WD Elements 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive

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Digital Storage Capacity	500 GB
Brand	Western Digital
Model Name	My Passport
Specific Uses For Product	Personal
Connectivity Technology	USB, Firewire

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Easy to Use - Just plug it in and it's ready to receive your data.
USB Powered - These drives require no power adapter--they are powered directly through the USB cable.
Compact Design - Weighing in at only a few ounces, these tiny drives fit easily into pocket or purse.
All WD drives, even our most basic products, are designed to protect your data
Easy to Use - Just plug it in and it's ready to receive your data
USB Powered - These drives require no power adapter
Compact Design - Weighing in at only a few ounces

There is a newer model of this item:

WD 500GB Elements Portable External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 - WDBUZG5000ABK-NESN
$84.99
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Customer Rating	(331)	(85570)	(143823)	(19834)	(36672)	(27911)
Price	From $119.99	$58.99	$49.99	$54.99	$47.99	$36.29
Shipping	—	FREE Shipping. Details	FREE Shipping. Details	FREE Shipping. Details	FREE Shipping. Details	FREE Shipping. Details
Sold By	Available from these sellers	Amazon.com	Amazon.com	Amazon.com	Amazon.com	Maxone USA
Connectivity Technology	Firewire, USB	USB	USB	USB	USB	USB
Digital Storage Capacity	500.0 GB	1 TB	1 TB	1 TB	1 TB	500.0 GB
File System	FAT32	NTFS	—	—	NTFS	FAT32
Hard Disk Description	portable	Portable, Hard Disk Drive	Portable	Portable	Portable	Portable
Hard Disk Size	500 GB	1 TB	1 TB	1 TB	1.0 TB	500.00 GB
Hardware Interface	USB	USB 3.0	USB 3.0, USB 2.0	USB 3.0	USB 3.0	USB 3.0
Item Dimensions	5 x 3.1 x 0.6 inches	4.35 x 0.59 x 3.23 inches	4.6 x 3.15 x 0.58 inches	0.44 x 2.95 x 4.21 inches	4.3 x 3.1 x 0.55 inches	4.7 x 3.3 x 0.4 inches
Item Weight	7.04 ounces	4.59 ounces	6.72 ounces	4.23 ounces	5.28 ounces	5.49 ounces
Memory Storage Capacity	500.0 GB	1 TB	1 TB	1 TB	1 TB	500.00 GB
Model Year	2010	2017	—	2019	2018	—
Size	500 GB	1TB	1TB	1TB	1TB	500GB

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Product description

Capacity:500 GB

From the Manufacturer

WD Elements™ Portable Hard Drive - Simply affordable. Easily portable.

Western Digital's WD Elements Portable USB 2.0 hard drives are the right answer for simple, reliable portable storage. Simply plug one in to a USB port and start saving your photos, music, video, and files.

Features at a glance

Simple add-on storage
Plug-and-play
USB 2.0 interface
WD quality inside and out
1-year limited warranty

Plug-and-play simplicity - Just plug the WD Elements Portable drive into a USB port to instantly add more storage to your computer.

USB powered - These drives require no power adapter because they are powered directly though the USB cable.

WD quality inside and out - Designed with the same commitment to quality that made WD external drives the number one selling drives in the world.

Packaging - Packaged in a minimized way and recyclable packaging made from recycled materials.

Preformatted for PCs - Designed for use with Windows-based computers. Can be easily reformatted for use with Macs.

Compatibility

Windows® XP, Windows Vista®, Windows 7
Can be reformatted for Mac OS® X Tiger®, Leopard®, or Snow Leopard™

Note: Compatibility may vary, depending on user's hardware configuration and operating system.

What's in the box

USB 2.0 portable hard drive, USB cable, Quick Install Guide.

