Customer Reviews

STORAGE, 250GB PASSPORT PORTABLE

5 star:		(85)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

This might be a good drive, but it is not usable on some computers. To power up, drive requires ~ 650 mA, which is more than USB on my HP laptop can provide.

USB 2.0 Power Booster cable can be used to solve that problem. It combines power from 2 USB ports, but it is currently out of stock on Western Digital store. I am not aware of any alternative solution and I could not find similar cable on the Net.

Before purchase, I would recommend:

1. Check USB settings on computer
2. Check availability of USB 2.0 Power Boost cable

This is a very good drive but be aware that it does not work with all USB ports - a lot of them will not supply enough power to run the drive so you will need the power booster cable WDCA029RNN which connects to 2 USB ports to get enough power to the drive. The pity is that WD do not include this as standard since quite a number people buying this item will actually need it to run the drive. Would have got 5 stars were it not for this.Western Digital WDXMS2500TN Passport Portable 250GB Hard Drive ( Black )

The Western Digital Passport line of hard drives is excellent. After using a 160 GB hard drive for 6 months, I realized that the reliability and ease of use of this drive was hard to resist. Priced competitively to other manufacturers, it has a great value.

I purchased the 250 GB hard drive to augment my portable storage to keep all of my necessary files without having to resort to finding an outlet that most external hard drives require.

The most important thing to do before using this drive is to Quick Format it in NTFS to handle larger files (> 4GB). It comes from the factory in FAT 32.

It is a quiet drive and runs without the heat that most plug-in externals have.

Constructed of lightweight plastic it is portable but not 'fragile'. I have accidentally dropped mine a few times without adverse effects.

It's big use is for laptop users and academics who need large amounts of space in a small footprint. With the low key glossy black finish, it's simple styling is not an eyesore. A USB cable is provided.

Highly recommend this line of external hard drives.

All good reviews, but don't believe the issues with power. WinXP SP2 blocks the use of the drive because it thinks it draws too much power. But there is a simple procedure to override this (from WD site):

"Problem:
Under Windows XP, an error message of "Power Surge on Hub Port" or "USB device has exceeded the power limits of it's hub port" is displayed when connecting a USB device to a USB port on a computer or Hub.

Cause:
Under some computers, USB devices are only allowed to draw a maximum of 500 milliamps (mA) per connection from the USB port on the computer system or from a USB hub. Under the Windows XP Operating System, with the release of Service Pack 2, if a device attempts to draw more than this (500 milliamps), a USB port balloon message is displayed to indicate this over current condition. When connecting a USB device that draws power from the USB bus, a very brief over current condition is sometimes detected by the OS, and the warning message is displayed.

Resolution:
This message has no affect on the functionality of the USB port. The USB hard drive should still function correctly on the USB port regardless of the error message. To prevent the USB Power Surge Alert message from displaying, please complete the following steps:
Click on Start.

Click on Control Panel.

Double-click on the System Icon.

Click on the Hardware Tab.

Click on the Device Manager button.

Click on the + next to Universal Serial Bus Controllers to expand the selection.

Right-click and select Properties on any listing that displays USB UNIVERSAL HOST CONTROLLER.

Click on the Advanced Tab.

Check the box that says: Don't tell me about USB errors."

This works fine, and the drive works fine afterwards. I suspect it actually draws less power than they say. Maybe it has a brief power draw spike on startup, but it's running power seems less. In any case, it works fine without the Y cable. I do think it is tacky that WD doesn't give the cable for free, since my $7 Sabrent 2.5" Hard drive enclosure came with a y cable.

But most likely the drive will work fine for you. It is a lovely quiet drive, and takes up no space at all.

PS I just tried it on my IBM X31, which is several years old, and it worked fine. So I think the power issue is really a non-issue, but if you really are worried about frying your usb port, then buy the Y-cable.

I'm using the 250GB Western Digital Passport to back-up files on my Macbook, which only has a 100G drive, so this is 2 1/2 times bigger.
I read a lot of reviews on different websites before purchasing this drive.
PROS:
1. Portability: The Passport is just slightly bigger than my iPod.
2. Piano black finish looks: This will be sitting on my desk most of the time and looks great next to my black Macbook.
3. Does not need an additional power block: This portable drive takes its power from the included USB cord.
4. Plug-and-Save: I was saving files onto this external hard drive within minutes of opening the package. Pops up as a drive on the desktop.

