Western Digital External Hard Disk Drives

Western Digital has a wide variety of external storage products for both the PC and Mac markets. The external drives are available in both large desktop and smaller portable formats. Under the portable segment alone, Western Digital offers five drive families for the PC, and three drive families for the Mac.

Today, we are going to take a look at their latest portable hard disk drive for the PC market - the 2 TB Western Digital My Passport (USB 3.0). It boasts the following features :

• Massive capacity, small design -Offering massive 2 TB capacity in an amazingly small enclosure.
• Ultra-fast transfer rates - Reduce transfer time by up to 3 times when compared to USB 2.0 transfer rates.
• USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 compatibility -With this single drive you get compatibility with your USB 2.0 devices today and the ultra-fast speed of USB 3.0 when you're ready to step up to the next generation.
• Automatic, continuous backup software - WD's automatic backup software continually works quietly in the background to help protect your data while using minimal PC resources.
• WD Security - WD Security utility allows you to set password protection and hardware encryption for your drive to protect your files from unauthorized use or access.
• WD Drive Utilities - Register your drive, run diagnostics and more using WD Drive Utilities.

Now, let's find out how this new portable hard disk drive fares against its competitors!

Packaging

The Western Digital My Passport 2 TB portable hard disk drive comes in a nice cardboard box with a clear plastic window in front, which allows you to eyeball the drive and make sure the colour of the case is the one you prefer. Western Digital offers up to five different colours for their My Passport drives - gray, blue, red, white and black. However, their latest 2 TB model (WDBY8L0020BBK) is currently only available in black.

The drive's storage capacity and key features are printed under the plastic window, with more details at the back and the top of the box. It pays to check the bottom of the box for the white sticker, which not only gives you the drive's serial number and place of manufacture (Malaysia!), it also confirms the warranty period. Parallel imported drives from the US/EMEA only carry a 2-year warranty, while drives sold in the APAC region or Japan have a 3-year warranty.

Inside, you will find that the drive is well-protected by a plastic enclosure that doubles as the clear plastic window of the box. Once you take it apart, you will find the following items :

• the Western Digital My Passport 2 TB portable hard disk drive,
• a USB 3.0 cable,
• a Quick Install Guide,
• a warranty information sheet,
• WD SmartWare software (preloaded in the drive).

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