Reviews for WD My Passport Essential WDME3200TN 320 GB External Hard Drive - Retail

My Passport 320GB hard drive

Strengths: Compact and light - perfect for travel. Plugs into computer, no need for electrical outlet. Turns off automatically when computer turns off or hibernates

Weakness: None so far

I already had a 80GB WD Passport and was very pleased with it, but needed more space. On the basis of my past experience with WD, I bought the 320GB WD My Passport and it hasn't disappointed me. It works well and I've had no problem with it. I highly recommend it.

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Loose mini USB connector!!!

Strengths: Cool design.

Weakness: The Mini USB connector feels loose and keeps disconnecting. The software has poor resources.

The Mini USB connector feels loose and keeps disconnecting. The USB cable is too short and is a proprietary technology. It's had to find a longer one. I recommend for the ones that bought this driver to careful plug the cable and don't move the drive during data transfer.
Moreover, the software has poor resources. So, I'm frustrated with this product and I don't recommend it.

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Silent, Sleek, quite portable to carry in pocket

Strengths: I like it as it is silent, fast data transfer and portable.

Weakness: None so far

I wanted to have portable drive with maximum capacity available and with no need to connect power cord to it. This portable one would just need USB cable for data transfer and you are done. As this is portable drive, and it is meant to be carried, whenever needed... just to be on safer side keep your important stuff as backup in DVD or other drives.. so that if accidently this portable drive gets physically damaged by hit or drop, you should be safe and incur minimal important data loss..

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Huge capacity for a good price

Strengths: 320gb, nice design

Weakness: none

I use a number of WD harddrives at home and in the office. None of them has failed on me so far. I purchased the 320gb version recently. It looks even more beautiful and works like a breeze. No complaints at all.

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Continued Portability, Capacity, and Design Success...

Strengths: Highest portable HD capacity available currently in its class. Sleek black colored design. Small footprint and very portable. Low $/GB ratio.

Weakness: Attractive aesthetic shell scratches easily. Included USB cable is extremely short. USB cable is single pronged, which may be an issue for computers with low-powered USB ports.

Western Digital continues with what it has been doing right with its My Passport line of drives. This updated line codenamed "Essential" uses the same internal drives as previous Passports. The only difference is the case, which has undergone a slight redesign. The newer case is even smaller, has more rounded edges, and lighter in weight. The status indicator has also been moved to the back of the case, which may be a welcome alteration to those who find the blinking activity light annoying. Other than the aesthetic changes, this Passport Essential drive is still as portable, reliable, and easy to use as ever.

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Carry your data with with BIG hard drive in a small,...

Strengths: Nice design, reliable, useful included software

Weakness: Scratches easily, activity light in hard spot to view, no accessory power cable included (nor any socket to plug one in to, unlike previous models)

Being a bit of a hard drive 'collector', when I found out that Western Digital was rolling out a new model of the portable passport drive, I was excited to say the least. A bit of research revealed what I could expect... nice package, more resembles the MyBook series of drives than the slanted Passport drives. That's where the changes really stopped. In this iteration of the drive, there are no new features (save maybe for updated software), no new capacities, drive speeds, etc. It appears to be the same drive in a nicer package. Some needed features are missing, like an AC power adapter. Previous models also did not include an adapter, but one was available as an accessory, and the previous drives accepted AC power input. This model doesn't even have the socket for the AC power. The solution for using this drive on low power USB slots is to purchase a booster cable, that basically has two USB inputs and one mini-USB output that plugs into the drive. No luck if you have your USB slots already filled, but I'm sure that it will be fine for most users. All in all, it fits my needs, so I give it a rating of 4 out of 5, missing 5 only because of the absent power socket.

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Super portable, very nice external drive

Strengths: 320GB capacity, only 1 USB [no power cable], works on every machine I've tested (about 10 Linux and Win), warranty, nice looking, faster than almost all USB flash drives.

Weakness: 5400 RPM 15MB buffer... but then this is the only way it will operate with 1 USB for power, fingerprint magnet, no way to get inside enclosure without causing damage.

Formatted this guy right out of the box to NFTS, no problems... I had no interest in the supplied WD software as it is proprietary (Windows only) and I use TrueCrypt and SyncBackSE.

Drive had transfer rates of about 32MB/s which is very good considering it's low power usage. This is better than every flash drive I own (even the expensive high speed ones). I run VMs from the drive on the run and it works great.

My only two complaints.
1) fingerprint magnet in a major way! I ended up creating a makeshift cover out of an old dress sock.
2) no way to get into the enclosure without damaging it... I would like to be able to reuse this nice enclosure, but apparently WD thinks I am too incompetent, or they are just being too damn proprietary.

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Large capacity portable hard drive

Strengths: 320 GB is the largest you can buy in a 2.5" portable drive. Western digital is the first to sell it.

Weakness: 5400 RPM means it's a bit slower than desktop hard drives which run at 7200 RPM.

