Western Digital My Passport Essential 320 GB USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive WDME3200TN (Midnight Black)

I did not reformat like most others seem to do to NTFS. It fits my needs for back up of my laptop perfectly. I have been very pleased with its operation. I cannot hear it, it only gets slightly warm (hardly noticeably). Access times are fine, I actually play mp3's and read e-Books from it.

This is very easy to install and use. Just connect the drive to your USB port with the provided cable and it is plug-n-play. I just drag the files I want onto the portable drive icon. It comes with software that will allow back ups and sync files. But I never even tried the provided software. I am happy with the way I use it so I cannot talk to how well the provided software works. I would rather continue to just drag files onto the icon of the drive, delete that software and use the extra space.

I have a five-year-old Toshiba Satellite with a speaker system that includes a USB hub. I tired connecting the cable to the hub, but noting happened. But when I directly connected to a USB on the laptop everything worked perfect. There was no need for any additional purchase. The drive worked well with single USB connector supplied. I am very happy with this and it easily stores in one of the pockets of my laptop case.

It's a handsome minimalist package for doing ongoing backups of your documents and software.... HOWEVER, before using the included software, know the difference between a mirror drive and a regular back-up and decide whether you should buy (or get a free download from CNET of) other backup software. Reliable hardware.

this is awsome drive its working great witj my dell inpiron laptrop.for the price and 160gb its great deal

i order the gel pad since dec 14 and the supplier cliam to send the order but it website did not match what it claim. beside it is a bad service and not trustworthy supplier.

I purchased one of these a few months ago overall have been very happy with it. Here are some pros & cons:

Positive Aspects:
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- Very small size. This is especially nice for travel.
- Very quiet.
- USB powered. No external power supply required.
- Western Digital is the manufacturer. I have found Western Digital equipment to be very reliable.
- Windows XP automatically recognized the drive and installed it.
- Affordable price for a large compact drive.

Negative Aspects:
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- Data transfer rate was not terribly fast, especially when transferring large files.
- Came formatted Fat32. I had to reformat it NTFS, as I frequently transfer files larger than 2 GB, and Fat32 does not support this. This of course is not a problem with the drive. Fat32 was obviously used so it could be used across multiple platforms.


Overall I found it to be a very good piece of hardware. I would recommend it to anyone that wants a physically small drive to transfer files or for travel.