# Western Digital 250GB Passport Review



## Ankur Gupta (Dec 10, 2007)

I had been thinking about buying an external hard disk from a long time due to lack of space on my HP DV6516TX laptop as it has only 160GB Hard Disk and my 2 mbps MTNL Triband broadband is quick to download loads of data in a single day.After researching a lot about external hard disks I zeroed in on this one mainly because of two reasons:

* It is a 2.5″ Hard drive and hence *does not need external power*
  * It is one of the very few 2.5″ drives that come in 250GB capacity
*ankur-gupta.com/images/wdfPassport_Portable_3.jpg
*Portability was one of the prime factors for choosing this drive* and it lives up to that reputation and more as it *weighs only 104 gms* which is exceptionally light and can be carried around easily in pocket as it dimensions are also small.I bought the Glossy Black color to complement my laptop  Some of the downsides include the *outer surface is prone to oily fingerprints* very easily thus making it hard to keep it shiny and also it *develops scratches pretty easily*.

The bundled package didn’t have anything much to say with just a USB cable being supplied along with the drive. it didnot even include a manual  *A soft copy of the manual is although available on the hard disk itself*. The company didnot even care to give its customers a carry bag which is an absolute necessity for a portable product.

*The setup was a breeze* as it is a plug-n-play drive and was recognized easily by Windows Vista in a matter of seconds. The contents on the hard drive included Acrobat Reader setup and some Google goodies like Google Desktop and Picasa other than its proprietary synchronization software WDSync which requires installation on the hard disk to function.

Coming to the most important part ie. performance of the drive! *The drive comes preformatted in FAT32 partition* to make it compatible with both Windows and OS X. The formatted space available on the drive is 232GB.To gauge its performance I copied a 2GB file to the passport and it took 105 seconds to copy the file giving an *average write speed of 20MB/s* which is very good considering that it is a 5400rpm drive and works on USB 2.0. I formatted the drive with NTFS partition and repeated the same test again and got an *average write speed of 22MB/s* an improvement of 10%! To sum it up , it is not one of the fastest drives that can compete with Firewire drives available in the market but certainly offers excellent performance for a USB 2.0 drive.

Conclusion: *The positives of this drive outweigh the negatives by a big margin* hence making a very good buy.I cared less for the scratchy surface than the portability of the drive.I cared more for its USB powered interface than the performance of the bulky 3.5″ firewire drives that need a separate AC adapter. All in all this drive is worth buying if you need high storage capacity on the move at a decent price.*Its price in India that I bought it for was Rs. 6750/- only.
*
My Rating:4/5

Source


----------



## chits (Dec 10, 2007)

Hi Ankur,

I did have the WD 120 GB version..i brought from USA 6 months back and suddenly it stopped working..anyway the good part is WD transferred warranty to INDIA and replaced with a new HDD free of cost...their customer support in India is very good...but beware these drives doesnt have any great reviews...keep backup somehwre else too..


----------



## Ankur Gupta (Dec 10, 2007)

^^I keep all my important data on my laptop.
All space hogging stuff like movies,softwares etc are dumped on this external hard disk.
And I hope that if I use the drive with care I shouldn't have any problem like a drive going dead.


----------



## Choto Cheeta (Dec 10, 2007)

Dont agree… It may be a good product but certainly not value for money as Rs. 800/- for a 3.5″ SATA-II USB casing with a 500 GB SATA-II disk which is Rs. 4800/- makes it Rs. 5400/-..

Though it is bulky but for the purpose like small Notebook HDD need bigger storage it is my choice !!!


----------



## Ankur Gupta (Dec 11, 2007)

You need to keep in mind other factors like portability which certainly make it value for money.
With 3.5" ones you don't need get mobility as you have to carry around the bulky AC power adapter along with it which is not always possible.
So it depends what you basically want: Portability or more storage !


----------



## chits (Dec 11, 2007)

I Guess now-a-days rule...

1) have a 3.5" storage of 500 GB or more ..which one can you use weekly or monthly...

2) Have a WD type solution of 120 GB for portability...

3) 4GB or more of pen drive...where you want to transfer small data..and if u want to go to place..where u know the road is bumpy..better take flash drives...

I follow this order..I have a WD 120 GB..but after one crash..I use only when I have to transfer huge data..for couple of movies I use  4 GB pen drive more reliable and handy...

My Setup is

32 " Samsung & Philips DVP5982 DVD player which has a USB Input...all the above 3 drive can play Divx ...planning to buy UPS ..in order to save 3.5" for power cuts...


----------



## drgrudge (Dec 11, 2007)

I've a 160 GB Black WD Portable HDD. Purchased in a Computer Mall in Dubai. 

Positives - 
1. A killer Accessory with my Apple MacBook Pro. The suave grey aluminum and the sexy black compliment each other. 
2. Very good speeds. Faster than the Transcend Pen Drive. 
3. Not expensive. I got mine in Dubai for Dhs 350 (Rs. 3,700). 

Negatives - 
1. Develops scratches easily. Difficult to keep shiny new after 4-5 months. 
2. It came with some pre loaded softwares but it was unless on Mac OS X. 

I normally backup my Data in DVDs. The data won't stay in drive for more than 75 days. 


Ankur - 
Nice review and a good blog.


----------



## phreak0ut (Dec 12, 2007)

Nice review  Makes me want to buy a lappy now


----------



## Ankur Gupta (Dec 12, 2007)

@grudgy
You got your 160GB quite cheap....
Its a killer accessory with an silver/black laptop 
@phreak0ut
This can be connected to a PC too


----------



## phreak0ut (Dec 13, 2007)

@ankur-Yeah, I know. Since this HD is so small and shiny, it goes well with laptops


----------



## nawaz123 (Jan 19, 2008)

Thanks for the review


----------



## acewin (Mar 7, 2008)

Choto Cheeta said:


> Dont agree… It may be a good product but certainly not value for money as Rs. 800/- for a 3.5″ SATA-II USB casing with a 500 GB SATA-II disk which is Rs. 4800/- makes it Rs. 5400/-..
> 
> Though it is bulky but for the purpose like small Notebook HDD need bigger storage it is my choice !!!



Choto, you are pretty much correct, but they arent portable HDDs, I too have thought what you have said for backup, very useful and correct value for money. But I think when it comes to a real portable media comparing to low space on Pen Drives and memory/cost ratio or even taking things on DVDs you will surely say WD Passport is the best available external HDD in the price limit. Even assembling a seagate laptop HDD with external casing can be not very good option( I have seen 3 laptop HDDs assembled like this gone bad ), add to this the very good response of customer care of Western Digital. Its like complete peace of mind.


----------



## Ankur Gupta (Mar 8, 2008)

^^Couldn't have agreed more with you.
You replicated my thoughts


----------

