Western Digital's Passport drive goes pink for breast cancer research

Just weeks after Western Digital colorized its Passport line of external hard drives, the firm is at it once more with a metallic pink iteration. This particular unit, however, promotes something a bit more important than your obsession with nightly backups, as WD has pledged to donate an undisclosed amount of cash to the National Breast Cancer Foundation for each one purchased from now until February 29, 2008. The drive comes stocked with 250GB of space, gets its juice directly from your USB port and is available now for $199.99 for those interested.

[Jonyah @ Oct 30th 2007 11:17PM]

um, i just bought the black 250gb for 150. That's an expensive paint job.

[SteveMB @ Oct 30th 2007 11:22PM]

$150 for 250GB? And it's Western Digital? Ouch.

[John @ Oct 30th 2007 11:29PM]

hopefully MOST of the markup is for the "undisclosed amount".

[chris @ Oct 31st 2007 7:15AM]

"And its western digital?" ??

-only one of the most reliable hd manufacturers ive ever used...

[SteveMB @ Oct 31st 2007 7:45AM]

Don't think so, chris. They make some of the worst hard drives out there. I do believe that Seagate is the superior hard drive manufacturer.

[Jonyah @ Oct 31st 2007 8:25AM]

I agree seagate is definitely more reliable, but this will do for now. it's just for portability. stevemb, can you show me any other 250gb 2.5" external drives for $150? I think you didn't catch that this is not a full sized drive, then the price would be too much.

[John M @ Oct 31st 2007 1:01PM]

@Jonyah,

I bought a 500gb Western Digital My Book drive for $169.99. It has external Power source and is USB 2.0 only. Does not include Firewire or SATA...But, capacity and price wise its a much better deal. In fact, you can get a 1TB version for only $349.99.


@SteveMB

They dont make the "worst" Hard drives out there. Sure they are not as good as Seagate but they certainly are not the worst. Thats a crazy ascertion. Why dont you backup your claim with some actual numbers proving its the worst before making idiotic blanket statements like that.

[Jonyah @ Oct 31st 2007 1:31PM]

John, I guess you didn't get it. This is a 2.5" drive with no external power source. It's 1/4th the size of your external drive. Yes, it's more/gb, but has much better mobility. I also have an external 500gb drive I paid $120 for (you either bought earlier than me or got ripped off). That one stays firmly at home, but this drive goes with me everywhere. There's no way I'm going to travel with an external desktop drive that requires yet another brick of a power supply.

[John M @ Oct 31st 2007 1:54PM]

@ Jonyah
I most certainly get it. If you want extreme portability and something to go in the pocket then you pay more. But capacity and price wise you can find better deals. If you got a newer WD 500gb mybook for $120.00 then you did a great job. Because I certainly couldnt find one that cheap and believe me I looked. Im not calling you a liar but I dont think you got a WD My Book. Im assuming you bought it off the web from some company that marked them down. I bought mine locally from Best Buy and I checked all the stores and best Buy had the best price. Now, Western Digital has an older model that not stable and is cheap like your talking. In fact they had a 1TB for $249.99. I have the newer edition My Book. I have no need to carry around a massive amount of files. So, for portability I simply use a 10gb Phillips Flash Drive.

[John M @ Oct 31st 2007 1:57PM]

@Jonyah

Oh yeah that basicly proves you have an absolete external HD. My power supply is very small and is about the same size as my cell phones power adapter. Nothing close to a brick of a power supply.

[Jonyah @ Oct 31st 2007 2:25PM]

ok, it's a small brick and yes it's a mybook, not that i'm proud of it. best buy had them on sale recently for $120. still it's much larger than it has to be and way too large to be portable in a laptop bag. if capacity is that mattered, why buy thumb drives?

[Kawaiipikachu @ Oct 30th 2007 11:59PM]

At least it's for a good cause !

[wsnideman @ Oct 31st 2007 12:02AM]

You can buy it from Costco for 139.99

[euclid @ Oct 31st 2007 12:45AM]

So thats Sony, Microsoft, Seagate, Pioneer,Apple, T-Mobile, Sahara, Roomba, Polaroid, Casio, Ford, GE... not to mention the various USB flash drives all doing their bit for the tits.

Yay for boobies!

[Brian @ Oct 31st 2007 8:48PM]

"Yay for boobies!"

"Yay" for everyone except the women (and few men) who get breast cancer and have to choose between toxic chemo/radiation, a mastectomy (...look it up), or death. But I'm glad *you're* at least entertained by this whole "cancer" thing.

