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Western Digital My Passport Essential 500GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive - Black

by Western Digital
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (128 customer reviews)

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  • USB-powered 500 GB portable external hard drive
  • Big capacity that fits in your pocket - compact drive fits easily in your pocket or purse and weighs only a few ounces
  • New updates for SmartWare Software available from Western Digital
  • Synchronized and secure
  • Compatible - use with Windows and Macintosh computers.
See more product details
There is a newer model of this item:
WD My Passport 500GB Portable Hard Drive - Black WD My Passport 500GB Portable Hard Drive - Black 4.5 out of 5 stars (693)
£48.26
In stock.


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Product Information

Technical Details
BrandWestern Digital
Item Weight272 g
Product Dimensions17.6 x 15.4 x 5.2 cm
Item model numberWDBAAA5000ABK-EESN
Screen Size2.5 inches
Hard Drive Size500 GB
  
Additional Information
ASINB002KPW5IS
Best Sellers Rank 12,496 in Computers & Accessories (See top 100)
Shipping Weight281 g
Date First Available20 Aug 2009
  
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Product Description

Manufacturer's Description

A Message from Western Digital

Thank you Amazon.co.uk users for your feedback! Western Digital has listened and has updated this product to better meet your needs.

The world’s most popular portable drive is now smaller than ever. And it’s smarter than ever with WD SmartWare™ data management and backup software that backs up your data automatically and continuously, shows your backup as it happens, and restores lost files effortlessly. Password protection and military-grade, 256-bit hardware-based encryption lets you secure your data. One of the five beautiful colours is just what you need to make you look smart (and very stylish).

New Updates for WD SmartWare Software

We’ve been shipping our new WD SmartWare software for a few months now. During that time we’ve been listening to our customers. As a result of the feedback we’re getting, we’ve developed some updates for the software.

Updates:

  • Ability to hide the Virtual CD (VCD)
  • Enhanced the ability to opt-out of WD SmartWare completely
  • Exit WD SmartWare from the Windows system tray

Learn more:
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/updates/?family=wdsmartware (What's This?)

Product Description

Pack up your office files and take them home. Carry thousands of songs or pictures. Synchronize files between home and office and encrypt everything on the drive for added security.

Big capacity that fits in your pocket - This compact drive fits easily in your pocket or purse, weighs only a few ounces and with with massive storage capacity, you can take tons of photos, videos, files and music with you wherever you go.

USB powered - Powered directly from the USB port on your PC. No separate power supply is needed.

Synchronized and secure - Plug My Passport into any PC, edit files, read e-mail, and view photos. Then sync all of your changes back to your home or office computer. Your data is protected with 128-bit encryption. (Windows only)

Compatible - Use with Windows and Macintosh computers.

Ideal for storing or backing up your digital music, videos and photos, carrying important files and e-mail between work and home or on the road and keeping them in sync, plus sharing large files between office and home, between PC and Mac.



Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
32 of 32 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Not at all as bad as the negative reviews said! 15 Nov 2010
A month agao I was about to purchase this newer version drive here on Amazon, having already purchased the larger WD 1TB Elements some time ago... but seeing so many negative comments, I refrained!
However, some of the latest Positive comments made me think twice, and by that time, I seen this drive on sale in my local Curry's store for £49.99, and took the plunge, after opening the box to see if the USB lead was indeed loose as suggested.

The lead on the one I purchased is indeed not the newer ones that have the "Retaining Lugs" on the Micro usb end of the lead that hold the lead more firmly in place, also as suggested, so I tried plugging in and out several times in the shop to see if it was loose..... Nope! It held very well when you simply push the lead in FULLY!

I took the Drive home and plugged into my Vista PC, and immediately the "Found new Harware wizard" appeared asking if I wanted to instal the "Software"
I declined, knowing full well that I would have no need whatsoever for this software, and I then clicked on the "NO-Dont ask me again" icon, and was then presented with the open drive.

Within that drive you have several folders.... more or less pertaining to the included "Smartware Software" and one folder containing the manual - in several languages!
I read the manual and then copied that onto my PC for further use, and I then deleted everything else.

The Manual will tell you that if you dont instal the included SES Driver, then everytime you unplug and plug back in the drive, you will always be greeted with the "Found New Hardware Wizard"... I can report that I never installed that driver, and have unplugged my drive several times now and that wizard has not re-apeared!

If you want to ensure the drive has no trace whatsoever of any of the included software, then you can easily Delete the entire drive.... and here is the instructions to do that. --- You wont find these instructions in the manual, I know about computers so knew to do this.

Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disc Management.
You will now see the actual hard drives in/on your system.

Right mouse Click on the very bottom section > My Passport (D;) and then select 'Delete Volume' You should then Delete that Volume, and Re-Name it to whatever you want, and assign it another Drive letter = My New Hard Drive (G;)
This will now delete all unwanted 3rd party software etc, and any boot sectors.

Should you ever wish to use that software in the future, you can follow the link within the manual to re-instate the drive back to original by downloading the software from WD direct! - But remember to copy that manual onto your PC first, before you delete from the drive of course:-)

For those that want this software, its great... For those that dont, then just follow that instructions above, and thereafter just Drag and Drop or Copy and paste whatever items you want put onto the drive.

