Western Digital My Passport Essential 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive WDME5000TN (Midnight Black)

My first review, motivated out of anger.

I agree this hard drive is an excellent hard drive, so good, i bought three of them over a relatively short period of time. One from two online, one offline. I already had another WD before, though that one failed. Well this can happen so I did not really care, so I stuck with the brand, as except for the failure of my two years old 500 gb, i liked it.

By now all my WD drives have failed. This is very inconvenient as these are my work/company backups. There is no virus or any other bogus on there. WD failed me four times, with a failure rate of 100% for everything i ever bought from them. I agree it is nice and shiny, but reliability is for anyone who is doing serious backups, not just fun files a disaster.

DO NOT BUY THIS!

Cheers~

I have owned this little passport for several months now and it is still going strong. I primarily use it on my MacBook Pro as my Time Machine backup drive. It's small and light enough to carry with me in my computer bag, so I always have my backup device with me. I have had to go back 4 months in my Time Machine backups to recover a file, and the Passport's data integrity was fine. With prices coming down so much, I would recommend a 1 TB drive in case you want to take movies,etc. along with you and so that you have a longer Time Machine window. Will definitely buy another WD Passport drive when I grow out of this one.

I want to tell to everyone that is looking for a media device to storage files, that the Passport 250 from Western Digital is an excellent device for these purposes. I bought one from Amazon.com almost two years ago, and now is the time when I am doing the revision of this product, because i was testing it, and really I have recorded all my importants files on it (Music, videos, photos, etc) and is excellent, works perfect in the laptop (Dell Inspiron) and I have plenty of room to storage many files. With this device, you can empty the hard drive of your machine and record or make a copy o these in the Passport, so your machine or laptor can run faster and perform better work, I recommend this product, for me, particularly is a good media storage, great capacity, reliable, easy to use, all my music, one of my most valuables files is there of course, I have more than five years collecting music from varies epocs or generations and this is very importan for me, because i love the music, it is my favorite pass time. Great product from Western Digital.

This one is very easy to use, u just plug it in your computer's USB and it works, you don't need any additional power adaptors or anything, and for the price it is agood deal. reliable, small and safe. Good Choice.

I love my new external HDD. Is very small, compact and has plenty of space to store your data. No issues so far.

Bought this item a while back. Not heavily used since. Today I plugged in to my laptop and I had this "click of death.' Basically it becomes piece of junk.

After using once, and unfortunately moving a huge number of personal files to this drive, the drive crapped out. When connecting the second time, the drive spins but is not recognized on my pc. Apparently there is a known problem (search for reviews on [...]) with the hard drive casing and the fix is to remove the Western Digital casing and place the hard drive in a SATA case. WD support was not at all helpful, requiring I spend $14.95 just to speak to their tech support. I plan on staying away from this and any other WD product.

This is the second WD passport I've owned, and I'm happy with each one. I use the 320 GB to back up my laptop with the Apple "Time Machine" application, and it works perfectly! My only complaint is that the program on the drives isn't all that great - I've just wiped both of them off and use the drive as a blank space. Also, the "Western Digital for Mac" doesn't come in interesting colors like the regular passports, so I reformatted this one to work with my Mac (if you want to use the program on the hard drive with your Mac, don't buy this one). Color-wise, it matches my MacBook Pro perfectly!!

I'm working on this passport for a client. I am charging the $100 to try and get this piece of crap working. Turns out it's the jack on the box... inconsistent connections! Bummer for them, but for me too because I much prefer to work on quality products.

My WD passport died miserablely after failing to transfer a file. The drive itself is still running when connected to USB port, but just not recognized by the computer. It cannot be seen from Explorer window. So frustrating! After contacting the support center, I was told that the drive was not recoverable. I simply lost all of my data on the drive.

We've had two of the "Western Digital My Passport Essential" drives fail over the past few years (both a 320 GB and 500 GB model), and do not recommend this product as a Portable Hard Drive. Granted, any drive may fail for any reason, which is why one's backups should also be backed up. However, buyer beware, this model is truly unreliable.

This device connects with what I think is a USB "micro B" plug. At least on this hard drive, this plug is so flimsy that the slightest bump of the device can cause it to disconnect and damage the drive. Inserted into the slot on the drive, the plug jiggles around and feels as if it's made no connection at all. One month after I bought it, my drive was damaged after a minor cable bump. I'm sending it back to Western Digital for a replacement drive. Considering this fatal flaw, I'll probably just try to sell the replacement.

