Recently i bought a MBP 13″ aluminum, and wanted to get a external drive for time machine backup.The good thing about wd passport is that they are really portable and easy to carry in your pockets/coats.

This thing works like a charm, the advantage of buying a Mac formatted drive is that you dont need to go through the Disk Utility/ or reformatting as HFS+, but otherwise else its the same as buying a normal WD passport drive.

Usually the wd passport with the firewire i/f costs more, but even USB is good enough unless you’r like moving huge video/audio files etc.

Great purchase, and no regrets! wd rocks.

Amazon.com Product Description

Is your computer loaded with photos, music, video, and all sorts of important files? If so, you should make extra room, back them up, and keep them safe on Western Digital’s WDG1U800 My Book Essential Edition 80 GB Hard Drive. This reliable, easy-to-use external hard drive is the perfect storage solution for all your precious digital assets.

Save and back up all your digital assets with the My Book Essential Edition Hard Drive. View larger.
Simple, easy-to-use design.
Connects to your computer via USB 2.0 interface. View larger.

Manufacturer Remedy Information

This hard drive requires external power (cables/adapter included).

It’s probably helpful to enumerate the features I feel are worth being aware of before one buys it (and I shall answer any additional questions if you drop a comment, to the extent that I can):

# Heavy, solid build, almost bullet-proof enclosure.
# 8″x4″x1″ rectangular prism (these are not exact measurements but I’m confident it’s close.
# USB port for data transfer, cable included.
# External power supply.
# Silent run – you can’t hear it spinning unless you place it close to your ear.
# Cool – after one night of uninterrupted operation it was barely warmer than room temperature.
# Not a speed demon but I backed up 50GB in something like 20-30 minutes.
# Formated as FAT32.
# Comes with no software but it was instantly recognized by both Vista and my PS3 (more about that later)
# There is no manual to speak of – and no manual is needed.
# One year warranty.
# 30-day free tech support during the warranty period where the clock starts running after the first call to WD.
# Lacks the (to me annoying) carnival lights that some other drives have these days – only one blue LED, on the back, blinks when read/writes are performed.

I can’t think of anything bad to say about this device. I went for the 1TB size because I wanted to back up several smaller computers on it and my 320GB PS3. For a stress test and if you are going to use it with XP or Vista you may want to reformat the disk as NTFS – Microsoft will be spinning your disk for many, many hours and, if you bought a dud, chances are it will stop working during the 10-12 hours format process. Or, you can check the ‘fast format’ option and the formatting will be done in less than one minute.

After the overnight test was passed, I partitioned the disk into 4 using Vista (no problem whatsoever) and I formated 3 of them as NTFS and one as FAT32 (get FAT32FORMAT off the Net because Microsoft’s utility does not work on a 300GB partition). Backups ran flawlessly with Microsoft’s backup interface and backing up the PS3 was incident-free too – it instantly recognized the FAT32 partition and I have a nice PS3 backup now.

I highly recommend this drive as a backup device that does not travel a lot.

P.S. – if my review seems to be coming from someone who uncritically gushes over little gadgets, do check my other reviews of electronics or my reviews in general. I am trying to be as objective and as factual as possible and, in this case, I believe, we have a good, solid device that fully meets expectations.

- Formatted the drive as NTFS, shows 931GB free, and it took about 3.5 hours (not exact, doing other things)

- Backup (using the Second Copy program) of 11,165 files, 23.3 GB, took 41 minutes.

- Created a Norton Ghost backup of my entire C drive with 83GB of space used took 75 minutes.

Hope you find this info useful. So far, this drive looks great.

If you are looking for a HD, this is your MUST.

Also, this drive is whisper quiet which is great since I keep it in the living room. Don’t notice it at all!

I lke it a lot, in fact I just bought a second one, and will be dumping 3 or 4 of my 100-200 gb annoyingly large, heavy, hot, and loud external drives.

This drive works great, BUT only after I connected it to my laptop using an externaly powered accessory USB hub. I strongly recommend this type of connection for external drives, USB/CD burners, etc. The power coming from one USP port of my IBM-T42 simply did not provide adequate power to the drive, and my laptop WOULD NOT RECOGNIZE the drive when I connected with the supplied cable. This is a common problem for external devices such as drives and burners. Many computers, especially laptops, have very limited power available from a single USB port.

I installed the included backup software but then disabled it. The backup software can be set to “syncronize” folders you pick so that two or more folders on different drives will have the same contents. This works but is not the type of back up strategy I use. I backup the whole drive, windows and all, to make disaster recovery a “one step” job.

I wanted to use the included encryption software but apparently this is a “pay-extra” software and I couldn’t install it.
So I am now using an open source encryption tool called “true-crypt”, which I highly recommend. Don’t forget your password however, there is no “back door” once you’ve encrypted your data!

This HDD works flawlessy with the Dish ViP 722. It was connected to the 722 right out of the box and quickly formatted for immediate use. Transfers and playbacks to and from this HDD have been flawless. It is quiet and very good-looking. This HDD actually blends in very well, and is small enough to place additional My Book’s for very neat and aesthetic appearance on shelves or TV Stands. It is the best looking and compact of all my external HDD’s. I leave mine on at all times, so the blue indicator light is always illuminated. It makes a great night light.

One thing: the blue lights feature that indicates how much capacity of remains on the HDD works when using it connected to a PC. That feature will not work connected to the ViP 722. But I don’t mind that, as it is very easy to check remaining capacity using the 722 menus.

I highly recommend this external HDD for use by Dish Network customers for their ViP series of satellite boxes, and I plan to buy this item again should I need more room. the 750GB is the current “official” maximum that Dish Network supports. HOWEVER, in the very near future Dish will officially support HDD’s greater than 750GB.

From the Manufacturer

Western Digital’s WDG2T20000N My Book Premium Edition II 2 TB dual-drive storage system offers RAID mirroring for extra data protection or RAID striping for extraordinary capacity and performance. Triple interface and a powerful combination of features and performance make this system the storage solution of choice for creative professionals, workgroups, small offices, and anyone looking for extra assurance that their data is safe.

My Book Premium Edition II offers an extraordinary capacity with up to 2 TB of storage in an elegant, small footprint design. The system supplies plenty of space to store an entire digital photo library, your HD movie collection, and hours and hours of DV video.

The triple interface provides flexibility and performance with connections for ultra-fast FireWire 800, as well as FireWire 400 and USB 2.0. The lightning-fast combination of FireWire 400/800 and RAID striping yields the speed you need for fast, smooth video editing, an extra-responsive Photoshop scratch disk, rendering complex 3D objects or special effects, and saving huge blocks of data in record time.

My Book Premium Edition II’s intelligent drive management features–such as automatic power-up, safe shutdown, and LED activity lights–make this storage system especially easy to use. And an efficient convection cooling system keeps the unit running cool and remarkably quiet.

RAID Wizard software steps you through RAID configuration, and network setup is a breeze with the unique, powerful remote access software. Dedicate half the capacity for mirroring, and you can automatically and instantaneously back up data every time you save it.

My Book Premium Edition II is ideal for users who want to:

• Gain peace of mind with a mirrored backup of important documents and images.
• Organize and archive vast photo and artwork libraries.
• Edit and exchange massive audio and video projects.

The My Book Premium Edition II is backed by a 1-year limited warranty.

What’s in the Box
WDG2T20000N dual-drive storage system, FireWire 800 cable, FireWire 400 cable, USB cable, power adapter with cord, and quick install guide.