Western Digital My Passport Essential WDME2500TN Hard Drive - WDME2500TN
Western Digital 250GB My Passport Essential USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive

When I first got the WD portable hard drive, it wouldn't install when I plugged it into my USB hub. I was so disappointed. I thought it was defective and looked forward with dread to sending it back. But when I plugged it directly into my PC USB port, it installed immediately. Later wnen plugging it into a friend's laptop to access my files on vacation, it failed to operate again. After googling the problem, I discovered that it was a power issue and that y-cables were recommended for this problem. Guess I could have found this out sooner, but if there are others out there who do first and read second, the y-cable solves the problem in situations where one USB port doesn't provide enough power. Other than that, I LOVE this product!
 
Was this review helpful?    

This is an excellent portable hard drive. It is very small and light, yet has more than enough storage for my needs. I have only two very minor issues: 1) Speed - it is a little slow, but I don't think it could be much better with a USB-2 connection; FireWire would have been better. 2) It comes with a really short cord. Kind of nit-picky, since it takes a standard cord, and I have several longer ones lying around... Aside from that, I'm very happy with my purchase.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Thing works pretty good. I just wish I had held out and bought a bigger one. :) The only complaint I have is that after it powers down (or goes into standby mode), when I first access it ... Windows treats it like I just plugged it in again and I have to choose what I want to do with the device. It should also be warned that this takes a lot more 'juice' than your typical USB device, so I found out the hard way that you have to plug it directly into the PC USB plug .... it wouldn't work for me if I tried plugging it in through a USB hub.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I like the size, I like the appearance, I like that it does not require an external power source. I like the price. I like that there is no cooling fan to make any noise - perfect!
 
Was this review helpful?    

This is a great product as long as you have a newer computer with the faster USB connection. The device only comes with a single USB cable (one connection at either end) and has no external power supply. This can be a problem on older computers that will generate errors because of the power requirements on this device. I had to return it but would recommend as long as you are aware of the power requirements.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Software is very secure. The unit is perfectly sized and I can thus keep it in my small safety deposit box in the bank. You can back up data from multiple computers and use different ID and password configurations for each one.
 
Was this review helpful?    

So far, it's been working fine without any problem. Good deal.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Boy has technology improved! Before backing up was such a chore. Now you do not even need an outlet as this little device uses the power of the computer (through the USB port) to back up all of your files just as quickly as my older external hard drive. All in all, this is fantastic and has improved and streamlined the backup process.
 
Was this review helpful?    

What an awesome/fast external drive. Small, compact, and so easy to use. Great for backing up your home computer, and saving off all those videos/pictures of the kids!
 
Was this review helpful?    

The drive worked right out of the box. I plugged the supplied USB cable into the USB port, the computer found the drive immediately, and then I dragged and dropped files from my computer to the new drive to start copying data. Copied 8GB of data in less than 10 min! Tons of room left! 250GB is plenty for my needs. Drive is very quiet. My one complaint is that the housing scratches very easily. I had the drive for less than a day and the top of it already has fine scratches all over it. Fingerprints also smudge the surface as others here have noted. Fortunately none of this affects the drives performance which looks to be rock solid. I would buy this again given the great price from Buy.com.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Satisfied with the product and its performance. Never had a problem with this product. Easy to plug in and start using it.
 
Was this review helpful?    

This is a great portable hard drive for the price. You could always spend more and get a bigger drive, but solid state is coming so be careful how much memory you really need. Has to have a USB 2.0 cable to work properly, one is porvided. Order one, you won't be disappointed.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Excellent Product. Just BUY it.
 
Was this review helpful?    

This hard disk with 250 gb is working excellent, plug and play. It's min feature fits in to a pocket. Easy to carry. It has good finishing and looks great from exterior too.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Last year I carried an regular, full-size external USB hard drive with a seperate, external power transformer. A real pain to set up and lots of wires running all over. I really like this unit which is just a little larger than a pack of long cigarettes. There is some WD software and a manual on the hard drive--no CD.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Its a good secondary storage to have, infact, one can even use it as primary storage - keep it connected, and do your regular work on this Hard Drive. WD has also provided a security software, which turns your Hard Drive into a "secure-briefcase".
 
Was this review helpful?    

I'm a sys admin and I use compact portable drives alot at work for quick large file transfer between systems or backing up user data when migrating them to a new system. So I figured I needed to get something for myself. This little guy was excellent for the money ($99 for 250gb) and it works very well. It is faster than most 2.5 portables I've used and I love the fact that its usb powered for easy connection to my desktop or laptops. I don't think I'll use the included backup tools (wdsync) because I use an open source program that I'm satisfied with (Toucan). Overall, very good. Only drawback is the piano black finish showing smudges and fingerprints, matte would have been a much better choice.
 
Was this review helpful?    

the Passport drive arrived quickly, installed easily, and worked as advertised
 
Was this review helpful?    

