Western Digital WDMS3200TN 2.5 Inch 320GB 5400 FireWire 400/USB 2.0 My Passport Studio External Hard Drive

List Price: $169.99 Discount Price: $126.24

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:

Nice idea, poorly implemented [Posted on 2008-07-07]
First off, the aesthetics and form factor of this device are outstanding. It also appears to be a reasonable value given combination of portability, storage capacity and firewire 400 and usb2.0 connectivity. That's the good part. The rest of the review points out the negatives.

There are several things that annoy me about this product. First up is the firewire interface. Instead of providing a standard 6 pin interface, what you get is 1 firewire 4 pin plus 1 usb 2.0 interface on the device. In order connect the drive via firewire, you are forced to use their special firewire/usb hybrid cable. The usb interface powers the device while data is passed over firewire. This is bad in case you lose the cable or just find the provided one too short. My guess is this is going to be a tough item to find at the local electronics retailer.

Next, up is the capacity gauge. Why they put the thing on the "back" next to the interface ports is beyond me. Would have been much nicer to have it located up front so that you don't have to twist the device around backwards, limiting the reach of your already too short supplied cable.

Final point on the capacity gauge. It is designed with 4 lights so that an active light at position 1 indicates 0%-25% full, position 2 indicates 25%-50%, and so on. Simple right? WRONG. Suppose I accidently flip the device bottom up? Now a %25 full drive appears %75 full and vice versa. Now I have to think "am I using the product the way the design engineers intended?" Would have made much more sense to have the lights fill from left to right so that lights 1,2, and 3 together would indicate %75 full.

For a product aimed at apple customers, Western Digital apparently paid far too little time testing ease of use. While the drive works as advertised, there are too many annoying aspects for me to recommend the product.

Special cable a PAIN! [Posted on 2008-07-20]
I agree that the special firewire cable is a pain to use (it's too thick and too short) which has me thinking of just using the usb port instead. If I had known that in advance I could of bought one of the other models for a lot less money and just formatted it for a Mac. I can't see any advantage of spending extra for this model.

If WD ever makes this with a 800 FireWire with a standard cable then current version will be on ebay fast!

Wonderful Item! [Posted on 2008-09-09]
This is an excellent drive that does exactly what it's supposed to do. I suppose that the cable is very short but it's still very usable. Also the reviewer who had complaints about the capacity gauge is just nitpicking. It is very clear how much space you have on your drive and which side is the "top" side. I love it and it's at a great price now.

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