@ Mark: awesome idea, I might end up doing that

[sunpippy @ Oct 31st 2007 12:30AM]

perfect place to store all my showtunes and barbara striesand mp3s

[Yem @ Oct 31st 2007 12:30AM]

That actually looks pretty good :D

[Mark @ Oct 31st 2007 12:34AM]

It bugs me when corporations like this don't tell you exactly how much they'll donate. (fixed $ amount...% of every sale, etc) Why don't you just buy a regular color and donate $50 yourself. That way, you know YOU'RE helping and you also get the deduction instead of them

[Adrian Williams @ Oct 31st 2007 12:52AM]

Microsoft and ford gives 100% for the pink Zune
http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/18/ford-sells-pink-30gb-first-gen-zune-donates-100-to-breast-canc/

[klew @ Oct 31st 2007 12:49AM]

Donations are always welcomed, but SanDisk had the humor to link Alzheimer's research with flash memory. Are there any silicone DAP cases for Breast Cancer awareness?

[MDB @ Oct 31st 2007 12:52AM]

I'd buy one, but only to honor Ryan O'Reily.

[ak @ Oct 31st 2007 1:33AM]

i really like my passport - fantastic little drive that looks hella cool when plugged in.

great simple execution by WD - the pink is an eyecatcher for sure (geek cool?)

[Count Porkula @ Oct 31st 2007 2:08AM]

Just ONCE I'd like to see something done about men's prostate cancer. All you ever hear about is WOMEN'S health. Its like men don't exist anymore in this fucking country.

[Sean D. @ Oct 31st 2007 4:37AM]

At least awareness of prostate cancer has been on the increase in recent years, now we just need celebrities and musicians to take a stand and make it cool to donate and buy gadgets for prostate cancer. You'll see... Breast cancer awareness took a long time to build up to where it is today, it'll be the same thing with prostate cancer. I'll guess 8-10 more years.

What color do we make prostate cancer awareness gadgets? I vote for baby blue. I'd totally buy a baby blue 250GB hard drive.

[John M @ Oct 31st 2007 12:56PM]

Prostate awareness should be a brownish color with specs of peanuts paints on...All kidding aside I like the baby blue idead....Lets see...Red = Aids,Pink = Breast Cancer...I think a derivative of Red seems to go with the trend but in the end Baby Blue or an Emerald green would be attractive colors.

[Bigsby @ Oct 31st 2007 3:25AM]

I have one of these in black, and I must say they're amazing drives. They're super tiny, great for moving lots of stuff, or having as a travel drive, and they're really really sexy.

I think the biggest thumbs up on it though is that you don't need any external power supply, or a second USB dongle for the power, just one, clean USB connection and you're golden.

[Rilke @ Oct 31st 2007 8:45AM]

I vote that it should be brown for prostate awareness. :-)

[johnzilla @ Oct 31st 2007 8:18AM]

This "pink" stuff is just a marketing scam to increase sales. Stop buying these products, donate cash to your favorite charity and call it good. That way, 100% of your money is going to help the cause you're supporting, instead of most of it going into a corporation's bank account.

[John M @ Oct 31st 2007 12:04PM]

Your correct that if you can afford to donate to your favorite charity it benefits more than buying pink products for breast cancer awareness. However, for someone without the means to do so buying pink products does show that your willing to pay a little extra to help someone else. Its like giving the dollar at checkout to help feed children. Either way it benefits real people.

[johnzilla @ Oct 31st 2007 12:06PM]

That doesn't make any sense. You can afford to pay $150 for a pink external hard drive, but you can't affort to give $150 to charity instead of buying the hard drive?

[John M @ Oct 31st 2007 12:52PM]

Well pink hardrives arent the only things pink that go towards charity. For instance pink shampoo bottles in the grocery store. I wasnt talking exclusively about this hard drive. The fact is your correct that its more benficial to donate to a charity. But, if you cant afford to donate it doesnt hurt to pay an extra bit of change for the pink shampoo bottle. Also, because you can afford a hard drive doesnt mean you can afford to give the entire ammount away or give an extra $150.00. But, if your buying the product for personal needs why not spring the extra cash for charity. Your logic while well meaning doesnt make practical sense for most hard working people.

[Markus @ Oct 31st 2007 9:42AM]

It looks like a mixture...blend...cross.. however between the samsung p2 and the samsung t10 ;)

[Fank @ Oct 31st 2007 9:09AM]

In other news: only boobs are now important. Others part of the body that can get cancer will have to wait until all the boobs in the world are safe.

[Peter VK @ Oct 31st 2007 9:27AM]

I'm sick of this crappy donation scheme. I was flipping through this supermarket's specials catalogue, and they had a section on pink-coloured products for breast cancer research. Bottled water, shampoo, biscuits -- all of them said they'd donate 10 cents per product sold. That'd be great, except all of them were 20-30 cents dearer than the exact same product from the same store without the pink branding.