Please buy another brand of drive. If you're going to buy a Western Digital, at least go with one of their terabyte drives, which have a more substantial USB connection.

All it was used for was backups for my macbook. Damn thing died two days ago and I am steamed. You can feel the drive cycling and a very small click, REPEATEDLY! It will not show up on any machine I tried, windows, linux(ubuntu) and of course, my macbook. Now, I have to buy another one. I will be glad when they have 100 gb DVDs so I can just burn a backup and not worry about these damn HDs dying and leaving me in the lurch.

I feel bad giving 2 stars, but I'm of the mind that this external hard-drive has tried to make things TOO easy on the user. Before you think I'm a fool, let me explain...

When you back up, it goes out and selects what to back up (based on file extensions I suppose). However, there's no real way to ensure that it is grabbing EXACTLY what you want backed up. You can only tell it to back up "Pictures" or "Music" or whatever. You can't see the directories that it's pulling from.

Browsing the drive itself to confirm what has been backed up is of little help. For some reason mine currently has 12 folders, each with names like "1E79E695AEFA4A248F06F392E92C9DFE". Opening these folders, you can see some of the familiarity of the Windows directory structure, but it seems to put C:\users\????\Pictures under one of the crazy named folders and C:\users\????\Music under another, while splitting up C:\users\????\Desktop into several. My last hard-drive had everything for one computer under the same directory and had not re-organized the directory structure. My only hope for this drive is that the crazy directories and re-organization is caused by the drive's ability to store up to 5 versions of the same file, otherwise the programmers must just be completely off their rockers.

Also, I backed up once under one user and then backed up a second time under another, and I believe, but am not positive, that it picked up all the second users files the second time. Who knows what else it is missing?

I haven't tried restoring and I have no fricking idea what will happen if I try to do that using the software included. I would probably just wade through the crazy directories to do it myself manually.

Thinking about it, I kind of want to just copy files to the thing manually as well. I don't care about the ability to copy any files that have been added or changed if I don't actually trust it to get everything.

In summary, the drive is small, quiet and comes with a little case, but if you know anything about computers, you will find the software it comes with very frustrating.

As I add more data to my computer than can fit onto a DVD, I opted for this hard drive to create a backup for all my files - iTunes, photos, etc - just in case something horrible goes wrong with my main system. I just plug it in, and there it is - I do a manual backup (yes I'm old-fashioned) then it gets ejected and put away until the next time I need to do a backup. Compact and easy to use.

We bought this sometime in the spring of 2009. It has been reliable and solid since then, and so far I have no complaints. I would recommend this to someone looking for a small, inexpensive HD.

Stopped working after a few months. Now it sometimes works and other times doesn't. Not reliable.

I love the design of this, and it works perfectly (I use it as a Time Machine backup) But the plastic sliding cover doesn't click in place and leaves the port exposed. Just a minor thing, and may be fixed on the next product run. I still recommend this product

Its great product & works perfect with time machine for MAC! but the price is too high! i found one 500GB for almost same price -_- too late now =(

I have had this for more than a month and I like it. Easy to carry and put in a shirt pocket.

Western Digital 320 GB Passport 2.5" USB 2.0 Hard Drive


I bought the drive last december. had about 170gigs of precious pictures and music and data on it. Last week it just dies. It's barely a year! Doesn't mount on Mac and on PC shows but can't get data out. Had to spend a LOT OF MONEY and even then it's not complete recovery. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS PRODUCT. DO NOT PUT ANYTHING ON IT YOU CAN"T AFFORD TO LOSE. HAVE A BACK UP FOR THIS BACK UP!.

Im not certain why this product gets high reviews, unless your expectations are extremely low.

It looks nice, and is portable, yes, but it is also extremely sluggish and my ancient computer (Powerbook G4) detects it only occassionally, so I ended up buying an external USB hub which seemed to work better. Then one day it just stopped opening, and error messages abound. Since my PowerBook has relatively small hard drive, I keep alot of older files only on the Passport --BIG MISTAKE! Years of old files, designs, photographs, cds --gone.

Would highly recommend shopping around before buying this product.

i don't have any problem with Western Digital My Passport Essential 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive WDME5000TN (Midnight Black)

I don't know what more to say. You plug this into your USB port and it works. Slow, but then it's hub powered so it's easy to use. Works for my purposes - backing up my pictures and files. I don't back up my whole hard drive to this, just important data so it's big enough.

Was easy to install. However is a little slow. I purchased it to back up files on one computer to move to a new computer I just purchased. Good product for the money.

