- Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 20 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
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14 out of 14 people found this review helpful
4.0 stars
"Works great...."
Pros: Bus-powered; 80 GB
Cons: What cons?!
Summary: I bought the WD Passport 80 GB drive after reading a review on Tomshardware.com comparing the 40 GB version with the Lacie Porche firewire/USB 100 GB. The main differences between the two are:
(a) WD has a faster HDD (5400 rpm), and a rubber covering for the USB port (no water/dirt), as well as a rubber base (no slipping off tables?)
(b) Lacie has firewire+USB and a 8MB cache, but 4200 rpm drive (just saw a later model has 5400 rpm for $200).
Tom's Hardware says cache doesn't matter for mobile HDDs, but HDD speed (rpm) does, especially if you plan to use the entire capacity (I am close to 2/3-rd now of the 80 GB). So WD had higher transfer speeds.
http://www.tomshardware.com/mobile/20050407/
I also relied on the WD name (the Lacie looks cool, though). Plug and play with WinXP. Did a couple tests yesterday (write - copied onto WD; read - cut-and-pasted back from WD):
Batch 1: 208 MB, 26 files: write ~<10 Mbps; read ~>10 Mbps.
Batch 2: 245 MB, 284 files: write ~4.8 Mbps, read ~7.5 Mbps
Batch 3: 102 MB, 156 files: write ~4 Mbps, read 7.8 Mbps
Small, more files transfer slowly compared to big, less files. The WD speeds above appear lower than what Tom's review found, but are OK as far as I am concerned. I also use CopyTo, a synchronizing software ($10?), both work great and fast.
I also back up files on my 40 GB iPod - the WD is much bigger, about an inch on both length and width. But I don't mind, the WD stays in my backpack anyway.
The other HDD I looked at was the Seagate 100 GB/5400 rpm/8MB cache, for ~$215 (WD was $176 shipped from newegg - similar price as Amazon). But I didn't think the extra 20 GB was worth the extra $50, and cache doesn't seem to matter for backup per Tom.
I've had the WD Passport for over a month now, no problems so far. I'd recommend it.
- 1 reply to this review
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Purchased this unit at Best Buy for $149.00. Unit is very portable and lightweight. Very simple usage - simply plug the supplied USB chord into unit and computer and you're ready to go. PC recognizes unit as another drive almost instantly. As soon as it was recognized, loaded MP3's and JPG's with no problem - drag and drop. Downloaded all my MP3 files loaded onto my Iriver MP3 player. Also, no power chord required if you use the supplied USB chord. All the external hard drives I've used in the past have required power chords so this is a huge plus. Power is supplied throught the USB chord. No problems so far.
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