Western Digital intros 250GB Passport hard drive

Western Digital has given a boost to its Passport line of external USB hard drives, today introducing a new 250GB model that makes the previous top-end 160GB drive look positively paltry in comparison. While the exact type of hard drive crammed in there isn't clear, like other Passport drives, it's most definitely of the 2.5-inch variety, with the entire enclosure measuring just 5.11 x 3.14 x 0.59 inches. You'll also get the usual complement of pre-loaded software, including Western Digital's WD Sync software and Google Desktop -- no Mac software here, although the drive itself will work just fine. If that'll do, you can get your drive now for an even $200.

[Jonathan Keim @ Jun 6th 2007 2:51PM]

These are nice drives. Extremely tiny

[tphil9 @ Jun 6th 2007 3:09PM]

yes they are. i have the 160gb and love it.

[Dixonij @ Jun 6th 2007 3:34PM]

I love my 120GB Passport drive.

[Bla� @ Jun 6th 2007 3:43PM]

They're nice, but the 5k rpm thing is just way too slow. I had to copy around 80GB of stuff (~35GB pictures, ~20GB music, ~15GB movies & ~10GB of programs and other stuff) and it took like an hour and 30min. So next time i have to backup some files i'll just get a normal sata disk and be done in 1/4 of that time.

[telepheedian @ Jun 6th 2007 3:53PM]

Ever since experiencing a 1tb raid mybook crashing, i am never going to buy WD external again.

[Tilman Sporkert @ Jun 6th 2007 4:04PM]

> While the exact type of hard drive crammed in there isn't clear,

There are only two 250GB drives available that can fit in this enclosure, both recently introduced. WD probably doesn't use the Fujitsu drive, so it must be the 2.5" 250GB 5400rpm SATA WD Scorpio WD2500BEVS drive. I have a couple of the 160 GB Passport drives, and they are very nice.

[iconolith @ Jun 6th 2007 4:30PM]

From what I can tell the WD Passports have 2MB cache, where I have seen a number of similar drives with 8MB cache. How much of a difference does cache size make?

[Ryan Maffit @ Jun 6th 2007 5:04PM]

Possibly this Hard Drive?

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=314

[Joseph @ Jun 6th 2007 5:07PM]

These drives replaced our tape backup when our tape drive bit the dust. We saved over 1000 dollars on tapes/drives and gained 2x speed. We are using 120gb. First successful backup using backup exec ever. normally 1 email in 1 box causes a fail. Not with these.

Highly reccomended!

[Andy @ Jun 6th 2007 5:32PM]

Considering the 120GB froze 2 laptops, and broke all the USB ports on a third, I won't be getting this...

[crescentdavid @ Jun 6th 2007 7:00PM]

People need to distinguish between external hard drives with power supply and those (like the passport) that are USB powered. The size, amount of cache and speeds differ, depending upon classification. So, for example, the SATA comparison is meaningless.

[samson @ Jun 6th 2007 8:18PM]

WD Passport's power supply is a big problem. They only give you a standard MiniUSB cable and some computers (actually, many computers, in my experience) don't provide enough power for the drive to spin up.

My friend's WDPP 120G works on 3 of my 5 computers but not the other 2; I got another 120G from Circuitcity (memorial day sale) and none of my computers work with it. Had to return it and grab a Seagate FreeAgent Go instead. So far I'm happy with the Seagate drive. It comes with a Y-USB cable that allows you to get power from 2 USB ports, which most computers even laptops can provide easily. With this Y cable, I have no problem using it with all my desktops and laptops. For WDPP, you'll have to buy such cable seperately, which is about $10 + tax + s/h.

[tekdroid @ Jun 6th 2007 8:55PM]

wd doesn't suppy a Y-cable? That's pretty bad. Even the cheapiest of cheapie external cases (one of which I'm using) provides those.

I'd be ineterested to know what make/model of USB-translation chip the WD external cases use, but if they don't provide a Y-cable (or extra cable, as some do) for additional power, I don't reckon I even want to know.

There are a significant number of computers (and some higher-capacity HDs), as samson said, that won't power the external drive properly without an additional USB plug plugged in. The WD Scorpio 80GB is at the limit of what the USB bus can theoretically provide, for instance).

Add some deviation from the mainboard and you fairly often get a drive not working on some computers - until you plug in that second usb plug.

[sebastienb @ Jun 6th 2007 9:40PM]

We got 2 for the office and they both crash the mac's and some times take for ever to mount on the desktop. They look very nice but are not dependable at least not the 2 120 gigs we got recently.

[Jessy @ Jun 7th 2007 3:11PM]

Wow, now I wish I didn't buy the older WD 250gig external.

[Louis @ Sep 10th 2007 10:08AM]

Can anyone tell me why I cannot syncronize my autocad files?
And has anyone found it possible to syncronize large outlook express attachments. I need to be able to transfer autocad and jpg files otherwise my 120gb wd passport does not serve its advertized purpose.

[marcelo @ Oct 2nd 2007 10:47PM]

For Mac OS X users.... LISTEN UP... format the drive for Mac as they do come preformatted for Windows DOS (FAT32) which is VERY SLOW. Once I did this, r/w speeds were as fast as FW800 on a MBP 2.16GHz. (OH, and no need for extra power due to the dedicated USB2.0 port) Sorry PC users, get a Mac.

[don lobo @ May 2nd 2008 2:40PM]

hey

how do i format the drive for a mac? i just got one and have never done that b4.

thanks

[peter @ Aug 14th 2008 6:10PM]

the wd passport is a handy drive, i got mine at www.consumerdepot.com it is a great little drive.