Western Digital Passport USB Portable Hard Drive (160GB, black)

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Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 35 reviews Back to product review
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7 out of 7 people found this review helpful

1.0 stars

"Doesn't work in front USB ports, doesn't work in laptops, very short cord"

by frndlyjen on February 21, 2007

Pros: small, seems very portable, sleek

Cons: usb cord is ridiculously short, doesn't work with laptops, front USBs
Summary: This thing would be awesome if it worked - it's nice and small and sleek, comes with a handy zip-up carrying case, very lightweight, and fits 160 GB! Supposedly.

It seemed ok in the beginning - installed itself quickly and easily, and started humming along as I moved my 120 GB of music from my brand new XP desktop to the drive. But when I checked on it an hour later, there was an error, saying the drive was not recognized. I tried different USB ports, which would work for a few seconds, and then again, the drive wouldn't be recognized.

I tested my USB ports with other devices - all were fine. When I called WDC Customer Support, they told me the drive does not work with front USB ports (not close enough to the motherboard), but the cord is too short to use it effectively on the back ports. I tried it anyway - doesn't work. There are no drivers to download, no fixes, it's just a bad drive. Apparently this is a common issue.

And by the way, to concur with the other review - I tried it on my laptop as well, and it does not work there. WD customer support confirmed that these drives do not work well with laptops. It'd be nice if they put that on the packaging so that the consumer would know that BEFORE purchasing. Just a word to the wise.

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1 reply to this review

reply by: jnhjnh on October 1, 2007

after downloading all my important files from a desktop, i left the country, returned to my laptop, plugged it in only to find that the drive won't work. my laptop can't get it to power up and when i plug it into desktops the drive is NEVER recognized on any of the numerous machines i've tried. this is a really bad product.

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Western Digital Passport USB Portable Hard Drive (160GB, black): $189.99

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