Product Description

With a luxurious, soft-touch finish thats elegant and comfortable to hold, the chic little My Passport Elite Portable USB Hard Drive from Western Digital has mega-capacity for all your digital content. The worlds most sought-after portable drive is now the most stylish way to carry thousands of songs or pictures. Because the drive is powered directly through the USB cable, there is no power adapter to carry. Included automatic backup software lets you back up all your files on your laptop computer; WD Sync software synchronizes and encrypts your data; and MioNet Key software gives you remote access to your data.

Product Details

• Color: Silver
• Brand: Western Digital
• Model: WDML5000TN
• Platform: Windows
• Format: CD
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .59" h x 3.13" w x 4.97" l, .40 pounds
• Memory: 128000MB DRAM
• Hard Disk: 500GB
• Processors: 1
• Native resolution: 640x480
• Display size: 669.2913385827

Features

• Luxurious Soft-touch Finish
• Capacity gauge
• Backup and Sync Software
• Powered directly from the USB port on your PC. No separate power supply is needed
• Connect My Passport to any PC and run MioNet Key software to remotely access files, music, and photos from any of your computers

Customer Reviews

Hardware excellent, Software not so hot
The main difference between the WD Passport Elite and the slightly cheaper Passport Essential is in the pre-loaded software. Both versions include sync and encryption software, but only the Passport Elite comes with the "WD Anywhere" automatic backup software. However, if your main reason for buying the Passport Elite is to use it as a data backup drive for your PC, you better think twice - details on that later.


What's so excellent about the hardware?

SIZE: The drive is so compact and light, it can fit in my shirt pocket easily.

CONNECTION: Just a simple USB cable takes care of both power and data. The provided cable is only 15 inches long, but I have tried a generic 30-inch USB cable and it works just fine.

SPEED: I benchmarked the data transfer rate to be 30MB/s for writing large files. This is about as good as it can get for a 5400RPM hard drive connected through USB 2.0.

NOISE: What noise? I have to put my ear right on the hard drive, in order to heard a faint sound during read/write.


What's not so hot about the WD Anywhere backup software?

Initially, the WD Anywhere software appears to be a 30-day trial version. It turns out that on-line registration is required to activate the full version. Fair enough, except that my virus protection program blocked this software from accessing the Internet. So I have to temporarily suspend the virus protection in order to register.

Next, I started to backup selected directories on my PC. The software seems to get 'stuck' after transferring just a few GB of data. It would consume over 60% of my computer's CPU power, yet the files are just crawling along. I restarted the process a few times, but the results are the same. Finally, I downloaded the latest WD Anywhere Backup version 3.50, and it doesn't hang up anymore. However, there are still problems when using this automatic backup software.

Suppose I transfer some image files from my camera to my PC, while the portable hard drive is not connected. WD Anywhere will queue-up those files for backup later, once the drive is connected. The problem is: if I rename/edit those files in the mean time, WD Anywhere is not smart enough to update its queue accordingly. So it will try unsuccessfully to backup those old files, and it will NOT backup those new files I have edited. It is ironic that the backup software for a PORTABLE hard drive requires the drive to be connected all the time. I have yet to find a way to force the software to rescan my directory and look for new files to backup. It is easier for me to just copy the whole directory manually.

The bottom line is, WD Passport Elite is still an excellent USB hard drive. Just remember that you cannot rely on WD Anywhere to backup all your files automatically.

[Update on April 4th]
Thanks to suggestion by William E. Merkley II, I downloaded a free program called 'SyncToy' (part of the Microsoft PowerToys suite). It works exactly the way I want to backup my photo files. I have already deleted the WD Anywhere backup program and will only use SyncToy from now on.

[Update on May 25th, 2009]
I tried using this hard drive connecetd to the USB port of my Philips DVP5990 DVD Player. The DVD player can detect there is an USB device connected, but it cannot read anything from the device. I think the fault is with the USB port of this player. It seems unable to supply the 500mA current required, therefore the hard drive cannot spin up. For this application, I need to get an USB hard drive with its own power supply instead.

Excellent in all respects
Western Digital got it all right with this drive, finally. The new case is a pleasure to touch, it's silky soft. The USB port is no longer inverted. And they did away with the silly rubber cover for the USB mini jack (thank you). The titanium refers to the color, not that it's made out of titanium.

The form factor is wonderful on this drive. It's thin, very thin. Definately a highly recommended drive for the road warrior. It will slip in about anywhere.

Access speed is fast via USB 2, just like most portable drives. It makes almost no noise.

The difference between the WD Elite and the standard Passport is backup software and the fuel gauge lights on the Elite (none of these things are worth a premium).

Great accessory, caselogic carrying case.
Caselogic Neoprene LHDC-1 Portable Hard Drive Case (Dark Gray)

Elite Warranty
These drives are best currently available.

The biggest (HUGE) difference between the Elite and Essential is the warranty. The Elite is warranted for 5 years, the Essential not.

All portable drives fail. Not if, but when. You'll plug in one day in the future, and it won't "boot". Get over it and plan.

Get 2 WD Elites. One to regularly back up and store your important pictures, data, etc.

Get the other to occasionally back up the first one.

Getting your data off of a failed drive will cost $700+, minimum. I have the receipts from my experience with my dead Maxcell to prove this. (The response from Maxcell's feckless support line was: "You didn't back up your back up???").

If you are backing up you photos or other vital data, get 2 of these.

Back up your back up and avoid the migraines.

The WDs are the most reliable by far available in portable footprints.