Customer Reviews

Not a proprietary cable
Contrary to what most other reviewers are saying, the USB interface on this drive is not proprietary. It's the new (about 2 years old) Micro USB interface which we'll see on many new electronic products.

My Samsung cell phone has it and it's used on some bluetooth headset chargers. The advantage is it allows a slimmer product and is supposed to provide a more secure connection. I can use the same cable which connects my phone to my computer and charges it to also connect the WD Passport Drive to my computer.

The virtual CD mounting is another story, especially if it can't be turned off. I've submitted a question to WD on this. We'll see what they say.

--- 10/4/09 Update: Here's the response I got from Western Digital:

"Please be advised that the Smartware utility can't be removed from the new My Book or Passport Essential, as it is a separate locked image partition within the unit. If you want to disable this application from launching, there are two possible ways around this:

1. Delete drive letter for image partition, simply going to Disk Management. (the partition should be listed as a CD-ROM unit, named WD Smartware)
2. Disabling the autorun feature, however, this will still have the item show up on My Computer."

I probably would decrease my 4 stars rating now if I could. Seems like WD has needlessly complicated their previously very good drives.

Don't Panic! You can disable the SmartWare...
When I first purchased this device and plugged it in, I was horrified to see that the embedded Smartware software not only forced you to use it to back up your files, but you have no ability to actually see what it's backing up beyond major categories (music, video, 'other'). This would be great for my parents in their 70's or anyone with little computer savvy, but is completely unacceptable to someone like me who wants to SEE what EXACTLY is being backed up and be able to choose what to keep. You can't even manually move files like on any other normal storage device.

It seems that Western Digital is listening - if you type 'smartware' in the 'Knowledge base' tool found here:[...] There is an FAQ that states "How to disable and re-enable a WD My Book (+ WD SmartWare) Virtual CD in Windows or Mac"

I tried it and it works - I can now use my new little hard drive as usual and the virtual cd software does not reappear. Yes, a pain in the butt but WD also states that in the future there will be a tool to remove the software for those who do not want it.

Long story short, I think the Smartware software might be great for the right user, but not for me. I was 10 seconds from returning this drive before I found the ability to disable the thing. As far as the cable (what other people have complained about regarding this drive) - it's no biggie to me.

Nice looking, but annoying for any real work
Ordered one of these for the boss.

First of all, the drive comes with this "virtual CD" firmware that makes a fake CD mount to your computer every time this drive gets plugged in. As far as I know, you can't disable it, and it's extremely annoying.

Secondly, apparently the cable connection going into the drive sucks. Not only is it a proprietary connector (not mini-USB), but it apparently disconnects itself because of the poor connection points.

Finally, I actually tried out the backup software, believe it or not. Normally I stay away from the stuff that comes packaged with drives, but thought I'd give it a shot. It sucks. It uses tons of resources, doesn't back up when the computer's idle, and does back up when in the middle of working on something - not exactly quite as advertised.

I ordered the predecessor to this model which had much better reviews. As soon as it comes in and I move the data over to it, I'm returning this model.