piece went the very next time I tried to use it. Can't format it - I'm looking for my receipt so that I can return it.

I wanted to have a bootable drive in case my laptop hard drive died. Went to support site and find out 'it was not designed for that'.
So it did it's sync thing, space used up, and I'm looking around and don't find my folders, nothing !? I guess they are somewhere but the software is terrible ... e.g. tells you nothing. You shouldn't have to dig for this stuff today.
It's no wonder they have such a huge support site.
I got by desktop bootable drive on sale for $100 but others want $+more for a bootable. Mine saved me a HUGE headache. Drive crashed. Plugged in the backup and PCClone software asks ' do you want to do a total restore ?'.
If only.

I had absolutely no problems with any laptop using this drive, and didn't need external power. The reviewer above must be from a competing company. I have dragged this unit across the world 2 times over and it never failed. it is rugged, light, and really well designed.