I don't see any advantage between buying WD's 320GB Essential Drive and WD's regular 320 GB portable drive. The case is different but that's all. Everything else is the same. So I wouldn't pay more for a "Designer" drive. Their "non-essential" drive has a nice look and performs just as well. This is perfect for a laptop since no AC adapter is needed. This drive sells for around $160 or about twice what their 160 GB 2.5" drive sells for.

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Would like a replacement USB cable

Strengths: size

Weakness: Its defective

It has a short in the USB cable, (defective) I would like to have a replacement USB cable sent to me. The drive still works but I have to hold the cable in place. Thanks

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Perfect!!!

Strengths: Light, compact, fast and only USB access

Weakness: Easily stained encasing, but this is only cosmetic and if you really care.

A great HDD that enables to back up your important documents and take ti anywhere. It also a great companion to take to work and on flights. Installation and use are as simple as Plug-n-Play

The drive on this is a 5400rpm. I wish they were able to provide 7200rpm disks in this compact capicity.

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My Passport 320GB portable hard drive

Strengths: Product is well designed and seems well made; lightweight and attractive. Setup was easy plug-n-play. Data transfer rates are satisfactory.

Weakness: Initially addressing the drive during any session takes several seconds. Also, there seems to be an intermittent problem about unsolicited compression of files before transfer.

I bought the unit on the recommendation of my wife, who has been using the 250GB Passport happily for over a year. It seems to be meeting my needs. I don't know whether to attribute the problems mentioned above under "Weaknesses" to the drive or to my Vista operating system on my Toshiba laptop.

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Great portable storage...highly recommended!

Strengths: Small, perfect for travelling, big storage size.

Weakness: Cover is easily scratch.

WD Passport 320 GB is a great portable storage. Its perfect for travelling since it usb powered. It also have a big capacity considering the size. The transfer rate is decent, 5400 rpm. The only weakness that I could find is the cover is easily scratch; but it's not a big deal for me. In overall, I highly recommend this product especially for traveller who needs extra storage minus bulky hard drive.

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Western Digital Passport 320GB

Strengths: Portable,lightweight. Considerable space to create system backups.

Weakness: The initial data access is a bit on the slower side.

I've been using this product to perform system backup using my norton ghost. The portability of this product is amazing and the price in which I got it is a really good bargain.

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Big stuff in a small package

Strengths: Storage size is the biggest you can get in a 2.5; Uses common usb cable.

Weakness: Sometimes low voltage usb cannot read drive.

I have 3 WD Passport drives. A 120GB, 160GB and now this 320 GB HDD. I use it for work and for personal use. It is great for backing up docs and photos. Because of this drive, I don't have to take a laptop home, I just lock it up at work. The drive fits perfectly in a pocket and is great for travel, when you do not want to bring a computer. I think this is a superb value and better than any 16 or 32 gb flash drive.

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Largest size for 2.5" Ext USB drive

Strengths: Compact, elegant and fast. 3 yr warranty.

Weakness: Attract fingerprint, no DC jack or USB connector for extra power

This model is currently the largest size you can get from WD for 2.5" HD. They seem to change the desing a little from previous smaller size (160GB and below). The plastic box is also diff. 2 major complaints: 1) it get dirty with fingerprints quickly. The black shinny finish is nice but not practically. The case is made of plastic and seems fragile. 2) No DC jack, and no extra connector on the provided USB cable for extra power. This means if your USB port doesn't supply enough power, you can't use this. WD surprisingly sell a dual head USB cable on their web site for like $20. I've seen cheaper 2.5" enclosures have one included. For this price, they should include that free and a carrying case or pouch too. They however upgrade warranty from 1 yr to 3 yr.

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WD My Passport Essential External 320GB Hard Drive

Strengths: Compact and sleek, Nice color, Resistant, good speed

Weakness: Did not find any so far

I liked and this 320 GB passport harddrive. When I first saw this product was amazed to know that 320 GB can be accomodated in such a compact design. I have been using the 500 GB book from WD but this was a great buy for me

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Best Small Portable Hard Drive

Strengths: Design and very small size

Weakness: None

I'm using it under Mac OS Leopard operating system with Time Machine.
I only had problem when connecting for the first time.
The solution was to connect it to my PC with Windows Vista Premium Edition and then connected again in my iMac.
The first backup took a very long time around 140 GB but later on the following backups using Time Machine was relative quick.
The big capacity and the size make this portable hard drive a winner for me.

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Portable hard drives are useful for transferring large files (many gigabytes) between different places, such as the office and home. The My Passport Essential by Western Digital competes in the field through higher storage capacity, up to 250GB, and giving an attention to looks with the glossy black finish. Western Digital claims no software is needed to use the drive for either the Mac or PC, as...

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Western Digital My Passport Essential USB2

TestSeek.com has collected 18 expert reviews for Western Digital My Passport Essential USB2 and the average expert rating is 74 of 100. The average score reflects the expert community’s view on this product. Click below and use TestSeek.com to find all ratings, product awards and conclusions.

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