I love this device, In it's defence, Everyone comments on the cable being too Short. What part of mobile do you not understand. It's short for a reason. True it does not come with a case so I went out and got one. There...Now its protected. and the cable fits in the case without making it to bulky. I use this for exactly for what its intended for. I hook up the cable with the drive right next to the Laptop, Why do I need a long cable, When I back up the desktop I set the drive on top of the tower. When Im done it gets put away back in the case. Now why do you need a long cable or care how easy it is to scratch. It's a great MOBILE device that does what I paid for.

This little device has been a life saver, just wish I knew about it before my hard drive crashed. It is very easy to use to back up all data with a few clicks of a mouse. Small size is easy to store.

It is an excellent product, has helped me release much of my hard drive space, comfortable, easy to use and lightweight.

This product was to ensure that I had my thesis saved in many places. All I have to do is hook the hard drive up to my Mac and it takes a few minutes to back up my entire computer. It definitely helps me breathe a bit easier!

Western Digital has created a great product. 500gb capacity and it doesnt require a power cord. You can bring this thing anywhere and its fast.

Western Digital My Passport Essential 320GB

Quick impressions: sleek, stylish, whisper-quiet, requires but one usb cable for power and signal.

Hardware: excellent with one exception - the usb connector and plug at the device end do not connect securely enough to form a good electrical bond. If I move the drive just an inch or two while in operation, the circuit breaks and I'm in the ditch. Makes you want one, right?

Software: deplorable. Reminds me of the Windows 3.X era. No directory tree to navigate and select your data for backup. The drive took one hour to copy 32GB of data. I then examined the retrieval list and found less than half the folders I thought I had just backed up. A real confidence builder.

Incremental backups? I don't know what this thing's doing. Now every time I boot up the software starts scanning my C drive. It has just received the death penalty - I'll be un-installing the software later this evening.

So I bought the thing and I'm stuck with it. You have a fifty-fifty chance of satisfaction with this device.

Works great as my Time Machine backup tool that's hooked up to my airport extreme. Not much else to say, it's a hard drive...

Pros:
-big (~372GB) have not even used a 1/4 of its capacity yet
-small and portable fits in your pocket
-very convenient
-stylist finish, all black, nice white activity led
-western digital quality

Cons:
-slow access times. This is partly because of the usb interface and partly because of a slow drive, but at this price and small size it is obviously made for storage and portability not speed.
-no esata
-dust and fingerprint magnet

Other Thoughts:
reformated to NTFS
I use it for my itunes library and all my videos, pictures, documents and other files, so I don't clog up my laptop's primary internal drive. owned it over a year and no complaints so far great product

as opposed to purchasing a desktop external hard drive this item is just whst I
needed to safely keep some of my vital information. There is no clutter on my desk
and the item has worked flawlessly.

I have an older Western Digital external drive and that has always worked very well. I cannot believe how different it is to use this smaller version and how convenient it is. Makes backup so simple that it's something that I do automatically rather than as an afterthought. Great product. Light, portable. Slightly larger than a deck of cards.

I'm a nature photographer. I take a lot of photos, and the files are big. I carry a laptop in the field, but I'm not so naive as to think the laptop's drive is safe for irreplaceable data like photos. I want backup. DVDs are impractical. Flash drives are too small (so far). The Western Digital 500GB is a highly acceptable solution to the challenge of managing copious data and not sacrifice portability or ruggedness. And if you are concerned about TSA seizing your laptop for whatever reason, then you've got your work intact.

I use the drive in two ways: I back up my Aperture digital photo library directly, and I backup the RAW files via the Finder. As others have noted, the read/write speed is only adequate. But 500GB fits in a drive only slightly larger than my iPhone. For $99 - the cost of a year of Mobile Me - you can have a pretty decent backup to carry in another bag. The drive draws power off the USB bus, so you have just the drive and the cable. As a bonus, the cable is identical to the cable I use to pull photos off my camera.

The drive has worked at 14,000 feet in Papallacta Pass, Ecuador. In the steamy, muggy Amazon jungle, at near-freezing temperatures on St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea, in the rough waters of the Gulf of Alaska and everywhere in between.

No, I wouldn't want it for my desktop. But for field work, the portability easily outweighs the less than optimum read/write speed. A fine product at an outstanding price. Highly recommended.

