Yeah, I bought one of these drives from Best Buy a few months ago and it had so many problems mounting. I loved the small form factor, but you'll see how much the shell scratches and that it's not very reliable. Now when i plug it in I can only copy 10 - 20 megs before it unmounts on it's own giving me an error message. I lost alot of data. Now i have a 500 gig seagate with leopards time machine running. Hopefully I don't go through the same thing again.
Were you using this with a laptop? Because I've heard that they're fairly unreliable with laptops because they can't pull enough power from the usb or something . . .
did you use the short and thick USB cable they provided you or did you use some generic USB cord? I first had the same problem when I used a longer usb cord that i had previously had. After using the original cord provided it didn't happen anymore.
I kind of thought the whole point of buying a passport drive would be to use it with a laptop cause its so portable. If size isn't a concern you can buy plenty of higher capacity drives for less $.
I know it's not an ideal solution, but you can use one of these cables: http://www.lindy.co.uk/31780.html Just plug the second usb plug into another usb port, or a usb charger adaptor. However, I agree that manufactures should warn people that 2.5" drives are not certain to be able to draw enough power from a single usb port on all computers before selling them as usb powered.
I have one of these and it mounted fine for a while then stopped. I couldn't figure out why. Turns out it was upside down. Yep. That's right. Upside down.
Of course, it's a perfectly symmetrical black box, so I'm not entirely surprised I'd put it down upside down...but I AM surprised it wouldn't work that way...
I was on tech support when I noticed it...and the guy actually said, "Yes, if it's upside down it won't mount."
Those of you who use the Western Digital Passport drive really need to plug it into a USB HUB which has ITS OWN power supply... Some USB ports on laptops don't have enough power to run the passport drive... you need a HUB with its own power source... Mine works GREAT, but I have it plugged into a Belkin 4 port USB hub...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sean M. @ Dec 3rd 2007 9:05AM
Yeah, I bought one of these drives from Best Buy a few months ago and it had so many problems mounting. I loved the small form factor, but you'll see how much the shell scratches and that it's not very reliable. Now when i plug it in I can only copy 10 - 20 megs before it unmounts on it's own giving me an error message. I lost alot of data. Now i have a 500 gig seagate with leopards time machine running. Hopefully I don't go through the same thing again.
Jonathan Keim @ Dec 3rd 2007 9:17AM
Got a 160 gig for a customer awhile ago and she hasn't complained. You should have sent yours back
rlh82 @ Dec 3rd 2007 9:18AM
Were you using this with a laptop? Because I've heard that they're fairly unreliable with laptops because they can't pull enough power from the usb or something . . .
Justin @ Dec 3rd 2007 9:23AM
Exactly. I won't get an external HD that doesn't plug into the wall (or, in my case, my UPS).
Totalfixation @ Dec 3rd 2007 9:29AM
did you use the short and thick USB cable they provided you or did you use some generic USB cord? I first had the same problem when I used a longer usb cord that i had previously had. After using the original cord provided it didn't happen anymore.
BillyG @ Dec 3rd 2007 10:22AM
Runs great on most desktop and macbook (fast abt 7gb in 7mins), however problems when connected to my dell laptop...not enough power
Tangston @ Dec 3rd 2007 10:26AM
@ rlh82
I kind of thought the whole point of buying a passport drive would be to use it with a laptop cause its so portable. If size isn't a concern you can buy plenty of higher capacity drives for less $.
Wolfticket @ Dec 3rd 2007 12:01PM
I know it's not an ideal solution, but you can use one of these cables: http://www.lindy.co.uk/31780.html
Just plug the second usb plug into another usb port, or a usb charger adaptor.
However, I agree that manufactures should warn people that 2.5" drives are not certain to be able to draw enough power from a single usb port on all computers before selling them as usb powered.
Ben @ Dec 12th 2007 8:04PM
I have one of these and it mounted fine for a while then stopped. I couldn't figure out why. Turns out it was upside down. Yep. That's right. Upside down.
Of course, it's a perfectly symmetrical black box, so I'm not entirely surprised I'd put it down upside down...but I AM surprised it wouldn't work that way...
I was on tech support when I noticed it...and the guy actually said, "Yes, if it's upside down it won't mount."
So there you have it.
George @ Dec 16th 2007 5:04AM
Those of you who use the Western Digital Passport drive really need to plug it into a USB HUB which has ITS OWN power supply... Some USB ports on laptops don't have enough power to run the passport drive... you need a HUB with its own power source... Mine works GREAT, but I have it plugged into a Belkin 4 port USB hub...
~~ George