Western Digital WDMS2500TN 2.5-Inch 250GB My Passport Studio External Hard Drive

List Price: $119.99 Discount Price: $109.99

Features:

• Interface: USB 2.0
• Interface: FireWire-400
• Spindle Speed (RPM): 5400
• Data Transfer Rate on USB 2.0: Up to 480 Mb/sec
• Data Transfer Rate on FireWire: Up to 400 Mb/sec

Accessories:
Case Logic Compact Portable Hard Drive Case (Black)	Caselogic PHDC-1 Small EVA External Hard Drive Case (Red)

Customer Reviews:

Great Plug and Go Drive [Posted on 2008-07-22]
Good product that, so far, does what it's supposed to. I plugged it in, formatted it for PC, and started backing up to it.

I got the Studio, not because I have a Mac, but because I've run out of USB ports on the back of my computer and I had open firewire ports because I needed a firewire card for an older Sony camcorder. Probably getting the cheaper USB-only drive + a USB hub would have cost less... but oh well.

My older basic WD Passport (80GB) drive made a weird drippy noise every 10 minutes or so. This one is quiet.

Flimsy proprietary firewire connector [Posted on 2008-07-31]
I love firewire. Any firewire cable I have connects any two firewire devices I have -- except this one.

After I fought this disk out of its packaging, I discovered it requires its very own kind of firewire cable -- with a regular firewire 400 end for all the other devices and a two-cable divided end for its own connectors.

Okay, I thought, at least it comes with a storage bag so it's easy to stow the cable with the drive and hopefully not lose it -- I plugged the two little ends into the drive, which was difficult because they were oriented with opposing twists so it was hard to get the second one lined up to go in with the first one plugged in. I plugged the firewire 400 end into my mac, and waited for the drive to power up. Nothing happened.

Looked at the drive, noticed that the second little connector bit had come loose. Gosh guess it needs to be more firmly seated. Shove it in with vigor. Put the drive down. Connector comes loose. Why do I think that a loose power connector might not be a recipe for reliability on a hard drive?

Package up the drive and return it the next day. Thank heavens Amazon returns are easy peasy. Unfortunately this is the only firewire pocket drive I really like on Amazon.com, so I have to go somewhere else to find my time machine.

Great for Mac, no so great for Windows [Posted on 2008-08-24]
I purchased this hard drive with the intention of using it as a backup for my new Mac, but while waiting for it, I learned that the best way to transfer files from my PC to my new Mac was by using an external hard drive. Great - but, when I plugged it in to the PC, nothing. I couldn't find it anywhere. Nothing came with it in the way of instruction - except a link to the website. Western's support site was either no help at all, or just too advanced for me - and I can pick this stuff up pretty quickly. However, I plugged it in to my Mac - instant success without any configuration. Long story short - I'm using a thumb drive to gradually transfer files. If anyone can tell me (in basic terms) how to get my PC to recognize the drive - great.

Western Digital External Hard Drive [Posted on 2008-08-29]
The Western Digital Hard Drive gives me peace of mind knowing that my stored information will be backed up. It is compact, reliable and all that i can ask of an external hard drive.

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