Portable Storage Comparison Chart
		WD Elements Portable	WD Elements Portable SE	My Passport Essential	My Passport Essential SE	My Passport Studio
		Simply affordable, easily portable.	Maximum capacity storage in a compact design.	Next generation storage to go.	Next generation high-capacity storage to go.	Pure performance for Mac.
	Interface	USB 2.0	USB 2.0	USB 3.0, USB 2.0	USB 3.0, USB 2.0	FireWire 400/800, USB 2.0
	Capacity range	500 GB	500 GB - 1 TB	500 GB	750 GB and 1 TB	320 GB - 640 GB
	WD SmartWare
	Automatic backup
	Password protection and hardware encryption
	Ultra-portable form factor
	Capacity gauge
	E-label
	Highest capacity

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Product information

Capacity:500 GB

Product Dimensions

5 x 3.1 x 0.6 inches

Item Weight

7 ounces

ASIN

B002CZQ4GU

Item model number

WDBAAR5000ABK-NESN

Customer Reviews

331 ratings

4.3 out of 5 stars

Best Sellers Rank

#4,178 in External Hard Drives

Is Discontinued By Manufacturer

Date First Available

June 15, 2009

Manufacturer

Western Digital

Language

English

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Customer reviews

5 star		72%
4 star		11%
3 star		3%
2 star		6%
1 star		8%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Emil

The most stylish hard drive out there!

Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2010

Verified Purchase

I used to have a 120 GB Western Digital hard drive similar to this one in size and function, it worked perfectly fine but my new laptop has 320 GB now so I had to upgrade. I liked the simplicity, reliability and stylish design of my previous Western Digital hard dive, so I did my research and when I saw this one online - I knew that's the one I was looking for.

The design of this hard drive is so stylish that I feel that even Apple designers admired this beauty and simply copied it with their Apple TV Apple TV MC572LL/A (2010) . The bottom and top are matte black which makes it less of a fingerprint magnet, while the sides have a glossy finish which adds a nice touch to it. The top part has a nice glossy WD logo. The bottom has little rubber feet to prevent vibrations. Overall, I don't think you will find anything more stylish and with such a practical design than this hard drive. It's very tiny and thin.

It's very simple to use - just plug it in the USB and THAT'S IT, no extra AC adapters or cables. There is a white LED light next to the USB which blinks when the hard drive is in use (it is solid if it's just connected to the computer doing nothing).

The one thing that I don't like about this hard drive is the speed. Because it is a USB hard drive - it may take a few hours to back up 320GB of data. But I can't complain as it is a portable drive and I knew the drawback. So if you need a fast external hard drive for backups at home - please consider the one with FIREWIRE. You may have to have it plugged in the wall outlet when using it, but it will be faster.

14 people found this helpful

Helpful

Fountainhead

Simple, no-fuss excellent product

Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2011

Capacity: 500 GBVerified Purchase

I was hunting around for a 500Gb-1Tb hard drive quite a bit and came across several reviews on amazon for both portable and desktop hard-drives. Across all the reviews what struck me was a) the unreliability of the disks and b) a ton of bloatware on the disks c) issues with appearance, and d) the plethora of interfaces available on these disks.

I then came across (surprisingly hidden) this extremely simple 500Gb Essential WD hard disk and immediately liked it. The device is extremely simple : just a mini-usb interface and a flashing led on the outside. No on-off button, reset, backup, power outlet, back-up software : Nothing. It is a plain (very small) NTFS partitioned hard-disk, pure and simple. You plug in the mini-usb chord to connect to your machine, transfer data, plug it out. It is extremely small, fitting comfortably in the palm of my hand and pretty fast (I've been using it for routinely transferring and backing up several Gb files : for a 2 Gb file takes roughly a minute). Till now I've not experienced any reliability problems ( I routinely carry it around with me), but time will tell : its only been 2 months since I bought it. But in sampling the unreliability issues across the reviews for various disks, this was the one product that seemed to stand out with a very small number of reviews regarding disk crash. The default partition is NTFS, so Linux users may have to re-partition it for their liking to ext3 (or FAT32 for cross-compatibility). I haven't tried that so can't comment on it.