I saved about 50G worth of files, movies and music onto the drive. It took about 10-15 minutes, so it definitely wasn't super-fast.

The direct playback of a movie from the drive was excellent. I ran both movies simultaneously from the MAC HD and the WD HD, and they looked and sounded identical with no skipping.

CONS:
1. Too bad it doesn't come with a carrying case, which you can buy separately.
2. Takes a while to save files. But this is my first external hard drive, so I have no point of reference. Maybe they all take a while...
3. No software to sync the WD passport to your Mac so that you can have it automatically back-up files when it's plugged in. I just manually drag and drop. It does have software for PCs.
Nonetheless, I highly recommend.

Dragged two of these all over the bush in Southern Africa for a two week photo safari. Worked perfectly under desert and swampy conditions. No problem with usb power on my little Mac G4 notebook. Backed up my irreplaceable photos flawlessly. Carried in a padded pouch in an overstuffed backpack. Bounced around the lower cargo bin of a couple bush planes. Bottom line= I am thrilled and will buy more for backup and archiving!

This drive works really well. I have two of them that I use with my MacBook Pro. I did a striped raid with them for a total of 500GB and I'm very pleased with the results (and the speed).

Works as described. Extremely light. Using it with a MacBook Pro as a Time Machine backup drive. There are other drives that are portable, however they need 2 USB connections - one for data and the other for power. This one works with the single cable that's included.

Despite all the negative reviews for this product its not bad. I got this for my laptop and as an external hard drive for more cpu space. It would be nice if they had a 320gb one but 250gb is a very good amount of space for most people. I have heard some stories about the passport and was reluctant to get it but I got mine on sale at best buy for $140 and it was actually cheaper to get it at the store then it was online and they have a return policy if anything happens before january 31st you can return it so I decided to get it there. Even though its only powered by a usb cable it still transfers pretty fast just as any normal hard drive powered by a usb cable. This is a great product if you need more storage for your laptop or cpu. The black finish is nice it gets scratches easily but that doesn't bother me anymore because practically everything from ipods to tvs nowadays will get scratched easily if you don't take care of them. As of now I have yet to run into any problems with this product the 360 reads the passport really well I can listen to my music on it and view my pictures as well which is another plus because I was afraid the 360 wouldn't read it. If you need the extra space get this one you won't find a bigger one although I'm sure a 320gb passport isn't far away from being a reality. I also forgot to mention that the passport works fine with both windows xp and it is windows vista certified.

I gave this hard drive one star for one reason only - it does not work with Mac laptop computers - other than that I have used it on a windows laptop and it works fine.

This is my story - Recently, after doing extensive research about portable hard drives, i decided to get the WD Passport 250GB drive to use with my Mac Powerbook G4. In all of the WD ads, and on their web site, they say these drives work with Macs and nowhere do they qualify this statement. I received the drive today and attached the USB cable to my Mac and the little blue light turned on, and started to blink. Unfortunately, my Mac did not recognize the drive or so I thought. So I looked online in the help section of the WD site and found an article that said it may take a little longer for macs to read the drive because of the formatting. So I left the drive connected and went about my business and over 2 hours later, nothing!!!! I took the drive over to my wife's window's laptop, plugged it in and voila it worked fine. So it is not the drive. Then I thought that my recent upgrade to Leopard might be responsible, but since the upgrade, I haven't had any problems with any of the other portable drives that I use on a regular basis. Finally I went back to the WD support site and after 2 hours of searching, I found the answer and here it is:

Question: Why is a WD Passport external USB hard drive not detected when connected to a Macintosh PowerBook Laptop?

Answer: Problem: A WD Passport external USB hard drive is not detected when connected to a Macintosh PowerBook Laptop.

Cause: Many 15" and 17" Macintosh PowerBook and Mac Book Pro Laptops do not provide enough power through a single USB port for the WD Passport(tm) external USB hard drive to work correctly. The WD Passport(tm) external USB hard drive requires a minimum of 1000Ma (Milliamps) of power for proper usage.

Resolution: You can purchase a WD Passport(tm) Power Supply or a USB 2.0 Power Booster Cable from links below to the Western Digital Online Store.

The above was taken from the WD support site - So buyer beware.