This is a very good and cheap storage device. I have used the Passport various models externals for years now. The have 2 problems with them. The first is that they are fragile. Don't drop it bump it or rough handle it. The case will pop open and the jack plug on the side will get misaligned and you are in deep trouble. The drive itself is solid; it is the housing that is the problem.

Second issue is the plug. I don't know if WD understands the true use of these drives. I take it to work sites and move it around all the time. That means constant plugging and unplugging. This takes toll on the side and small input plug hole. After few months it will get loose or lose something that the drive begins to connect and disconnect from the operating system by itself (That is it is not recognized by the operating system). This can be a major problem if you are in a middle of an open file or document and boom, the thing is no longer recognized by the operating system. After couple of weeks from that there is no way you can get it to be recognized by either windows or the MAC, your are done for. My suggestion is to backup the backup on a permanent drive and not depend on this if you are going to be moving it a lot. The one I have connect to my home desktop all the time works great.

The 500gb USB drive arrived about 10days after ordering (used Amazon free shipping option). It was in fine shape despite a less than optimal packing job by the retailer. The shipping box was 4x the size of the drive's packaging and only had minimal packing around the drive allowing it to get bounced around. Nonetheless, the drive operates perfectly. I use it as my TIme Machine backup for my Mac laptop. Works quietly (almost silent) and seamlessly. Setup for this was minimal to none, just plug in and the Mac automatically did the rest. Drive is small enough to fit in my shirt pocket if I had to. I would recommend this item.

This purchase is my second of the same one for backup. Works wonderfully, is portable, and gives me satisfaction of my hardrive backups.

The reviews I saw were good for this product and it it made by a reputable company. So I was very surprised when none of my computers recognize it (Vista and XP)! I bought this because I'm a busy person and I wanted to be able to carry files with my easily between work locations. However, because I'm a busy person, I haven't had the time to contact customer service and find out what's wrong. Further Internet searches show that my problem is not unique and most people seem to not find a solution. This situation sucks.

Increíble comodidad, tamaño, y versatilidad para un tamaño que cabe en cualquier maleta, lugar o bolsillo, su diseño es impecable, su peso y materiales lo hacen un producto exclusivo, su funcionamiento es excelente, su capacidad de almacenamiento es óptima para todo tipo de información, fotos, música, etc, excelente calidad en general.

Worth the price, excellent. Watch out old laptops, may not be enough power in just one usb.

I bought this hard drive after reviewing many others. So far it has been good. It comes with software that allows you to back up your computer. Some people have complained because they did not understand that every time you backed up your computer, it erased the previous backup, causing them to lose many items they thought they were saving, or at least that's how I understood them. I deleted the folder containing the software, formatted the drive & just use manual "drag & drop" backups. It may take a bit longer, but this way I get everything I need. So far, I'm very pleased with this product. Its quiet, small, & lightweight...everything my last backup drive was not. I would definitely recommend this product to anyone else looking for a good backup drive. If I run into any problems, I'll post an addendum.

I love it. I have owned 7 western digital small drives, and they have all been trouble free. I just keep getting bigger ones. I now use three 500 Gb drives for all my storage. I have sold all of my huge drives and just carry these around with me. I don't buy any other brand. when we get true flash drive capability with this size we will have reached the 21st century. in the meantime this drive is a million times better than my big clunker that required a power pack and a pickup truck to carry it.

Western Digital portable drives have been what I've purchased most of for my company. I've also more recently started purchasing Iomega drives. I find that you can now get a 500GB Iomega drive for about $97 and I find it more stylish. Make sure you search around for other brands and prices if you aren't absolutely demanding a Western Digital. The 500 gb version is $287! That's ludicrous!

Its a very nice hard drive, very small and easy to handle.
I gave 4 stars because, I did not like the Western Digital synchronization software, software is easy to install, but not very good to handle, WD website doesnt have much information about how to use synchronization software. I am using the hard drive like a regular jump drive.

It is small and does not require a separate power cord like the larger external hard drives do. This makes it very quick to connect and disconnect. Just plug and play; no drivers to install.

I bought this item 1 month ago and I've been using it since then. The portable drive is very compact, high speed and sturdy and it is 500GB's! I believe it is the best choice if you are looking for something in this capacity and cost.

More than twice as slow as my 2.5year old Maxtor and slowest portable drive I've ever used. Other reviewers have noted the same problem. It is basically unusable for backing up tons of small files. Setting this puppy aside unwritten in case it spontaneously fixes itself. To their credit, Western Digital customer service tried to help diagnose.

It seems like working good, but it's kind of slow. Overall it's a good purchase.