And we have storage for you! WD's refreshing a number of its external HDD storage devices, a move that's sure to put a smile on the face of many a young media hound. The new My Book Essential
is available in 1TB (
$149), 2TB ($229.99) 500GB ($99.99), while the My Book for Mac
is available with 1TB for $149.99. My Passport Essential can be had in capacities of 500GB ($139)
or 320GB ($99.99), while My Passport for Mac is going out there in 500GB ($149.99) and 320GB ($119.99) sizes. All these guys feature SmartWare software for data management, and all are available now in a wide range of earth-shattering, psychedelic colors (well, four -- including black).
Read - My Book for Mac
Read - My Passport Essential
Read - My Passport for Mac
posted September 10th 2009 5:08PM
why more for teh mac-formated drives...? WD, i hatez you
I think they want premium for Mac because they wanna use Apple premium overpriced strategy
Because they know their market and figure they can get away with it.
well they figured wrong because i dont buy anything at retail anyway so i will get a freeagent or essential and format it myself... suck it WD
you can buy the non mac ones, and just format it yourself, thats basically what they did.
The 2TB HD is USB only for windows :/
they no longer have the e.SATA version lol wth
I bought the 500GB last summer for $100 on sale. It was decent. But once I opened up to use it as an interal, I was saddenedto find out it was a 'green' drive.
Given the limitations of USB 2.0, a Green Drive is more then sufficient for an external HDD?
What were you expecting Em, something from the Scorpio Black line? That would be madness, madness I tell you.
Why do they even have to be formatted for Mac? I have a few Passport drives for my macbook, and never bought a "for mac" version. It's an f-ing hard drive.
Also, those look like giant chiclets.
Wow, Windows and Mac drives? When you buy the Mac drive you're basically paying extra for some guy to format it to HFS+? :P
yeah, I just bought a new external HD and formatting as HFS+ took about ten seconds.
the 'for mac' ones probably come with mac versions of stupid crappy software (the type of software that's the reason you always reformat disks after you buy them anyhow). but really it's just because mac users are already proven to pay over the odds for hardware, so WD wants a piece of that action...
I was considering these actually (not the 'for mac' ones, obviously), but ended up with some 'Neso' thing... not exactly a name brand but whatever, it's a backup disk, if it fails that's ok as long as it doesn't fail at the exact same time as my normal HD.
Anyone else think these new 'my passport' drives are really ugly? The previous version was much better looking.
Yes, I prefer the older looking ones.
Why can't drives just come unformatted? When plugged in, OS asks to reformat. Can't HDD manufacturers do that?
Anyone know if I buy the 1TB one and take it out of the external case, will I be able to shove it in my Macbook Pro unibody as an internal?
Erm no, as i beleive these are 3.5 inch drives. Not 2.5:)
The 1TB and 750GB are actually 2.5" drives announced about a month ago. They are a 12.5mm height form factor because they have 3 disks inside, where most notebook drives are 9.5mm with one or two disks. So the only issue would be height which i do believe might be an issue.
No you probably won't be able to.
Firstly, as already mentioned the 1TB and 750GB 2.5" drives are 12.5mm high, so wont fit in anMBP.
Secondly, WD now build the USB port and circuitboard directly into the drive. They no longer simply put their SATA drives in enclosures.
@Thesteve13
Yeah, that's what I was wondering. I recently ordered the 1TB WD10TEVT 2.5" drive cause I read a ton of reviews where people are saying it's compatible with the unibodies. However, since WD wasn't selling the drive themselves it was backordered like crazy from every single reseller and most won't get stock till next month or so. That's why I was wondering if I could just get one of these instead and take it out to use.
My mistake then, when did 1TB 2.5" drives become commen then:S
so what are we getting here? newly designed passports at the same 320GB & 500GB capacities we already own... ok so what? and this after they just announce a 2.5" 640GB drive?!
aren't there usually supposed to be capacity/performance upgrades with this kind of news?
I want "my 640GB passport" already @&$#!
"for Mac" and no firewire800? Yeah....
I'm going to buy the 2tb Studio Edition...
I'm curious as to how the size of these new hard drives compare to the previous WD generations
i love western digital
Wow, those "for Mac" versions are a rip-off. I don't think I've ever bought a hard drive "for a mac." I've always just reformatted FAT/NTFS ones.
Honestly, I think it's just so they can mark 'em up in the Apple Store.
where is wdhdtv live or 2? I hate fat32 and its restrictions
There's always NTFS or exFAT.
How come this one isn't on here?
http://store.westerndigital.com/store/wdus/en_US/DisplayProductDetailsPage/productID.163927300
Its the "my passport SE" 1TB version, they also have a 750gb version, it works with pc, also mac, but it says under in parethenses, (format required), they look very nice, and are very light, and small for a 1TB, and it costs 250, but you can pre-order it off amazon for 200, and the 750gb one for 150, when its 200 on their site, there sold out, but its still good you can pre-order on amazon, I just did. No image though, I just checked the model #'s, and they match.
I don't see how the Mac versions are a rip off when they sell for the same price as the PC version. It's just called something different and packaged/formatted/marketed for Macs. Seriously, all you Mac haters need to get a life.
i am a mac user and the mac-formated drives are $11 more. which is bullshit, so yeah. this isnt mac-hating it is marketer hating
Forget that LG thing, 1TB for $150?
I'll take the red one.
Essential is USB2-only, Studio is FW400/800 and USB2
Damn you WD! where's my 1TB passport studio?