However, overall, I have been suitably impressed by its small size, no-frills simple approach which is pretty much what I expect in a hard-disk. The mini-USB interface is a 2.0 interface and as mentioned above, I've found the transfer speeds to be reasonably satisfactory (I use the disk for backup and occasional transfer of data).

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Paul C Huang

Simplicity is king

Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2010

Capacity: 500 GBVerified Purchase

There is more than what meets the eyes with this drive. One word: Simple.

The cardboard packaging uses a minimal amount of materials and therefore reduces waste.
The injection-molded plastic allows the users to open and reassemble the internal components easily.
There is not a single screw involved in this unit.

Inside of this drive is a WDC Scorpio Blue drive with the standard SATA connector. This is not to be confused with the WDC Passport Essential. The Essential aims for smaller footprint, so instead of a standard SATA, the printed-circuit board on the hard drive only provides a direct USB 2.0 socket plus a few leads for SATA connection. However, if components on that PC board malfunction, then you'd have to find an identical drive and 'borrow' or 'harvest' the working PC board just to get your data off.

The Elements, if the USB 2.0 bridge is bad, the drive doesn't go down entirely. You can easily pop the drive out and put it into a USB 2.0 enclosure and read your data. This is a good side effect of having a slightly bulkier footprint.

Voiding the warranty or not, no one in the right mind would use a brick (refurbished) provided by the manufacturer as a warranty swap, so I highly recommend those who are still using 320GB or smaller to pull this drive and install it internally, and take the 320GB or smaller out of the notebook and put it into this case and use it as a backup drive.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

John D Hillmer

Compact unit, works great, for a great price

Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2010

Verified Purchase

I bought this for my daughter, for a laptop that she had filled up. She has been using an older full sized Western Digital external drive, with it's own power supply, but she needed more disk space, so it was time to purchase another drive. This 320GB was on sale when I got it from Amazon for her, which made the price per giga-byte competitive with larger units, and since she wanted something very portable, this was the solution we agreed to.

Light wight, no external power supply needed (it draws power for it through the same USB cable that connects it to the laptop). Her laptop, a DELL 6400/e1505 with Win XP 32 Bit on it, recognized this new drive just fine, and she's been a "happy camper" (which means I, her PC support father, am a happy camper" too!)

Now, if you want to get technical, there are faster drives, and certainly more (larger) capacity drives out there, but then you need to pay a bit more, and this one on sale, was too hard to say no to. It met the requirements, and will solve her space needs for a few years. By the time she needs more (again) it will be time for a new laptop.

One person found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

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John C

I highly recommend WD hard drives

Reviewed in Canada on September 1, 2017

Capacity: 640 GBVerified Purchase

I still use this device today. I highly recommend WD hard drives.

Volker Solbach

Klappt super

Reviewed in Germany on March 8, 2013

Verified Purchase

Gutes Produkt bin sehr zufrieden. Preis Leistung ok.
Es gibt nichts negatives zu schreiben,
Alles wie im Angebot beschrieben.
Würde ich wieder kaufen.

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kyle

Five Stars

Reviewed in Canada on January 27, 2015

Capacity: 500 GBVerified Purchase

WD makes great HDD's. Go to brand for me!

Eric Mathieu

Three Stars

Reviewed in Canada on September 23, 2015

Capacity: 500 GBVerified Purchase

F. Fuchs

Gute Platte

Reviewed in Germany on January 6, 2010

Verified Purchase

Die Platte hat ein gutes Preis-Leistungsverhältnis, ist schnell einsatzbereit und auch sehr schnell im Zugriff. Meinem Vorredner kann ich nicht zustimmen- bei mir startet keinerlei Backup-Software, die weisse LED stört mich nicht im geringsten und dass eine Festplatte Geräusche macht, ist ja wohl nichts neues. Auch ist die Verarbeitung ordentlich und robust. Von daher meine uneingeschränkte Empfehlung.

46 people found this helpful

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WD Elements 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive

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Product description

From the Manufacturer

WD Elements™ Portable Hard Drive - Simply affordable. Easily portable.

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