Great Product! Very easy...simply plug and play. Very quiet and very fast. I have only saved files like on a flash drive and have not tried saving actual programs but I think you can.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Great price. Shipped quickly. Worked just fine once I reformatted the drive (don't know why it didn't work right away). Using the drive primarily for Ghost image-based backup of a laptop. Works on Vista & XP without hassle.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Drive is plug and play. Quiet and fast. Shipping took like two weeks.....I've gotten rebates faster than that !!!
 
Was this review helpful?    

This is wounderful product and worthful, it is very compact when compared to other harddrives in market.Its like plug and paly.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I wanted to get a USB portable hard drive that didn't need a separate power cord. This one has worked great and was recommended to me by a friend. A co-worker commented on how much faster it was transferring large files to his PC compared to his 160 GB Passport Hard Drive that was over a year old. This baby always travels with me in my laptop backpack.
 
Was this review helpful?    

very slim and sleek. great portability. Connects easily to any PC
 
Was this review helpful?    

No separate power chord, and plug and play software make this a very easy product to use. On-screen prompts guide you through a customizable set-up, and the Synch software worked quickly and easily. You can even set up different profiles for different computer hard drives you want to copy; when you plug this drive into a new computer, it's like you brought your laptop and PC with you. Purchase of a travel case is recommended.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I bought this recently from Buy.com and I had the previous 120GB version from WD. The product continues to be very good, works great so far and is very compact. Personnaly I think the previous design looked a little bit more stylish and also had a rubber cap attached to it, used to close the USB port, which was cool for not letting dust or something else enter the port while not in use. This model looks a little bit easier and cheaper for them to manufacture. I wish they had kept the USB protective cap. It is still a great product, though. I hope prices continue to decline.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Cheap and runs very good and fast delivery
 
Was this review helpful?    

About the hardware. The product woks great, and the speed and performance is very satisfactory. It's mall and beautiful, and it does not need to beconnected to a power source, it gets the power from the USB, which is great. The only problem is that it would have been better that the USB cord (quite short actually, long enough to have the drive on the tower but not on the desk if the tower is on the floor) was retractible, like in other drives, to increase the portability. About the software. First, the file system in FAT32, in order to mae the unit comatible with Windows/Mac/Liux. However FAT3 does not allow files larger than 4Gb, which is a problem if you wat the drive for performing back-ups. I had trouble with the software, as it always was performing an installation when excuted. I ended up formating the unit to NTFS, and re-installing the software by downloading it from the WD website and now it works great. The synchronization software is awesome. I'm also using the Windows utility for performing back-ups and I miss a back-up utility from WD a bit more sophisticated than the Windows one.
 
Was this review helpful?    

This little drive is perfect for traveling. Fits in my Laptop bag right next to the Ipod. Doesn't require external power just plug it into the usb port. It also doesn't seem to put much drain on the laptop battery. Nice product all the way around. Also recieved it the day after I ordered it with regular shipping. Nice.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Best product, best price , absolutely easy to use and got the package with in a week.
 
Was this review helpful?    

small, compact , handy
 
Was this review helpful?    

I was greatly impressed by the size and compactness of this drive and as shown it easily fits into your pocket unlike other drives. It was easy to use. Though it comes with some default syncup software which is optional, you can simply drag and drop your files into the drive. It was fast and requires no additional power supply. The power is extracted from USB port. The shipping has taken little longer though. All in all I would definetly recommend this drive.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Initially I had problems running the Dmailer Sync software that came with it. I wrote to them directly & received an update which works brilliantly ! Love this product AND the software that comes with it !! Worth the price. Best of all.. I used the revolution card and received an additional $ 50 off !
 
Was this review helpful?    

I use my WD Passport for my macbook and HP notebook and it works flawlessly for both. It is very easy to use and works very efficiently. I had a little issue with the sync program that it comes with but I just load my files as a normal external drive and it works great. Would recommend this to anyone.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I GOT AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE WESTERN DIGITAL 250GB. IT WAS PORTABLE IN HANDY. BUT I COULD NOT HANDLE THE PRODUCT QUITE WELL.I ONLY CLICKED THE BUTTON BY CHANCE HOW IT WORKED.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Just a great portable drive. Nothing negative to report.
 
Was this review helpful?    

This slick little drive is the exact size of my old Daytimer, if you remember those. For its capacity, the case is tiny. It is truly a plug n' play drive. I'm on Macs and it seems to work fine without any rigamarole. The only glitch is that from my 12" G4 laptop, the WD drive seems to work slower (write speed) than from my dual processor G5. I bought this drive specifically to store digital files from my camera on a two-week shoot in Ireland. That I can slip it into a jacket pocket is a wonderful plus!!!
 
Was this review helpful?    

Computers > Shop by Brand > Western Digital 2 > Hot Deals

Computers > Shop by Brand > Western Digital 2 > Western Digital Passports