[John M @ Oct 31st 2007 12:00PM]

@ Peter VK

I think your view on the matter is very cynical. If you were close to someone effected with Breast Cancer (or any cancer) you would most certainly be more sympathetic. If an extra 20-30 cents is going to effect your finances then you probably shouldnt consider purchasing that product. But, calling it a scam is highly disingenuous on your behalf.

[Armen @ Oct 31st 2007 1:00PM]

John M, learn to read!
He said the corps are charging you 20-30cents more for products that give 10cents to a good cause.
How is that NOT a scam?

I also support the buy it yourself and donate the difference, if you really have to show everyone how much you "care" there's something wrong with you.
Those who donate anonymously and never brag about it are the people who care for real.

[John M @ Oct 31st 2007 2:05PM]

@ Armen

It would be a scam if they didnt give as much or any of the $$ as they promised to charity. It isnt a scam for a business to mark up prices. It may not be good business practices but its far from a scam. You should learn to read the dictionary.

[John M @ Oct 31st 2007 11:48AM]

Thats really expensive. I just bought a "My Book" from Western Digital for Time Machine which was 500gb and only cost me $169.99 at Best Buy. They also had a 1TB for roughly $349.99. However, the My Book requires and external power source and I got the lower grade version which does not include SATA or Firewire, just USB 2.0. So, depending on specs of this device it could be a solid deal. However, based solely on price and capacity its not. At least some of the proceeds go to Breast Cancer Research which is very important. I bought my fiance a Pink ipod shuffle from target just because of the fact proceeds went to Breast Cancer Research.

[blarvh @ Oct 31st 2007 1:04PM]

Try fitting that in your pocket.

[John M @ Oct 31st 2007 1:35PM]

Well seeing as how I bought it for Time Machine I dont see why I would need to put it in my pocket. If I wanted an external HD that was extremely portable I would have chose one w/o external power needs. Capacity wise and Price wise its a better deal. If your needs are portable on the go use anywhere then its probably not the device for you. I have a 10gb flash drive for my pocket anyway.

[DG @ Oct 31st 2007 12:30PM]

Except, you know, near-total control of the world's major resources and political institutions.

Dumbass.

[John M @ Oct 31st 2007 1:13PM]

@Armen

If the extra 20-30 cents is going to kill your finances then maybe you shouldt buy the product. I cant verify that these products are marked up "extra". I can speak from experience that alot of these pink products are cheaper. The pink ipod shuffle was the same price as the regular shuffle AND came bundled with a free $15.00 i-tunes gift card. I still dont think its a scam to buy pink products even if they are marked up extra (which I cant verify is actually true). And as for your ascertion which I assume is aimed at me --

"if you really have to show everyone how much you "care" there's something wrong with you.
Those who donate anonymously and never brag about it are the people who care for real."

Thats just plan retarted. If you donate you donate. If you feel the need to disclose that to people it doesnt mean you "care" any less. Thats probably the biggest bit of stereotyping I have heard in a long time. Caring is Caring. So, like I said if you can deal with a 20-30 cent markup then buy the regular product. No one is putting a gun to your head and making you buy the pink one. I dont see how its a scam if they also sell the non-donated goods at the regular price. The scam is perpetrated by people like you who spew rhetoric and unfounded accusations.

[peter vk @ Nov 1st 2007 5:56AM]

John M, if you'll read carefully, I never called it a scam. I said I was sick of the strategy by which they marketed their products. They're donating 10 cents, but making an extra 10-20 cents off people's general inclination to buy a gift with a charitable donation -- FOR NO OTHER REASON THAN TO MAKE A PROFIT. It's just bullshit. I don't care how much you're an advocate of the "at least they're donating something" type-of-thinking.

Yes, no one's holding a gun to my head, but do you not see the "highly disingenuous" nature of making a profit from a consumer's choice to buy to a pink-labelled product?

[R Hamel @ Oct 31st 2007 2:46PM]

John M. The point being made is that companies are still padding their pockets due to peoples good will. Personally I'd rather the companies not try to put it on the people and just donate money out of their profits. Celebrities do it people do it, and they dont advertise it. Why do companies have to ask for extra cash from people so they can donate only a small part of the extra they ask for?

[JamesR @ Oct 31st 2007 3:39PM]

I couldn't agree more. The companies aren't doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. It's marketing.

Breast Cancer is a good cause and I'm happy it's getting some recognition out of all this hype. Truth be told though I'd rather my charity $$ go elsewhere. As breast cancer is one of the most highly publicized charities my $$ are much more needed by my local food bank.

YMMV. There are no bad charities.

[john cole @ Jan 2nd 2008 4:42AM]

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