This drive works just as good as my other drive, with the added bonus that I dont have to plug it into the electric.
It's very small, and very sleek, and very light... the USB lead is short - approx 440mm - 16", but exactly how far away do you need it to be?
I dont Bang the table its on, so cant comment on the drive dismounting when thats done... but I would expect it to if I did that anyway :-)

For those unsure of the actual Drive Capacity --- Its 465GB and NOT 500GB ---- its too nerdy to explain fully, but in general, when looking at Actual Drive Storage, you simply multiply the appropriate ratio to that which the manufacturers use =

Kilobyte - 0.9765625

Megabyte - 0.9536743

Gigabyte - 0.9313226

Terabyte - 0.9094947

Petabyte - 0.8881784

For GB's use the ratio 0.9313226 > 500GB multiplied by 0.9313226 = 465.6613 Gbytes, or 465gb ... not 500GB as advertised
For TB's use the ratio 0.9094947 > 2 TB multiplied by 0.9094947 = 1.8189894 Tbytes, or 1.819 ... not 2 TB as advertised

I have already highly recomended this drive to friends and family, so discount the negatives here, and buy with confidence :-)
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220 of 226 people found the following review helpful
Being a long time fan of Western Digital drives this was my first choice when purchasing a new portable drive.
Having received it I'm returning it for the previous 500GB model.

Pros:
- Smaller size than previous models
- USB cable uses new micro USB connector for the drive. It is not a proprietary connector.
This is the format that will be used in future for European cellphone chargers.

Cons:
- USB cable uses new micro USB connector for the drive meaning you need a second different cable if you have any older portable drives which use the mini USB connector.
- Micro USB connector feels loose and likely to disconnect when bumped.
- WD SmartWare software is built into the firmware of the drive and works by creating a virtual cd drive to mount a cd image. It can not be removed, only disabled. Note you have to disable it per machine you use it on.

The biggest gripe is about the software. Western Digital have tried add value by including it however the manner in which they have done it stops the drive from being a bog standard drive and makes it frustrating when using it over multiple computers and non-Windows computers. Previous models have included software but allowed you to format the drive you can get rid of it - not so with this model.
Was this review helpful to you?
130 of 134 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars Very disappointing 20 Oct 2009
I was delighted with my old model WD My Passport, so when I needed another USB drive I naturally went for this one.

It is even smaller than the previous model and looks good, BUT... It uses a micro USB plug rather than the earlier mini USB and it fits very loosely with a lot of lateral movement. The slightest movement on the cable will cause the connection to be broken resulting in read/write errors and cable can also just fall out. Other micro USB cables that I've seen have small grips that give a firm connection, but this doesn't have any form of grip. I find it unbelievable that this could get through WD quality control.

The emulated CD which has the lock utility was also unexpected and it needs drivers to be installed from there for the main drive to be seen on my Vista machine. This is also a pain as you need to install the drivers on any machine to be able to use it.

If the cable problem was fixed I'd probably give it four stars. Micro USB cables are not so readily available.
Was this review helpful to you?
Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars The worst i have ever had
WD 500 gb that i bought couple of years ago failed in few months and i lost all my data and could not recover anything. Read more
Published 20 days ago by Prabhakaran Natarajan
5.0 out of 5 stars good
been a good hard drive western digital are known for their quality maybe not always the cheapest but up there on quality
Published 28 days ago by chipz222
5.0 out of 5 stars Great HD
Great HD, i dont like conexion, but i like big capacity and the small dimesions, Is a gift and very satisfaction.
Published 1 month ago by Mario T. M.
4.0 out of 5 stars great back up
Using this to back up the data on my ps3 and i am very pleased with this quality product

Reccomended for this use or for computer saves
Published 3 months ago by Tven
2.0 out of 5 stars Bundled software is impossible to remove, avoid
The hardware works fine but it comes bundled with some disk management software that I didn't want and don't need, but I thought I'd be able to delete it. Read more
Published 4 months ago by R. A. Cooper
1.0 out of 5 stars WD Software Unacceptable
The drive hardware is probably pretty impressive, and the cables are adequate for my purposes.

However the software that accompanies this (and presumably other) WD... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Millionthanna
5.0 out of 5 stars Good job
Very quick and good service... thanx thanx thanx thanx thanx thanx thanx thanx thanx thanx thanx thanx thanx thanx thanx thanx.
Published 9 months ago by Pen
5.0 out of 5 stars What price peace of mind?
I already had one Western Digital external hard drive but wanted a belt and braces approach so that one could be stored off premises and renewed every couple of months or so. Read more
Published 18 months ago by PLANTYMAN
5.0 out of 5 stars small and easy to use
im not very technical minded but this does soom to do the job. nice and small and compact. easy to use too! thank you!
Published 22 months ago by emma chandler
1.0 out of 5 stars I have returned this iten (not bought from Amazon)
I feel the need to warn people about this product. I was advised to buy it and experienced the worst nightmare I could ever imagine. Read more
Published 23 months ago by jazzhandsNYC
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