Western Digital My Passport Essential 250GB Portable Hard Drive - Real Red

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Standard Product with fashion looks
Reviewer: Ebonfire from Maryland on Jul 19, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

The drive works well. No problems if used with all the systems in my house. I have attached it to XP (SP2), Vista (SP1), OS X Tiger on a Mac Mini and a laptop with Ubuntu . All saw the drive. Installing the drive is simple - connect it to the system. I have several of these drives and this one performs about middle of the pack. The transfer speeds are sensitive to USB connection (as is normal) and so USB 2.0 is really needed even if a powered 1.1 still lets you use it. The disk access speed is moderately to low, so huge files will take a while to transfer. For portable notebooks that just need more space, this is a good choice but if you are backing up large amounts of data on a desktop system another may be better. If you use your notebook in portablesituations a lot or have other portable needs like moving files in the (5 to 10 gb range) from one platform to another, then you are going to be okay with this hard drive. Basic portable hard drive for under a $100 us and storing 250g worked for me.

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Worked well with one system, but did not perform well with my PC. Keep your reciept.
Reviewer: WAve from New Jersey on Sep 14, 2008
2 out of 5 found this review helpful

The hard drive did work well with my Vista laptop, and also cooperated with my mother's XP Home edition desktop computer I was able to copy all of my music and audio files with ease from the laptop. It worked just like a little zip drive, and creating folders and subfolders was no problem. It also comes with synchronization software.

However, the drive did NOT work when I connected it to my XP Office edition desktop computer the drive wasn't getting enough power, couldn't be found through Control Panel or Explorer, was missing a driver, etc, etc. Customer service did not help solve my problem, as they surmised it was a power issue through my USB 2.0 port. They sent me a new cable to 'fix' the connection problem. The problem was the device, and I needed it to work to its optimum output on my desktop computer in order to copy and back up my 11GB+ of music. I even emailed the company for support--again, a dead end.

I don't know if I got a dud, or if WD products just don't work properly with my computer. Inthe end, I've returned the product. I am very dissatisfied and would not recommend WD products to anyone interested in purchasing them.

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