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These drives are 2.5" tiny, super quiet, USB 2.0 drives that draw their power directly from the computer themselves. This was my first passport drive.Before the passport drives came out, external drives were big, heavy, clumsy devices that were hard to install and required separate power supplies.Passport changed this. They're in one word fantastic and they're beautiful too.Quite frankly the 160GB model is out of date and you should consider getting the Western Digital 320 GB Passport 2.5" USB 2.0 Hard Drive or Western Digital My Passport Essential 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive WDME5000TN (Midnight Black) models which are cheaper than this hard to find hard drive which is overly expensive now.I thought I'd review it because I reviewed the 500gb model and thought that I should write down the entire history.
hasn't failed on me yet so I'm thankful.pricey at the time I bought it. nice little hard drive. I'd recommend it.
I had other problems where it would spin up for a few seconds, long enough for windows to recognize it as a drive and ask about autorun, then shut down. This means that this hard drive will not work for you. This would result in hundreds of autorun windows open on my computer. I had issues with the drive not spinning up, though this was due to power limitations on the hub I had it plugged in to. I have yet to lose any data and it still works so I can't complain too much. This hard drive requires 1 amp at spin up, most USB hubs provide at most 500mA per port, or half of what this drive needs.
Other issues I have seen with this drive are transfer rates dropping to 0 and clicking sounds. When the drive works, it works well. Even USB Hubs that advertise USB 2.0 Compatibility do not guarantee that they will supply the amount of power required by USB 2.0. It would go through this cycle for hours if left unattended.
That was nice, I just wish it didn't die. It is a real shame because I lost a lot of important documents. It was pretty good for a while and then it croaked. It lasted for about 2 months and frankly I hardly ever used it. The main thing I did like about it, was it got its power from the usb cable.
Its compact size and "feather weight" make it a must have for laptop users--or other WD portables HDs for that matter. I had the 160GB WD for several years and found it to be very reliable at home or on the road. I am happy to say that I just purchased the 500GB behemoth version.Highly, highly recommended.
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