Product ReviewsWestern Digital My Passport Essential SE 750GB 2.5" External Hard Drive
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38%
31%
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13%
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With 16 User Reviews
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 Rating: Review Date: 08/02/11  |
Cons: Cannot remove backup software
Pros: Cheap, small, lightweight and stable |
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Rating: Review Date: 11/09/10 |
Cons: Casing: Is it made of breakable plastic? Anyway, I don't have any plans to test it by dropping on hard floor.
Pros: Reliable. No overheating. Not noisy. Comment:
I let it work nonstop for three hours by transferring data back and forth between this hdd and my computer. No overheating. I am happy with the purchase and yes it fits into my shirt pocket easily. It has a bright white LED which is visible only when powered. |
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Rating: Review Date: 10/18/10 |
Cons: none
Pros: awesome storage idea Comment:
great idea if you like to take a lot of files around with youalso for safe storage for important files you dont want to keep on your computer |
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Rating: Review Date: 09/30/10 |
Cons:
None
Pros: Compact, usb power Comment:
Good speeds on this drive considering it is usb powered. I use it every day, it's great to have a larger storage capacity that still fits in my pocket. |
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Rating: Review Date: 09/25/10 |
Cons:
WD should have named new HDD models (part# begins with WDBAAA) something different (see "Other Thoughts" below).You have to have the WD SmartWare running, even after unlocking the drive. See "Other thoughts" below.The steps you have to go thru on initial setup seem tedious. And steps 2-4 need run on each new PC you plug the drive into. The price you pay for the security features, I guess...1) Set up drive unlocking password. 2) "Found New Hardware" wizard - dig for the inf file. 3) Install WD SmartWare software. 4) Configure SmartWare settings to your preferences (use the drive as a "mirroring" backup drive vs. use it as a regular external drive, etc). The USB cable provided does seem a bit short, and prone to dislodging. May have to contact WD and see if we can get replacement cables, as suggested in the reviews for one of the other WBAAA My Passport Essentials
Pros: One of the few true full-drive "hardware encryption" external HDD options. Most drives use software to encrypt individual files as they're written to the drive. The WD "crapware" is needed to allow for the HDD full-disk encryption. Running the WD SmartWare allows for the drive to "lock" and "unlock" properly. When the drive is uninitialized/"locked", the drive is un-readable, even if you remove the drive and place it in a new enclosure.Ultra-small sized - can easily fit into your pocket or doesn't take up much room in a laptop bag. Perhaps that isn't always the best, but I guess that's what the encryption is for.Performance wise, we didn't do any benchmarks, but it seems sufficiently responsive. Comment:
WD should have named this line of My Passport Essential drives (the WDBAA line) differently to distinguish them from the previous My Passport Essential drives (the WDME line). The WDBAA has full-disk "locking" hardware encryption, while the WDME line uses file-by-file software encryption. The same product name led to a colleague of mine ordering the old model and me ordering the new model for different individuals within the same group of developers. He had to RMA his model to get the new model, per company encryption standards.If you don't run the SmartWare software, and just run the "unlock.exe" to unlock the drive, our test machines had a tendancy to spontaneously reboot upon ejection when using the standard Windows' "Safely remove hardware". Not one reboot instance while running the software. |
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Rating: Review Date: 09/01/10 |
Cons:
None
Pros: Sturdy, great appearance, compatibility Comment:
This little guy served me well for the travels. No disconnects, very sturdy even after tossing it around a bit. I am very happy with this purchase. It even looks great! |
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Rating: Review Date: 08/19/10 |
Cons:
none
Pros: Good for 109.99$ Comment:
Pratique pour le prix, petit donc on peut lamener partout! Avec 750 Gig il a en masse de storage pour les donnée ou même un mini système de backup maison ! |
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Rating: Review Date: 03/25/10 |
Cons: not a standard USB cable and a bit too short. Built in software cannot be removed.
Pros: quiet, small, reasonable price Comment:
overall this is a good purchase. very compact the price is reasonable. It comes with built in software in the drive and if you don't want to use it, you cannot not remove it to get some extra free spaces. |
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Rating: Review Date: 03/07/10 |
Comment:
it has a loose connection that disconnects very easily, i just super-glued it in, and as for the integrated software, i just used ''gparted'' to create a new partition table and format it to ntfs. I've yet to have any real problems with it, send files fast between laptop and drive, and it will hold pretty much everything i've got. |
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Rating: Review Date: 03/05/10 |
Cons: Very short USB 2.0 cable.
Pros: Small form factor, portable, black finish, quiet, and doesn't get very hot. Comment:
Aside from the short USB 2.0 Cable, this drive is good. Good exterior finish. Quiet. Fits in your pocket. I liked this drive so much, I bought two of them. |
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Rating: Review Date: 02/25/10 |
Cons: Might cost you the same price of a 1tb extrenal hd that's smaller
Pros: small, sleek and convient Comment:
This hard drive has really been useful for us. It's great for putting family pictures, music and videos and seeing them anywhere since it's so small it's easy to carry around. |
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Rating: Review Date: 02/22/10 |
Comment:
Have used the smaller ones for quite awhile. Best way I found is to delete the software off of them and reformat n t f s . |
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Rating: Review Date: 01/30/10 |
Comment:
This device installs as a virtual CD drive. You can not simply copy and delete files on it. This device is read only unless you use the backup software it nags you to install everytime you plug it in! You can not easily remove the files that are on the drive and use it like a normal hard drive! |
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Rating: Review Date: 01/16/10 |
Comment:
first off the connector is about as cheap as it gets. Any movement at all and the drive disconnects. Next is the issue of drive space. WD software is difficult to remove and the space it takes up can NEVER be fully recovered. Maximum space on this drive is only 697GB. Techincal support will only give you the run around. Don't bother with this drive. Find a better product |
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Rating: Review Date: 01/04/10 |
Comment:
I have bought this product and it was ok for 1 and a half month. Now the USB connector on the disk side has bad contact. WD use a really small not standard connector and Windows recognize the disk 10% of the time. I recommand not to buy this product. |
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Rating: Review Date: 12/04/09 |
Comment:
I purchased this item for a colleague who needed it for data storage during a field experiment. I didn't use the item myself but was told it was annoying that each time they plugged the disk in they were prompted to install backup software which they didn't want. It may be possible and even easy to eliminate this problem but my user didn't figure it out. Besides that problem I believe they had some problems with some computers not recognizing the disk. I had hoped to provide my user with a disk that was easy to use and with a large amount of storage and also did not require a wall plug. Up until now the 500GB disks were as large as one could find and I never had any problems with them. Too bad the 750GB acts so differently. It would be nice if there was an easy way to not install the software and get it to stop asking. Maybe there is? Other than that the drive worked well I believe. |
Got this as a gift a little over a year ago for backup of mainly pictures, but use it for large files as well. Good read/write speeds, very convenient and silent.